Okay…I’ll admit it. It’s been way too long since I updated the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki. I won’t say exactly how long, but let’s call it 24 weeks (sounds better than 6 months). Thank you all for continuing to send me updates and for accepting my promises that I’d be updating soon. If you’d like to submit something for the Wiki, there’s a form at the end of this post. Please feel free.

Please take a moment and read through the entire post. I’ve got some information in here about this year’s Dosie Awards at the end of this post that I’d like everyone to take a look at (including how to become a judge or sponsor).

This update is the biggest ever with 56 new entries. Including…

• 13 new industry Facebook pages
• 6 new HCP communities and 6 new patient communities (non-brand controlled)
• 9 new Twitter accounts
• 2 new industry blogs

One other new thing is the removal of a few accounts that no longer exist. I’m hoping this isn’t a trend, but we’ll see. Of note, these were NOT removed because of any intervention by the FDA (specifically DDMAC), so don’t panic.

And a final note, get your submissions in now if you’ve got them. It’s time once again for the Dose of Digital Dosie Awards. Last year’s awards were a great success and I expect this year to be even bigger. The rules will be a little different this time, but the nominees and winners will be selected from the Wiki. There are no submission fees or applications. If it’s on the Wiki, it’s a nominee.

More details on how the awards work will be coming soon, but this year we’ll have a “People’s Choice” award for each category and the gold, silver, and bronze Dosie award winners will be selected by a (large) panel of judges (here are last year’s winners). If you’re interested in being a judge, just send me a tweet (@jonmrich) and let me know. I’ll be putting together the panel soon. No guarantees you’ll be a judge, as I still need to figure out a final number.

One other new addition to the Dosie Awards this year is sponsorships. There were no sponsorships last year and I’ve never had any sponsors or advertisers on this blog. I’m adding sponsorships for one reason this year. All the money that the sponsors pay will be donated to charity. Specifically, it will all go to the Red Cross to support relief efforts in Japan. 100%…I’m not keeping a cent. If you’re interested in sponsoring the Dosies, you can contact me or head over to the sponsor information page for more information. I’ll be posting more information soon, but the basic idea is that there will be one overall sponsor and a sponsor for each category. It won’t be cheap, but it’s all for charity and you’ll get exposure to a huge portion of the pharma and healthcare industry.

Thanks again for all the submissions to the Wiki, keep them coming.

Each day there are more and more new additions to the ranks of companies that are using social media. Okay, it’s pretty much everyone and that includes pharma and healthcare companies. If you don’t believe me, then be sure to check out the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki while you’re here (and its 350 examples of pharma/healthcare social media programs). Some of what’s out there is conservative, toe-in-the-water type stuff, while others are jumping in with both feet. However, still others are finding it hard to get started at all.

This post is for all of you who are still trying to get started and also for those who have quite a bit going on. Today I’m going to give you the easiest way to get started in social media and also something that is a basic tactic that everyone should be doing. It’s something that gets you on the board and has basically zero risk. It’s also ridiculously simple and should take a matter of minutes in the hands of the right person.

The mystery tactic? Sharing.

Here’s my big assertion: Before you do anything else in social media, you should make it easy for people to share your content via social media. That’s right…before you start tweeting or fire up the Facebook page, how about enabling and encouraging sharing of your own content from your websites?

I addressed the sharing issue a bit recently when we announced the launch of some new features to ShareThis that our company, Bridge Worldwide, helped co-develop. For those who don’t know, ShareThis is a simple platform that allows site owners to easily integrate sharing into their sites. You can read all about how this issue came about and how it is handled by ShareThis in the post “Social Sharing Tools in Pharma and Healthcare — A New Solution.” The gist is this: Novartis received a warning letter from the FDA because of how one of its sharing tools worked. Panic ensues across the industry. Solution emerges and everyone realizes that it’s not as bad as everyone thought. You can read the full story in the post.

Suffice it to say, you can now integrate ShareThis in such a way that you control exactly what is shared. This includes the title, description and even the URL and image if you’d like. You can do all of this without adjusting anything else on your site. Just figure out where you want the share buttons to be, what you want them to look like, and what you want to be shared. Add a few lines of code and you’re done. (Take a look at the top and bottom of this page for some examples…and do press a few while you’re there).

Why am I telling you to do this as a first step? Two reasons. First, it will help you show your conservative regulatory and legal teams that there are things that can be done that are essentially zero risk that are social media based. Second, it will help you understand just what of your content is actually shareable and who shares it and where. By shareable I mean does anyone think it is important or interesting enough to share. If you find that no one is sharing anything you have (ShareThis has some nice analytics so you can track this), then you have a different problem. You need better content. This will help you answer questions like: “why is our time on site so low?” or “why is our bounce rate so high?” If people aren’t sharing, then you need to up your game.

Beyond ShareThis, you need to immediately incorporate the Facebook Like button.

