PRforPharma

Discussions about social media, PR and marketing for pharmaceutical companies

Posts Tagged ‘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

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

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

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

PhRMA Puts Pressure on FDA to Issue Social Media Guidance

March 9th, 2010

One of the more consistent voices in the quest to convince the FDA to issue guidance on the use of social media for pharmaceutical marketing has been the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). The organization was among the first to offer a workable solution to the problem of providing fair-balance and communicating side effects in the space constraints often associated with social media. And while I have a fundamental disagreement with the premise of an “FDA-approved” symbol, I have always maintained that any organization proposing solutions and not just spouting rhetoric is one step ahead of the game.

Today, the PhRMA turned up the pressure on the FDA by putting a bit of marketing muscle behind its FDA comments. Knowing full well that few people would take the time to read the entire 16-page document that makes up the PhRMA’s comments to the FDA, the organization issued a statement containing only the highlights.

As expected, the statement built the case on why social media is an important tool for pharmaceutical companies. The PhRMA highlighted that more patients than ever before are going online to access health information and healthcare companies have a responsibility to ensure that information is timely and accurate.

From there, the PhRMA took an interesting approach to forcing the FDA’s hand. They went with what I will call the “if you can do it why can’t we” approach.

Behold: “What’s more, the Agency should avoid chilling manufacturers’ responsible communication about their medical products and should permit them to take full advantage of the same technologies that the FDA and the White House use – including blogs, video, search and such social networking sites as Twitter™ – to communicate important health information directly to patients and their doctors.”

That’s fairly strong language for an organization that tends to tilt toward the conservative when it comes to messaging. There are a number of sections in the PhRMA’s public comments to the FDA that read very similar. Bravo! They are dead on when it comes to this topic. The FDA has demonstrated through its actions that it sees the value provided by social media in communicating information to doctors, patients and other relevant healthcare audiences. The PhRMA is just conveniently pointing that out.

Pharmaceutical companies engaging in social media should do so only if they have more value to add to the community than they extract. They should not be there solely to push product and should focus on the Return on Health of the patient. This means a commitment to creating better health outcomes for patients by providing more access to information. The PhRMA is not-so-subtly driving this message home and attempting to place added pressure on the FDA. I for one hope it works!

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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 marketing Pharmaceutical Social Media Return on Health

ROI for Pharma Social Media: The Case for Change

February 12th, 2010

In recent days, the topic of ROI for pharma social media has again bubbled to the surface. The angst centers on the fact that many social media efforts are halted based on what is perceived to be a lackluster answer to the question: “what’s the ROI?” In some cases, the question is designed to trip up unsuspecting agencies and serve as an excuse for squashing any forward momentum. This comes down to discomfort in a lack of knowledge. Regulatory, legal and some business executives simply don’t know what social media is, and are scared off by its regulatory implications, that they point to the old stalwart—ROI—as the reason for not proceeding.

(Side note: every one of the above links is worth clicking on for a unique perspective on this topic.)

The debate on ROI for pharma social media has centered on the question of whether or not it is even the right form of measurement. It’s a topic I have been railing against for months so I will be brief here. One major problem with ROI as it pertains to social media is that it is a lagging indicator. By its nature, it is designed to evaluate the success of a program, in financial terms, at a given point in time (usually the conclusion). There’s a fundamental flaw when you apply that approach to social media. Social media is not a campaign—it’s an engagement. ROI does a great job of measuring campaigns, but is a little less concrete when it comes to sustained efforts. When I measure a program, I want to know in process where there are shortcomings so I can adjust accordingly. ROI fails to provide that ability. It is useful as a tool to prove value after the fact and move forward. It also should not be dismissed off hand and certainly has a place in the measurement toolkit. Perhaps a better way to approach measurement is something I’ve termed Return on Health (ROH). When developing an integrated marketing strategy, the first steps are less about concrete numbers and more about establishing a basic decision-making framework. The patient should be at the center of any pharmaceutical social media effort. With the patient at the center, you have established a framework that provides a clear and distinct guide as you seek to engage more actively in relevant communities. Essentially, it boils down to a simple principle, have an outcome in mind and map your efforts based on how they will help achieve that outcome.

Let me be clear: social media should not escape measurement. But to rely solely on ROI as the measure of success or failure is insufficient. ROI is a point in time measurement. More sophisticated measurements are needed to move the discussion forward when it comes to social media for pharmaceutical companies.

