Clinical Trial Patient Recruitment Using Social Media
There is no doubt that social media has in recent years become the biggest and strongest tool in online marketing. This includes branding, spreading news and now, clinical trial patient recruitment. Social media can be used to reach a mass audience as well as speed up clinical trial patient recruitment. This can be the difference between success and failure for modern day businesses in 2014. If you're still stuck in the 50's like so many companies today, you're just not going to have a leg up on your competition, they are going be walking all over you like a rug. In terms of clinical trials specifically, nearly 70% of the lack of clinical trial participation that most research programs suffer is from a lack of awareness that trials are even taking place. Therefore, Social Media is a powerful platform that can be used to spread awareness, share information, receive feedback, and even recruit for clinical trials. Social media is used on a daily basis by millions of people...clinical research companies should be leveraging the power of this platform with their recruitment efforts and overall recruitment/retention strategies. Key points to remember when one is considering using social media for patient recruitment include: -Relevancy to the audience -Developing approved responses in advance -Engaging a sponsor or physician.
To be relevant to your audience you must first establish a role in the community and prove yourself a valued and distinguished contributor to the collective stream. Sometimes, this will entail creating a community to begin with. There are many social media platforms, most notably Facebook, which allow for the creation of communities and community-specific pages. The key is to create an online community which engages your specific patient population through a number of mediums, and encourages them to engage not only with you, but with others in their network. Word of mouth is still a very powerful tool, and it takes place all the time on social media. Be careful though. Overpromotion of oneself is not advised. A good rule of thumb is 80% storytelling, 20% promotion. Get people to want to be a part of the story you're telling. If the communication via online messaging is only about the clinical trial, you will most likely be seen as message pushers and spammers. As a marketer for clinical trials, one can build credibility by posting relevant content with depth, being attentive to the tenor of the dialogue, being consistent with the frequency of audience interactions and being timely with responses. Engaging your audience as you simultaneously entertain and enlighten to the best of your ability across many related topics in addition to your own self promotion. When it comes to clinical trials, one of the most important things you can do is educate them on what to expect. Developing trust is one of the most important steps towards successful clinical trial recruitment.Also, it is important to develop approved responses in advance especially when the main concern behind a consumers' mind in regards to clinical trials is safety. Develop a variety of approved responses before launching social campaigns, which can address a potential patient's concern about medicine safety and other frequently asked questions. And lastly, it is very important to engage a sponsor or physician as they are important allies in getting your audience to feel safer and give clinical trials more credibility since a physician's opinion is best when it comes to one's health. So next time one is in need of getting a clinical trial recruited quickly, consider the points above and the power that is social media and audience building. My life revolves around clinical trials and I try and make the time for other pastimes especially liberal arts and tennis. The work that I do on the web is concentrated mainly on scientific advancements and it's a challenge to document these different systems. My background with the scientific community here in the western world and overseas has led me to a considerable understanding. My experience has been that, there's surprisingly few people who can describe these things simply and precisely and who can address a lot of the more probing questions that inevitably emerge with this particular dialogue. I hope that I am substantially equipped and competent and I'm feeling confident that these studies and outlines will be of some benefit to others on the web
Clinical Trial Patient Recruitment using Social Media: http://wcct.com/clinical-trial-recruitment-strategy/
http://csdd.tufts.edu/files/uploads/TCSDD_Social_Media_Final.pdf
To be relevant to your audience you must first establish a role in the community and prove yourself a valued and distinguished contributor to the collective stream. Sometimes, this will entail creating a community to begin with. There are many social media platforms, most notably Facebook, which allow for the creation of communities and community-specific pages. The key is to create an online community which engages your specific patient population through a number of mediums, and encourages them to engage not only with you, but with others in their network. Word of mouth is still a very powerful tool, and it takes place all the time on social media. Be careful though. Overpromotion of oneself is not advised. A good rule of thumb is 80% storytelling, 20% promotion. Get people to want to be a part of the story you're telling. If the communication via online messaging is only about the clinical trial, you will most likely be seen as message pushers and spammers. As a marketer for clinical trials, one can build credibility by posting relevant content with depth, being attentive to the tenor of the dialogue, being consistent with the frequency of audience interactions and being timely with responses. Engaging your audience as you simultaneously entertain and enlighten to the best of your ability across many related topics in addition to your own self promotion. When it comes to clinical trials, one of the most important things you can do is educate them on what to expect. Developing trust is one of the most important steps towards successful clinical trial recruitment.Also, it is important to develop approved responses in advance especially when the main concern behind a consumers' mind in regards to clinical trials is safety. Develop a variety of approved responses before launching social campaigns, which can address a potential patient's concern about medicine safety and other frequently asked questions. And lastly, it is very important to engage a sponsor or physician as they are important allies in getting your audience to feel safer and give clinical trials more credibility since a physician's opinion is best when it comes to one's health. So next time one is in need of getting a clinical trial recruited quickly, consider the points above and the power that is social media and audience building. My life revolves around clinical trials and I try and make the time for other pastimes especially liberal arts and tennis. The work that I do on the web is concentrated mainly on scientific advancements and it's a challenge to document these different systems. My background with the scientific community here in the western world and overseas has led me to a considerable understanding. My experience has been that, there's surprisingly few people who can describe these things simply and precisely and who can address a lot of the more probing questions that inevitably emerge with this particular dialogue. I hope that I am substantially equipped and competent and I'm feeling confident that these studies and outlines will be of some benefit to others on the web
Clinical Trial Patient Recruitment using Social Media: http://wcct.com/clinical-trial-recruitment-strategy/
http://csdd.tufts.edu/files/uploads/TCSDD_Social_Media_Final.pdf
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