In the world of social media, there are two types of people out there: purists and realists. Social media purists tend to stick rigidly to some unwritten code of social media and believe in the “all or
nothing approach.” A social media purist will say: “if you aren’t going to go full bore, you aren’t really being social.” A social media purist will also dismiss the notion of social media monitoring as a way to extract value from the activity of others on social networks without incurring the dangers of participating.
Social media purists were crucial in beating the drum loudly and frequently on behalf of communications professionals. Their role as evangelists cannot be overstated. Without the social media purists of the world, we likely would never have arrived at the point where we are today. What point is that you ask? We have arrived at a point where social media is an accepted part of the marketing mix and not simply a tool for the bleeding-edge types. The social media purists have become somewhat of an echo chamber. You know those types of people that are huge fans of a band but as soon as they start selling records they label the band a sell out? I bet those people are social media purists too.
A social media realist is a practitioner—someone that is down in the weeds fighting the battles of social media every day. In the world of pharmaceutical marketing, social media realists need to play the prominent role as we move forward.
The fact is: a social media realist understands that in pharma, it’s not only ill-advised; it is dangerous for companies to dive in head first. Social media realists understand that sometimes it is okay to just listen to social networks first before embarking on true engagement. Of course, true engagement is the ultimate goal, but a realist understands that the only way to get there is to take baby steps. Getting there is the goal right? A pharma social media realist understands that there are a lot of minds that need to be changed and a lot of hurdles that need to be cleared before engaging fully in social media. In most cases, the best way to do that is sell people in small doses. Bite off a small chunk of the world of social media and do it well. Once that “pilot” program is successful, the excitement will build to more sustainable efforts.
Selling a pharmaceutical company on social media does not happen from a mountain top and it sure as heck doesn’t happen from an echo chamber. So what are you: a social media purist or realist?
