Two years ago, we created a Social Media 101 class – basically, a bootcamp for pharma marketers who wanted to understand how social media was changing how people learn about, evaluate, and ultimately make healthcare decisions.
Today, social destinations are among the most popular on the web. They are an essential part of many of our lives. And, they have truly revolutionized how we think about health.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA CONTINUES TO
REVOLUTIONIZE HOW WE MAKE
HEALTHCARE CHOICES
Two years ago, we created a Social Media 101 class – basically, a bootcamp
for pharma marketers who wanted to understand how social media was
changing how people learn about, evaluate, and ultimately make healthcare
decisions.
Then, the trust graph was in major flux. People were figuring out how to use
social connections (not just Dr. Google) to benefit their health. And, deciding
if they were willing to interact with brands in that space.
Today, social destinations are among the most popular on the web. They are
an essential part of many of our lives. And, they have truly revolutionized
how we think about health.
3. HEALTHCARE EXPERTS AND BRANDS
ARE RIGHT THERE WITH US
It has been months since we
heard someone say in a meeting:
“we’re waiting to see the FDA’s
guidance on social media before
we get involved.”
Sometime in 2011, we all
seemed to collectively realize:
It’s just not going to be that
easy. Instead, pharma would
have to find its own way. To
date, at least 60 pharma brands
have done just that. They’ve built
internal guidelines, tested
approaches and actively gotten
involved in social media.
4. IN THIS 201, WE’LL LOOK AT
FOUR TOPICS:
1. Social health today: Ways people and
professionals are using social media to support their
health
2. Big impact by brands: Best-of examples from
health and pharma brands on social platforms
3. What’s next: Top trends to watch in social health
4. Your questions: And, answers for brand managers
who want to get involved in social health
6. 1 OUR FIRST ANSWER IS:
“I DON’T KNOW, BUT I CAN
TRY TO FIND OUT”
The internet has changed people’s relationships with information. Online
resources, including advice from peers, are a significant source of health
information in the U.S.
DO OUR OWN RESEARCH SEE OTHER’S EXPERIENCES
80% of internet users have looked 23% of social network site users
online for information about any of have followed their friends’
15 health topics such as a specific personal health experiences or
disease or treatment. updates on the site.
Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2011
7. 2 HEALTH IS HAPPENING ON
MAJOR SOCIAL NETWORKS
say they have used social media to find health-
40% related consumer reviews (e.g. of treatments
or physicians)
are using YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
to find medical information, research and share
1/3 their symptoms, and offer opinions about
doctors, treatments, drugs, and health plans
have "posted" about their health experience
1:4
PwC Health Research Institute survey, 2012
8. 3 HEALTH COMMUNITIES ARE
MORE POPULAR THAN
AMERICAN IDOL
More people visit the top five health community sites each month
than watch a typical episode of American Idol.
18 million 23.5 million
Nielsen, March 2012
Compete.com, April 2012
9. 4 THE CROWD IS OUT-CREATING
THE EXPERTS
A recent report found that social media activity by hospitals, health
insurers and pharmaceutical companies is miniscule compared to
the activity on community sites.
8:10 X24
healthcare companies have multiplier of how much
a presence on various more content was on
social media sites community sites in a week
PwC Health Research Institute survey, 2012
10. 5 COMMUNITY IS HAVING A
REAL IMPACT ON HEALTH
Lots of research has shown the impact that the support of friends
and family can have on someone’s health or habit change. New
research is showing that strangers connected via social media can
have a similar impact.
A study of My Quit Coach
showed that more than twice as
many users succeeded at
changing their habit with live-
tracking and focused social
community support.
11. 1/2 WOMEN DOMINATE SOCIAL
While not strictly about health, this trend is incredibly interesting to
marketers: Women, overall, are significantly more likely to
engage with social media than men.
How likely each is to do the following compared to the average
American adult:
WOMEN MEN
Build or update a personal blog +8% more likely -9% less likely
Fan/follow a brand +18% more -21% less likely
likely
Create a social profile +6% more likely -7% less likely
Go online to purchase a +12% more -14% less likely
product seen on TV likely
13. THERE ARE VIRTUALLY
LIMITLESS WAYS TO ENGAGE IN
SOCIAL MEDIA. WE GATHERED A
FEW OF OUR FAVORITES FROM
PHARMA:
Communities Facebook
YouTube Active Listening
14. COMMUNITY: NOVARTIS KNOWS
AGE CHANGES EVERYTHING
Around 30,000 people in
the U.S. have cystic
fibrosis – each of them in
a fight for life. Novartis
made a special investment
in helping connect young
people struggling with this
disease. On
CFVoice, people can
connect with just their age
group, see great
videos, play interactive
cfvoice.com
games and share advice
and support.
