In early June, over 40,000 gathered for ASCO 2023, the world’s largest conference for solid cancer specialists. With so many oncology experts, physicians, and other stakeholders brought together for a single event, ASCO offered a fantastic opportunity to gather key insights from the social media activity surrounding the event.
Why is this so important?
In an ever-increasing digital landscape, it’s critical that pharma marketers better understand HCP behaviors in the social space. At Avant Healthcare, we’ve developed multiple methods for understanding and homing in on the social conversation, particularly at major congresses.
For ASCO 2023, we wanted to find out:
- What were the most talked about topics?
- What topics drove engagement?
- Who were the major drivers of conversation?
- How did HCP social behavior differ from others?
What we discovered revealed the growing role that social plays among HCPs and how it encourages engagement across disciplines and geography.
In an ever-increasing digital landscape, it’s critical that pharma marketers better understand HCP behaviors in the social space.
Pharma social listening in stereo
For social listening and insight generation, we use two complementary methods: social monitoring and natural language processing analysis.
Social monitoring enables us to capture large, but very precise datasets consisting of the social conversation across multiple social and news sites, but it’s primarily comprised of Twitter data.
In addition, we have partnered with Relative Insight, an AI-driven natural language processing platform. Relative Insight provides a scalable solution for analyzing survey open-ends, customer reviews, social media conversations, and transcripts. The text analysis platform is being used by hundreds of leading brands and agencies to enhance their understanding of customers, target audiences, employees, and competitors.
Millions are in on the #ASCO23 conversation
From May 31, 2023, through June 8, 2023, we listened in on ASCO-related social activity. With the listening period running from two days prior to ASCO’s start to two days after its close, we could pick up social chatter before, during, and after the congress.
Overall, there were a total of 80,400 total ASCO-related posts by 12,900 users. These posts were viewed by approximately 24.3 million users.
Of these 80,400 posts, approximately 18%, or about 3,300 posts, were original content. The remaining posts were a combination of reposts and replies to original content.
…there were a total of 80,400 total ASCO-related posts by 12,900 users. These posts were viewed by approximately 24.3 million users.
#ASCO23 by the numbers: A social listening case study
Hashtags speak to key communities
The theme of ASCO 2023 was “Partner with Patients,” and this theme was consistent with the results of the social conversation, as “patients” were the predominant term within the conversation. This suggests ASCO was successful in bringing its theme to the social space.
Breast cancer was the largest therapeutic area represented in the social conversation. Hashtag usage among the most represented therapeutic areas reflects a strong community utilizing the “#sm” for each therapeutic area. This is reflected by the strong presence of the “#lcsm” (“lung cancer social media”) and “#bcsm” (“breast cancer social media”) communities.
Patients, the center of the ASCO conversation
Top ASCO hashtags
HCPs: right back @ you
During ASCO, HCPs were significantly more likely to use tagging, or “@ mentions,” than non-HCPs. Also, another important trend emerged: “@oncoalert.” A non-profit NGO, Oncoalert is a worldwide network of oncology professionals and patient advocates. It’s a powerful voice in the HCP social conversation, and it represents a distinct node of activity. Employing “@oncoalert” in social activity targeted at HCPs is a method of driving the correct viewership toward content.
Other notable mentions included Toni Choueiri, MD (@DrChoueiri), particularly when focusing on genitourinary oncology, and @NEJM. The New England Journal of Medicine was also responsible for the most retweeted post at ASCO, suggesting a strong source to mention for social content.
One other incredibly strong “@ mention” focused on “@HemOncWomenDocs” – the Hematology & Oncology Women Physicians Group, or HOWPG, which had a strong presence in the HCP conversation and represents another opportunity to focus on equity and diversity content in social tactics.
ASCO is also a strong career development opportunity for HCPs, and this is reflected in the social conversation, as well as career development opportunities, which were 10.3 times more likely to be mentioned by HCPs as opposed to non-HCPs. This represents another opportunity for pharma to engage with HCPs.
What drove social engagement?
There’s more to successful social posting than just strong content. How a post is constructed is also critical to driving engagement. Including hashtags and URLs in tweets were significantly more likely to lead to high engagement. The use of URLs in content increased engagement by 30%, and hashtags, particularly medical hashtags, such as those mentioned above, led to up to seven times more engagement! This is best evidenced by the top-most retweeted posts at ASCO listed below.
…hashtags, particularly medical hashtags, such as those mentioned above, led to up to seven times more engagement!
ASCO’s top retweets
Social butterflies: ASCO’s most active HCPs
#ReturnOnEngagement
As digital engagement continues to grow, pharma marketers need to utilize all available tools to understand the social landscape and the HCP/stakeholder behaviors within it. At Avant Healthcare, we found ASCO social listening provided an ideal opportunity to gain greater insight into how HCPs are engaging on social platforms—and discover more opportunities where pharma marketers can join the conversation.
Are you looking to improve social engagement, reach, and ROI on your marketing spend by identifying key behaviors of HCPs? We have the expertise to assist you in achieving your goals. Discover how our cutting-edge technology can help you today!