Pharma Social MediaMoving forwards?

24th January Smi Social Media Conference London

Gary MonkDigital Healthcare Consultant

@garymonk

Question?

• Pharma believes Social Media can benefit the industry and its stakeholders

Statement

• Have we made progress towards this statement in the last 2 years?

The audience answered unanimously yes

All truth passes through 3 stages

First - it is ridiculedSecond – it is violently opposed

Third – it is accepted as being self-evident

Arthur Shopenhauer

I believe we are somewhere between 2 & 3, with variation between companies

HCP Communities

Corporate Communications

Patient Awareness

Case Discussions

I also planned to also cover HCP communities but due to the level of interest in the GSK case we only covered the corporate comms topic (another subject for another day)

Case 1Corporate Communications (2 way)

GSK was used as an example of best practice.Disclaimer – I have no professional affiliation to the GSK Facebook page and have not interviewed GSK on this interesting subject. All observations and opinions are my own.

GSK FaceBook policy is clear and tends to explain why certain things are not acceptable

but please respect the following otherwise our lawyers will be mad at us:

The company reserves the right to remove any postings at its sole discretion (we work with serious medical conditions and we can’t risk unmonitored or unverified medical advice being published).

We know a lot of doctors and trust us - they know about health!

B.I. were highlighted for there excellent use of ‘human’ language to explain their FB policy

GSK attempted to engage with this persistent detractor, and later adopted the seemingly sensible policy of allowing his posts but not responding

GSK InitiativesGSK post many of their positive initiatives on their FB page

Sometimes strongly attackedA select few detractors often seize upon these positive posts and attack GSK, in a very strong manner. It is impressive they allow most of these comments to stand

But have strong popular support

But GSK have a very strong following and receive many positive comments and praise. Often from employees and ex-employees

GSK successes

Corporate achievements are highlighted

Often attacked by a small ‘hardcore’ group

Again the same individuals will often attack these achievements, and accuse GSK of hypocrisy

Used for HR / Recruitment

GSK use their FB page as a tool for recruitment

GSK usually respond

And importantly try to respond to enquiries…..

Including ad-hoc questions

….including this ad-hoc product question posted under an HR post on recruitment

‘Mild’ Criticism

Criticism is not always severe – this example shows a mix of praise and criticism

Employee Feedback/Criticism

Some employees offer mild criticism that many of the corporate events and visits tend to happen at the company head office

Very Strong Criticism related to tragic personal stories

This was a very tragic post, extremely critical of GSK, that caused some debate particularly around a potential adverse event (the product names have been redacted here). The purpose of showing was that despite criticism of GSK, they have been very brave in allowing these type of posts to be shared

Managing Global PR

Global issues were often posted on the GSK FaceBook, where the team would usually respond, in this case pointing the community to an apology on Panadol

Yet with community support?

Interestingly there was criticism of GSK for responding to the critics! And some criticism of the critics.

Leverage Positive StoriesWhat GSK do brilliantly is post regular news items, particularly on positive news items, not directly related to GSK. This helps fill the FaceBook wall with positive commentary and quickly ‘bury’ negative comments further down the news feed. The next 2 slides are examples of this, particularly the London Olympics.

Formula 1

LondonOlympics

2012

Despite the majority of comments being positive, this post shows you can’t please all of the people all of the time

Some Stats• 2 month snapshot Nov & Dec 2012• 15 Posts• 3059 likes• 122 comments

Positive Comments significantly outweighed Negative Comments. Note this analysis only considered comments that were positive/negative directly to GSK as a company.

• Need courage & self belief

• Have a strategy to respond to negative comments (or not!)

• Generate positive advocates and news stories

• Have something to say and a purpose

Key Learnings GSK

Questions or get in touch…..

• twitter => @garymonk• email => gary@garymonk.com• linked In => www.linkedin.com/in/garywmonk• phone => +44 7776 242276