Archive for the ‘Return on Health’ category

Pharma Social Media Mission Statement

August 31st, 2010

Marketing professionals are big on positioning statements. We love talking about value propositions and key differentiators. Give us a pen and paper and we can churn out SWOT analyses all day long. But when it comes to pharmaceutical social media, discipline is all too often abandoned in favor of a shoot-from-the-hip attitude.

Just like any form of communications, social media requires discipline, patience and strategy. Despite its seemingly spontaneous nature, there should be a clear strategy and stated objective. Rather than approaching social media efforts as an opportunity to “increase brand awareness by reaching more consumers,” let’s start at an even more basic level. In pharmaceutical social media: what is your mission statement?

It might seem like a return to that Marketing Communications 101 class you took back in college, but I can assure you that your pharmaceutical social media efforts will benefit from a “mission statement.” I have long stated that a healthcare company’s involvement in social media should focus on the patient. The rules of communication on social media platforms render the old rules of marketing irrelevant. It’s not about pushing a message to the masses but about connecting with a key set of individuals. This is a radical shift in thinking that requires pharmaceutical companies to start from square one and consider what they learned in that Marketing 101 class.

Businesses write mission statements, why shouldn’t your internal social media team? When penning your mission statement for social media dispense of marketing lingo. Don’t use this as an opportunity to put benchmarks for success and outline metrics. That’s not the purpose of a mission statement.

The mission statement should serve as an opportunity to answer the elusive question: “why am I here?” In some industries this is a less critical question, but when you are dealing with health, it’s an imperative question to answer. In writing your social media mission statement, consider how you became involved in the project, what the motivating factors were and how that will determine the strategy you outline. The mission statement that you come up with should serve as a guide book. It can be a document that is circulated at a minimum to the individuals that are part of the company-sanctioned social media efforts and at a maximum company-wide as part of establishing social media guidelines. The goal of honing in on a social media mission statement is to determine the key values your company will uphold and your reason for participating. Thinking about it in this way will help to ensure you stay on track and always engage transparently and ethically. Consider this your code of conduct.

So why are you here? What is your mission statement for pharmaceutical social media?

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Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

In Pharma Social Media Quest, Don’t Forget the Basics

August 20th, 2010

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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Posted in Pharmacetuical Public Relations, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: Pharmaceutical PR Pharmaceutical Social Media Return on Health

Pharma Social Media and its Impact on Patient Loyalty

August 17th, 2010

When marketers espouse virtues of brand loyalty, you rarely hear its application to pharmaceutical brands. Why? Buying a medication isn’t like browsing for diapers at your local grocery store. Most people hope they don’t need to display loyalty to a pharmaceutical company. Loyalty is often generated around a purchase of desire, not when a prescription is a necessity.

In addition, pharmaceutical companies have a harder time developing patient loyalty because the purchasing process is vastly different. Sticking with the above example, when you make the decision to purchase diapers, you go to the store, browse the aisle, perhaps assess the prices and packaging and then decide to purchase. With the exception of OTC medications, this process is quite different for a patient. Patients are told they need a prescription. There is no real decision-making process. This dynamic is certainly changing as patients are playing a larger role in health decisions, but the prescription still starts in the doctor’s office.

Of course, there are additional elements that make earning patient loyalty an albatross. For example, long standing distrust of the pharmaceutical industry and high drug prices do not help create patient loyalty. Throw all of these dynamics into the same pot and it’s a bit like oil and water—they don’t mix. Given this seemingly impossible set of circumstances, pharmaceutical marketers are left to ask themselves whether or not pursuing patient loyalty is a worthwhile endeavor.

The simple answer is it’s not only a worthwhile pursuit, it’s a realistic goal. Last week I wrote about an article from the Boston Globe that highlights the loyalty patients feel toward Genzyme. The company has cultivated this loyalty by developing a relationship with patients. What a novel concept—developing a relationship with your end customer!

Unlike some social media wingnuts, I’m not here to suggest that social media is the sole answer to creating patient loyalty. What I am suggesting is that if pharmaceutical companies focus on the patients it will inevitably enhance loyalty. Train your call center employees to display compassion. Assign case managers for serious illnesses that develop a relationship with the patient. Provide educational resources that help patients make informed decisions. Spend time with doctors to educate them on new treatment options. Help patients figure out insurance issues associated with your treatments.

And yes, social media can play a role in a pharmaceutical company’s ability to cultivate patient loyalty. The company that engages with a patient, provides helpful resources online and improves access to information will develop a more loyal base of patients. If there is a central tenant of social media it would be relationships. Isn’t that what loyalty is all about?

