Pharmaceutical Social Media: A Prescription for Change

Dear Pharma Executive, The list of reasons why you cant or shouldnt engage in social media is long. Regulatory concerns. Fair balance. Adverse event reporting. The FDA. Off-label usage. HIPAA. Lack of adequate resources. All of these are legitimate issues when considering a social media program. The list of reasons why you should use social media is not only longer, but also more compelling. Humanizing the brand. Creating brand advocates. Enabling better patient outcomes. Increasing Return on Health (ROH). Establishing a relationship with the patient. Better insights into the patient community. Greater access to information for the patients. A quick response platform during crisis communications. When you stack up the reasons for not being engaged on social media with the benefits of creating sustained engagement the question becomes: whats the price of being absent altogether? When done effectively, social media has the ability to create a relationship with the patient that was never before possible with traditional marketing platforms. Of course, challenges should not be ignored and a careful strategy should be put in place. But dont let obstacles deter you from engaging with social media. Social media is not a fad. The tools may change over time but the ultimate goal of interacting with your patient will remain the same. What follows is a primer on the topics you should consider before you engage through social media channels. Consider this your guidebook to getting started. Thanks for reading! Chris Iafolla SHIFT Communications Pharmaceutical Practice Lead ciafolla@shiftcomm.com @PRforPharma

Table of Contents:

Pharma Social Media: Sea Change or Fad? Pharmaceutical Social Media: Focus on the Patient and Return on Health Pharma Social Media: There is No Easy Road Setting Pharmaceutical Social Media Strategy Structuring Your Internal Social Media Team In Pharma Social Media Quest, Dont Forget the Basics My Advice for Pharma Social Media Programs: Ignore the Consumer Notice to Pharmaceutical Marketers: Facebook and Twitter are Not Social Media Pharmaceutical Social Media in Phases and on a Budget Social Media for Pharma Crisis Communications Pharma Social Media and its Impact on Patient Loyalty Why Do Pharma Companies Fire Their Social Media Agency?

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Pieces of the following articles were originally published on PRforPharma: http://prforpharma.com/, a blog focused exclusively on the issues facing pharmaceutical companies looking to engage in social media. PRforPharma is authored by Chris Iafolla. Chris can be reached at ciafolla@shiftcomm.com or on Twitter @PRforPharma. As you read the below articles and find the need for clarification on some social media jargon, the following is a good resource: http://www.shiftcomm.com/images/downloads/pr2essentials.pdf/.

Pharma Social Media: Sea Change or Fad?

A sea change lines up with, and supports external forces. Social media for pharmaceutical companies is supporting the overall industry.
1.) The Pharma Strategy Has Changed

There was a period of time in the not-sodistant past that social media for the pharmaceutical industry was considered nothing more than a fad. Skeptics scoffed at the job titles of social media lead and new media director proclaiming those jobs would be gone in a year. Those same skeptics swore that regulations, monitoring for adverse events and discussion around off-label usage would curtail any useful social media effort for pharma. Its just a fad, was the common refrain. No more. Social media for pharmaceutical marketing no longer represents a fadits a sea change. Heres why:

The days when pharmaceutical companies would insist on filling their pipelines with blockbuster drugs have come and gone. They still look for that rare blockbuster, but they no longer bet the farm on the one drug that will rake in billions. Part of this is a simple matter of supply and demand. There are just not that many blockbuster drugs left out there. But more than that, medicine has changed from chasing mass-market conditions to disease categories that impact a fewer subset of people. This requires a more personalized approach to treatment. How does this impact marketing? Marketing has been forced to respond to the shifting pharma landscape and match its efforts. In a world of personalized medicine, mass marketing efforts now seem to make less and less sense. Hitting as many eyeballs as possible does little to move the needle on drug sales of an orphan drug targeted at specific disease states. The same cant be said for social media. Social media marketing programs are designed to engage with the patient at a personal level. By its nature, social media is best suited for a specific audience with similar interests. The beauty is this is a two-way street. Patients are far more likely to be engaged in your marketing efforts if it strikes a personal chord. Personalized medicine necessitates personalized marketing. 2.) Shrinking Sales Forces in Favor of Targeted Efforts Following the move away from blockbuster drugs, pharmaceutical companies no longer have a need for the same massive sales forces of yesteryear. The benefits of a solid relationship at the direct sales level will never be eliminated, but the army of salesmen no longer exists. Pharma companies are now scaling back sales efforts in favor of focused outreach efforts. Glad handing is a thing of the past. Now, its about leveraging your relationships to offer a product or service of value. How does this impact marketing? Marketing falls directly in line with the philosophy of the new sales model. In the new marketing mix, pharmaceutical marketers prefer to focus their efforts rather
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than deploy a wide swath of messages. An effective social media program can help the focused efforts of a sales force by creating demand at the patient level and awareness at the physician level. A targeted sales force should be supported by a targeted marketing effort. Social media allows that to happen.

