It’s already been a busy congress season with plenty of excitement around pharma and social media possibilities. Pharma teams increasingly use social listening to understand more of what is happening before, during, and after key congress events – with an eye toward understanding how this rich information source can accelerate strategies.
But social listening alone isn’t a magic bullet. Teams must adequately prepare and assess the results of their efforts to enable ongoing optimization. What do medical affairs teams need to know about congress social monitoring?
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- Define your objectives. Clearly outline the objectives and goals you want to achieve through social listening. Determine the specific insights or data you aim to gather from online conversations.
- Choose what you will monitor. Track event-specific hashtags and mentions to stay up-to-date with real-time conversations around the congress. This will help you capture a broader range of opinions and reactions.
- Analyze unprompted reactions. Pay close attention to unprompted and unscripted reactions to data releases and presentations. Analyzing spontaneous discussions can provide valuable insights into how attendees perceive and respond to the information.
- Compare data over time. Leverage social listening to compare data from the current medical congress with data from previous years’ events. This comparison will help you measure the impact of your strategies and identify trends or changes over time.
- Integrate social listening insights. Integrate the insights gathered through social listening with other data sources, such as your team’s and stakeholders’ feedback. This comprehensive approach will help you make well-informed decisions.
- Understand online vs. offline reactions. Recognize the dual reality of a congress, where in-person and online conversations occur. Compare and contrast data from these two dimensions to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the event’s impact.
- Choose the right technology partner. Select a reliable and experienced technology partner that can efficiently process and analyze social media data at scale. Ensure they can filter and extract relevant information from the vast amount of data generated during the event.
- Measure ROI. After the congress, evaluate the efficacy of your social listening efforts. Assess how the insights gathered contributed to decision-making and the overall success of your marketing strategies.
- Continuously improve. Continuously assess and improve your social listening strategies for future medical congresses. Learn from each event’s data and refine your approach to enhance its effectiveness.
Get more insight on using social listening in pharma at your next congress from the Within3 Questions pharma social media podcast episode.
