Keep it real with patient bloggers… and leave mainstream social influencers to tackle the fake reality

Keep it real with patient bloggers… and leave mainstream social influencers to tackle the fake reality

Fake followers (influence is not created by an audience of bots) fake reality (dry tortillas masquerading as pancakes anyone?), lack of transparency (where’s your #ad celebrity instagrammer?), mainstream ‘grammers, bloggers, vloggers and tweeters are increasingly under the spotlight with trust being eroded in the content they peddle.

But in a quieter corner of the internet there’s a community of online influencers that shouldn’t be tarred with the same brush. They don’t have millions of followers. But the ones they have are real and hyper engaged. They can’t be bought (but they must be appropriately remunerated), cajoled or coaxed into anything.  But for patient centric pharma they are the ‘real-life perspective purveyors’, ‘shared experience supporters’ and ‘community champions’ who can help to build and amplify more meaningful, more authentic and more valuable (for everyone involved) communications campaigns.

Patient bloggers and vloggers are slowly but surely taking their place as credible, respected and valued online influencers across the chronic health conditions that affect great swathes of the population, to rare diseases where finding one of only 100 people ‘like you’ can feel like discovering the proverbial needle in a haystack. At Red Consultancy we regularly work with patient social influencers and a few things have struck me…

They’re people before patients, and patients before bloggers…

Unlike mainstream bloggers and vloggers, patient bloggers didn’t get into the blogging/vlogging, ‘gramming and tweeting to become a ‘brand’ or make money per se. At the risk of sounding too worthy, they have a higher purpose, and are driven by an arguably much more human need to share their experience, find and connect with people like them… because sometimes, despite all the love and support that friends and family can offer, it’s only someone treading the same challenging path as you that can truly lend the virtual ear needed when things get tough.

But, some blogger also want to reach a wider, general pubic audience…

Yes, their blogs are an outlet to talk about their experiences with ‘people like them’, but some also have the ambition to reach an audience beyond the people suffering with the same condition. They want to reach a wider audience. They want the general public to better understand and appreciate what they are going through.

We must remember, blogging is not usually their job…

In fact, they are probably fitting it around not only their day job, but the real-time hours, and emotional headspace time, they invest in tackling their condition each and every day. We need to respect their time and agree a basis for the partnership that brings value to both sides.

You’d be mistaken if you think it’s all doom and gloom…

Health blogs are written honestly and often show the raw reality of living with challenging health conditions. But they’re not all doom and gloom. Some are entertainingly sardonic and wry, others quirky and tongue in cheek. Most are highly entertaining and inspiring. All are heartfelt.

Inevitably you get close to those bloggers you work with and I’ve seen agency teams and clients alike develop friendships that out last campaigns. The reason many of us got into healthcare communications in the first place was a desire to spend our working lives doing something that made a difference. The data, the trials, the science may get the cerebral cells going but it’s the patient impact that tugs at the heart strings.