So, you want to be on Facebook? Well here’s your chance. Let people create content for you on Facebook by using the Like button. Guess what? When the first person clicks that Like button, it creates a Facebook Page. That’s right…bet you didn’t know that one. Every piece of content with a Like button also has a corresponding Page on Facebook. These pages aren’t visible to anyone but the administrator (you), but they can be used just like regular Facebook Pages. Chief among these uses is being able to send updates to the news stream of those who liked your content. You see all those updates from pages in your news feed on Facebook from all those Pages you’ve liked, you can do the same thing. For example, if someone presses the Like button on your article about exercise tips for diabetes on your brand site, you can publish an update when you have something to communicate that will appear in the person’s news feed. You might want to let them know that you updated the content or that you have more content on this subject elsewhere. For all the details on how this works, check out this great post on Inside Facebook.

Ta-dah. You’re on Facebook without all the legal troubles. If you chose not to broadcast an update, then no one will ever see the Facebook page that is generated, so you can have the Like button and leave it at that if it makes your regulatory team happy. Of course, your content will still be broadcast by people who do Like it. It will go out on the new feeds of all the friends of these people.

There you have it. Two simple ways to get into social media if  you’re not already there and a basic tactic that everyone should be doing even if they’re deep into social media with their brands. Need help getting started? Feel free to contact me and we’ll help you out.

About a week and a half ago, I wrote a post called “10 Things I’m Tired of Hearing About Pharma Social Media.” As you might imagine, it stirred up a little controversy (check out the comments and discussion at the end of the post). The big concern that some people had was that if we stop talking about these “10 Things” then some “beginners” in the area of social media will suffer. So, in response, I put together a post called “The Beginner’s Guide to Pharma Social Media.” It included a ton of resources for any beginners who really want to catch up. I also promised that I’d write the positive version of the “10 Things” post by focusing  more positive areas. That’s why today you’re getting “10 Things I’d Like to Start Hearing About Pharma Social Media.”

These are the areas where I think the conversation should be headed and where social media may truly benefit healthcare overall and also be a viable communications channel for pharma and healthcare companies. I wrote the first “10 things” based on near direct quotes I’ve heard from people regarding pharma social media. I’ll do the same here, but these are quotes I’ve yet to hear, but would like to.

10 Things I’d Like to Hear About Pharma Social Media

1. “Participating in social media is a risk for us, but we’re going to do it anyway because we think it’s the right thing for patients.”

Notice that I didn’t say,” the right thing for our market share.” It might very well be beneficial for market share, but that can’t be the only reason why you get involved. You have to get into it because there are people that can benefit from your knowledge about your products. I’m specifically thinking about cases, for example, where there is dangerously inaccurate information about your products published on a disscusion forum. If some random person on a forum somewhere says that it’s “probably” safe to take 10 of your pills at once and you know that this will kill someone, shouldn’t you say something? Here’s how I explained how pharma companies can do this in an objective and beneficial way during my FDA public hearing testimony.

2. “We’ve got a rock-solid measurement plan in place for our social media efforts.”

This would, of course, be in complete opposition to comments like: “there’s no way to effectively measure social media efforts.” There’s a way to measure everything. I explained this in the first “10 Things” post and recommended that you visit Olivier Blanchard’s site, which is completely dedicated to this topic, and read everything. Bottom line, if you can track it, you can measure it. If you can measure it, you can get to an ROI (or certainly very close to it and much closer than you are now). Here are 100 things you can start tracking right now. Don’t throw your hands up in the air until you’ve checked out every one of these.

3. “Our social media efforts are completely integrated into the rest of our marketing efforts.”

Ahh, music to my ears. As I’ve always said, don’t create a “social media strategy.” Create a great brand strategy and use social media as one of the tactics to deliver on those strategies. Nothing more, nothing less. When I say integrated, I’m not just talking about integrating with your website or even all of your digital marketing activities. I’m talking about everything. Online, offline. Remotely, in person. PR team to regulatory team. Social media can potentially support all of your communication efforts, but it has to make sense. No one should look at something you’re doing in social media and think, “where in the hell did this come from?”

4. “We’re using social media to prevent another Vioxx [or insert similar drug pulled from the market because of serious safety issues and leading to massive legal issues].”

Yes, this can be done. It’s not simple, but it can be done. Today.

For example, Google is able to predict with precision the future flu infection rates simply based on search terms and volume changes. Hear me discuss this in the following presentation:

Companies like CureTogether are starting to predict disease correlation and drug efficacy based on user-provided data with only a few hundred people in a database. A comprehensive monitoring plan with some powerful statistical analysis could pick out problems before they start. Simply explained…if your new drug is suddenly being talked about with keywords like “heart attack,” “chest pain,” or the like and you’ve never seen this in your clinical trials, you might have signal that something is wrong. It doesn’t mean that there is for sure, but it’s a valuable “canary in the coalmine” that could prevent a major issue.

But first, you’ll have to do some monitoring. A minor detail, I suppose.

5. “We’ve trained everyone in our company on social media and have opened up access to social media sites completely.”

I mean, seriously…you’re going to do this eventually anyway. Why not do it now? Pfizer just did. At least, they did the latter part. Either one would be a good start, but both would be a big step forward. I’m not sure how company leadership can ask their teams to deliver in “emerging” channels (I cringe to think people still call social media “emerging”) and yet block access to these channels. It’s having the exact same impact that preventing your scientists from reading new research papers would have on your R&D. Not good.

