PRforPharma

Discussions about social media, PR and marketing for pharmaceutical companies

Posts Tagged ‘Pharmaceutical PR’

Hoarding Knowledge Does not Equate to Power

March 4th, 2010

Pharma cos. should not play gatekeeper in social media

As an industry, we’ve generally agreed upon the fact that the greatest contribution of a pharmaceutical company to social media is making its information more widely available. Health information seekers are scouring the Internet for credible resources on disease states and treatment options. The healthcare companies willing to fill that void in social media have a unique opportunity.

There’s one problem. The pharmaceutical industry is not one that is accustomed to sharing an abundance of information. It runs counter to their culture where drugs are dreamed up by white-coated scientists in some far-flung lab. Their efforts, if brought to market, represent a billion or more dollars in time, energy and resources. This is not something any pharmaceutical company is willing to give up just to enhance the information pool of social media platforms. Nor should they.

A common misnomer about healthcare companies participating in social media is that in order to create value, they need to fork over proprietary information. That simply is not true. As mentioned above, the years, brainpower and sheer dollar amount that is poured into bringing a drug to market is not something that should be handed over lightly. But it doesn’t have to be part of the discussion. In fact, patients on social media platforms don’t give a hoot about that kind of information. They want to know what it means. Why should they care? How can this help them to better understand and improve their health?

That’s a philosophy pharmaceutical companies should be able to get on board with. And while historically speaking, the industry might not dole out information freely, that is changing. As I stated before, this is a sea change, not a fad. Healthcare companies are increasingly seeking to uncover partners that help them spread out the risk of bringing a drug to market. These alliances involve shared research and close collaboration. The culture is changing and it’s aligning more closely with social media.

The problem some pharmaceutical companies face is that they think like scientists. They create a new compound and want to hoard all of the information associated with that compound. In their minds, acting as the information gatekeeper amounts to power. In this new era, information still equates to power—but it should be in the hands of the patients, not the pharmaceutical companies.

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Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Structuring Your Internal Social Media Team

February 19th, 2010

So you’ve made the decision to jumpstart your social media efforts. Good for you. You’ve surveyed the scene, understand the relevant communities that have formed and pounded out a pile of useful content to share. But then it suddenly dawns on you: “social media is hard work, I can’t do this alone—what should my internal team look like.”

Good question. One of the most frequent questions I get is centered on how to structure an internal social media team for success. For pharmaceutical and biotech companies, structuring a social media team involves a few wrinkles due to regulatory and legal restrictions. The above is certainly a dramatization of the conversation that occurs, but it’s not that far from what most companies experience. There is often an “internal champion” that fights the good fight, wins approval and then deals with the resource problem later. It’s a survival instinct. These internal champions realize that they are often fighting an uphill battle—one that will only become steeper with additional moving parts.

Admittedly, I am an agency guy. By definition, I am part of the external team (a part that, as you might expect, I think is an integral cog in the wheel). That being said, I think I’ve developed a broad enough view of the landscape to observe the “ideal scenario” and the “real-world scenario.”

If there is a so-called definitive piece of work on this topic, it comes from Jeremiah Owyang at the Altimeter Group. Jeremiah places internal social media teams into three buckets: the tire, the tower and the hub and spoke. Essentially, Jeremiah believes that social media teams either form on the fringes of a company (the tire), centrally located in isolation (the tower) or with a central source that facilitates efforts to relevant departments in a company (hub and spoke). Jeremiah’s conclusion is that the hub and spoke is the ideal scenario for structuring an internal social media team.

My own anecdotal evidence supports that theory. A hub and spoke model for social media teams allows for a more cohesive strategy that cuts across departments. It also provides ample opportunity for a variety of customer touchpoints to get involved in social media. As I have reiterated endlessly, social media should not occur in isolation and the hub and spoke model is one mechanism to prevent that from occurring. It would like something like this:

That’s the ideal scenario, but is it feasible in the real-world? Yes and no. Consider a pharmaceutical company embarking on a social media engagement strategy. It would be great if that company were able to involve all key stakeholders right out of the gate. But the reality is: many will be in “prove it to me mode” first. As such, in a practical sense, the most likely (not best, but probably most efficient) way to start a social media engagement is in the tower model. Generally speaking, that central command will be in corporate communications. Corporate communications, by its nature, sits at the center of an organization and is in a unique position to get access to content. This provides a bit more control, establishes a mission control and sets the benchmark and template for success for those “prove it to me” people. The added benefit of having the tower located in corporate communications is that it can be easily transitioned into the hub of a better defined hub and spoke model.

Social media is in many ways still a developing medium. Because of that, people are so laser-focused on the execution piece they neglect the resources needed to make that execution possible. Social media takes time. It takes resources and it takes commitment. But you don’t have to tackle it all at once. Start with the tower and you’ll find your way to the hub and spoke.

