Instagram and How it Can Benefit Pharma Companies
It’s no secret that Instagram is a marketing powerhouse for small businesses, “influencers” (don’t even get me started), and generally any individual looking to create a brand in one way or another.
That being said the question becomes can it be used beneficially in pharma?
Personally I don’t think there is a definitive answer, yet. Social media is continually evolving and so is the drug market, it’s only a matter of time before the two begin fusing together.
It’s interesting in the sense that Instagram would seem more like a place to target consumers (patients) as opposed to providers, but the fact of the matter is that the new wave of providers in this country are just like the rest of their millennial counterparts; addicted to social media. There is no excuse for drug companies to not have some sort of Instagram presence. If for whatever reason they don’t have any their marketing fellow should take initiative and use their ability to navigate Instagram to mutually benefit themselves and their employer.
Here is the idea behind the Instagram marketing strategy in pharma. We’ve all experienced an ad on our phone for something we were just talking about… creepy, I know. So we are all aware that these phones and AI as a whole are starting to play a huge role in the way our lives work regardless of if we like it or not. NIKE leverages this, Amazon leverages this, why isn’t pharma?
I’ll leave you with an example.
Drug company X has a presence on Instagram and Drug company Y does not. Let’s say the drug companies are competing in the same disease state realm and their drugs are identical, we will use oncology for the purpose of the example. After a patient can’t tolerate their chemo regimen their tumor continues to grow and two doctors in a hospital are discussing this between bites of their lunch and, of course, scrolling Instagram. Now company X and Y both have the same new treatment that should be used at this point in the patient’s therapy because it is better tolerated blah blah.
The point of this isn’t the drug. The point is the algorithm. Company X has key words on their Instagram that trigger the algorithm to force an ad for the new drug to populate on the Doctors phones. Does he or she see it and make a clinical decision based off Instagram? Probably not, but the drug is now in their mind and they are much more likely to look into the clinical trials and if other places are using it.
So moral of the story, two equally efficacious and safe drugs are available. Which one will be chosen? The one with the most exposure. So while Instagram may not be a good core marketing strategy it is easy enough to do and FREE. There is no excuse for companies to not have younger employees utilizing it to leverage their drugs to both providers and patients.