Yes, you’ll need to have some rules in place. And, no, productivity won’t suffer. If someone wants to slack off, there are plenty of places online where they can do it that don’t fit in the social media category. If anything, expect it to have a positive impact on morale, which may lead to better productivity.

6. “Social media is how we’re providing meaningful customer service to patients and doctors.”

Yes, it is that simple. Look at it this way: you already provide great service via your call centers, why not provide the same service using a slightly more modern communication technology called the Internet? For example, when someone sends out this tweet (which I promise is a real)…

…maybe you should respond. But how can you respond to this question effectively in just 140 characters? Answer: you can’t. But you should answer and point people in the right direction. Here’s what AstraZeneca responded with:

If people saw the complaint, give them a chance to see the solution as well. Chances are it’ll spread more through social media than the complaint.

7. “Social media has given us a chance to find our biggest brand advocates, so we can start talking with them.”

Yes, even pharma brands have big advocates. Of course, it also has big detractors. Once you get involved in social media, expect to see some of the latter. For an example, review John Mack’s post: “Patient “Unadvocate” Lays Siege to sanofi-aventis VOICES Facebook Page. Where’s S-A’s Social Media VOICE?” John narrates the story of how a Facebook page ran by a division of sanofi-aventis was barraged with negative comments about their chemotherapy, Taxotere, and its side effects. Without going into many more details or discussing how sanofi-aventis should have handled this, I do want to add in one wrinkle.

Instead of the page being dominated by anti-Taxotere comments, what if the opposite happened? There are certainly side effects with this treatment, but there’s also a huge benefit for many people. I’d venture to say that there are a lot of people out their that owe their lives to Taxotere. I’m also sure that these people would be happy to explain that to the world if they thought there was a reason, knew where and when their opinion would be helpful, and had an easy way to share their thoughts. Of course, there isn’t any easier way than Facebook, but the other parts are a bit more of a challenge. Or are they?

If you knew who these advocates were before there was a crisis, then you could turn to them and ask that they weigh in on the situation when something does happen. If you do this successfully, then you don’t have to fight these battles yourself, you let both sides of the story explain it in their own words. You’re free to add in your perspective to the discussion, but which will have more impact on the public’s hearts and minds: your “company line” about the product or an impassioned story from someone who was truly saved by your product? Get to know these people now and get them ready because I’m sure you’ll need them at some point. You can’t try to find them once the crisis starts. It’s too late then.

8. “We’re using our social media resources to do something great for patient advocacy groups.”

Let’s face it. The pharma industry has a lot of resources at its disposal. That’s one of the big criticisms from the public. They don’t like to see their prescription prices increase while they also see more and more commercials for drugs on TV. To them, the solution is obvious: cut the commercials and you can cut the price. Of course, these commercials aren’t cheap; a lot of resources go into making and airing them. At the same time, pharma and healthcare companies have talented people with deep knowledge in specialized areas like government regulations, marketing, pricing and access, managed care, and, of course, medical. And when pharma companies go public with something, people hear about it.

Why not use all of these resources for something more than marketing? Why not use it to create something that’s bigger than your products? Advocacy groups can use your help and you’re looking for a way to reach patients. Instead of figuring out all the legal issues with marketing your product via social media, why not use social media simply to help an advocacy group with their efforts? The benefit to pharma and healthcare companies should be clear. This eliminates many of the legal issues everyone worries about (no fair balance required if you’re not talking about a product), improves the company’s skill and knowledge about social media, and might actually generate some positive PR. Oh yes, and it’s helping an important cause. Some companies have dabbled in this a little bit (see examples on the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki), but most try desperately to connect the program with their product. Resist this temptation for once and see what happens.

9. “Social media is a great opportunity to hear directly from our patients so that we can improve our products.”

You wouldn’t be the first company in the world to do this. Starbucks and Dell are two that have used this concept effectively. They let people submit their suggestions for improving a product, the public votes on their favorites, and then the company actually does those things that have risen to the top of the list. Think about how great this is for everyone. Customers get a place for their voices to be heard and can see that the company is listening and taking their suggestions seriously. The company gets this positive sentiment, but it also gets product engineering, marketing, production, and operations advice…for free. The next big innovation might not come from your lab, but rather your customers.

For pharma, this might mean a suggestion on how to better explain how your product works, a formulation recommendation, or something simple, but with a major impact. Consider when J&J added different color options to it’s popular OneTouch blood glucose monitors. Sales went through the roof all because of a different color shell. While I don’t know for sure, I’d venture to guess that this idea came from a diabetic somewhere. Create a process around this concept and you’ll have a continuous stream of new ideas and innovations.

10. “We’re moved way past the Dose of Digital ’10 Things I’m Tired of Hearing About in Social Media.’”

That right. Until everyone is saying this, then we’re still going to be stuck. I do mean everyone. It’s not enough for one or two companies to move forward. Everyone needs to move forward together. We’ll all learn more together, have a bigger impact on patient health, press government regulations, and find new approaches that benefit everyone. And we’ll do it all more quickly than if we each go at it alone.

