Identify, Profile and Track Online KOLs

Traditionally, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies have engaged with physician Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) to influence their stakeholder community. However, the advent of Social Media and agrowing number of adults searching for health information online has completely changed the profile of an opinion leader.

In the online world, physicians are not the only influencers. New and diverse groups of online influencers such as patients, advocacy groups, care givers, payers, policy makers, professional associations, and healthcare information portals have steadily emerged. EmPower Research helps healthcare and pharmaceutical companies identify, rank in order of importance, track and map such online influencers. We also help them measure the impact that client initiatives has had on online influencers.

Online KOLs: Application Areas in Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals

As Social Media redefines the dynamics of influence, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies now have the advantage of engaging the entire stakeholder community and shaping their perceptions. Some of the key application areas of Online KOLs include:

• Product Approval Support: Reach out to key influencers and build positive stakeholder sentiment to accelerate product approvals by regulators 
• Education: Engage Online KOLs to create awareness about clinical trials, products, disease management, treatment and trends
• Eradication of Misinformation: Propagating your version of the truth against commonly held myths that spread virally and act as inhibitors  
• Advocacy: Build relationships across stakeholder groups to actively shape their opinion and use to influence their affinity networks  
• Marketing: Promote products/company/treatment mechanism/initiatives to the online influencer networks
• Message Propagation: Sharing product/disease/treatment/recovery experiences; Building case studies; Channeling desired messages to influencers   
• Recruitment: Identify the right influencers and engage
  

Circle of Influence: EmPower Research's Approach

EmPower Research has developed a structured framework to identify, profile, update, track and measure impact of online influencers helping clients to engage better with them on an ongoing basis.

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EmPower Research's methodology of KOL identification and tracking across therapeutic areas and regions is best-in-class. To determine the true KOL, we evaluate each influencer across multiple influence parameters.

Influence Parameters	Questions Answered
Popularity	What is the reach of the Opinion Leaders? How many people have access to their opinions? How credible are they?
Connectedness	How active is the Opinion Leader on Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, You Tube and other Social Media resources? How large is their network? What is their sphere of influence?
Focus	How relevant is the Opinion Leader to the company/category/issue/brand under question? What aspects of the company's marketing mix can the Opinion Leader influence? Is the Opinion Leader reaching/influencing the target audience of interest?
Engagement	What is the quantum of response that the Online KOL receives? Is the Opinion Leader going beyond popularity to really change the way people think or act or say? Are people interacting with the Opinion Leader?
Amplification	Does the Opinion Leader drive advocacy? Are people spreading the Opinion Leader's message? Is the Opinion Leader's content going viral?

 

EmPower Research’s SMMART™ methodology for Online KOLs is unique as the Opinion Leader databases are not a universal or syndicated solution but customized to each client’s requirements. The Opinion Leader databases are categorized based on therapeutic area, interest area or topic, target audience profile, positive and negative sentiment of influence, or even patient pathway stage.

The SMMART™ methodology adequately recognizes the dynamics of influence in Social Media. While it identifies the influence differences at various disease stages, it also distinguishes influencer types from individual influencers to advocacy groups. SMMART™ methodology realizes that each Opinion Leader/Influencer list has an actionable end result which propels the Circle of Influence after the desired end outcome.

Why EmPower Research? Top reasons

1. A pioneer in social media listening and learning (Recognized by Forrester Research as a Listening Services Partner, 2011 Listening Landscape Report)
2. Multiple therapeutic area expertise
3. Ability to identify regional Online KOLs owing to foreign language proficiency
4. Comprehensive solution landscape to suit individual client needs for Online KOLs
5. Proven track record of working with Top 10 pharmaceutical companies