3.) Patients Have More Information and Play a Larger Role in Health Decisions Doctors spend a lot of time, money and energy earning the right to practice medicine. They are well-educated people that are accustomed to knowing more than the average patient. But in todays pharmaceutical world, the patient often has access to as much information as the physician regarding diseases, treatment options and alternatives. This doesnt mean the physician is no longer the expert, but it does mean that patients now play a much larger role in their health decisions than ever before. A doctor no longer has the luxury of being the only person in the exam room that has access to pertinent information. How does this impact marketing? This dynamic probably plays the largest role in influencing the shift in marketing. With patients at the center of every decision concerning their health, pharmaceutical companies need to adopt a philosophy that not only considers Return on Investment, but also Return on Health (ROH). The job of marketers has changed from pushing information to engaging in a two-way conversation with the patient. Social media efforts for pharmaceutical companies are now focusing on putting more information at the hands of the patient. As mentioned above, this creates demand in the doctors office but also helps to create a more educated patient community. 4.) Regulatory Environment is Showing Signs of Life Its no secret that concerns around the regulatory environment pose the greatest obstacle to social media engagement for pharmaceutical companies. Between the great work of debunking those myths and the FDA showing a willingness to consider social media as part of the marketers toolkit, the hurdle posed by the regulatory environment looks to be smaller every day. How does this impact marketing? The impact here is obvious. Some pharmaceutical marketers have been content to sit on the sidelines purely out of fear. As the FDA loosens its grip on social media, the pharma industry will surely show a greater sense of urgency to begin the social media engagement process. There are a probably a dozen more reasons that illustrate the idea that social media for the pharmaceutical industry is more of a sea change than a fad. But heres the main point to take away from all of this. A fad is something that happens in isolation of external forces. A sea change lines up with, and supports external
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The job of marketers has changed from pushing information to engaging in a two-way conversation with the patient. Social media efforts for pharmaceutical companies are now focusing on putting more information at the hands of the patient.

forces. Social media for pharmaceutical companies is supporting the overall industry changenot fighting it. What Are Your Next Steps? 1. Evaluate the direction of your organization, product pipeline and department. Are there external factors that align organizational goals with the desire to get involved in social media? For example, if your organization has emphasized disease states of high unmet needs and shifted marketing dollars to patient communications then a sea change may be in effect. 2. Consider how your decision to pursue social media involvement arose. If a competitors involvement in social media spurred an executive to demand a social media presence you are probably getting off to a bad start. Conversely, if the organization sets a path that emphasizes patient education and creating better health outcomes you are on the path to success. 3. Take stock of the cultural fit of social media with your company. For some pharmaceutical companies, social media flies in the face of their very culture. In these cases, it simply wont work. Social media is not something that takes place in isolation from the rest of the organization and if there is a mismatch at the cultural level it will be difficult to achieve any lasting success.

Pharmaceutical Social Media: Focus on the Patient and Return on Health

The entire conversation around social media in pharma has centered on how it can help the marketer. Its been positioned as yet another tool in a marketers bag of tricks. The overwhelming concern before engaging in social media tends to be around how to drive product and brand awareness; and ultimately, revenue. I dont absolve myself from this dynamic. I certainly have spent my fair share of time discussing how social media can help improve the marketing of a pharmaceutical company and enhance brand loyalty. Hey, we are marketers; our job is to generate leads. But there has been something missing from the conversation to date that should be the central part of every social media effort in the pharmaceutical industry. Before embarking on a social media journey, every marketer, and every executive should ask one simple question. I know what you are thinking: every executive wants to know the ROI of social media. Thats not it. Some people have started discussing more progressive measures like Return on Reputation (ROR). While that gets closer to the right question it doesnt get to the heart of why to engage in social media. The question every marketer should ask is: whats the Return on Health (ROH)? If the answer to the question is zero then stop immediately and walk away. Go no further because your involvement in social media will fail and damage the community in the process. Ultimately, the patient has to be at the center of every social media program. If you cant identify any Return on Health you shouldnt move forward. This doesnt mean you throw out other measures like ROI. Im a capitalist and like to make money as much as the next guy. But when we are talking about marketing pharmaceutical products, there has to be a higher purpose. Starting from How do we make money? and working to how it will impact the patient is a quick route to failure. I promise, if you flip that model and start with the patientthe money will come. Does this mean that social media efforts cant focus on building the corporate brand? Of course not. If the patient is at the center of these efforts then those efforts are more likely to achieve success, which has been clearly defined. Take a hypothetical, but common example of a biotech company that is in the midst of an early-stage clinical trial. Its no secret that it takes enormous amounts of cash to get a drug from discovery to general availability. Its reasonable to assume then that a biotechs goal at this stage is to raise money. Without a heaping pile of liquid assets a biotech is doomed. Thats the harsh reality no matter how good the drug in question might be. But raising money doesnt seem to line up nicely with the needs of the patient in this case. It should.
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The question every marketer should ask is: whats the Return on Health (ROH)? If the answer to the question is zero then stop immediately and walk away.

Once you have made the decision that you are organizationally aligned with the goals of social media for pharmaceutical companies, you then are faced with a difficult question. Why are we engaging in social media? The short answer: the patient.

