By Annie Foster, Group Director, Social Media Strategy; Bryan Gaffin, Executive Creative Director; and Casey Ross, Group Director, Social Media Strategy, FCB Health New York
The most important health conversations are already happening on Reddit, and they took center stage for the first-ever Reddit Health Summit on September 4.
The sold-out room was packed with patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, pharma leaders and Reddit themselves. What united them was a single belief: authentic, human connection changes how people make health decisions.
Reddit is uniquely built for that connection. Since launching in 2005, Reddit now has more than 870 subreddits dedicated to health, and health conversations often find their way into many of the over 100,000 unrelated subreddits as well. People find Reddit to be a safe space to ask hard questions, share vulnerable stories and get support they cannot find anywhere else. Anonymity and community moderation keep trust high and misinformation low, which is why 75% of people say they trust health information on Reddit more than on other platforms.
And it’s not just patients. Over nine million healthcare professionals use Reddit to exchange advice, share resources and even compare comfortable shoes for long hospital shifts.
The panels throughout the day proved that these conversations are shaping real-world outcomes. Patients are walking into appointments with questions sparked by Reddit threads. Caregivers are finding answers and support at 2 a.m. when they need them most. Pharma leaders are rethinking how to show up online with empathy instead of adspeak. And Reddit’s own product and creative teams are building new tools to help brands engage responsibly.
Five principles came through loud and clear for healthcare marketers:
- Listen first: Learn from conversations already happening.
- Show empathy: Speak like a human, not a brand.
- Be useful: Share clear answers and resources.
- Know your audience: Patients, caregivers and doctors need different things.
- Stay real: Authentic voices get trust, fake ones don’t.
On average, every wellness post receives 21 personal responses. Seven of the top ten posts in r/medicine are long-form, information-rich discussions. And when asked, people say they want to hear from pharma companies, if it’s honest, helpful and human.
The closing message was simple: Reddit is not asking health leaders to reinvent how they talk to people. It’s asking them to listen, learn and meet people where they already are. Because the conversations that start on Reddit don’t stay on Reddit. They move into exam rooms, family living rooms and daily decisions that change lives.