__________

So that’s the new list of what you should start talking about in pharma and healthcare social media. If you didn’t like the idea of not talking about certain topics, that’s okay, but then you do have to promise to start talking about these topics at the same time.

(image credit to WTFoodge)

After my most recent post, 10 Things I’m Tired of Hearing About Pharma Social Media, I received three basic responses. One type of response was complete agreement. These were in the minority, but there were a few. There were also those who partly agreed, but weren’t ready to come along completely. And, of course, there were those who completely disagreed. I’m pleased to say that this group was also pretty small.

The biggest overall objection I received was from people who said that if we stop talking about the ten areas referenced in my post, then for new people just investigating social media, they won’t ever have the chance to become more than beginners. That is, if there’s no one to tell them the basics, how can they understand the more complex issues? I suppose that’s a fair challenge.

Not wanting to leave anyone behind, I’m willing to help. However, I’m not doing this because I’ve reconsidered my position and think that people who have heard everything in my “10 Things…” need to keep hearing it. Nope. If we keep saying the same things over and over to the same people, it shouldn’t be much of a wonder that things aren’t changing. So, if you aren’t part of the “same people” group, then this post is for you. If you are, then skip this post and wait for my “10 Things I Want to Hear About Pharma Social Media” that will be coming soon.

Now then, for all the new people, a couple of warnings. First, this is going to take a bit of work on your part. I’m going to give you a lot links and show you where to find a bunch of presentations to review. It’s not for the faint at heart. If you really want to catch up and understand all the things that I discussed in my first “10 Things…” post, then you’ll need to invest a bit of your time. I’d estimate one day. Just one full day of your time to get all the way up to speed. Second warning: a lot of what I’ll refer you to comes from this blog, but not everything. So, you’ll have to do a little research on your own too. I’ll point you to some good sources, but you’ll have to do a little digging as well. I’m not the end all, be all commentator on social media.

I’ve divided this up into questions that I frequently hear new people asking about. They’re somewhat organized, but not meticulously. Dewey Decimal I’m not.

Here goes…

Why should I care about all this social media stuff anyway?

Easy one…just watch this.

This social media stuff is so restrictive. No companies in pharma or healthcare are really doing anything in this space. Right?

Wrong. You’ll find about 350 industry examples on the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, communities, and everything in between. That ought to be enough precedent for your lawyers.

Well, that’s quite a lot to review. Is there a smaller list?

Hmmm…I told you this wouldn’t be easy, but you’re in luck. Check out the 2010 Dose of Digital Dosie Award Winners. The Dosie awards were created to find the best examples of social media in pharma and healthcare. The nominees for the awards were drawn from the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki. If a site or program was listed on the Wiki, then it was a nominee. This means there were about 550 nominees, so we had to pare this list down to a set of finalists. The public voted for the finalists and then voted again on the finalists to pick the ultimate winners.

Are you really sure that companies are doing this already in pharma?

Yes, I’m sure. In fact, I just did a presentation about this (Pharma Social Media…Yes, It’s Possible). You can download the PowerPoint version of Pharma Social Media-Yes, It's Possible (1447 downloads) here. My only request: if you like it, tweet it (or LIKE! it)…spread the love.

As an additional service to all of you, I’ve taken the audio from my presentation and synced it up with the slides using SlideShare’s (frustrating-to-create-but-easy-for-you-to-view-tool) SlideCast. I’ve embedded it below.

Does anyone really use social media when it comes to healthcare?

If you just do a brief search on Google, you’ll find a ton of information about this. If you want a lot of it all in one place, then check out Pew’s “The Social Life of Health Information.” Read that and you’ll be quoting stats in no time. There are also some more stats in my FDA presentations (see below). What’s that? Don’t have time to search Google? Sure, sure. I can help. Click here for some resources.

Isn’t the FDA coming out with guidelines about social media soon? What’s the deal?

The answer is maybe. FDA has publicly said that they plan to release guidelines sometime in late 2010. However, there’s no guarantee that they will and there’s no guarantee how specific or vague these guidelines will be. That is, the guidelines might not be as much help as some marketers would like them to be.

Want some background on the hearings? Check out this post: FDA Public Hearing on Social Media Agenda and Speaker List Released, which includes links to the FDA site on this topic.

If you want some more comprehensive information about this issue including the ongoing debate on this topic by people like me, then follow the #fdasm hashtag on Twitter and also go through everything on the #FDASM site. (If you don’t know what a hashtag is…well, I’m not even going to answer that…)

If you’re wondering what people said at these hearing, the #FDASM site has links to all of the presentations. If you want to see what I testified about, then you can get those presentations here: A Sneak Preview of My FDA Social Media Hearing Testimony. If you want the “audio book” version, which features me presenting the slides at the actual hearing, you’re in luck. Here are both of my presentations:

There was a lot covered at the hearing, but there were few things that I expected to hear, but didn’t. Here’s my take on that from a presentation I did at a conference after the hearing. If you just want to review the slides on your own feel free to download a copy of my slides here:

Okay, so what about adverse events? I hear these are a big problem.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard the words “adverse events” (AEs) in context to pharma social media, well, let’s just say I wouldn’t be writing this blog anymore because they don’t have WiFi on my private island. You’re not alone if you have questions about adverse events, but it’s not something that should stop all of your social media efforts.

