The talk about pharmaceutical social media has virtually drowned out any other discussion in the world of pharma marketing.  A look at my past 10 blog posts reveals that I am one of primary culprits.  Much of this buzz is warranted; social media has the potential to dramatically change communications across all industries—including 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.  Don’t 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 Optimization—it’s still important.  Here’s 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 using—you guessed it—keyword recognition.  If you are not using the word melanoma on a frequent basis in your wall posts you won’t appear on the community page.  The same holds true on all social media platforms, don’t 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 cliché.  Even still, it bears repeating.  Creating content on a regular basis is a grueling and sometimes thankless task.  It is both 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 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 failures—related to social media or not—it is even more critical to be tuned in to the overarching strategy of the business.  I’m fond of saying: “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…That’s another post for another day.  The point is you can’t 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 it’s 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 can’t master the basics, you can’t master social media.        

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