15. COMMUNITY: BIOMARIN PAIRS
COMMUNITY WITH CONTENT
PKU.com is a lasting resource for
families and physicians dealing
with a PKU diagnosis. It includes
quick-start information for parents
and true communities for teens.
The community/site also provides
deep professional resources -
including a peer-to-peer
exchange. This unbranded site
has such powerful content that it
appears on the first page of
Google search results for the
condition.
PKU.com
16. COMMUNITY: J&J BRINGS
CAREGIVERS TOGETHER
Strength For Caring is designed
to provide family caregivers with a
broad range of expert content and
information, an emerging online
community, daily inspiration, and
much needed support.
The initiative is partnering with
other caregiving organizations
across the country and is
expected to launch new tools and
programs in the coming months.
Strengthforcaring.com
17. COMMUNITY: GSK HELPS USERS
HELP THEMSELVES
When GSK launched their new
diet supplement, they knew
potential buyers would have a
lot of questions – and they’d
want answers from their peers.
So, they designed a product
website that had community
built in.
In alli circles, people can use a
message-board-style
community to ask each other
for advice, support, and
sometimes just an idea for
dinner. myalli.com/allicircles
18. VIDEO: J&J ATTRACTS MASSES
WITH JUST-IN-TIME EDUCATION
With 6.3 million lifetime video
views and over 5,500 visitors
converting to
subscribers, Johnson & Johnson
has, by far, the largest following
on YouTube.
Video content is primarily
targeting consumers with an array
of clips, organized into
playlists, about certain conditions
such as autism and diabetes and
specific brands such as Acuvue.
Most impressively, the content is
timely. Over the course of the
H1N1 (Swine Flu)
outbreak, Johnson & Johnson YouTube.com/JNJhealth
released 11 videos educating
visitors on the virus and how to
protect themselves.
19. VIDEO: BI CREATES PLAYLISTS
TO MAKING NAVIGATING EASY
Boehringer Ingelheim’s YouTube
channel features nearly 80 videos
with content for patients and
physicians. The variety of content
has lead to 522 current
subscribers and 248,000 lifetime
views of videos.
Thanks to specific playlists
focused on conditions and other
collections targeting
physicians, BI’s channel is
intuitive and easy-to-use (even for
first time viewers). The social
media banner at the top is well-
designed and a really nice touch
YouTube.com/BoehringerIngelheim
that highlights other channels in
which BI engages with patients
and physicians.
20. VIDEO: GE HEALTHCARE GIVES
VISITORS AN INSIDER’S LOOK
The GE Healthcare YouTube
channel is a complete hub for
information and content around
the healthcare practice at GE.
With videos regarding news &
asset management to patient
experience stories, GE has
attracted visitors from investors to
patients. Scrolling down the page
gives the visitor a peek into GE
Healthcare’s social world with real
time social updates and links to
their Facebook and Twitter feeds.
YouTube.com/GEHealthcare
21. VIDEO: LUNESTA HAS CREATED A
TRUE BRAND HUB
Lunesta (Sunovion) has built the
most customized channel of any of
the brands we reviewed.
The Lunesta channel matches the
layout and much of the functionality
of the brand’s official
webpage, creating not only a
consistent experience across the
channels but also makes the
YouTube channel a hub for all brand
content. They’ve loaded the channel
with tons of resources and
conversion points. Lunesta hasn’t
updated their page in a while, but
have done a nice job designing the
page. More consistent content could
lead Lunesta to one of the top video YouTube.com/Lunesta
campaigns in pharma.
22. VIDEO: MILLENIUM IS BUILDING
AN ONGOING VIDEO SERIES
The Millennium US YouTube
channel rounds out our favorite
video campaigns. But, we’ve
ranked this one not so much on
its current state but more for
potential. Launching in August
2011, the volume of content
doesn’t stack up to others on the
list, but they have developed an
educational video series defining
terms in the field of oncology to
educate patients and their
caregivers. The series, called
OncTerm, highlights popular
terms used by oncologist and
defines what they mean in
layman’s terms. Currently, the YouTube.com/MillenniumUS
series updates once each month.
