Transitioning from Preparation to Implementation with Social Media Strategy

March 29, 2011 - PRLog -- Social media has been a widely adapted tool for marketing and promoting products, services and interaction among consumers, stakeholders and the general public. Although many companies and industries have embraced social media as a cornerstone of their marketing, advertising and promotional efforts, the pharmaceutical industry has been slow to jump on board. While the FDA is still currently in the midst of developing draft guidance, pharmaceutical companies are now starting to implement more robust strategies for social media.

Gil is a long-term sales, marketing and technology veteran, having spent 22 years with industry leaders Air Liquide and Cisco Systems.  After a two year consulting assignment with ResMed, a leading manufacturer of devices for the detection and treatment of sleep apnea, Gil formally joined the organization in 2008 as the Vice-President for Commercial Operations, leading the web development, sales operations, marketing communications/operations and market research functions.  As ResMed decided to increase their emphasis on social media, Gil was appointed Vice-President for Social Media Strategy at ResMed in June 2010.

Gil Ben Dov, Vice President, Social Media Strategy at ResMed will be a speaker at the upcoming marcus evans 2nd Social Media for Pharma Conference from June 7-8, 2011 in Philadelphia, PA. He sat down with marcus evans to answer a few questions on how social media strategy is currently effecting the pharmaceutical industry.

What is the risk vs. reward for a pharmaceutical company looking to develop a social media strategy?

The reward is clear – developing a community of passionate people that want to share information about your firm and the good your products do, hearing about success and opportunities to improve.

The risks are about complexity/uncertainty -  First, and foremost, we’re all required to log any adverse incidents into our respective quality systems for further investigation.  As you engage with patients, it’s only natural that they’ll open up about their experiences and in some cases that could include letting you know about adverse reactions  - it’s always great to have additional data to help make your products more safe and more effective; however, in some ways social media can become a very unstructured source of new complaints.  When that happens you have to be prepared for the difficulty of handling the increased volume and unstructured nature of those interactions.

The oversight of the FDA adds another layer of complexity to medical social media.

Social media is unique because everyone can be an author and medical is unique because misinformation can injure people.  When you combine the two together, you’ve got the potential for disaster, and that’s where the FDA comes in.  Their guidelines have not been specified yet, but as medical firms you’ve got to be alert for off label usage, patient statements of a clinical nature, and all manner of un-medically reviewed self-generated content. What are our obligations to correct misinformation?  

What effect can ‘bad social media’ have?

Bad social media can adversely affect your brand – In the healthcare world, trust is a key ingredient of the relationship patients form with you product.  Bad social media will cause patients not to trust what you say or represent.  In the consumer world, those people aren’t compelled to continue with your products, so there may be an initial series of rants, but the effects of bad social media can fade.

Medical is very different versus consumer business, since the patient may be compelled by a healthcare provider to use your products – when that happens, you’ve got long term users that may become negative brand ambassadors.  

How can the targeted audience’s concerns be best understood and addressed?

Listening is key.  Many firms want to use to social media to broadcast their views – we’re trying to use social media to listen to what patients are saying.  And we’re not speaking over the community, just trying to answer questions, which the community doesn’t address on their own.  

Do you recommend any social media tactic that doesn’t include Facebook, Twitter and You Tube?

It’s tough to compete with the bigger firms on the mainstream social media, so we’ve been looking for options.  I don’t think I have any firm recommendations, but I can share that we’re doing an experiment with 3rd party message boards – we’re trying to understand how welcome our participation is and if we can participate and bring value to the whole community. We’re also dipping our toe in the water for games and other entertainment that might help with disease awareness and education.  

How can social media initiatives remain fully compliant in a regulated environment?

Maybe we should start with the punch line - Nothing will guarantee full compliance since the FDA rules may change, but the goal is to minimize risk and maximize reward.

There are so many items beyond your control, it can feel overwhelming, but first we recognized social media will discuss our firm and products, regardless whether we participate or not.  Those risks for misinformation, off label use, etc. are already there - Our direct participation in social media doesn’t add a great deal of incremental risk, rather, we just need to modify our current regulatory practices to meet the speed of social media.  

If you’re going to participate, the next step is to minimize the risk –be ready to scale your regulatory compliance efforts to allow for additional incident reporting, read everything said about your firm, disease state and products, and evaluate for accuracy – If there are substantial issues, be ready to engage.  And when engaging, the most conservative approach is to take the guidelines for medical promotions and apply them to all your actions.  

More Information
The marcus evans 2nd Social Media for Pharma Conference will take place from June 7-8, 2011 in Philadelphia, PA. Join Gil, along with speakers from Shire US, Eisai, Daiichi Sankyo, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and many more at this two-day premiere event! For more information, please visit: http://www.marcusevansch.com/SMP_Interview.

For more information, please contact:
Michele Westergaard
Marketing/PR Coordinator
marcus evans
312-540-3000 ext. 6625
Michelew@marcusevansch.com

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