Latest News

k9ttyk1t_A_conceptual_digital_illustration_representing_trust_f0fb4d6b-472b-416a-af85-ce41855496eb_1.png
Sponsored Content

A Matter of Trust-Health Information in the Age of Social Media: Who Do Consumers Turn to—and Trust?

March 7, 2025 0

A Shifting Landscape

This morning, you woke up with a mysterious rash. You inspect it, assess your symptoms, ponder it, and then, if you’re like the vast majority of Americans … you Google it. With the internet at your fingertips, information comes at you fast and furious. And with the rise of user-created content on social media platforms served up in bite-sized portions, that information is more accessible—and influential—than ever.

But despite this wellspring of wellness content, many consumers remain wary of misinformation from social influencers. And doctors agree that it’s wise to think twice before you like and subscribe: For example, a 2024 study in Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery found that “most nonmedical influencer-posted TikTok videos about sinusitis are inaccurate, despite being portrayed as medical advice/educational.”

WebMD and The Harris Poll engaged 2,005 U.S. adults in an online survey in April 2024 to learn more about their attitudes toward the health information they get online and via social media platforms. This data can guide best practices for marketers seeking to understand the key question: Who do consumers gravitate toward and hold in high regard for medical advice?

The bottom line: Reliability, transparency, privacy, and trust guide consumers’ clicks when it comes to health content.

1 in 4 Adults Say They Trust Health Information Less Over the Past Year

Searched the Internet for Health-Related Information in the Past 12 Months

88% Total Adults

96% *Pharma Info Seekers

Mean: 11 Times

*Consumers who have sought information on over-the-counter medication, prescription medication, disease symptoms, or immunizations/vaccines on a website.

Trust Trends

Poll data shows that compared to last year, more pharma info seekers frequently rely on health information from health-related and news sites than social media platforms. Overall trust in online health information has dropped, primarily driven by misinformation on social. What specifically is eroding pharma info seekers’ trust?

35% say anyone can post content and claim to be a professional, even if they aren’t.

33% say they don’t know if people are telling the truth or being paid to promote things.

30% say it’s hard to determine what’s true and what’s false.

Privacy concerns are also paramount. As new state privacy regulations continue to take
effect, consumers have increasingly questioned influencers’ and social media platforms’
ability to protect their personal information. For many, opening the door to targeted ads
that concentrate on their chronic condition, for example, is a turnoff.

Privacy Concerns Also Aligned With ​Perceptions Around Ad Targeting

Attitude Among Pharma Info Seekers Toward Health-Related Advertisements​

Top 2 Box % Somewhat/Strongly Agree

75% “When I’m on social media, I don’t want to see ads reminding me of my health conditions.”

68% “I would prefer a random ad not based on my personal or demographic data.”​

Under the Influence

Despite the deluge of health and wellness content, pharma info seekers are much more likely
to follow food, exercise, lifestyle, gaming, and travel accounts than those with a medical focus.
Only 15% of pharma info seekers follow medical professionals, while only 12% follow accounts for special health conditions.

The creators they trust enough to follow attract them with three characteristics:

  • They’re a medical professional.
  • They’re a real expert in the field.
  • They include references and citations.

Clickers are picky for a reason:

68% of pharma info seekers say they often encounter claims that appear to lack medical or scientific review or are from someone with no true credentials.

Most Say Influencers And Creators Are Unreliable Sources of Health-Related Information

Attitude Among Pharma Info Seekers Toward Health-Related Advertisements​

Top 2 Box % Somewhat/Strongly Agree​

85% “Social media influencers/creators are not reliable sources of health-related information.”​

76% “I am skeptical of a brand or product if a social media influencer/creator is endorsing it.”​

Embrace Evolution + Keep Facts at the Forefront

Where We Are:

Social media platforms aren’t going anywhere. Neither are consumers’ desires to seek out advice and education about their chronic conditions. And people want trustworthy, discreet, sound information from experts as they scroll. Despite the rise of health information circulated in social media platforms and from influencers, pharma info seekers are relying more on health websites as a trusted source of health information, with a trust level 3 times higher than social media platforms or influencers. Context is critical for pharma messaging. Pharma info seekers don’t like to be reminded about their conditions when on social media platforms and are averse to being targeted by brands using their personal data.

Health websites have a trust level 3 times higher than social media platforms or influencers.

Where We Go From Here:

Leverage the platforms in use in the language of the user without compromising sound science, says WebMD Chief Medical Officer John Whyte, MD, MPH.