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

Tags: Pharma social media Pharmaceutical marketing Return on Health ROI

Impact of Google and Bing Health on Pharma Social Media

February 10th, 2010

The pharmaceutical social media credo: “add more value than you extract.” Do you buy that? If so, then the primary value a healthcare company can add to social media is providing access to information for all key stakeholders. The fact is: life sciences companies have access to some of the best doctors, research and medical treatments in the world. By acting as a clearinghouse of sorts for information, pharma companies can provide a unique level of access to information that would otherwise be difficult to find.

At least that’s the theory. But what happens when that theory is flipped on its head? If patients no longer need pharma companies for access to quality information their role in social media becomes a bit murky. This is exactly what’s starting to happen with the advent of Google Health and Bing Health. As Jon Richman details on Dose of Digital, Google Health and Bing Health not only point patients to credible information, they provide access to it without ever having to leave the search engine.

Check it out:

A search for Melanoma returns the screen on the left, with links to Google Health, Mayo Clinic, Medline Plus and WebMD. If you click on the Google Health Link, there is hordes of information gathered from highly credible sources. The result is much the same with Bing, except Bing takes it one step further by providing treatment options and access to patient ratings of those treatment facilities. With so much information available after one simple search, there is little reason for a patient to click further. This is a very real threat to pharmaceutical companies hoping to provide patients with access to pertinent information. Jon outlines steps pharmaceutical companies can take to help themselves from an SEO standpoint. His suggestions are spot on and I suggest you click through and take a read. For my lazy readers, I’ll summarize here: find out where the information is coming from and ensure its accuracy, improve the performance and content of your own Website and don’t neglect paid search to boost the prominence of your own performance with relevant search terms. Since Jon has that part covered, I’ll focus on how this impacts pharma social media and what pharma companies can do to respond.

First off, remember the central question of pharma social media of what’s the Return on Health (ROH) for the patient? In other words, keep your patient front and center when considering how to engage in social media within a framework where Google and Microsoft are attempting to limit the reason for your customer to ever leave their respective sites. As a pharmaceutical company focused on ROH, you know your patient better than that. You know very few patients dealing with a serious illness are content to visit just one site—no matter how credible it may be. So don’t panic. Continue with your listening programs and evaluating where your patients are congregating. Those are still worthwhile destinations for transparent interaction and patient participation will not diminish as a result of Google Health.

There is also an aspect of “influencing the influencer” here. By understanding how Google and Bing Health are populated, as a pharmaceutical company you can engage directly with those sources both in a traditional PR capacity and at the social media level. In doing so, pharmaceutical companies can play a role in shaping the content the patient will see when searching on health conditions.

Finally, pharmaceutical and biotech companies need to commit to creating better content. Google will inevitably win at its own game. But that doesn’t mean that pharma companies should simply throw in the towel and call it a day. As we stated earlier, healthcare companies are the gate keepers to a wealth of knowledge. Use this as an opportunity to break the gates wide open. Social media provides the platform for the democratization of knowledge. Quite a noble goal huh?

So there you have it: Return on Health, influence the influencer and create better content. If you couple this social media strategy with the SEO pointers provided by Jon, pharmaceutical companies can play nice in the Google sandbox.

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

Tags: FDA and Pharma Social Media Google Health Pharmaceutical marketing PR for pharma Return on Health

Regulatory Concerns Should Not Dominate Pharma Social Media

February 4th, 2010

Social media focused on regulatory concerns only does not line up

Those of you that have read this blog more than once know that I have been beating the Return on Health (ROH) mantra lately when it comes to pharmaceutical social media. The thought is that far too many social media programs start by considering how they will extract value and not how they can add value.

That’s a misaligned process. Instead, marketers need to start by focusing on the patient with an eye toward how their interactions will enable access to more information and better health outcomes. That’s the value you bring to the able as a pharma marketer. That doesn’t mean you ignore your ultimate goal of building a brand that drives more revenue. But instead of starting off with that at the forefront, you rely on a marketing principle that fosters long-term and authentic engagement. It’s a significant shift in thinking but one that is critical if social media ever hopes to gain widespread adoption by pharmaceutical companies.

That shift in thinking is needed across the board and includes things like our fixation with adverse events and off-label usage. I am as guilty as the next guy when it comes to spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about how to handle these very important issues in pharmaceutical marketing. And we should continue to give careful consideration to where they fit into a social engagement strategy. Dismissing AEs and off-label usage discussion as non issues demonstrates a clear lack of perspective. These topics remain at the forefront of every pharmaceutical legal, compliance and regulatory department, and thus should remain a part of our conversation.

