By. Erica Dingeman

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We are living in an age where using social “listening” to learn about individuals has become automated. We need to step back and examine the potential that truly understanding feelings, sentiments, expressions, and more brings to the table.

As it relates to healthcare communications, most every agency who touts they conduct “listening” has a tool (white-labeled or not) that pulls reports based on keywords, hashtags, profiles, and more. These reports boast “robust findings” through graphs, word clouds, and sentiment broken down by “negative, positive, and neutral” that ultimately don’t mean much for clients or brands. However, each report has one thing in common - they tell us NOTHING about who these individuals are. How do they feel supported? What are they frustrated about? Where do they feel most understood and heard?

If we want patients, caregivers and physicians to trust the brands we represent and feel supported in bringing meaningful treatments to their patients, they need to feel invested in beyond the level of depth that AI can provide.

Don’t get me wrong. Technology has its place in this industry - it can help make certain processes more efficient, summarize data, and even monitor certain platforms. But technology can’t feel. To understand individuals on an empathetic level, we have to read between the lines, pay attention to their content, monitor their engagement, get to know them as human beings and actively listen.

Sure, this approach may take longer than your typical “listening” effort, but it can also inform insights on a whole different level. Consider an evolution of your key insights, a broader net of patients, caregivers, physicians, etc., participating in market research for free in their personal and authentic environments.

To put this into perspective… Does a client need a doctor discussion guide? Let’s see what patients are saying about their conversations with docs… What kind of FAQs should we include in our resources? Maybe we should look at real questions posed in community forums. Why aren’t patients adopting a treatment? Perhaps they’re sharing their concerns in a subreddit or commenting on another patient’s thread.

It seems like common sense that patients would trust their health and well-being to a treatment or pharmaceutical company if they felt heard, understood, and respected. They want to feel a connection beyond being a “persona” and feel recognized as individuals with unique journeys.

For a second, take a step back and put yourself in their shoes. Feel WITH them.