Start with The Myth of Adverse Event Reporting and after that, if you’d like a little more detail, move onto 166 Reportable Adverse Events Equals One Red Herring. That should put the whole AE issue into some context.

One of the big issues around AEs is monitoring. Should you monitor conversations online knowing that if you see an adverse event you are responsible for reporting it? Well, my first take on this is that Pharma Should Forget About Social Media Monitoring. If you want some data why AEs should not impede your monitoring activities, then check out this post that I did with Nielsen: Monitoring Adverse Events in Social Media for Pharma’s Biggest Brands: Hopeless Task or Simple Project?

I’ve got some ideas for getting started in social media, but I’m not completely sure where to begin. Thoughts?

Plenty actually. Start with my post 9 Simple Steps to Getting Started in Social Media. That’ll tell you everything you need to know to…well…get started.  You might not be quite ready for that one though, so hold that thought. You probably have a bunch of other questions before you’re ready to jump in.

Actually, you’re right. I’m not sure what platforms or programs make sense for my brand, but I’ve got some ideas. We’d really like to <insert social media idea here>. What do you think of that idea?

Chances are that I don’t like your idea much. How can I say that without hearing what your <insert social media idea here> program is all about? Well, I’m going by what readers of this blog in the past have said would be their number one thing to do if they could do anything in social media. Ask yourself that question(and read the post): What If There Were No Rules in Pharma Marketing?

For a look at all the answers people gave in the survey and my commentary on why some of them might not be the best ideas, check out these two posts: Crushing Pharma’s Digital Marketing Dreams–Part 1 and Crushing Pharma’s Digital Marketing Dreams–Part 2.

Wow. Hadn’t thought of it that way. Are the benefits of participating in social media even worth all the risk?

Here’s a definitive answer for you: Yes. Or no. It depends on your brand, the disease it treats, and what you want to accomplish. Here are my thoughts on How to Make the Social Media Risk Worthwhile.

Okay, that helps, but what can social media do for my brands in pharma? How can I use it?

A lot of people have this question and a lot of people think that the options are endless. In fact, they are a finite number of options with an infinite number of customizations. In the end, there are really only 7 ways to use social media. Here they are: The Seven Uses of Social Media in Business — The 7 “C”s. An additional thought that’s specific to pharma (which fits under one of the 7) is to use social media purely to communicate risks of a product. I gave a talk about this once called (quite formally) “Communicating Drug Risk Using New Media Technologies.” What’s that? You’d like to take a look? Here you go…along with my narration (or download a copy: Communicating Drug Risk Using New Media Technologies (781 downloads))

How in the world am I going to get my idea approved? Our regulatory/legal/senior management/shareholders/general manager/grandmothers really don’t think this is a good idea.

You’re not alone. Good thing I created the 6 Steps to Getting Your Healthcare Social Media Idea Approved. Only 6 steps. They aren’t necessarily a walk in the park, but there are only six of them.

Anything I should know about participating in social media specifically in pharma or healthcare?

Actually, there’s a ton you should know. There are some rules that are general to participating in social media in general, but also others that are unique to pharma and healthcare. Here’s a presentation I did on this very topic:

If you’d like a copy of the presentation to review at your leisure, you can download the latest version (which is slightly different from the above) that includes all of my speaking notes. Here’s the link:

Annotated Version of Healthcare and Social Media...Know the Rules (1891 downloads)

How about some specific advice on using some of the different social media platforms?

Number one…go and review (and then copy) your colleagues. Check out what they’re doing by researching the examples on the  Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki.

After that, for YouTube, try out these two: 8 Tips to Help You Own YouTube’s Search Results and The 10 Scariest Pharma and Healthcare YouTube Videos (so you see why YouTube is important). For Twitter, here are 140 Healthcare Uses for Twitter from Phil Baumann. Yep, 140 ideas…one for each character you’re allowed on Twitter. I don’t have a specific guide for Facebook, but if you’ve made it this far, you probably know what’s a good idea and what’s not.

Where is all this social media stuff going in the future?

One of my favorite topics. Try out these two posts: Your Choice: Your Privacy or Your Life? and Can Social Media Improve Your Health and Save Your Life? Yes, I’m serious about the last one. And, before you get too far ahead of yourself, be sure to check out 10 Healthcare Dinosaurs Digital Technology Will Make Extinct. Don’t invest too much in any of these areas.

We’re awesome. We’ve done all of this and more. What now?

Well, I’d like to take a ride on your pet unicorn someday, but in the meantime, why don’t you try, say, three of the Ten Digital Marketing Ideas Pharma Companies Will Never Try (But Should)?

____________

That’s it. If you went through everything, then I’m impressed. You should be well beyond most people when it comes to pharma social media. And, you likely understand why I’m tired of talking about the “10 Things.” You’re also in good position to join in on the debate when I share the things that I’d like to start hearing sometime in the next week or so.

