{"id":3450,"date":"2017-08-14T16:40:04","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T20:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arxresearch.com\/?p=3450"},"modified":"2018-03-14T09:55:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T13:55:59","slug":"digital-opinion-influencers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arxresearch.com\/digital-opinion-influencers\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Opinion Influencers: The New KOLs?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Instagram stars of therapeutic areas and disease management, Digital Opinion Influencers (DOIs) are a growing online presence that often can as effectively communicate and advocate for pharmaceutical solutions and products as Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) do in more traditional channels (publications, conference presentations, perhaps even treating patients). The possibility of that very comparison makes this more intriguing, as most DOIs are not on the &#8220;books&#8221; at pharma companies as KOLs\u2014many are not even medical professionals. Some are industry analysts, reporters, and external experts who have, through their work, become heavily invested in a particular disease management area. Others are current and former patients or caregivers whose own experience made them active in the health community, online and off, and such activity morphed into a vocation.<\/p>\n<p>No matter their origin story, according to a recent article on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pharmexec.com\/beyond-kol-marketing-tapping-digital-opinion-influencers\">PharmExec<\/a>, Digital Opinion Influencers communicate with and influence large and invested audiences. In contrast, the typical KOL has little to no presence or influence online; it seems that few KOLs have tried or figured out how to carry their influence into the digital world. The two communication platforms and set of speakers remain quite separate, meaning, in short, that DOIs could be looked upon as a new category of KOL, and should be identified and recruited. Incorporating DOIs as KOLs provides a new, systematized and measurable channel of outcomes-based outreach, while ensuring that the company&#8217;s relationships with them go through the proper channels so that any applicable compliance stipulations are met.<\/p>\n<p>The market now is increasingly driven by big data, patient outcomes and other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arxresearch.com\/08\/medical-affairs\/real-world-science\/\">real-world evidence<\/a>, delivered through MSLs, Medical Affairs, or other outreach functions. Therefore, Digital Opinion Influencers offer a unique opportunity for companies to tap into a wealth of information that can underpin R&amp;D and brand strategies, as well as provide treatment solutions for patient populations. Medical Affairs, thought leader management, and portfolio management would all benefit from forming relationships with DOIs and their unique stream of information and access to health communities.<\/p>\n<p>Besides independent blogs and dedicated digital sites, many DOIs will use social media platforms as channels to &#8220;market&#8221; their opinions. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/fact-sheet\/social-media\/\">Pew Research Center<\/a> has been following demographics of social media use since 2005. The data, which dissects use by age, gender, education, frequency and platforms, shows how much potential influence an active DOI may have through these sites.<\/p>\n<p>Since many DOIs are personally-motivated to participate, they can lend a credible voice from a perspective different than other KOLs, one that can help the brand and stakeholders alike. The DOI who blogs about treatment using a product&#8217;s clinical profiles and recent patient-population responses\u2014learned from MSLs, not a Sales rep\u2014helps both the health community and the brand. DOIs offer an intriguing opportunity to diversify a thought leader roster and that roster&#8217;s outreach potential, increasing a company&#8217;s online presence and influence from a non-market-driven angle. Finally, DOIs could provide complementary perspectives and information to more traditional consulting avenues, creating a productive dialogue for company strategy, since many DOIs have distinct personal experiences dealing with the range of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arxresearch.com\/product-category\/thought-leader-management\/\">thought leader categories <\/a>with which companies partner.<\/p>\n<p>By Jordan Stone, PhD<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Learn about our Thought Leader Engagement solutions here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arxresearch.com\/product-category\/thought-leader-management\/\">TLR reports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Instagram stars of therapeutic areas and disease management, Digital Opinion Influencers (DOIs) are a growing online presence that often can as effectively communicate and advocate for pharmaceutical solutions and products as Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) do in more traditional channels (publications, conference presentations, perhaps even treating patients). The possibility of that very comparison makes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,117],"tags":[211,203,122,209,118,212,109,111,125,110,119],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Digital Opinion Influencers: The New Pharma Thought Leaders?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Instagram stars of therapeutic areas and disease management, Digital Opinion Influencers (DOIs) are a growing online presence...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arxresearch.com\/digital-opinion-influencers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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