Suppose that biotech has developed a small molecule drug that shows promise in treating late-stage cancers. With the patient at the center, this company might seek to engage in social media efforts geared toward educating patients and caregivers on living with late-stage cancer. It might also seek to energize communities on fund raising for cancer research while clearly outlining the staggering impact cancer has on the world. This same company might even share some of its research in scientific communities to advance other research efforts in similar areas. Imagine that. All of these efforts would have a high Return on Health in the long-term if the drug proves to be effective. In the short term, it would help the company by creating mindshare and goodwill with future patients. A biotech that has established that type of awareness before it ever brings a drug to market is a company that will undoubtedly raise more money in financing rounds and have a much more attractive liquidation event. First the patient, then the money. The point? You can make money and generate a Return on Health (ROH), if and only if, the patient is at the center. Its simple really: if the patient is the focus of your social media engagement then your interactions will reflect that. Conversely, if profit motivation is your driving force then you are likely to be tempted into making poor decisions such as paying people to post Wikipedia entries or covertly pushing products on a health chat page. Using Return on Health as the primary measure of a social media program establishes a decisionmaking framework that wont lead you astray. The goal of social media should always be to add more value than you extract. Does measuring ROI tell you if you have accomplished that goal? If you are truly focused on the patient then you will engage transparently, communicate honestly and seek to educate and not exploit. What Are Your Next Steps? 1. Determine the commitment of your organization to the patient. Many pharmaceutical companies are accustomed to focusing on physicians and KOLs but have a harder time understanding the patient. 2. Ask whether or not your have the right frame of mind to be successful in pharmaceutical social media. Return on Health is not intended to supplant more traditional measurement techniques like ROI; its supposed to encourage a shift in thinking. If your strategy sessions begin with the question: How will we make money from these efforts? you will quickly encounter trouble.

Pharma Social Media: There is No Easy Road

Relationships in the real world are hard work. All relationships take commitment, dedication and honesty. Social media is no different. And like any meaningful relationship when it worksboy, is it rewarding.
difficult road. Instead of taking the time to form relationships, learn the landscape and provide meaningful commentary, pharmaceutical marketers can simply broadcast a canned message to the masses. Of course, this isnt really social media but that may not matter. Weve reached an important, dare I say, tipping point in social media for pharmaceutical companies. Weve moved passed the evangelism stage to a point where many pharmaceutical companies are actively weighing and pursuing some form of social media engagement. As they do, will they be tempted by the lure of the easy route in search of quick hits? Or will they take the methodical, strategic approach?

Lets get this out of the way: social media for pharmaceutical companies is hard work. There, I said it. Far too many people suffer from the misconception that social media is simple and merely a question of value. How hard can Twitter really beits only 140 characters? My daughter can master Facebook; surely I can make it work. Or worse still, All I need to do is come up with a few good corporate messages and then proliferate social networks with them think of how many people will see them! The latter statement is the one that keeps me up at night. When engaging in social media, pharmaceutical marketers are faced with a choice take the easy route or the longer, more

The answer to the question depends on how the pharma marketer approaches the medium in the first place. It is important to remember that social media is not a silver bullet. Social media is not a quick fix. Relationships in the real world are hard work. All relationships take commitment, dedication and honesty.

Social media is no different. And like any meaningful relationshipwhen it worksboy, is it rewarding.
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What Are Your Next Steps? 1. Simple: ask yourself if you are willing to take the time to listen, set strategy, endure some hiccups and stick with the community even when things arent going swimmingly. If the answer is yes, you are in business.

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Setting Pharmaceutical Social Media Strategy

There are much more efficient ways to hit eyeballs than using social media. The better approach is to focus on Return on Health (ROH) and consider the behavior of your patient.
Traditional marketing metrics become less quantifiable in social media. You cant measure the success of a campaign because campaign thinking fails in social media. You cant focus solely on bottom-line impact or your efforts will come across as blatant attempts to promote. This leaves many marketers in a picklewithout a point to work backwards from; forming a coherent strategy is a difficult task. But it doesnt have to be. Too many marketers walk into social media engagement planning focused on how to get the most eyeballs. If that were the only measure that guided social media strategy, it would quickly become extinct. There are much more efficient ways to hit eyeballs than using social media and there is no indication that a strategy focused on attracting the masses creates a more loyal customer.

So youve committed to focusing on the patient in your pharmaceutical social media efforts. Good for you! But what next? How does a pharmaceutical marketer outline a social media strategy? Few people would disagree that strategy is an integral part of any social media engagement. Despite what many people might assume, social media is not something marketers should engage in without a clear purpose or goal in mind. But how to arrive at the strategy is less clear.

The better approach is to focus on Return on Health (ROH) and consider the behavior of your patient. Thinking first about the behavior of your patient will guide you to the right platforms. For example, if you are dealing with an ailment that generally impacts children, what is the first thing a parent will likely do upon learning their child is afflicted with this ailment? Most parents search for answers and will head to Google to find them. The trick is to ask yourself, what type of information are they looking for in this search? If they are searching for insight on treatment options, severity and past experiences, you can gear your social media efforts to reflect that. You should also survey what online sources of information already exist. Have you considered Google Health as a source of information for patients? Better still, have you
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tracked down the sources of information that feed into Google Health and ensured their accuracy? If you are not proactively addressing these questions, you are leaving your online presence to chance. What about a platform such as Yahoo! Answers? Have you scanned the discussions taking place there to get a sense for the sentiment about either your brand or the common concerns of dealing with a particular ailment? The bottom line is this: social media strategy too often focuses on superficial measures as its guide. Metrics like unique visitors per month, pages viewed per visitor and bounce rate should not inform your course of action. These are only surface observations and are weak when used as guiding lights. Social media strategy should start with the patient. What Are Your Next Steps? 1. Ask yourself: is this a brand-centric program or a program at the corporate level? Either case is adequate, but knowing this shapes the strategy-setting process. 2. Write down your strategy before you talk to an agency, consultant or executives within your company. 3. Every pharmaceutical social media program should have a mission statementwrite yours!

