The year of social media influencers
December 22, 2021 | Neha Chandra
Advice can pour in from anywhere because everybody loves to give advice. You’ve got your nosy neighbors, peer group and relatives, but who should you really listen to? Especially when it comes to seeking medical guidance.
Yes, I know booking a physical consultation with your doctor at the slightest chance of medical inconvenience was the way to go, but that was pre-pandemic. Our approach towards healthcare was a tad bit different or I’d say conventional. We spoke of the illness only once we got it.
It’s different now. We now look at healthcare from a preventive lens and take ownership of understanding about our health issues and being curious to learn about our mind and body. When I say we, I mean Millennials and Gen Z and we’re gradually trying to get to the Gen X and Baby Boomers.
We recognize mental health as health, we don’t giddy away at the mention of sexual reproductive health and we are great supporters of LGBTQIA+ community. We understand that condoms can focus on both health and pleasure and not just one aspect for both the partners. We want fathers to be equal partners in the parenting journey and we hope to have enough public spaces for mothers to breastfeed their babies.
But how did this shift happen? Is happening?
Pandemic saw the emergence of expert voices- medically acclaimed, ones with a doctor degree, taking to social media to talk about PCOS, erectile dysfunction, menopause, glaucoma and a lot more. These doctors used the in-vogue formats of Instagram such as reels, carousels and IGTV to create informative not boring content for their followers to consume.
At SPAG Dialogue, we’ve always prioritized conversations that matter and to give a platform to voices that are striving to bring about that crucial change. So, we leveraged our personal interests of following and learning from these experts to bring something meaningful to you.
It all started with an article we wrote, recognizing these influencers and the thoughtful content they were creating. With the nature of response, we got not just from you all but also the influencers, pushed us to hold a detailed chat on Clubhouse about it.
And then, there was no looking back.
We partnered with nutritionists, embryologists, pediatricians, gynecologists, psychiatrists to have a detailed dialogue on various facets of healthcare. We got Dr Divya Vora and Nidhi Singh to educate us on a common lifestyle disease, PCOS. We explored various formats such as videos, articles and podcasts to gauge your interest and to keep you hooked.
Some of our most loved and appreciated content was the explainer video on examining yourself for breast lumps by Dr Kanchan Kaur that received over 3.2K views and mental health day video that received over 2.5K views.
Our big-ticket event was when we decided to maximize our energies to hold a panel discussion nearing breast cancer awareness month with Reema Sanghavi, Dr Meenu Walia, Dr Govind Babu, Roshni Datta and Manju Katyal. We were joined by students, medical fraternity and patient body at the live event where notable observations about the Indian landscape wrt breast cancer diagnosis and treatment were made.
We intend to end 2021 with as rich content as we did at the beginning and so we had a no holds barred chat with Dr Tanaya Narendra on how these docfluencers stole the show with their content.
As we are nearing the end of 2021 and foraying into 2022, we are planning bigger and better things for all of you. The heart of it all will be our intention to debate, deconstruct and discuss issues that matter to you.