If you still have questions after reviewing all of this, you’ve got two options. Go to the Dose of Digital page on Facebook and start a discussion or post a question on the Wall or contact me privately and I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

For those who know me well enough, you’re probably aware that I’m a bit of a cynic sometimes and that I’m not one to hold back my opinion (most times). Of course, if you’ve read this blog before and don’t really know me, you probably figured this out already. So, today I’m unleashing both of these parts of my personality on a topic that’s been bugging me lately.

The spark was following along with a couple different conferences on social media in pharma via Twitter and receiving (no exaggeration) information about and invites to no less than 5 future conferences about…you guessed it…pharma social media. Of course, I’ve been a part of a lot of these conferences in the past, but you might have noticed that I’ve cut down on my attendance and speaking recently. The reason is that I think we’ve run out of things to say and people who haven’t heard them. I know for my part that I feel like I’ve covered every aspect of social media as it relates to pharma on this blog in many, many posts. I know that I’ve read even more from others and heard a ton of presentations about this topic at many different conferences. Haven’t all of you too? (Voice your opinion in this poll and see what the result are so far)

What I’m not doing today is criticizing anyone out there who has been speaking or writing about this topic. Certainly, I’d be among the people who have covered this topic pretty thoroughly by now.

What I am doing is proposing is a moratorium. A moratorium on debating the details about pharma social media that we all know. There are ten of them that I’m going to specifically ask we stop talking about for one month (for starters) and see what happens.

It’s great if you’ve covered these details in the past, but you are hereby banned from creating anymore content about these 10 topics within pharma social media. If you have something new that is outside one of the ten areas, let’s hear about it. If you’re creating a presentation that doesn’t include any of these ten, more power to you. Share it with us. I’ll even post it on this blog for the world to see if you manage to avoid all ten.

So, do you think you can keep yourself from talking about these ten topics for just a month? I present these to you as almost near direct quotes that I’ve heard or read over the past 3 months…in no particular order…

10 Things I’m Tired of Hearing About Pharma Social Media

1. “Pharma is heavily regulated, so doing anything in social media is a challenge.” This is typically the first line of every invitation I get to every conference on this topic. We know. Pharma=regulated. Always has, always will. Whether it’s TV, print, face-to-face sales calls, and, yes, social media, it’s all regulated…heavily. Having said that, it’s not impossible for pharma to do something in social media, as some may suggest. I constantly see objectives for conferences that are something like this: “Determine ways that pharma can legally engage in social media.” Well, I’ve got 350 ways on the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki. 350 examples of pharma companies engaging right now in social media.

2. “Social media may be the ‘holy grail’ of marketing for pharma companies.” Feel free to substitute your own hyperbole for “holy grail” if you prefer, but you get the idea. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but social media isn’t the answer to pharma’s marketing woes anymore than TV ads are. It may become a useful channel over time, but if you’re counting on social media to revive your floundering blockbuster or to launch your next one, you’re out of luck. Social media may become a valuable tool for other aspects of pharma company operations, particularly research (clinical and marketing), but it’s not going to be a powerful marketing tool that solves any marketing challenge. I’m not going to get into all of the reasons why, but this visual might help explain it.

Think you’re ever going to see that anywhere?

3. “Because of the rise of ‘e-patients,’ pharma needs to take an active role in social media.” To be clear, I’m not saying anything negative about ‘e-patients’ or the concept behind this term. That’s the last thing I need. Not sure what an “e-patient” is? Check out my prime example, E-Patient Dave. I love what Dave is doing and what he’s advocating, so that’s not what I’m proposing a ban on. Instead, it’s the connection of e-patients, social media, and pharma. Instead of e-patients being the reason why pharma needs to get involved in social media, it actually should be the reason they avoid it. E-patients will provide each other the information they need without the input from pharma companies. At the same time, make an enemy of some e-patients, and you’re done for…as well you should be. E-patients are important to the success of any pharma product, but you’d better bring something big to the table if you plan to focus your efforts on them. Just throwing together a Facebook page isn’t going to be enough and making it all about your products will likely backfire (again, as well it should).

4. “More and more people are turning to the Internet and social media to get healthcare information.” You know how on those legal dramas when the two lawyers are going at each other and then at some point they say something about “stipulating” something. That’s what I want here. Can we all just agree and accept the fact that, yes, the Internet is an important source of healthcare information? And, yes, some people, maybe even a lot or most people, use information found within social media as part of their healthcare decision-making. Haven’t we all seen enough charts from enough sources to say, regardless of which side of this argument you’re on, that you can stipulate that this is true?

I know I have seen enough and I’d imagine that you have too. How do I know? When I was presenting before the FDA panel on social media late in the day, after many other people, I came to my slides that included a bunch of these stats. Stats that had been shown about 50 times already that day. What did I do? I said that I was going to skip those slides because the point had already been made by others. The reaction from the crowd? Applause.

5. “With the impending guidelines on social media from FDA expected later in 2010…” This is going to not sound really nice, but if you’re following the developments of pharma social media use and haven’t heard about the FDA hearing that happened in November 2009 or that some guidelines might come out before the end of 2010, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. These guidelines might come, but they will not write a marketing plan for you. They will not grant carte blanche freedom for pharma companies to do whatever they want in social media. In fact, expect them to be frustratingly vague simply because FDA can’t write explicit rules for every platform and activity you’re considering for the next marketing cycle.