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Structuring Your Internal Social Media Team

Good question. One of the most frequent questions I get is centered on how to structure an internal social media team for success. For pharmaceutical and biotech companies, structuring a social media team involves a few wrinkles due to regulatory and legal restrictions. The above is certainly a dramatization of the conversation that occurs, but its not that far from what most companies experience. There is often an internal champion that fights the good fight, wins approval and then deals with the resource problem later. Its a survival instinct. These internal champions realize that they are often fighting an uphill battleone that will only become steeper with additional moving parts. Admittedly, I am an agency guy. By definition, I am part of the external team (a part that, as you might expect, I think is an integral cog in the wheel). That being said, I think Ive developed a broad enough view of the landscape to observe the ideal scenario and the real-world scenario. If there is a so-called definitive piece of work on this topic, it comes from Jeremiah Owyang at the Altimeter Group. Jeremiah places internal social media teams into three buckets: the tire, the tower and the hub and spoke. Essentially, Jeremiah believes that social media teams either form on the fringes of a company (the tire), are centrally located in isolation (the tower) or by a central source that facilitates efforts to relevant departments in a company (hub and spoke). Jeremiahs conclusion is that the hub and spoke is the ideal scenario for structuring an internal social media team. My own anecdotal evidence supports that theory. A hub and spoke model for social media teams allows for a more cohesive strategy that cuts across departments. It also provides ample opportunity for a variety of customer touchpoints to get involved in social media. Thats the ideal scenario, but is it feasible in the real-world? Yes and no. Consider a pharmaceutical company embarking on a social media engagement strategy. It would be great if that company were able to involve all key stakeholders right out of the gate. But the reality is: many will be in prove it to me mode first. As such, in a practical sense, the most likely (not best, but probably most efficient) way to start a social media engagement is in the tower model.

Corporate communications sits at the center of an organization and is in a unique position to access content. This provides more control and sets the benchmark and template for success for those prove it to me people.

Youve surveyed the scene, understand the relevant communities that have formed and pounded out a pile of useful content to share. But then it suddenly dawns on you: social media is hard work, I cant do this alonewhat should my internal team look like.

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Generally speaking, that central command will be in corporate communications. Corporate communications, by its nature, sits at the center of an organization and is in a unique position to get access to content. This provides a bit more control, establishes a mission control and sets the benchmark and template for success for those prove it to me people. The added benefit of having the tower located in corporate communications is that it can be easily transitioned into the hub of a better defined hub and spoke model.

IR

Customer Support

R&D

Community Manager

Brand Manager

Public Relations

Social media is in many ways still a developing medium. Because of that, people are so laser-focused on the execution piece they Legal IT neglect the resources needed to make that execution possible. Social media takes time. It takes resources and it takes commitment. But you dont have to tackle it all at once. Start with the tower and youll find your way to the hub and spoke.

What Are Your Next Steps? 1. Make two lists: a list of realistic internal participants in social media and a wish list. Your realistic list will include the people that you know have expressed an interest in seeing your organization engage in social media. It doesnt have to be limited to marketing people but should include any number of people across organizations that will serve as a resource. The wish list will be like setting stretch goals. If you could design a program from scratch, who would be involved? Customer service? The legal team. Put them on your stretch list. 2. Now make a third list of the people that have the power to, and are likely to, put a halt to any social media efforts. This will likely be key members from regulatory, legal, IT, and compliance. The people that wind up on the third list are most important and have to be included from the outset. 3. This exercise will give you a sense of where your allies are, who needs to be massaged early and often and what model (wish list) will you work toward as the social media engagement evolves.

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In Pharma Social Media Quest, Dont Forget the Basics

Basics are the building blocks of success. If you cant master the basics, you cant master social media.

The talk about pharmaceutical social media has virtually drowned out any other discussion in the world of pharma marketing. Much of this buzz is warranted; social media has the potential to dramatically change communications across all industriesincluding the pharmaceutical business. But in the rush to come up with our next grand idea, we often overlook the basics.