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Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: Patient Loyalty Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media

The Pharmaceutical Social Media Oath

August 4th, 2010

Raise your right hand and repeat after me:

I (Insert name here of pharmaceutical marketing executive) do solemnly swear to focus on the patient first in all my social media efforts.

I will ignore the desire to chase shiny objects, will not refer to Facebook as a strategy and will focus on setting a clear social media strategy before putting a finger to a keyboard.

All key stakeholders across the company regardless of department will be involved from the onset of a social media engagement (yes this means legal, regulatory and IT).

I promise to spend time listening to the social media communities I intend to engage with before I make assumptions on what they want. I will commit to always representing myself and my company in an ethical, authentic and honest manner.

When offering content or having discussions on social media platforms, I will not resort to promotional messages and will instead aim to offer educational and helpful resources. I will not merely use social media as a megaphone to shout messages to the masses. Rather, I will seek to engage in a dialogue on a one-to-one basis whenever possible.

I will expect a crisis to occur and when it does, I will avoid knee-jerk reactions such as shutting down all social media channels. There will be a crisis communications plan in place even when regulations limit what I can say. I will let patients know that they have been heard and offer alternative ways to get information.

When I receive criticism via social media they will not be discarded as some rogue, disgruntled individual. They will be considered carefully and remediation will be taken when warranted.

I will insist on social media measurement but not blindly demand ROI without a true understanding of what ROI is—a lagging indicator. When I measure social media, it will be with a more sophisticated set of metrics tied directly back to my original strategy (see sentence two).

Above all else, I will make helping the patient my central goal and will walk away entirely if that ever changes.

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Posted in Pharmaceutical Crisis Communications, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: Pharmaceutical Crisis Communications Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media Return on Health

Content Creation: Where Pharma Social Media Goes to Die

July 8th, 2010

Congrats! You’ve decided to embark on a pharmaceutical social media odyssey. It will be a rewarding endeavor. You’ve done everything right up until this point: focused on the Return on Health of the patient, set your pharma social media strategy, outlined a crisis communications plan and hired a pharma social media agency. You are ready to go.

For the first few weeks everything is humming along like a well-oiled machine. You engage regularly via Twitter, have quickly cultivated a base of patients on Facebook and have managed to churn out several blog posts. Everything was going swimmingly as enthusiasm ran high. But slowly, something changed. The pace of followers decreased, posts don’t seem to come to life as readily and your Twitter engagement gets pushed to the backburner as that budget meeting looms.

What happened?

Your pharma social media strategy met the fate of many that have gone before it—a lack of content creation. What started out well-intentioned and maybe even well-planned met its match. Content creation: where pharma social media goes to die.

Social media programs often start out with the best intentions. But what many people fail to realize is that social media is difficult. It takes dedication. It takes time and it takes internal resources. It’s not as simple as simple as throwing up a couple of random 140 character thoughts every once in a while.

Content creation is a long slog. Before you make the commitment to social media, survey the content you already have in house. If you have a vault of videos that have gone untouched, that might be a good place to start. Do you have an internal newsletter that might transition well to an external blog? Think about using that as part of your content creation strategy. And as rudimentary as it sounds, consider creating an editorial calendar to outline predefined topics for blog posts and assign authors. This will create some accountability at the outset. Eventually, you won’t need the calendar as a set of people will become engaged and motivated to post on their own. But that won’t happen overnight and creating some urgency through a set timeline of posts will keep momentum moving forward.

Content creation is in many respects the linchpin of social media engagement. It is a wonder then that it often spells the demise of many efforts.

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Posted in Pharmacetuical Public Relations, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: Pharma social media Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical PR Pharmaceutical Social Media Return on Health

Failing to Empower the Empowered Patient

July 7th, 2010

A couple of weeks back I had the opportunity to have dinner with a bevy of social media powerhouses including: Marc Monseau of Johnson and Johnson, Laurie Edwards, Jack Barrette from WEGO Health, Shwen Gwee from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Paul Levy from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, e-Patient Dave deBronkart and Alicia Staley. As you can see, this was the type of conversation that does not happen frequently enough—a melting pot of patients, pharma people, hospital executives and agency wonks. The conversation ranged from new babies, to babies on the way, to social media strategy, to the challenges of searching for information on rare diseases. But what stood out to me the most during the course of the conversation resulted in both satisfaction and frustration. The Holy Grail for pharma social media remains empowering the patient.

That was a satisfying piece of information in the sense that I’ve long trumpeted the need for social media strategies focused on the Return on Health of the patient. It’s always nice to affirm that you are not crazy. It was frustrating because what I heard from the table was it was a need mostly going unmet. What became apparent to me during our dinner was that this is not a problem that can be solved by pharmaceutical companies in isolation. Just like pharmaceutical social media engagement should not take place in a vacuum, creating a healthcare system where the patient is empowered to play a larger role in the decision-making process requires systems thinking.

