Yesterday, I made the case that agencies have moved passed the stage of convincing marketers on the value of social media and are at a point where the focus needs to be on education.  Regulatory and legal departments inside pharmaceutical companies now stand as the major roadblocks to more widespread adoption and acceptance of social media for pharma.

Much of that urge to limit social media programs is discomfort around a lack of knowledge.  That’s on us.  We have spent so much time and energy in convincing the world that social media matters we forgot the basics—education.  What is this social media stuff anyway?

Dispose of terms like microblogging, social influencers, meme, folksconomy and del.ic.ious.  They will only hurt your efforts to educate legal and regulatory departments inside pharmaceutical companies.  Start with the basics.

To close out yesterday’s post, I asked an open-ended question: What role does an agency play in this process of educating internal departments on what social media is and what value it brings to the table?  I did receive some feedback ranging from: “Agencies should stay out of it; they don’t understand the internal politics.”  To: “Agencies only come across as salesy because we all know they have skin in the game.”  And some felt: “Agencies have been ahead of this stuff and pushing it for quite some time, perhaps it makes sense for the education efforts to come from that world.”

All of that is valid feedback.  For starters, as agency people, we probably don’t understand the internal politics at work and how to overcome that dynamic.  Second, you are right; we do have skin in the game. My agency and I would love to help more pharmaceutical companies with social media.  And as you might expect, I do believe that some agencies are better positioned to take up this education crusade because frankly, they’ve been at it the longest.

The job of an agency is to understand not only external audiences, but internal audiences as well.  The reality facing pharmaceutical companies is that legal and regulatory departments get queasy when you mention social media.  But again: it’s not because they dismiss the idea, it’s because we have done a poor job at educating them.  Shame on us.

So what can we do?

Think back to when you first started blogging, engaging on Twitter or corresponding with Facebook administrators.  Didn’t you feel a little lost?  When you attempt to educate, don’t forget that feeling of discomfort.  Even before you engage with a pharmaceutical company (yes before), offer to conduct Twitter 101 sessions.  Explain what it is in layman’s terms.  Pull up some recent examples of where their brand has been discussed or misinformation has been spread.  Don’t be afraid to show a real-time demonstration of how it works to provide a sense of the types of resources needed to manage this process.  Find an internal champion at the organization that can bridge the divide and smooth over any differences.  Maybe even start really basic and pull up a social media news release.  Sure, it’s a little rudimentary but everyone in legal and regulatory knows the format of a press release.  Pulling up a social media press release illustrates that this world isn’t that scary after all.  These are things that need to be done upfront, to help move the social media process forward.

The takeaway here is that agencies have a role, and even a responsibility to play in educating internal departments.  Without a solid education base for all stakeholders involved, we will never be able to bridge the gap that currently exists.  Take baby steps.  We will get there.

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