We get it. Guidelines. Coming soon. Talking about that they might come and speculating what they might include probably isn’t much help at this point. It’s already pretty clear that some things can be done today (again, I give you the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki). Get out there and do instead of wringing your hands about what might happen. Or don’t.

6. “As social media grows in importance, it’s critical that you have a solid social media strategy.” Ugh. I should have listed this as number 1 in case people don’t make it all the way to number 6. This one makes me crazy. I’ll handle this one really simply. First, this doesn’t only apply to pharma. It applies to every industry, regulated or otherwise, selling pretzels or fishing line, liberal or conservative corporate culture. Listen closely: you don’t need a social media strategy.

Rather than write something new, I’m going to recycle a paragraph from one my personal favorite posts from this blog, “9 Simple Steps to Getting Started in Social Media.” Step number 1 includes this advice: “DO NOT define a ‘social media strategy.’ You should not have a social media strategy. Instead, you should brand objectives. This might  be something like ‘increase market share to 25% by December 2010,’ for example. In order to achieve these objectives, you’ve put together a set of strategies that will get you to those objectives. To deliver those strategies, you’ve come up with a number of tactics. Social media is one of those tactics. Nothing more, nothing less. If you create a social media strategy, it’s highly likely that your social media efforts won’t line up with your overall business objectives. This will make it even harder to measure the impact of these efforts or will outright fail. Perhaps you need social media, perhaps you don’t. Look at it as part of a larger marketing plan to figure this out.” Enough said.

7. “You can begin your social media activities by just trying something small.” Since I said, “ugh,” for number 6, I probably shouldn’t say it here, but if I could I would. Please don’t just do something social media related because you can. Anyone can set up a Facebook page for their brand in minutes and a Twitter account in seconds. Don’t. Yes, it’s easy, but it’s also likely a waste of resources. It might take a second to set up, but if you’re not allowed to use it, then it was a waste. If you are allowed and it takes forever to get content approved or rules on how you can engage with patients, well then your minute invest has turned into weeks.

So, while trying something is important and a good step, it’s not the first step. It’s the last step (of my 6 Steps to Getting Your Healthcare Social Media Idea Approved anyway). Try something if you’ve got everything else aligned and do it to test your process and not simply because you can. You’ll probably find that getting things approved is harder than you imagined. It’s good to know this now when there isn’t a crisis you need to respond to or after you’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on a program. Don’t try anything. Do something with intent.

8. “There is a need for useful healthcare-related social media tools/content/platforms/communities that pharma companies can help fill.” What? There are so many things wrong with this, I’m not sure where to begin. I’ll just cover two though for the sake of time. First, there is not a lack of these things. Again, check out all the communities on the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki. If your big idea does not add something well beyond what some of these existing, established 3rd party communities provide, it’s time to put that big idea in the trash bin.

It might not be fair, but here’s the reality. It’s harder for a pharma company than, say, a neutral 3rd party (like a patient) to create something in social media that people value. A lot harder. Why? Well, here’s the “not fair” part: people don’t like pharma companies. They are trusted about the same as oil and tobacco companies (and remarkably, less than banks). So, in order for a patient to be part of a pharma-controlled community, he or she would have to put this distrust aside and willingly share personal information about themselves, their disease, and their treatments with “big pharma.” Seem like a bridge too far? It should. There are still some unmet needs out there, but going it alone probably isn’t a winning strategy for most pharma companies. If you build it, unlike in Field of Dreams, people won’t come. Finding a trusted partner who is established and neutral might be the logical path.

9. “Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/Something Else is the future of social media.” Pick your favorite and substitute it at the front of this statement. It doesn’t matter which you choose, I’ll still be making the same point. Here goes: Facebook is not social media. Yep, you heard me, and, yes, I’m familiar with Facebook. Twitter isn’t social media either. Nor is YouTube…you get the point. These are social media platforms. They employ the principles of social media, but a platform can’t be social media. They are simply a means to access the social part of social media. The connections and interactions between people and the sharing of information and data are social media. It’s the bridging of distance, time, and status to connect people together in support of a common purpose. That purpose can be anything, but the connection part is what’s critical. If you think that creating a Facebook page or Twitter account means that you’re “doing” social media, you’re wrong. If your social media doesn’t share in two directions, doesn’t connect people, and doesn’t treat everyone as equals, then you’re probably still just broadcasting. You may as well stick with TV and journal ads…less risky.

10. “Because of the unique nature of its business, measuring ROI for social media is impossible for pharma.” If a consultant or agency person comes to your company and tells you this, fire that person on the spot. No questions asked, just show them the door. Yes, it is hard to measure ROI (return on investment) in a meaningful way in pharma, but it is far from impossible. The rationale for this feeling of futility is two-fold. First, most people think that the ROI for social media in any industry is impossible. Add to this the fact that you can’t track which people actually filled a prescription unlike how you can track the use of, say, a grocery shopper loyalty card and it’s a perfect excuse. To be clear, measuring ROI for social media is possible and it’s done all the time. And for the record, counting the number of fans (or Likers, whatever they’re called today) you have on Facebook isn’t going to give you an ROI. It might be a first step, but you’ve got a ways to go.