Pharmaceutical companies can lead the charge in part because of their unique access to information but also because of their substantial sphere of influence. Pharmaceutical companies have access to the best information available on treatment options, dealing with side effects and current research. Like it or not, they also have pull on capital hill, with insurance providers, in the doctor’s office and with the patient. Pharmaceutical companies must serve as the catalyst to empowering the patient.

But the process can’t stop there. As agency people, we tend to focus our energies on swaying the folks that write the checks. In order to truly empower the patient, we need to broaden our field of vision. How can we expect the empowered patient to achieve a good outcome when doctors are incentivized to see more patients and not spend more time with patients? What good is an empowered patient if she can’t find information on the latest clinical trials on her rare disease because search algorithms do not lend themselves to uncovering that information? What’s the use of an empowered patient if doctors are not trained to take input?

I admit I am raising a problem far too complex for me to solve—something that requires brains far smarter than mine. But I am smart enough to realize that pharmaceutical companies engaging in social media alone will not empower the patient—we need the collaboration of lawmakers, insurance providers, hospitals, doctors and patients.

Even with this complexity, it all centers on the patient.

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Posted in Pharmacetuical Public Relations, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: Pharma social media Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical PR Pharmaceutical Social Media PR for pharma Return on Health

Pharmaceutical Call Centers: A Path to Social Media Success

April 27th, 2010

Much of the pharmaceutical social media conversation has focused on the need for change from the market tactics of yesteryear. The argument goes something like this: “agree or disagree, the pharmaceutical industry is one of the most distrusted and its public perception is overwhelmingly negative. Why? Fair or unfair, many point the finger at the barrage of DTC ads as a sore point.” Using that logic, the strategy tends to be something to the effect of “change everything.”

It’s not all wrong. I for one have been a proponent of pharmaceutical social media as a step in the evolution of the industry’s marketing. No doubt, the pharmaceutical marketing has been evolving over the years to fit better with a business less focused on blockbuster drugs and mass markets and more concerned with areas of high unmet needs and building relationships. So by all means, move forward with radical changes to the way you form marketing strategy, but don’t disregard your past entirely—you might miss a crucial lesson.

Today, Wendy Blackburn from InTouch Solutions reposted an article that she authored (originally ran in Med Ad News) focused on how pharmaceutical companies can take a more customer-centric approach to marketing (similar to my Return on Health concept). Within that post, Wendy briefly mentions an interesting point: “patient support call centers have been around a long time. What’s so difficult about duplicating that experience online? Why not empower a corporate spokesperson to speak online on behalf of your company and your brand?”

This is an example I’ve used on occasion before: if pharmaceutical companies can trust call center employees to handle patient support functions, why can’t they replicate that process for an online team? There are really only two (honest) answers to this question. The first is that online platforms expose the companies to added risk and exposure to the FDA. The issues are the same as what might be handled in a call center but when dealt with in a public manner, the feeling is that companies are being watched. Call centers don’t face that challenge. Second is a problem of scale. Call centers provide a finite and defined environment. The company can control (to some extent) the calls it takes in a day, the hours it receives calls and the process for responding. The real-time nature of the Web makes this level of control impossible. That’s really about it: too much scrutiny and not enough resources.

Yet, people tend to ignore examples of the past even if they have worked. Call centers have worked in the pharmaceutical industry for the most part. So here is what it comes down to: do you trust your call center employees more than your communications manager?

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Posted in FDA and Pharma Social Media, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: FDA and Pharma Social Media Pharmaceutical Call Centers Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media

Should Pharma Energize Social Media Support Groups?

April 2nd, 2010

I’ve long subscribed to the notion that the most important role for pharmaceutical companies in social media was as an information depot. With access to an abundance of data, research and emerging trends, healthcare companies are in a unique position to broadly distribute medical information.

Of course, this level of content creation takes a commitment to social media that many companies might not yet be willing to make. Who can blame them? In addition to appointing some individual to monitor and respond to social media conversations, you now need to create engaging content within the boundaries of FDA regulations. A significant time sink indeed, but one well worth the investment if done properly.

But in thinking about the topic, it occurred to me that this outlook on the involvement of pharma companies in social media is far too narrow. Sure, it is easy for a pharmaceutical company to serve as an information broker. But what about their role as a creator or energizer of patient support groups? Is it even appropriate for healthcare companies to step into this area?