Here are five basic marketing tactics that should not be abandoned just because a social media strategy is in place. 1.) Focus on the Customer: In almost every marketing strategy the objective is to reach the customer. There are some cases where you seek to influence partners or lobby lawmakers, but even then it is with an eye toward the customer. Social media is no different. Dont lose sight of the customer simply because the medium has changed. In the case of pharmaceutical companies, always focus on the Return on Health of the patient. 2.) Optimization Still Matters: Whether you want to call it Search Engine Optimization or Social Media Optimizationits still important. Heres a simple example to illustrate the point. Suppose you are working with a pharmaceutical company to promote awareness of the early warning signs of melanoma. You might decide that as part of this program you would like to establish a Facebook presence to help spread the word. Facebook has established community pages around certain topic areas such as melanoma. These are essentially wikis that combine information with related global posts from Facebook users. These global posts are compiled usingyou guessed it keyword recognition. If you are not using the word melanoma on a frequent basis in your wall posts you wont appear on the community page. The same holds true on all social media platforms; dont forget to incorporate optimization techniques to increase findability. 3.) Content is King: This phrase has been beat to death to the point that it has quickly become a clich. Even still, it bears repeating. Creating content on a regular basis is a grueling and sometimes thankless task. It is one of the most important aspects of marketing (note: not just social media) success. In much of my agency, SHIFT Communications traditional PR efforts, the focus is on creating a consistent flow of content in the
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form of a compelling story line, press releases and speaking abstracts. Social media is no different. Content creation is too often where social media goes to die. 4.) Integrate Across Marketing Disciplines: There is not a single marketing function that should take place in isolation. It limits its effectiveness and potential. PR people should be talking to the ad folks, the engineers and the sales team. How can you hope to communicate a unified brand image if your marketing department is isolated from your company? This dynamic becomes magnified in social media. Because social media often bears the brunt of business failuresrelated to social media or notit is even more critical to be tuned in to the overarching strategy of the business. Im fond of saying: social media does not sweep problems under the rug; it rips the rug clean off the floor. You better be prepared.

Social media does not sweep problems under the rug; it rips the rug clean off the floor. You better be prepared.

5.) Evaluate Effectiveness: No other marketing function has escaped measurement more adeptly than social media. But failing to measure social media is failing altogether. We can debate the merits of measurements like ROI, Facebook likes, Twitter followers, engagement scores, etc The point is you cant hope to improve your efforts and better reach the patient if you are not constantly evaluating your success. The list above is by no means all encompassing. But its a starting point of many of the basics that tend to be overlooked when companies engage in social media. Basics are the building blocks of success. If you cant master the basics, you cant master social media. What Are Your Next Steps? 1. Consider your overall marketing strategy. Do you have an SEO strategy in place? Is someone in charge of content creation at your organization? What are the metrics that matter most for marketing initiatives? 2. The answers to all of these questions need to be worked into your social media strategy. Social media should be a piece of your marketing strategy, not a standalone tactic.

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Advice for Pharma Social Media Programs: Ignore the Consumer

Tell me: who is the consumer? Is it me, you or the guy in the cube next to you? Go ahead; Ill wait while you ponder the answer to that question. The reason you are struggling for a response is because the consumer doesnt exist. The consumer is a statistical body that points out buying trends, tendencies and behaviors among a group of people. The consumer is an entity that is extremely important to the advertising industry because it highlights how to reach the most people possible with a single message. Consumers are what motivate companies like Budweiser to buy ad spots on channels like ESPN during football games. Because the consumer is a statistical entity, it is utterly useless when it comes to social media. My advice to pharmaceutical companies seeking to engage in social media: forget about the consumer; focus on the customer (in this case, the patient). Social media at its core is relationship marketing. Relationship marketing is predicated on forming 1:1 relationships with customers and engaging in meaningful conversations. The 1:1 aspect of social media makes dealing with the statistical body that is the consumer nearly impossible. Marketing programs that are focused on the consumer are inherently set up to hit as many eyeballs as possible. It falls squarely into the realm of traditional marketing techniques. A social media engagement that focuses on the supposed needs of the consumer is doomed to fail because it sets the expectation that a
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My advice to pharmaceutical companies seeking to engage in social media: forget about the consumer; focus on the customer (in this case, the patient). Social media at its core is relationship marketing.

Surprised to read that title? Think Ive finally gone off the deep end (its been a long time coming after all)? Ive been spending so much time discussing how social media depends on focusing on the patient, why would I advocate for ignoring the consumer during a social media engagement? Common wisdom suggests that you should listen, respond and interact with the consumer to provide a personal brand experience and to cultivate brand loyalists. Surely, ignoring the consumer isnt the way to go about building brand loyaltyis it? Glad you asked.

blanket message is appropriate. That wont fly in any social media circle and it certainly wont fly when you are dealing with peoples health. Focusing on the consumer is the type of thinking that breeds lazy approaches to PR and social media (think spamming reporters, leaving the same comment in 55 different locations, mass blasting a group of bloggers with the same pitch). In the case of healthcare, patients are on social networks for a unique experience. Shaping your engagement based on the consumer stomps out that aspect. Pharmaceutical companies need to focus on the customer/patient. This brings social media down to the individual level and provides a greater understanding of what is unique about each individual. Health is highly personal, social media should be too.

What Are Your Next Steps? 1. Conduct an exercise with your internal social media team. Ask each member to write down the typical consumer of your company or for a specific brand. This could be based on information such as age, race, sex, etcThen ask your team to identify where that typical consumer would be located online. 2. Let each member reveal their answers. In most situations, the results will be completely different. Each one of them is right and that is exactly the point. There is no one consumer; there are only individuals. This should serve to illustrate that point.