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Posted in Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: Internal social media team structure Pharma social media Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical PR Social media for pharma

The Importance of SEO and Social Media Working Together

February 18th, 2010

Marketing programs are often made of disparate parts

I’ve been preaching the importance of looking at biotech and pharma social media as part of an integrated marketing plan. Often times this isn’t the case. Part of that is because social media is still a fringe marketing tactic, and as such, tends to take root in isolation at the fringes of a company. In addition, some marketers are lulled into thinking that social media is easy and devoid of strategy because of its ad hoc nature. Effective social media engagements acknowledge that it is only one piece of the market puzzle and must be run in concert with those pieces—not in isolation.

Chief among those integral marketing tactics is boosting your performance in organic search results. Want proof? eMarketer today released the results of a study indicating 95% of organic search referrals to a Website come from the first page of search results. What does that mean? If your Website, or at least a piece of content from your Website, does not appear on the first page of search results it’s highly unlikely a person will find your page naturally. If you consider that 80% of online sessions begin with search, that’s a chance you should not dare to take.

Does that mean you should drop everything and pour your entire available budget into boosting organic search results? Of course not. I point to this study as an illustration of two points:

Despite the frequency with which I write about social media—it is not the only game in town. It is important, but without a full marketing plan that includes search engine optimization; it is useless.
More importantly, marketers need to not only be aware of other portions of the marketing mix, but incorporate them into their strategy. Knowing that 95% of organic search referrals come from the first page of results should have a significant impact on your social media strategy. Have you analyzed the keywords that are most relevant to your audience and incorporated them into your content creation efforts? Does your social media content drive people back to its intended destination? By answering some of these questions, you can ensure that your social media efforts align and bolster the SEO strategy.

It’s all well and good to talk about an integrated marketing plan and the importance of a coherent strategy. But an integrated marketing plan doesn’t mean a “consistent brand message.” That might be a small slice of the pie but the most crucial piece is evaluating how each tactic influences and augments the other. This is not done frequently enough in social media efforts. Social media can have a profound impact on SEO, PR, brand engagement and awareness and customer support. Marketers first need to start linking these efforts together rather than allowing them to persist in isolation.

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Posted in Pharmacetuical Public Relations, Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

Tags: Pharma social media Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical PR SEO for Pharma

Why Do Pharma Companies Fire Their Social Media Agency?

January 21st, 2010

Working in the agency world is a little bit like the dating scene—if you are around it long enough, you are bound to get your heart broken (or wallet as the case may be) once or twice.

It’s no secret that agencies are let go for a variety of reasons that range from the completely justifiable to the head scratchers. The average retention rate of clients in the PR business is something in the neighborhood of 12-16 months depending on which reports you choose to believe (I am happy to report SHIFT’s is much longer!). With such a revolving door, one must wonder: what drives a pharmaceutical company to fire its social media agency?

There is no definitive list of reasons that leads to an agency getting the boot. It can be a result of missed metrics, poor strategy outlines, faulty execution, budget constraints, etc…And while the list is long, I’d venture to guess that there are two primary buckets that cause a pharma company to fire its social media agency—false promises made by the agency and unreasonable expectations of the pharmaceutical company (sometimes one causes the other). We’ll take these one at a time.

False Promises Made by the Agency

I touched on this one a bit in yesterday’s post. Too often, agencies walk into a pitch eager to win business and selling whatever they think the company at the other side of the table wants to buy. They do this without regard for whether or not they believe they can deliver on those lofty promises. Why? They don’t care. The goal is to win the business and earn a quick buck—not create sustained value. This breeds the thinking that social media is a silver bullet. With people out there selling it as such, it is no wonder that some marketers think that social media has the ability to mask existing problems. It does not. Because agencies are selling false hope, when they can’t deliver on that hope, they get the axe—justifiably.

A good social media agency will outline challenging goals, but not make promises of a brand remake over night. A good agency will highlight the risks of engaging in social media and have a plan in place to mitigate those risks and deal with them when they arise. Most importantly, a good social media agency will say “no”. They won’t be afraid to tell you if your strategy is off base, or if your line of thinking will fall down when engaging with a community online. If your social media agency is afraid to tell you “no” I can almost assure you the program will fail. False promises are a quick way to the unemployment line and only makes the job of legitimate agencies that much more difficult.

Unreasonable Expectations of the Pharmaceutical Company

The message I have been trumpeting recently, along with others, is that social media does not shovel problems under the rug—it rips the rug off the floor. If a company walks into a social media engagement thinking that it can distance itself from product problems or damaging messaging it is sorely mistaken. The more likely result is the social media community will expose that problem quicker than you ever thought was possible. And not only will it be exposed, it will run rampant until you step up and offer a solution. The thing people often forget about social media is that it acts as one giant neighborhood watch. Phonies are uncovered, bad products are rooted out and shifty salesmen are pinpointed. It’s not a comfortable place to be if you have skeletons in the closet.

