Pharma’s Top 10 Efforts
in Social Media
JD Lasica
Socialmedia.biz
jd@socialmedia.biz

Top 10 Pharma efforts
J&J
Glaxo-Smith-Kline
Bayer
Sanofi-Aventis
Novartis
AstraZenecaUS
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Roche
Pfizer
Boehringer Ingelheim

1. Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson
Hundreds of reader comments on JNJ BTW
& Kilmer house blogs since 2007. (# of
adverse events reported: 0 )
J&J purchased the online community
Children With Diabetes in 2008 for a
reported $6-7 million.
90+ videos on YouTube channel. Rob Haper, Marc Monseau
director of corporate
J&J's director of video communications, communications
produces videos with human interest angle.
Its division Ortho-McNeil-Janssen launched
the ADHD Moms community on Facebook.
Active Twitter presence with 2,120 followers.
Twitter grade: B

Johnson & Johnson
Children with Diabetes
The online community’s
goal is to promote
understanding of the care
and treatment of
diabetes, especially in
children; to increase
awareness of the need
for unrestricted diabetes
care for children at school
and daycare; to support
families living with
diabetes; and to promote
understanding of
research into a cure.

Johnson & Johnson
Mom-bassadors
McNeil Pediatrics, a
division of Ortho-McNeil-
Janssen, selects
Mom-bassadors --
women who are
passionately committed
to ADHD care giving.
Here they share their
experiences in how they
have helped care for,
celebrate and support
their children to overcome
the daily challenges of
ADHD year-round.

2. Glaxo-Smith-Kline

Glaxo-Smith-Kline
Glaxo-Smith-Kline’s
alliConnect is the official
corporate blog for alli, the
only FDA-approved OTC
weight loss product.
Also, allicircles at http://
community.myalli.com/ is
a support community.

Glaxo-Smith-Kline
The GSK blog More Than Medicine says it is “expressly
uninterested in promoting GSK brands” and will focus on
creating a dialogue about the pressing issues facing the
healthcare industry in the U.S., says Michael Fleming, senior
director of social media at GSK.
Modest YouTube channel with 12 videos.
Modest Facebook presence, with 644 members and 30 wall
posts
On Twitter, @GSKUS has 1,485 followers, Twitter grade: B

3. Bayer

Bayer

Bayer
Didget is a new social network and blood glucose monitoring tool for
young people living with diabetes in the United Kingdom. The network
connects directly into each participating youth's Nintendo DS and
rewards the user for building consistent blood glucose testing habits
and meeting glucose targets.
Bayer also sponsors MSGateway, a patient community for patients
with MS. It has 12,000-plus members, 200,000+ posts and has led to
increased global sales of Betaferon. Similarly, myMSmyWAY is a
collaboration between Bayer Healthcare, Microsoft and the National
MS society.
Bayer developed the Living with Hemophilia website to share some
practical tools and strategies for living with hemophilia.
Bayer on Twitter: German only; 239 followers; protects their tweets.
Twitter grade: F

4. Sanofi-Aventis

Sanofi-Aventis
On May 15, Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis launched Sanofi-
aventis.tv, an interactive video news site as part of its global effort
to increase transparency and understanding of the pharmaceutical
company's operations.
Geoffroy Bessaud, head of corporate communications, said the site
is an extension of the company-wide initiative to transform Sanofi-
Aventis into a global healthcare leader. “We are setting up new
tools for communicating, within the company and outside of the
company,” he said. “The Web TV site is part of that.”
The site has six themed channels to reach different stakeholder
groups, including patients, healthcare professionals, employees,
media, financial analysts and shareholders. It is available in English
and French.
SanofiaventisTV is just beginning a Twitter presence, with 496
followers. Oddly, posts are in English & French, instead of separate
Twitter channels. Twitter grade: C

5. Novartis

Novartis
Novartis has developed CML Earth, a social network that
connects Chronic Myeloid Leukemia patients. The site
welcomes patients, patient groups and healthcare
professionals from around the world.
Facebook fan page with 2,183 fans, but no consistent
presence there.
No YouTube presence.
Mediocre presence on Twitter: 3,038 followers; no personality;
used as broadcast mechanism. NovartisTrials has 358
followers. Twitter grade: C-