If you really want to measure ROI for your social media efforts, visit Olivier Blanchard’s site, which is completely dedicated to this topic, and read everything. He shows that it’s more than possible, it’s expected. You can do it in pharma too and certainly as well as you can measure the ROI of a TV commercial. I’d argue that it’s far easier to measure the ROI for most social media efforts (namely anything digital) compared to any other pharma marketing channel. Period. I’m out of space in this post to demonstrate fully, but I promise to show you in an upcoming post (or contact me and my company will set it up for you).

___

So that’s the list of 10 topics that you are not allowed to talk about for the next month. If you make it that far, then we’ll extend it. I’ll be watching to see who breaks the pact first. When I see it, I’ll call it out and I invite you to do the same. Just add the hashtag #smprotest and we’ll all know what you’re talking about.

If you’re with me on this and want to show your support for the cause, I invite you to proudly display this badge. Put it anywhere you think people will see it.

You can just save the file from here or use this little bit of code to embed it anywhere with a link back to this post.

<form><a href="http://www.doseofdigital.com/2010/06/10-thing-tired-hearing-pharma-social-media" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.doseofdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/10_badge-sm.png"/></a></form>

Remember…I’ll be watching. Let me know if I missed anything, as I’d be happy to make a “15″ or “20″ badge if necessary.

It’s been a while, but here it is. The latest update to the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki. The last update came in late March right before the announcement of the Dosie Awards contest, so it’s been a while. Thanks to everyone for your patience.

This month’s update includes 40 new additions to the wiki bringing the total to almost 600 entries. Some highlights from this month:

• Six new Twitter accounts (3 from J&J)
• Five new Facebook pages
• Three new Healthcare Professional Communities (one created and controlled by a pharma company)
• Three new YouTube Channels

Special thanks to this month’s contributors:  @roskadigital, @mikepresson, @bradatpharma, @SpitzStrategy, @eileenobrien, @melissajlang, @kingsgrove, @wendyblackburn.

Instructions for recommending an addition to the Wiki are included on the page. A couple things to consider before you submit. Currently, we’re not adding hospitals or healthcare groups (such as large physician group practices). The main reason for this is because there’s a great source for this already in Ed Bennett’s Hospital Social Networking List. In addition, I’m happy to include your blog (especially for you “industry observers”) on the list, but I ask that it be somewhat established before you ask for it to be included. There’s no set rule, but 10 posts as a minimum is probably a good rule of thumb. Also for “industry observers,” there’s currently not a place for your Facebook, YouTube, etc. page. For now, it’s just your blogs and Twitter accounts. If you have questions, just contact me.

If I sent you a note saying that you’d be included in the next update and you don’t see your listing, you’re in the queue for the next one.

Here’s the link to the wiki:

Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki

Announcement

If you’re someone who’s really interested in the wiki, then you probably will enjoy the upcoming 2010 e-Patient Connections Conference. I’ll be chairing the “Social Pharmer” track along with Shwen Gwee from Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

We haven’t set the speaker list just yet, but rest assured it will be packed with the leaders in the industry you want to hear. And while we haven’t finalized the format for our track, expect it to be far beyond the didactic lectures you see at many conferences. You’ll be able to interact with the speakers and each other in small groups and big sessions to share the best thinking on social media in pharma.

For those who didn’t attend this conference last year (its debut), expect another top notch event with a slate of great speakers on numerous topics (plus some nice gifts).

You can register now  2010 e-Patient Connections Conference. Readers of this blog get $300 off  if you use code “rx2010″ when you register. If you’d like to give some feedback on what you want to see (and not see) at the conference, then please take this short survey: http://bit.ly/9q9KfG. [Disclosure: I am co-chair for this conference and I receive a referral fee for registrations from this blog.]

Supporting the Wiki

Many of you have asked what you can do to support the wiki, as you’ve found it so useful. Well, there are a few things you can do since you asked:

• First and foremost, without your contributions, the wiki wouldn’t be what it is today and it would quickly become outdated. You can submit your recommendations for inclusion (including your own site) using this form.
• Share with your network. Here are some shortcuts: Send a tweet, update your LinkedIn or Facebook status, and/or whatever your preferred means of sharing is. You can just copy and paste this: “Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki. http://su.pr/20M8CB. (via @jonmrich)”
• Write about it. Feel free to blog about the wiki and use some of the examples in case studies or presentations you’re developing.
• Get a badge. That’s right, if you’re listed on the wiki, you can now add a badge to your site to show that you’ve made it to the list. We’ve created a couple of options to choose from. (If you’re not listed and think you should be, see the first bullet above on how to do that.)

Option 1

Copy and paste the code below onto your site:

<form><a href="http://www.doseofdigital.com/healthcare-pharma-social-media-wiki/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.doseofdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/doseofdigitalwikibadge1.jpg"/></a></form>

Option 2

Copy and paste the code below onto your site:

<form><a href="http://www.doseofdigital.com/healthcare-pharma-social-media-wiki/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.doseofdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/doseofdigitalwikibadge2.jpg"/></a></form>

Again, thank you all for your contributions. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the wiki, please let me know.