Social Media Wiki

The Beginner’s Guide to Pharma Social Media

(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 (1477 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.

Pharma Social Media…Yes, It’s PossibleView more webinars from Jonathan Richman – Dose of Digital on Slideshare.

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:

Three Things I Learned at the FDA Social Media Hearings and Three I Wish I Had  (1346 downloads)
FDA Social Media Review From Dose Of DigitalView more presentations from Dose of Digital – Bridge Worldwide.

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 (799 downloads))

Communicating Drug Risk Using New Media Technologies–Dose Of Digital

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:

Pharma and Healthcare Social Media PrinciplesView more presentations from Jonathan Richman.

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)?

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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.

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

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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).

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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.

Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki June Update

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

Dose of Digital Pharma and Social Media Wiki Badge v1

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

Dose of Digital Pharma and Social Media Wiki Badge v2

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.

2010 Dose of Digital Dosie Award Winners

It’s been a long time in the making since we first announced the Dosie Awards back in March. It’s now time to tell you the winners. I just finished announcing the winners at the BDI conference “Social Communications & Healthcare: Case Studies & Roundtables” to a packed house of about 350 (standing room only) people. If you want a copy of the presentation I gave there, you can download it here (PDF file): 2010 Dose of Digital Dosie Awards Winners (1394 downloads).

As a reminder, 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 you’ve seen on this blog. 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. You voted for the finalists and we revealed the finalists a few weeks ago. You then voted on the finalists to pick the ultimate winners and now we have them. For the Pharma Company of the Year in Social Media award, a company needed to have at least five entries on the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki to be nominated.

A few stats about the contest:

  • 500+ nominees
  • 700+ #dosie tweets
  • 400+ Facebook shares
  • 3500+ votes over two rounds

For those who have wondered who actually voted in this contest, the results might surprise you. We asked an optional question in the ballots and here is how people identified themselves in the final round voting:

  • >50% “patients”
  • 15% “caregivers”
  • 10% “industry service providers”
  • 5% pharma/healthcare manufacturer employee
  • 5% HCP
  • 4% “consumer advocate”

And, for those who are wondering which pharma companies had the most Finalists, wonder no more:

  • Johnson & Johnson – 6
  • sanofi-aventis – 4
  • Novo Nordisk – 3
  • Pfizer – 3
  • Roche – 2

This contest also yielded some really interesting insights for me. I’ll share some specifics about that later in this post. In fact, the Dosie Awards were a bit of an experiment and demonstration. What I wanted to demonstrate was three things:

  1. The power of social media
  2. Our lack of control of social media
  3. The tremendous opportunities of social media in pharma and healthcare

Based on the participation in voting, the winners, and many of your comments, the demonstration was a success, but more on that later. Let’s get on with the winners. If you don’t like or agree with the winners, don’t blame me…you voted for them. I’ve included a bit of my commentary about the contest and the Finalists and winners later in this post.

2010 Dosie Award Winners

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There were 10 categories in this year’s awards:

  • Brand-Sponsored Patient Community (Communities created by a pharma or healthcare company for a brand or corporate effort)
  • Patient Community – Non-Brand Controlled (Communities created with no direct affiliation to a pharma or healthcare company)
  • Healthcare Professional Community (Communities exclusive to healthcare professionals)
  • Facebook Page (All pharma and healthcare Facebook pages and apps whether corporate-sponsored or not)
  • YouTube Channel (Pharma and healthcare company YouTube pages or videos including corporate and brand specific efforts)
  • Twitter Feed (Pharma and healthcare companies using Twitter at a corporate or brand level)
  • Company Blog (Pharma and healthcare company created blogs at the corporate or brand level)
  • Patient or Caregiver Blog (Blogs created by patients or caregivers, not owned by a pharma or healthcare company)
  • Industry Observer Blog (Blogs created by industry observers and commentators…like Dose of Digital)
  • Pharma Company of the Year in Social Media

There are three award levels in the Dosie Awards: gold, silver, and bronze. Each category has five Finalists. Just making it as a Finalist is quite an achievement since some categories had as many as 50 nominees. All Finalists can proudly display the Finalist badge on their site to show the world that, according to the voters, you’re among the best in healthcare social media. Here’s the nifty Finalist badge:

The winners will  get to display either the gold, silver, or bronze Dosie Award badge on their site:

Below I’ve listed the finalists for each category followed by the winners at each level (gold, silver, bronze).