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Notice to Pharmaceutical Marketers: Facebook and Twitter are Not Social Media

As a social media marketer, focusing on the tools perpetuates the myth that this is just a fad and purely tactical in nature. Stop focusing on the media and start worrying about the social.
stems from connecting directly with customers (in the case of pharmaceutical companies: patients, doctors, healthcare providers, insurance providers, etc). This is where you will hear invaluable feedback on your product or brand, come to intimately understand the decisionmaking process for requesting a certain prescription, learn the types of information most valuable to the patient and earn the type of trust that creates loyal brand advocates. Anything short of that is marketing as usual. Sure, there are some additional benefits to establishing a presence on social media channels that can be achieved without being truly social, such as search engine juice. If you churn out enough content focused on the term cancer research you will probably rank higher in search results. But what about all the other organizations churning out information on the same topic? Are you present in those conversations? If not, you are missing an opportunity to extend your social media presence, provide simplified access to information and establish a new relationship with your company. There are important touchpoints outside of your own social media presence that should not be ignored.

Facebook, Twitter and blogs are not social media. I repeat, just because you throw up a Facebook page does not mean you have a social media presence. A Facebook page without interaction is nothing more than a Website. A Twitter handle without engagement equates to an RSS Feed and a blog without open commentary may as well be a company newsletter. The point? Social comes first in social media for a reason. Far too many pharmaceutical companies focus on the latter and ignore the former. The results can be disastrous in an age when executives are demanding quantifiable ROI and quick results. The most value that healthcare companies can derive from social media

As a social media marketer, focusing on the tools perpetuates the myth that this is just a fad and purely tactical in nature. Stop focusing on the media and start worrying about the social.
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What Are Your Next Steps? 1. Re-orchestrate your social media planning process. Most companies tend to approach the issue with a statement: we want to establish a Twitter presence. The problem is, there is no guarantee Twitter will be here in five years. Try approaching it with two questions: who are we hoping to engage with? followed up by, where are they located? The second question will direct you to your platformand it might not be Facebook.

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Pharmaceutical Social Media in Phases and on a Budget

First, lets start with why some social media engagement strategies are so expensive. Its just like the economics class you took in college; there is a significant barrier to entry for elaborate social media programs. The development of a microsite to house the piles of interactive content you have recently developed does not come cheap. The sheer cost of developing the site, let alone maintaining it, can turn many companies away. Once you have the site up, you have to provide resources for consistent engagement. Its not social if you arent engaging. This too comes at a price. So you can see why the larger foothold a pharmaceutical company places in social media the more the tab balloons. In addition to added price comes added risk. This is not to say these strategies are flawed. Quite the contrary. But building up to this level of social media engagement both maximizes effectiveness at each phase and minimizes sticker shock. While the barrier to entry for something like a microsite might be high, the majority of social media platforms have minimal to zero barriers to entry. The general purpose of developing a microsite is to house and publish different types of content, share
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Social media is hard and any way you choose to engage is going to cost money and demand expertise. The point is: dont shy away from giving social media a shot because you only see monolithic companies with monolithic budgets to match giving it a try.

If you survey the landscape of pharmaceutical social media, the most prominent examples are the companies that have carved out a large swath of social media real estate. You will see microsites, YouTube channels and mobile applications. To some, it can be disheartening and overwhelming when you calculate the amount of time and money that is sunk into these efforts. But fear not, large-scale healthcare social media efforts do not have to happen overnight. I often advocate that a slow and steady approach to social media is prudent particularly in the regulation-heavy environment of the pharmaceutical industry. A phased-out approach allows you to put the building blocks in place, and it also has the added bonus of spreading out the cost. Social media does not have to be exorbitantly expensive out of the gates.

educational material and interact directly with customers. A couple of problems: many companies starting out in social media do not have the brand muscle to direct people back to a newly established site. Instead, a better approach is to realize that people have already staked out their congregating places online. Why not go where they are and provide content of value? My agencys principal uses the analogy of leaving a trail of bread crumbs. That trail will be followed and people will find their way back to the origin. If you must have a social media hub, why not consider setting up a presence on Facebook? Here you can post videos, relevant news articles, engage with customers and share your industry commentary. Oh, and did I mention, its free? Look, social media is hard and any way you choose to engage is going to cost money and demand expertise. The point is: dont shy away from giving social media a shot because you only see monolithic companies with monolithic budgets to match giving it a try. There are building blocks to getting to that pointpillars that are critical for success. What Are Your Next Steps? 1. Survey the scene and see what companies you would like to model your organization afterdont limit yourself to the pharmaceutical industry. 2. Evaluate the common threads between the companies that best fit your needs. What ties them together? 3. Sketch out a realistic starting point and an ideal scenario for your social media efforts. Start with the realistic scenario but always with an eye toward the ideal scenario.