I realize this is not an entirely new concept. Some companies have already done a solid job of connecting patients around disease states. But by and large, this is an area that pharmaceutical companies tend to steer clear of for a variety of reasons. For starters, there is often an active and engaging online support group established. Why disrupt the status quo? In addition, pharmaceutical marketers have long had trouble defining their customer. Ultimately, the patient is overlooked in favor of efforts directed at doctors, insurance providers, etc…

That needs to change. For pharmaceutical companies to have any measure of success in social media it needs to focus on Return on Health and the patient. This patient-centric view leads me to believe that a large part of pharmaceutical social media efforts in the past will be about creating and energizing patient support groups online.

Right now, healthcare companies are best suited to dispense information. In the future, they would have a better grasp on their patients and be best suited to provide a platform for support.

Forget about extending your brand, getting more prescriptions and enhancing your reputation (all of which will come by the way). This is about providing a much-needed outlet to an often underserviced community.

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Posted in FDA and Pharma Social Media, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media Return on Health

Pew Research Studies Online Behavior of Patients with Chronic Illness

March 24th, 2010

The Pew Internet and American Life Project released the findings of a report today (opens to a PDF) that examined the online behavior of individuals living with chronic diseases.

There are two key takeaways from this report. The first is that individuals living with a chronic disease are less likely to have access to the Internet. According to the report: “81% of adults reporting no chronic diseases go online and 62% of adults living with one or more chronic disease go online.” The report goes on to indicate that this is an indication not of desire to go online, but of access to the technology required to go online.

The second key takeaway is that if all variable factors are weighted equally, individuals dealing with a chronic disease are more likely to go online in search of health information and far more likely to consumer user-generated content.

As pharmaceutical marketers, the obvious question is “how does this data impact my efforts?” As I stated earlier this week, every social media engagement strategy should start and end with the patient. The focus has to be creating better patient outcomes. In order to move forward in that process, an understanding of the patient is paramount. This study from Pew helps healthcare companies better understand the behavior of the patient.

The data supports the idea that social media is not a silver bullet. The reality is a significant chunk of the patient population is not online. Clearly, social media is not the right avenue to reach those patients. Traditional forms of marketing (including PR) still hold relevance in reaching this segment of the population. The Pew report states that the lack of access to the internet creates an information gap for patients that are not online. Pharmaceutical companies should focus a piece of their efforts on bridging that gap. As always, social media is but one part of a integrated marketing strategy.

The plus side of this report for social media advocates is that it confirms what we have always known—those patients that do have access to online content consume it voraciously. Anecdotally I know this to be true. My Mom battled Melanoma for 3.5 years and was constantly online looking for new research, treatment options and support groups. In some small way, it helped her feel connected to a community and less isolated in her struggle. That’s no small feat. Social media remains a powerful platform to engage with patients, hear their feedback and work toward the lofty goal of achieving better outcomes.

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Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Setting Pharmaceutical Social Media Strategy

March 22nd, 2010

Where does the patient fall in your social media thinking?

Few people would disagree that strategy is an integral part of any social media engagement. Despite what many people might assume, social media is not something marketers should engage in without a clear purpose or goal in mind. But how to arrive at the strategy is less clear.

Traditional marketing metrics become less quantifiable in social media. You can’t measure the success of a campaign because campaign thinking fails in social media. You can’t focus solely on bottom-line impact or your efforts will come across as blatant attempts to promote. This leaves many marketers in a pickle—without a point to work backwards from; forming a coherent strategy is a difficult task.

But it doesn’t have to be. Too many marketers walk into social media engagement planning focused on how to get the most eyeballs. If that were the only measure that guided social media strategy it would quickly become extinct. There are much more efficient ways to simply hitting eyeballs than using social media.

The better approach is to focus on Return on Health (ROH) and consider the behavior of your patient. Thinking first about the behavior of your patient will guide you to the right platforms. For example, if you are dealing with an ailment that generally impacts children, what is the first thing a parent will likely do upon learning their child is inflicted with this ailment? Most parents search for answers and will head to Google to find them. The trick is to ask yourself, what type of information are they looking for in this search? If they are searching for insight on treatment options, severity and past experiences, you can gear your social media efforts to reflect that. You should also survey what online sources of information already exist. Have you considered Google Health as a source of information for patients? Better still, have you tracked down the sources of information that feed into Google Health and ensured its accuracy? If you are not proactively addressing these questions you are leaving your online presence to chance. What about a platform such as Yahoo! Answers? Have you scanned the discussion taking place there to get a sense for the sentiment about either your brand or the common concerns of dealing with a particular ailment?

The bottom is this: social media strategy too often focuses on superficial measures as its guide. Metrics like unique visitors per month, pages viewed per visitor and bounce rate should not inform our course of action. These are only surface observations and are weak when used as guiding lights. Social media strategy should start with the patient.

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Posted in Pharmaceutical Social Media, Return on Health

Tags: Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media Return on Health