Unfortunately, some pharmaceutical companies are willing to throw caution to the wind and hope social media can work miracles. When those miracles fail to materialize, the social media takes the fall. Sure, it is the job of the agency to steer the client in the right direction and set appropriate expectations, but sometimes it is not enough. In those cases, the pharma company is bound to fail because it simply demands too much.

The Lesson?

The new marketing model increases accountability on both the vendor and client side. The days of arm’s length relationships are coming to a screeching halt. In order to truly succeed in social media, you better have a true partnership. Afterall, if you can’t master that relationship, you can forget about the new ones you will be forming through social media.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: Pharma social media Pharmaceutical PR Social media for pharma Uncategorized

Don’t Write Off Traditional PR Entirely for Social Media

January 14th, 2010

It’s no secret that social media is the trend of the day in pharmaceutical marketing. A combination of constant evangelism on the part of social media wingnuts (I mean advocates), an uptick in real-world examples from pharma companies and the FDA public hearing has vaulted social media into the limelight. Since attaining such prominence, social media seems to have a stranglehold on the marketing discussion (or maybe it’s that whole echo chamber thing I posted about). But the limelight can be so bright that it causes you to miss other things right before your eyes.

If you haven’t picked up on my thinly veiled metaphor just yet, social media is the bright light in this case. In recent months, social media has been relegated to shiny object duty. It’s the marketing tactic of the day being waived before pharma executives at every strategy session to increase patient engagement, raise brand awareness and break into new markets. That’s a good thing. The level of conversations that are occurring regarding social media is encouraging. It indicates that pharmaceutical companies are slowly but surely buying into its potential. But there is a fine line to walk between realistic potential and hype—we are getting dangerously close to the edge.

Social media enters into the hype zone when it causes otherwise level-headed marketers to write off alternative, viable marketing tactics. And if they are not written off, they are certainly placed on the backburner. As an aforementioned wingnut, I believe in the value of social media as much as the next guy. But social media CANNOT exist in isolation. It has to be conducted in the context of a larger marketing strategy that includes a broad range of tactics. I’m a PR guy. In fact, while I tout the benefits of social media on a regular basis, a large chunk of my work is dedicated to so-called traditional PR. That’s right, writing press releases, reaching out to editors and forming relationships with the main-stream media. Can you imagine?

(Warning, here comes a small commercial, bear with me, I think it is relevant).

At my agency, SHIFT Communications, we describe ourselves as a hybrid agency in the sense that we do both traditional PR and social media. I think that’s crucial. We do this not so we can sell both services, but because we firmly believe that social media, and traditional PR should happen in concert, not in isolation.

Social media is important. It will only grow in importance as companies become better at engaging with relevant communities. But remember, social media should not happen at the expense of the remaining parts of the marketing mix—even traditional PR.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: Pharma social media Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical PR PR for pharma Social media for pharma Uncategorized

Change the Script for Pharma Social Media

October 26th, 2009

The discussion around pharma social media has become so predictable that you can write the script prior to a discussion. If you ask a pharmaceutical marketing person their thoughts on the topic you are likely to get some variation of this response: “Well, it’s difficult. I would certainly like to do it but there are just far too many challenges to overcome. Legal will have a fit, and even if we get it through that department, why bother as the message will be so watered down to meet regulatory requirements that it won’t be worth the effort. On top of that, what are we going to do with adverse events and off-label usage discussion? It’s too much and there is not enough for me to justify the spend. Why bother?”

In other words: it’s not me, it’s you.

But does this defeatist attitude merely create a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure? Are we as marketers as much a part of the problem as the supposed hurdles we face?

It’s always prudent to evaluate the landscape before diving into any type of activity. You wouldn’t jump on a ski lift one morning and head straight for a black diamond the first time you’ve ever donned a pair of skis. The same holds true with pharma social media. You don’t want to blindly approach social media without understanding the risks involved and the potential benefits. But the key is: you should approach—even if it is cautiously. The current mindset of some pharmaceutical marketers is akin to sticking your fingers in your ears and running in the other direction.

As an industry, we spend a lot of time evaluating the external factors that prevent successful social media campaigns. Meanwhile, many of those external factors are trending in a favorable direction. Conferences such as the ePatient Conference and Digital Pharma 2009 are sparking lively discussions on how social media can enhance pharmaceutical communications and improve patient outcomes. Even the FDA is holding a public hearing on where social media fits into the new media landscape.

Rather than pointing the finger at all of the reasons we can’t use social media for pharmaceutical companies, maybe we should look at why we can. More and better feedback from patients. Real-time communication on key health issues. A more complete understanding of the patient. A dialogue on societal health issues, etc…

The challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry when it comes to social media are real and numerous. I don’t dispute that fact. But when they create the attitude of “why bother” marketers are predestined for failure.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical PR PR for pharma Social media for pharma Uncategorized