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Social Media for Pharma Crisis Communications

In the midst of a crisis communications situation, there is a list 15 city blocks long of things a pharmaceutical company cant say. This is never truer than in the public eye of social media. On the flip side, the list of things a pharma company can say when embroiled in a crisis is small enough to fit in your wallet. So, all those calling for full transparency using social media are nave. I certainly would not suggest that a company should withhold pertinent information or intentionally deceive the publicbut they simply cannot provide full transparency. Why? In many instances its illegal, pending FDA review. There is also a litany of legal considerations that put the squeeze on communications during a crisis. For example, no legal team at a pharmaceutical company would ever allow a public apology before all the facts have been sorted out. In a legal sense, a public apology admits fault. Fault implies responsibility and responsibility brings lawsuits. It might seem callous, but thats the reality. Given the grim picture I have just painted, is there any hope for a pharmaceutical company dealing with a crisis? Should they even be considering social media as a platform for handling a crisis and protecting their reputation? While there is a long list of what you are not able to say during a crisis, you should be prepared to quickly say whatever is within bounds. It sounds simple but too many companies get caught with their pants down under the assumption that a crisis wont hit their companies. A few well-respected brands would beg to differ. You should enter a social media engagement expecting a crisis. If you dont expect a crisis then shame on you. Knowing that a crisis situation may occur, you can intelligently guess the
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You should enter a social media engagement expecting a crisis. If you dont expect a crisis then shame on you. Knowing that a crisis situation may occur, you can then intelligently guess the areas where one is likely to arise.

Have you heard? A few pharmaceutical companies (and one oil company) have recently stepped into a healthy dose of crisis situations. As is always the case, the response to those crises has been sliced, diced and pureed in every way imaginable. The majority of industry pundits have been dissatisfied with the response of pharmaceutical companies in crisis situations and have pointed to their social media presence as proof of failed strategy. Im here to tell you it is not that simple.

areas where one is likely to arise. Product recalls, disgruntled shareholders and adverse events seem likely to ignite a firestorm. What are you doing to prepare for these circumstances? Again, this is not about transparency for the sake of transparency. A pharmaceutical company should not be taking to social media channels discussing specific adverse events. But, it should be prepared to let the patient population know that they have been heard, the dialogue is open and the situation is being taken very seriously. Pharmaceutical companies should also be prepared to offer additional resources. Most pharmaceutical companies have case managers in their patient advocacy programthey should be at the ready during a crisis. Top management should be visible and active.

Step 1: Expect a crisis

There is a common misconception when it comes to crisis communicationsthat if done correctly, it is capable of solving the problem. Regardless of how well you handle the crisis from a communications perspective, it still happened. Crisis communications is not about fixing the problem, its about putting forward the human dynamic of a company and there is no better way to do that than with social media. What Are Your Next Steps? 1. Start by thinking about the past issues your company has faced that have resulted in a crisis. What were they? How was the company perceived as a result of the crisis? 2. Now, take those same issues and apply them to social media. What would the response be if it were in public for all to see? What will the legal team allow you to say? 3. Draft a crisis communications plan that outlines specific responses for each situation that has already developed in the past along with any that are likely to happen in the future. Speed is key, have response at the ready. 4. In addition to approved responses, form a crisis SWAT team. Who are the key players that have decision-making power in the event of a crisis? How will they be reached? Who has final approval on the message?

Step 2: Assess likely areas for crisis (tech malfunction, Step regulatory, etc) you 3: Focus on what can say not what you cant Step 4: Develop approved messages for all scenarios Step 5: Form Crisis Communications SWAT Team Step 6: Evaluate crisis at hand Step 7: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

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Pharma Social Media and its Impact on Patient Loyalty

In addition, pharmaceutical companies have a harder time developing patient loyalty because the purchasing process is vastly different. Sticking with the above example, when you make the decision to purchase diapers, you go to the store, browse the aisle, perhaps assess the prices and packaging and then decide to purchase. With the exception of OTC medications, this process is quite different for a patient. Patients are told they need a prescription. There is no real decisionmaking process. This dynamic is certainly changing as patients are playing a larger role in health decisions, but the prescription still starts in the doctors office. Of course, there are additional elements that make earning patient loyalty an albatross. For example, long standing distrust of the pharmaceutical industry and high drug prices do not help create patient loyalty. Throw all of these dynamics into the same pot and its a bit like oil and waterthey dont mix. Given this seemingly impossible set of circumstances, pharmaceutical marketers are left to ask themselves whether or not pursuing patient loyalty is a worthwhile endeavor. The simple answer is its not only a worthwhile pursuit, its a realistic goal. Unlike some social media wingnuts, Im not here to suggest that social media is the sole answer to creating patient loyalty. What I am suggesting is that if pharmaceutical companies focus on the patients, it will inevitably enhance loyalty. Train your call center employees to display compassion. Assign case managers that develop a relationship with the patient. Provide educational resources that help patients make informed decisions. Spend time with doctors to educate them on new treatment options. Help patients figure out insurance issues associated

Given a seemingly impossible set of circumstances, pharmaceutical marketers are left to ask themselves whether or not pursuing patient loyalty is a worthwhile endeavor. The simple answer is its not only worthwhile, its a realistic goal.

When marketers espouse virtues of brand loyalty, you rarely hear its application to pharmaceutical brands. Why? Buying a medication isnt like browsing for diapers at your local grocery store. Most people hope they dont need to display loyalty to a pharmaceutical company. Loyalty is often generated around a purchase of desire, not when a prescription is a necessity.