6. AstraZenecaUS

AstraZenecaUS
AstraZenecaUS has created My Asthma Story, a stand-
alone website accompanied by a YouTube channel around its
product Symbicort. The company uses the site and YouTube
channel to drive its audiences bi-directionally.
On this channel, viewers hear stories from ordinary people
coping with the challenges of asthma. It then demonstrates
how Symbicort becomes an integral part of their regimen to
manage asthma.
Poor use of Twitter: all of its tweets are outgoing, one-way
communications. 1,780 followers. Twitter grade: D
Almost no Facebook presence: fan page with 121 fans and
no updates.

7. Bristol-Myers Squibb

Bristol-Myers Squibb
In September 2008, Bristol-Myers Squibb launched the
Advanced Breast Cancer Community, an information source
and online community for advanced (metastatic) breast
cancer patients, caregivers, family and friends.
AdvancedBreastCancerCommunity.org represents the
collective thinking of a partnership among 13 of the leading
breast cancer patient advocacy organizations in the United
States, The Advocate Partners and Inspire. This website
changes to reflect new research, treatment and clinical trials
information.
No presence on Twitter other than an empty bmsinfo page.
Facebook group has 394 members, 37 wall posts, 22
photos.

8. Roche

Roche
On July 22-23, 2009, Roche Diabetes Care invited 29 diabetes
specialists and bloggers to a Social Media Summit. Workshops
helped Roche to ‘listen and learn’ from the opinions & input of others.
The goal was to help bloggers/online advocates craft a manifesto for
working together in the interest of the patient community, and to spur
an open discussion about Pharma’s engagement in diabetes social
media, including best practices.
One output of the conference: a centralized web directory of all
diabetes resources, so that patients and doctors would have to
remember only a single URL.
A second output: patient messaging, with prominent patients
connecting more closely with mainstream media to get the word out
and help change the image of diabetes to something more positive.
No Facebook or YouTube presence.
Roche_com has 1,920 Twitter followers. Twitter grade: B

9. Pfizer

Pfizer
Pfizer is launching its first social networking initiative by teaming
up with Private Access. The social network will bring together
patients and clinical trial researchers. Once the site goes live,
patients will have the opportunity to confidentially post personal
health information that will be made available only to
researchers studying their particular condition. Trial sponsors
can use the network to recruit patients; patients will be able to
learn more about the studies that relate directly to them.
Almost no Facebook presence: fan page with 1,880 fans and
no updates.
No YouTube channel.
@pfizer_news has 2,371 followers. Strictly one-way
communication. Twitter grade: C-

10. Boehringer Ingelheim

Boehringer Ingelheim
Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim is making
smart use of Twitter, using it to post not just
company information but to recommend health-
related articles and information. Twitter grade: A-
John Pugh, who handles BI’s Twitter account,
John Pugh
says 70% of his job responsibilities involve social director of global
corporate
media and the development of the company's communications
presence in these new channels.
Facebook group with 1,200 members, 85 wall
posts, 21 posts.

However ...
While there are a handful of other social media efforts in
the marketplace, Pharma remains well behind the curve
in social media compared to other sectors such as tech,
cable, retail, sports, even autos. Regulation should not
be used as an excuse for failing to engage.

CSR: A missed opportunity
One area rich with possibility: Using social media to bring
greater awareness to corporate social responsibility efforts.
But few pharma companies are doing so.
Good CSR focuses on both bottom line and public good.
It extends beyond marketing to tie into strategic business
objectives.
CSR extends to internal and external constituents,
focusing on building global brand, employee attraction &
retention, client and partner attraction & retention.
Campaigns should be tied to Internet-enabled one-to-one
gifting. See DonorsChoose, Kiva, UniversalGiving.

Thank you!
JD Lasica
Founder, Socialmedia.biz
email: jd@socialmedia.biz
Twitter: @jdlasica
Sources:
• http://www.doseofdigital.com/healthcare-pharma-social-media-wiki/
• Ron Callari, InventorSpot.com
• Original research