But we shouldn’t limit our discussion to solely focus on how to navigate the issues of adverse events and off-label usage in social media. Why? Because focusing the conversation in this area relegates the patient to the sidelines. How many patients know what an adverse event is and even realize they are discussing off-label uses for a particular drug? I would venture to guess is it a very small minority. These types of issues, though important, are really geared at how a company can limit its liability with regulatory bodies. It’s a necessary step and a conversation that needs to occur, but perhaps not at “stage one.”

The better approach would be to work from the patient out. As pharmaceutical marketers, first ask yourself if there is a concrete reason for you to be engaged in social media. If the answer is no—stop there. Go no further. Starting off the discussion focused on adverse events and off-label usage reverse engineers the process. It starts with a company-centric point of view and eventually finds its way to the patient.

Successful engagements will start with the patient in mind and incorporate regulatory planning only if the first criterion is met.

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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 Pharma social media Return on Health Social media for pharma

Defining Value in Pharma Social Media

January 29th, 2010

In my last post, I attempted to make the case that pharma social media is nothing new—just a form of relationship marketing using a different channel. In essence, sales reps have been making a living for decades based mostly on their ability to cultivate relationships. Those relationships are developed based on an exchange of value—the docs get access to information (and sometimes incentives) and the reps get a hefty commission. Without some sort of exchange of value, no relationship can function. In that sense, sales reps and social media programs are not all that different. Right?

Sort of. While the basic tenants of building a relationship are the same, one key difference does exist—the definition of value. In the more traditional form of relationship building, value can be defined a number of different ways. Value can be access to information. Value can be key clinical trial data. Value can be providing access to a drug that widens a doctor’s treatment options. Those are all good things. But the problem is: value in this world can also be defined by expensive lunches, putting doctors on payroll and fancy country clubs. This type of value should not dictate the subscribing patterns of doctors. And while there are a lot of great sales reps out there that provide a very admirable and needed service, there are also those that fight tooth and nail for every sale by resorting to whatever it takes. This type of relationship building is still predicated on an exchange of value.

Social media is vastly different in this regard. Value is not defined by pharma companies and doctors, value is defined by the patients—the community. In social media, the idea of value is redefined from past relationship marketing efforts. Because patients are intimately concerned with their health, they have the right to define value in their own communities. This is why pharma companies need to focus on Return on Health (ROH) as a key guiding principle of social media. It allows them to focus their efforts where it counts—on the patient. Of course, just like any relationship, there is always the possibility that it can be exploited. The same types of motivations that drive sales reps could certainly drive marketers to cross ethical boundaries in social media. But the difference is—the social media community won’t allow it to happen. It can’t happen for an extended period of time in social media circles because pharmaceutical companies do not dictate value. While sales reps function in the friendly confines of a doctor’s office, social media takes place in front of a giant spotlight. The patient has decided what value they are seeking and if pharma companies fail to oblige they will be ostracized.

That leaves pharmaceutical companies and the agencies advising them with a choice: get in by understanding the value the patient has dictated or get out.

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Posted in Pharmaceutical Online Marketing, Pharmaceutical Social Media

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

Listen Closely for the Voice of the Patient

December 21st, 2009

My recent ramblings on pharma social media have been very much focused on bringing the patient to the forefront of our strategic planning. This is where the concept of “Return on Health” (ROH) is particularly useful. It lays the groundwork to make sound decisions based on what is best for the patient. Without question, this should be the primary consideration of almost every pharmaceutical social media engagement.

But how is this different from the marketing strategy followed by many pharmaceutical companies for the past decade? One could easily argue that the patient has always been at the center of the pharmaceutical marketing mix. The advertising campaigns, production of office samples and community outreach efforts were geared toward raising awareness at the patient level. In that sense, the industry has always been laser focused on the patient. Patients ultimately drive revenue and every company enjoys padding the bottom line.

The difference with Return on Health is the idea of Voice of Patient. Past pharmaceutical marketing initiatives that target the patient tend to do so with broad messages aimed at creating a demand spike. It’s an attempt to tell the patient “what they should want.” Many old forms of pharmaceutical marketing don’t take into account the Voice of Patient and instead are one-directional forms of communication. The Voice of Patient concept requires a pharmaceutical company to listen first, market second. Patients are increasingly playing a larger role in their own health decisions. This dynamic requires the pharmaceutical company to listen not only to what patients want, but what they need as well. Voice of Patient asks the pharmaceutical company to engage in a two-way conversation with the patient in an attempt to add valuable information to the mix.

Return on Health implies that health guides the decision-making process of a pharmaceutical company prior to engaging in social media. Voice of Patient is what distinguishes current marketing efforts focused on the patient from previous tactics geared toward the patient.

The patient community wants to have a conversation—but are you listening?

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: Return on Health Social media for pharma Uncategorized Voice of Patient