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with your treatments. And yes, social media can play a role in a pharmaceutical companys ability to cultivate patient loyalty. The company that engages with a patient, provides helpful resources online and improves access to information will develop a more loyal base of patients. If there is a central tenant of social media it would be relationships. Isnt that what loyalty is all about? What Are Your Next Steps? 1. There are probably areas in your companies that are exceptionally good at connecting with patients in a compassionate manner. What department is it? 2. Spend time meeting with the key players of the department to understand the approach to dealing with patients and why it is effective. 3. Involve someone from that department on the internal social media team to bring a patient perspective to the group.

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Why Do Pharma Companies Fire Their Social Media Agency?

Its no secret that agencies are let go for a variety of reasons that range from the completely justifiable to the head scratchers. The average retention rate of clients in the PR business is something in the neighborhood of 1216 months depending on which reports you choose to believe (I am happy to report SHIFTs is much longer!). With such a revolving door, one must wonder: what drives a pharmaceutical company to fire its social media agency? There is no definitive list of reasons that leads to an agency getting the boot. It can be a result of missed metrics, poor strategy outlines, faulty execution, budget constraints, etcAnd while the list is long, Id venture to guess that there are two primary buckets that cause a pharma company to fire its social media agencyfalse promises made by the agency and unreasonable expectations of the pharmaceutical company (sometimes one causes the other). Well take these one at a time. False Promises Made by the Agency Too often, agencies walk into a pitch eager to win business and selling whatever they think the company at the other side of the table wants to buy. They do this without regard for whether or not they believe they can deliver on those lofty promises. Why? They dont care. The goal is to win the business and earn a quick bucknot create sustained value. This breeds the thinking that social media is a silver bullet. With people out there selling it as such, it is no wonder that some marketers think that social media has the ability to mask existing problems. It does not. Because agencies are selling false hope, when they cant deliver on that hope, they get the axejustifiably.
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And while the list is long, Id venture to guess that there are two primary buckets that cause a pharma company to fire its social media agencyfalse promises made by the agency and unreasonable expectations of the pharmaceutical company.

At this point, you have a good grasp on the social media process, how to develop a rock-solid strategy and where to turn for resources internally. You might be considering hiring an agency to help you along in the process but are wary because of past experiences. And as an agency guy myself, I can attest that working in the agency world is a little bit like the dating sceneif you are around it long enough, you are bound to get your heart broken (or wallet as the case may be) once or twice.

A good social media agency will outline challenging goals, but not make promises of a brand remake overnight. A good agency will highlight the risks of engaging in social media and have a plan in place to mitigate those risks and deal with them when they arise. Most importantly, a good social media agency will say no. They wont be afraid to tell you if your strategy is off base, or if your line of thinking will fall down when engaging with a community online. If your social media agency is afraid to tell you no I can almost assure you the program will fail. False promises are a quick way to the unemployment line and only makes the job of legitimate agencies that much more difficult. Unreasonable Expectations of the Pharmaceutical Company The message I have been trumpeting recently, along with others, is that social media does not shovel problems under the rugit rips the rug off the floor. If a company walks into a social media engagement thinking that it can distance itself from product problems or damaging messaging it is sorely mistaken. The more likely result is the social media community will expose that problem quicker than you ever thought was possible. And not only will it be exposed, it will run rampant until you step up and offer a solution. The thing people often forget about social media is that it acts as one giant neighborhood watch. Phonies are uncovered, bad products are rooted out and shifty salesmen are pinpointed. Its not a comfortable place to be if you have skeletons in the closet. Unfortunately, some pharmaceutical companies are willing to throw caution to the wind and hope social media can work miracles. When those miracles fail to materialize, the social media takes the fall. Sure, it is the job of the agency to steer the client in the right direction and set appropriate expectations, but sometimes it is not enough. In those cases, the pharma company is bound to fail because it simply demands too much. The Lesson? The new marketing model increases accountability on both the vendor and client side. The days of arms length relationships are coming to a screeching halt. In order to truly succeed in social media, you better have a true partnership. After all, if you cant master that relationship, you can forget about the new ones you will be forming through social media.

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What Does it All Mean? So youve read up until this point. Thanks for staying with me. You are probably asking yourself: what does this all mean? That depends. Not every pharmaceutical company should jump headfirst into social media. If you have a treatment for a patient population approaching 80 years of agesocial media is probably not the right vehicle. But I would venture to say that for the large majority of pharmaceutical companies and treatments out there, social media will emerge as the ideal platform for reaching patients. Consider regulatory issues, but dont be deterred entirely. Put an adverse event reporting mechanism in place, but dont assume that challenge is insurmountable. Involve the legal team; dont keep them at arms length. And first and foremost, create a strategy that puts the patient at the center. When you address many of these issues and more, you are ready for social media. If youve got questions or comments, I would love to hear your feedback. Feel free to shoot me a note at ciafolla@shiftcomm.com. For continued thoughts on the topic, subscribe to my blog: www.prforpharma.com. And of course, if youre a pharmaceutical marketer who could use SHIFT Communications help, head over to www.shiftcomm.com. Wed be happy to connect with you!

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