Are you pondering a social networking marketing initiative? Is upper management with you, or sitting on the sidelines: More concerned about the potential complaints of critics than the congratulations of customers?
Whether or not you’re in the highly regulated medical device industry or just watching the social media tide roll in, MVP found a blog post and Nielsen report that could just be the silver bullet needed to overcome the scourge of would-be social marketers everywhere and medical marketers in particular—fear: Namely, dread of reporting adverse patient effects in healthcare and just grumpy old customer complaints elsewhere.
What’s Up with Big Pharma?
According to the blog Eye on the FDA: “The world has changed - MedReg Wins the Battles, Loses the War” (http://www.eyeonfda.com/eye_on_fda/2009/01/medreg-wins-the-battles-loses-the-war.html). Mark Senak, a lawyer and public affairs expert in healthcare with Fleishman-Hillard's Washington office, tells us:
“Several companies have made the foray into various forms of digital communications, some in an integrated and obviously planned way, though none putting on a stellar performance. For example, Johnson & Johnson has begun a corporate blog, two YouTube channels and has more than one Facebook presence. Abbott as well is on YouTube and Facebook and GSK has developed a blog for an OTC product and a YouTube channel. Most recently Sanofi-Pasteur formed a YouTube channel. In Switzerland, Novartis has a Twitter feed. So does Astra-Zeneca US, though they only seem to use it as a listening post.”
Why such reticence? Senak notes that pharmaceutical companies have been reluctant to pursue social media due to the perceived risks associated with receiving an FDA warning letter, should patients report an adverse event. Yet despite this popular wisdom he observes:
“Yet, it is worth noting that not a single warning letter has been issued to a company over its use of digital communication or because of digital communications. The only warning letters issued where digital communications were the medium was about the content not the medium, and would have been issued in whether in print or digital or broadcast media.”
Senak gleaned this information from the August 2008 Nielsen white paper: "Listening to Consumers in a Highly Regulated Environment - How Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Can Leverage Consumer-Generated Media,” which you can download from this link.
According to that report, 39% of patients are currently using online support groups to discuss medications and treatments with other patients – a percentage that will only continue to grow with the increasing online population. (See related article: Cultivating a Best of Breed Social Media Solution)
As exciting as this finding is to healthcare and potentially other marketers, the fact remains that many pharmaceutical companies are needlessly apprehensive about receiving an FDA warning should patients report adverse effects. But for a message to warrant being officially reported, it must meet all of the following criteria:
- An identifiable patient
- An identifiable reporter
- A specific drug or biologic involved
- An adverse event
However, when Nielsen analyzed 500 messages from online healthcare forums and message boards focused on various diseases, they found that only 1 in 500 met all of the FDA conditions. This is great news not only for medical marketers apprehensive of statutory reporting requirements, but for anyone concerned about the side effects of customer criticism. Clearly, this report substantiates that social media is not as risky as the pharmaceutical industry had imagined, and to paraphrase a current aphorism, “What’s good for Pharma is good for America.”
Finally a Treatment for the Rest of Us
What makes building an online community so appealing? In healthcare, the simultaneous anonymity and ubiquity of the Internet presents an enticing resource for patients seeking answers to their medical questions. Individuals can share their experiences with a particular medication or treatment without explicitly identifying themselves, and can connect with an extensive network of both experienced and newly diagnosed patients. Interacting with a community of people who are experiencing similar things offers an extremely powerful source of emotional support for those in all stages of treatment. If medical marketers can tolerate the effects of social media, just imagine what it could do for the rest of us! The Nielsen report offers these suggestions when assessing your brand’s online conversation:
- Start reading online (medical) discussion boards
- Enter your brand in the major search engines and Wikipedia; you may be surprised to see who’s talking
- Visit YouTube to avoid any other surprises
What Rx Social Could Mean for You
In the battle for hearts and minds of your customers and partners, as our former SecDef said, “We don’t know what we don’t know.” In healthcare, this obvious yet often overlooked truism is valid for patients, physicians and companies alike. Often, questions pertaining to a medication or treatment routine do not occur to a patient in the initial doctor visit. When they arise, the patient may prefer the ease and accessibility of an online community to the hassles of a follow up appointment. Listening in on the questions posed by patients online can lead to the development of improved communication in education materials and Web site content, in addition to enhanced packaging and product design. Similarly, it may not have occurred to a market researcher to ask a particular question about the company or brand during the initial brand audit. But monitoring the consumer’s online discussion can help inform future brand strategy and inspire further market research to explore a newly discovered issue.
If this behavior pattern is true in Pharma, consider the significance it holds for areas outside of the medical arena.
Take Two Steps and…
If you think your company is ready to move forward with social media, the following actions will help to get you in on the conversation:
- Go straight to your audience - Have a clearly identified “Brand Ambassador” participate in online discussions in third-party sites by answering questions, providing information, and monitoring what is being said.
- Start a company blog - Post pertinent marketing communications and help stimulate positive online discussion about your brand.
- Build your own online community - Though much more intensive, building your own online community either through a social media service or “White Label” branded web site (see following article) allows you to exhibit a high degree of content-control and can be leveraged to your competitive advantage.
Your New Social Media Stimulus Package
Want to jump-start your own social media marketing efforts? Here are some stimulating ideas:
- Make valuable informational materials available to participants - Provide patients with materials that enable them to better understand their condition so that they may engage in more informed physician discussions
- Share treatment how-to’s - Make this information available in the form of a podcast that patients can easily download from the site.
- Include customer (patient) success stories - Explore ways to highlight positive experiences through more engaging media, such as a video or audio recording.
Social media presents a unique opportunity to enhance one’s marketing efforts and empower your brand. Although those in highly regulated industries like healthcare and medical device may be hesitant to engage in the medium due to the perceived and unlikely fear of FDA sanctions, the evidence as we have shown clearly demonstrates that the benefits far outweigh the risks. And for those free of regulatory oversight – it’s time to get social!