Enough already…here are the winners:

Best Brand-Sponsored Patient Community

Accu-Chek Diabetes Link

Children with Diabetes

Crohn’s and Me

Diabetes Handprint

Voices of Diabetes

Winners

Children with Diabetes

Diabetes Handprint

Accu-Chek Diabetes Link

Best Patient Community – Non-Brand Controlled

American Diabetes Association

Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America

dLife

Juvenation

TuDiabetes

Winners

dLife

TuDiabetes

Juvenation

Best Healthcare Professional Community

doc2doc

Medscape Physician Connect

Ozmosis

Sermo

SocialMD — this site was voted in as a Finalist, but was not eligible to win since it no longer exists

Winners

Medscape Physician Connect

doc2doc

Sermo

Best Facebook Page (pharma or healthcare company)

Changing Possibilities in Hemophilia

The Coalition to Prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)

Gardasil

Johnson & Johnson

sanofi-aventis VOICES

Winners

Johnson & Johnson Corporate

The Coalition to Prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis

Changing Possibilities in Hemophilia

Best YouTube Channel (pharma or healthcare company)

GoInsulin

Johnson & Johnson Health Channel

Mayo Clinic

Pfizer Europe

Pfizer UK

Winners

Go Insulin

Johnson & Johnson Health Channel

Mayo Clinic

Best Twitter Feed (pharma or healthcare company)

AF Stat (@AF-Stat)

Expressions of Kindness (@xpresskindness)

Johnson & Johnson (@jnjcomm)

Race With Insulin (@racewithinsulin)

Roche (@roche_com)

Winners

@racewithinsulin

@jnjcomm

@xpresskindness

Best Company Blog (pharma or healthcare company)

Advancing the Science (Mayo Clinic)

GSK More than Medicine

J&J BTW

Pfizer Think Science Now

Red Cross Chat

Winners

Advancing the Science (Mayo Clinic)

JNJ BTW (Johnson & Johnson)

Red Cross Chat

Best Patient or Caregiver Blog

Beyond Meds

But You Don’t Look Sick

DiabetesMine

Lemonade Life

Six Until Me

Winners

Six Until Me

Diabetes Mine

But You Don’t Look Sick

Best Industry Observer Blog

ePharma Rx

Pharmalot

Pixels and Pills

Roska Digital

Wall Street Journal Health Blog

Winners

ePharma Rx

Wall Street Journal Health Blog

Pixels and Pills

Pharma Company of the Year in Social Media

Allergan

AstraZeneca

Bayer

Boehringer Ingelheim

Eli Lilly

GSK

Johnson & Johnson

Novartis

Novo Nordisk

Pfizer

Roche

sanofi-aventis

Shire

Winners

Roche

Johnson & Johnson

Novartis

Congratulations to all the winners! If you would like to display the badge on your site, you can copy it off this page or contact me and I can get you a higher quality image that you can adjust to whatever size you need.

Commentary

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I should say at this point that the Finalists and winners didn’t at all surprise me. That doesn’t mean that I agree that they are necessarily the best examples out there, but rather that what happened was exactly what I expected to happen. That is, the only thing I knew for sure was that it would be impossible to predict the winners or Finalists and that literally anyone could win. That’s the thing with social media and is part of my demonstration…you don’t control the conversation, you don’t control the debate, and you don’t control the outcome. If you try to exert control, it just might all collapse around you and make matters even worse. I chose not to try to influence the voting in any way or restrict how many people and who could vote for what. The only rule was that there was one vote per person. Anyone was free to vote for who they wanted, for whatever reasons they wanted.