“Less is more. Too often, content providers overwhelm patients with too much information. Instead, they need to focus on nuggets of information. The most successful influencers often create content that is brief in nature, given the attention span of users in those platforms. They then build a following, where people come back to learn more.”

The research was conducted online in the U.S. by The Harris Poll on behalf of WebMD Corporation among 2,005 adults ages 18 and over who reside in the U.S. The survey was conducted April 11–22, 2024.

Data are weighted where necessary by age by gender, race/ethnicity, region, education, marital status, household size, employment, household income, and political party affiliation to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within ± 2.6 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.

admin

DTC NewsGuest Columnist

Getting to the How – Unlocking Identification, Personalization and the Regulatory Landscape

January 20, 2015

Technological innovation has changed how people react and connect to each other, how consumers engage and communicate both with and about companies, and how companies think about and use data to engage with consumers. These changes are impacting the Life Science and Health industries in much the same way and require a level of thoughtfulness around harnessing this more personalized approach to patients, physicians, and caregivers.

Personalized Experiences

More so today than ever before, the modern consumer is looking for personalized and tailored experiences when they are engaged online, regardless of channel or screen. This desire goes beyond a favorite site remembering a user ID for sign-in, a mailing list asking for frequency preferences, or seeing a personalized welcome message on a home page. Instead, the pharmaceutical marketer can create an experienced-based environment in which the consumer feels at the center, acknowledged and highly valued. It’s within these experiences that the consumer will engage and connect with the pharmaceutical marketer.

The convergence of “digital” is happening at a rapid pace and is pervasive in all forms across television, radio, video, search, and mobile, and a common thread running across that convergence is custom content. The consumer can find what they want, when they want it, wherever they want it, and engage or interact with it as they consider appropriate.

Consumers are actively searching for information and community, and today that means they are also present in social environments that are not controlled or curated. Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are some of the obvious choices. All social media environments are not the same, and consumers don’t interact with them in the same ways either. The pharmaceutical marketer understands this and tailors engagement efforts to match the strengths of one (e.g., Twitter is an effective broadcast medium) and downplay weakness of another (e.g., YouTube is not particularly interactive).

Consumer Concerns

Often, the consumer is faced with requests for information that may enable the tailored experience they are seeking, but it is not necessarily clear to them how the two are connected.

The pharmaceutical marketer understands that it is not just the overt request for information like “tell us your email address,” but also the passive or unseen tracking that cookies can enable. The pharmaceutical marketer makes the effort to connect the request for information with the value received in the return – the personalized experience – and demonstrates the link between the ask and the result. They should communicate that digital tactics like cookies can capture anonymous but individualized information that enables the marketer to find, communicate, and engage the consumer on their own sites and/or when they are on other websites.

Working with the Chief Privacy Officer, the pharmaceutical marketer should map out a framework incorporating those applicable regulatory obligations to the jurisdiction(s) in which they operate and fold them into the overall engagement strategy.

If part of that strategy is to include content created and customized for consumers on the marketer’s own website(s), it will be essential for the marketer, in cooperation with the Chief Privacy Officer, to formulate a comprehensive point of view about the collection, use, and disclosure of both personal and anonymous data collected about and from the consumer. This point of view should be broadly shared and communicated with relevant internal stakeholders.

As we know, innovation and the rapid pace of change has also created a great number of non-traditional platforms on which we can find and communicate with the consumer in order to provide those personalized experiences. Unfortunately, the regulatory framework may be incomplete or silent on critical issues of compliance for the pharmaceutical marketer when engaging with these platforms. As a result, there is a need to develop internal, key principles that can form the basis of a self-regulatory approach based on accuracy, transparency, and accountability. There may be others given specific circumstances or objectives, but these three represent a good foundation.

At first glance, it may seem a daunting task to create meaningful engagement with consumers in this time of change and choice. No longer bound by the old model of one size fits all, the consumer is using the tools on their desktops and in their hands to find, curate, and connect with each other, content, and brands. Marketers recognize this and view opportunity where others see risk and challenges, and are ultimately rewarded with strong, trust-driven customer relationships.

83% of consumers expect marketers to know them as they interact across channels and devices, as reported by the Neustar-MMA Mobile Marketers Insight Study, Oct. 2013. This is a real challenge to marketers in general and to pharmaceutical marketers in particular. Today’s pharmaceutical marketer meets that challenge by spending increased time, thinking, testing, and launching initiatives to form the experiences sought after by the consumer by bringing the content to life.

Bennie Smith