7 Steps to Pharma Social Media - How should a pharma marketer think when going into social media?

By @vortexsurfer

7 Steps to Pharma Social Media1. What is social media? 2. Reasons for using social media3. Social media in your brand plan4. Social media ladder5. What can go wrong?6. What can go right?7. Great examples

1. What is social media?The social media revolution is

over◦All media is social & can be shared,

commented on, embedded, syndicated

But, for the sake of argument…◦User-generated content◦Interactive dialogue between

companies, organizations and individuals

What is not social media? ◦Old school content websites

1. What is social media?Types of social media

◦Patient communities patientslikeme.com, patient

organizations

◦Healthcare professionals’ communities Meduniverse, Netdoktor Pro

◦Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, Wikipedia, Blogs

2. Reasons for using social mediaMarketing

◦ Increase salesImprove treatment success

◦ Influence patient behavior (treatment adherence, diet, exercise), promote disease awareness

Business intelligence ◦Listen to customers and competitors

Product development ◦Engage customers in product development

Customer support

3. Social media in your brand planDigital KPIs (fit into your business

goals)◦Define KPIs◦KPIs fulfilled in the SM channel or

elsewhere?Analytics

◦Measure performance, adjust for higher KPI fulfillment

ROI◦See actual KPI fulfillment & cost◦Monetize KPIs

4. Social media ladderListen Promote and advertisePublishBuild your own communities

4. Social media ladderListen

◦Google Alerts◦search.twitter.com◦Google Insights for Search / Google

Trends◦Tools you pay for – numerous

Social media ladder - listengoogle.com/trends

4. Social media ladderListenPromote and advertise

◦Make a fake ad in FB, get an idea of your target group

◦Sponsor a therapy area in a Healthcare Professional’s network

4. Social media ladderListenPromote and advertisePublish

◦FB pages◦FB apps ◦Games & gamification◦Participate in general forums (use

real name)

Syrum by Boehringer Ingelheim

4. Social media ladderListenPromote and advertisePublishBuild your own communities

Build your own community

CommunitiesCheck this for more communities http://www.doseofdigital.com/healthcare-pharma-social-media-wiki/

5. What can go wrong?Breach of regulatory

compliance ◦Sweden is one of the few

countries in Europe that has guidance

5. What can go wrong?Your internal approval processAdverse event reporting

◦Pharmacovigilance processBadvocates

◦Negative sentiment in your channel◦Involve communications department

and have crisis management plan ready

Badvocates

5. What can go wrong?No engagement

◦An empty Facebook page is just sadTime

◦Will you keep it up a year from now? You can’t start a community and then close it

You treating SM like a normal campaign◦Not a one way channel◦You must be a part of the dialogue

5. What can go wrong?Pharma industry risk aversion –

rightly so◦“Facebook would never have started

if they had our lawyers”

6. What can go right?Engage customers in dialoguePossible high (viral) impact Low cost

◦Lower cost than SEO/SEMOffline and online feed each

other with content and traffic

7. Great examplesPfizer ”Can you feel my pain?”

◦Petition site, FB page, Flickr image uploads

Meda Linicin (medical device) FB page

Genzyme Rare Disease Day in NL

Drive4COPDBoehringer

Ingelheim in US – multi-channel

Last slideThere are no shortcuts to

engagement. Only great content works.