You might argue that this format means that the awards wouldn’t necessarily find the best examples, but the most popular. That’s not quite true. What this format does is exactly what I outlined in my original post about the awards. When I explained that there wasn’t formal voting criteria, I did add that this: “This year’s Dosie Awards will focus on finding the best uses of social media in pharma and healthcare.” So, you might argue that those sites and programs that used social media the best (i.e., most effectively) were the ones that won. In many cases, this was true. Some winners and Finalists are great programs and they effectively used social media to get people to vote for them. Other programs that I’d say are mediocre won because they were able to use social media to get people to support them. This leads me to the demonstration I was attempting with the Dosie Awards.

Yes, the awards were designed to find the best examples of social media in pharma and healthcare, but there was also a secondary goal…this demonstration. I wanted to demonstrate was three things:

  1. The power of social media
  2. Our lack of control of social media
  3. The tremendous opportunities of social media in pharma and healthcare

My hope was that this demonstration would help us all understand social media a little better and how best to use it (and not use it). So, the Dosie Awards were more than a contest, but also (I hope) a bit of an educational session for all of us. Here are my thoughts on  each of the three things I wanted to demonstrate.

The Power of Social Media

When I opened the awards to public voting, I figured that a few people or groups would be really successful in getting others to vote for them. What I didn’t anticipate was that  they could start a mini-movement within the awards. For those paying attention, you’ll notice that the Brand-Sponsored Patient Community,  Best Patient Community – Non-Brand Controlled, and Best Patient/Caregiver blog categories were dominated by diabetes sites. Of the 15 Finalists in these categories, 11 were diabetes-related (and also the Gold winners in each category). How’d this happen?

Well, some of the diabetes communities who rallied their members to vote for their community also mentioned that people should vote for diabetes sites in other categories. It was a really smart way to bring even more awareness to diabetes via this contest. It just so happens that, in my opinion, many of the diabetes sites that were Finalists are some of the best examples of social media use out there. We could all learn a bit from them, so it’s a good thing they got some additional exposure.

To further show the power of social media, some less well-known, but well-promoted sites also were Finalists and winners. A couple of examples that come to mind are Changing Possibilities in Hemophilia (only 206 “Fans” on Facebook) and @xpresskindness (630 followers now, but only 420 when the contest started). For Changing Possibilities in Hemophilia, they put out messages on their wall asking for people to vote for them. @xpresskindness’ inclusion is a bit more of a mystery, as they did no promotion that I could find, but managed to get support from someone (perhaps the agency that created it?). However it got there, it got there thanks to the power of social media. Without social media, neither of these programs would have been Finalists. They would have been overshadowed by much larger, more well-known programs, but social media sharing gave them a chance to win. Another great example was doc2doc beating out Sermo, which has many times the number of members, or how Roche (2 Finalists) beat out J&J (6 Finalists) for Pharma Company of the Year in Social Media.

One final demonstration of the power of social media is how quickly this contest spread. There were more than 400+ Facebook shares and 700+ tweets that used the #dosie hashtag (and a bunch of others that didn’t). In addition, votes came from all over the world (30 different countries at last count). Without social media, would any of these people have found out about the contest?

Our Lack of Control of Social Media

This goes hand in hand with the power of social media. It’s not always going to work out the way you want it or how you expect it to work out. This contest was a great demonstration of this. I’ll go back to the domination of some categories by diabetes sites as an example to demonstrate my point here as well. I certainly wasn’t planning to have one disease state exert this much control over the awards and, yet, this is exactly what happened. I’m not saying it’s bad, but it’s not what was planned.

