Pharmaceuticals are not typically known as an industry that relies on transparency to sell their products. In fact, many companies have made HUGE money by being non-transparent. How can the industry change this perception and step into the light? Today I attended the Social Pharmer Boston Unconference organized by @Shwen. As a total novice to pharmaceuticals marketing I had a lot to learn. I learned an insane amount about their unique marketing issues and left hungry for more.
The answers are often more difficult then the questions. Pharmaceuticals deal with a regulatory environment that borders on the insane (and would be laughable in any other industry). From disclosures to reporting effects it represents a new and interesting challenge that I never really thought of in any great detail.
I think you have to balance a few things in order to start poking around at a successful pharmaceutical strategy for using social media. First, recognize that social media doesn't end. It isn't about a specific campaign, you can campaign within the model of social media channels but the firehose always needs to be open. The risk here is that you now need to constantly monitor it because the news cycle is lightning fast and can change dependent on the way in which the information comes out.
On this note: pharmaceutical PR people are going to have to come to grips with full transparency, commitment and only having limited means to shape the message are now industry standards within the social realm. Judging by the state of Social Pharmaceuticals today, this is going to be a bitch to sort out. Thus I'd have to recommend choosing your strategy based on legal's recommendations. Don't waste time if you can't do it.
Josh Bernoff gave a very interesting talk on how to do a social applications in life sciences without getting fired. (Basically, how to market pharmaceuticals in the social media model). It came down to this: Your customers are going to talk and you can provide the space or you don't. But conversation will continue with or without you. It's just harder to facilitate once the ball gets rolling in order to launch self serving community.
Josh then laid out the basic model of: Consumers want to help. Pharmaceuticals want to help. FDA in the middle.
How do you overcome this?
POST
People
Objectives
Strategy
Technology
(http://forrester.com/healthcampboston)
That being said, a number of interesting questions and ideas were raised today that definitely need to be investigated further. The will to create industry guidelines is definitely there: it just needs to be spearheaded by a group of like minded people. I'm guessing @Shwen, @pharmachameleon, @fardj, @jbernoff and @healthyjack are going to figure this out in the next six months if not sooner.
I did decide to boil down the day into a few quick points that I view as being essential for Social Pharmer to develop further. (All of these were touched on today.)
Key steps for Social Pharmer success:
- Expansion of Social Pharmer Ning group
- Creation of Social Pharmer Wiki
- Regular moderated conversations on Twitter #pharmchat?
- Try and build a model before regulators enforce one you
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tagged as #social pharm, #socialpharm, #socialpharma, FDA guidelines, Social pharma, Social Pharmaceuticals
How to do Social Media Pharma Marketing without Getting Blown Up…
That’s my re-interpretation of Josh Bernoff’s presentation “How to do a social application in life sciences without getting fired” at yesterday’s Social Pharmer Boston Unconference organized by @Shwen.
Bernoff is the co-author of the book “groun…
[...] Foster, an attendee of the SocPharm unconference, summed up Bernoff’s presentation in his blog post: “It came down to this: Your customers are going to talk and you can provide the space or you [...]
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