Online treatment communities: the ideal way for healthcare companies to talk to patients and meet business objectives

When facing an illness, one of the first things that patients and caregivers do is go online for information, writes Dawn Lacallade, chief social strategist and pharma practice lead at social media specialist LiveWorld, in an Expert View piece.

Once they’re online, they’re likely to find a treatment community – and stay once they find one that meets their needs. Not only are these groups a tremendous source of information, comfort, and advocacy for millions of people, they offer an unparalleled way for healthcare companies to communicate with their patients and consumers one-to-one.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg recently discussed the value of groups like online treatment communities, saying: “We recently found that more than 100 million people on Facebook are members of what we call ‘very meaningful’ groups. These are groups that upon joining, quickly become the most important part of our social network experience and an important part of our physical support structure.”