One thing that was certainly not planned was SocialMD showing up as a Finalist. It was among 30+ nominees in the Healthcare Professional Communities category. After seeing that it made it in as a Finalist, I decided to check it out a bit more, as I wasn’t very familiar with it. Turns out that SocialMD doesn’t exist anymore and hadn’t for about 4 months. And, yet, it was among the top vote-getters in this category. We very carefully audited all the votes in this category and were not able to detect anything fishy. So, why would a defunct site end up with this many votes? I have no idea and haven’t been able to figure out why (if you know, please let me know). If the voting is open, as it was, there’s not much control that you have over who wins and that’s just what happened. I certainly didn’t want a defunct site to be a Finalist, but it wasn’t up to me. I did decide to take it out of the running for any gold, silver, or bronze awards though, which I think only made sense.

One more example would be Pfizer UK‘s YouTube channel, which was a Finalist. Far from a channel, there’s only one video on the channel (I must admit that it’s good though). Combine this with the fact that Pfizer Europe‘s YouTube channel was also a Finalist. How’d this happen? That’s an easy one…support from Pfizer. It’s tough to say that Pfizer UK’s channel is a good one (especially when you compare it to the winners), but that wasn’t the competition. The most votes won. It was out of my control, just as much as what happens in a lot of social media is out of our control.

The Tremendous Opportunities

When I announced the awards and listed the nominees (all 500+ of them), I got emails, DMs, and calls from about 10 people who all had a similar concern. They each thought that having this many nominees (50+ in some categories) would make it impossible to select a winner. Their main concern was that they weren’t familiar with all of the sites to make a fair comparison and that it would take a long time to go through them all. And, to be sure, these are some of the people that I consider among the most knowledgeable about this space, so for them to say that they weren’t aware of everything tells me that most people are in the same position.

A few people urged me to cut the number of nominees to a more manageable amount, but I let everything on the wiki count as a nominee for a reason. I wanted people to be overwhelmed by the number of examples. That was the point. While some of the sites and programs on the wiki have a long way to go before they are ideal, there is no shortage of them. That is, there are a bunch of examples of pharma and healthcare companies using social media today. They aren’t waiting for guidelines that might never come (or be terribly negative and restrictive), they’re out there now. If your strategy is to wait because it isn’t clear what can be done, I’d call your attention to the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki where you can see 300+ industry examples of social media programs. 300+ examples of your direct and indirect competitors using social media to reach their customers today. What are you waiting for? 300 more examples?

Of course, there is one warning that comes with all these examples as well. During the course of the awards, I hope that people got to see programs that they didn’t know existed in disease states they didn’t think had much social media activity. I want people to see the list for one more reason beyond letting them know that it’s all right to do social media programs. I want people to see the list for the exact opposite reason too: so they DON’T do social media programs.

I’m not saying to avoid all programs. I’m saying to avoid creating something that already exists. There is no need to have 5 different support communities for a certain disease. Doing this makes each community a little weaker, as it dilutes the wisdom of the group. But, some companies can’t resist and insist on having their own community despite the fact that there’s no need or call for it in the market. That’s a waste of time and money that could be better spent (donating that money to help cure the disease in question is a good start). Instead of creating another community that essentially already exists, how about working together? How about directing your customers to a resource that is already working well and that members are getting real value from today? That might require (gasp!) you working with a competitor. However, nearly every pharma company now has something like “patient health first” as part of their vision or mission. Well, creating another community that’s  drain of resources isn’t putting patients first.

Need an example?

There are 12 multiple sclerosis (MS) specific communities on the wiki. That doesn’t even count the MS communities on sites like Patients Like Me.

12.

Do we really need 12 or would everyone be better off if these people could all go to one place and share their knowledge and insights with everyone else? I think the latter would be a richer experience for everyone. My point? Before you jump in and create something in social media, especially a community, see if one already exists. If one (or 12) exists, then you need to ensure that your community offers something well above and beyond what’s already out there. If  you don’t, you might be wasting your money, which could be used much more effectively somewhere else.

Final Thoughts

It’s been a month and half since announcing the Dosie Awards and it’s been an interesting and exciting time for me. Thank you to everyone who voted, tweeted, or otherwise supported the awards. I hope that you got something out of the process as well. Next year there will be even more categories as we expand beyond social media to other digital technologies and platforms. For now, congratulations to the winners!

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