23. FACEBOOK: ABBOTT NUTRITION
REALLY GETS NURSES TALKING
NightNurseNation was created by
Abbott Nutrition and is intended to
be a platform to represent the
interest of night nurses across the
US. Abbott does an exceptional
job at curating content from
across the web, including surveys
and studies, workplace
topics, and inspirational videos all
while (subtly) suggesting Abbott
products to keep nurses, their
families and their patients healthy.
Abbott highly encourages nurses
to share their own content, videos
and photos and leave comments Facebook.com/NightNurseNation
on others – many posts have
dozens of comments.
24. FACEBOOK: BAYER CONNECTS
SURVIVORS
Sponsored by Bayer, I am
ProHeart is a place for survivors
of major heart issues and their
support network to share stories
and work to live healthier lives. It
is apparent the posts by Bayer
are well-thought out as most are
conversation starters versus just
links to other content; and the
community appreciates that, too.
Most posts have hundreds of likes
and comments. Overall, a nice
balance between the cause and
the brand. Facebook.com/IamProHeart
25. FACEBOOK: SANOFI PARTNERS
UP TO COMBAT WHOOPING
COUGH
The Sounds of Pertussis campaign
to bring awareness to whooping
cough is a co-sponsored program
between Sanofi Pasteur and the
March of Dimes with a celebrity
endorsement from NASCAR driver
Jeff Gordon. The level of
engagement between users is at a
high-level but there has been no
response from the brands, leaving
some fan questions unanswered.
Regardless, the content is rich with
conversation starters, photos and
videos of news stories from across Facebook.com/SoundsofPertussis
the country.
26. FACEBOOK: EMD AND PFIZER ADD
GAMES TO THEIR PAGE
MS Voices is sponsored by EMD
Serono and Pfizer. Throughout
the Timeline, people affected by
MS share their stories and offer
support for fellow communities
members. MS Voices takes
advantages of Facebook
Apps, most notably creating a MS
Crosswords game that allows
fans to compete as a single
player or invite Facebook friends
to compete against them in
crossword puzzles about MS.
Users can share the game and Facebook.com/MSVoicesAMultipleSclerosisCo
their results across their network. mmunity
27. FACEBOOK: LILLY SUPPORTS A
COMPETITION WITH COMMUNITY
In 2004, Lilly Oncology created
Lilly Oncology On Canvas:
Expressions of a Cancer Journey
Art Competition and Exhibition to
help people affected by cancer
cope with the emotional side of
the disease. While there is an
official webpage for the
competition, the Facebook page
is used to share support in cancer
diagnosis and promote the call for
entries for the biennial
competition. Artwork is not
displayed on the Timeline but a Facebook.com/LillyOncologyOnCanv
Facebook app allows visitors to as
view past winners.
28. ACTIVE LISTENING: ASTRA
ZENECA COMES TO THE RESCUE
Comcast, Dell, Zappos and other
consumer brands created the
expectation that brands were
listening. Now, pharma is using
Twitter for real-time response
Nexium listens for people with
complaints about its products and
then directs them to its customer
service line to find help. Great
way to show you’re listening and
find new ways to use big
investments (like a call center)
Twitter.com/AZhelps
29. ACTIVE LISTENING: UCB
SCIENTISTS LISTEN ON PLM
Two years ago, UCB made a
powerful commitment: it would
sponsor and listen to the epilepsy
community on Patients Like Me.
The company was looking for on-
the-ground research with a wide-
cross section of patients. What
they learn about epilepsy will help
improve drug safety and lead to
new advances in care.
PatientsLikeMe.com/conditions/3-epilepsy
30. ACTIVE LISTENTING:
BIRDSNBEES ANSWERS SMS
The Adolescent Pregnancy
Prevention Campaign of North
Carolina has a different kind of
active listening – one that replies
to texts.
“You text us a question
to 36263. Within 24 hours, we
text you back with an answer. It’s
that simple. We won’t judge you
or preach to you; you get the best
advice and information that we
can offer free of charge. All
questions are welcome and no http://appcnc.org/brdsnbz-text-message-warm-line#
question is too outrageous. We’re
here to help.”
32. MOBILE HEALTH WILL BLUR THE
LINES BETWEEN FORMAL CARE
AND PEER INTERACTION
The growth of telehealth will
make our interactions with
healthcare professionals more This online care
casual and immediate – further manager from the
chipping away at the Veterans
exceptionalism of medical Administration, lets
expertise. users initiate in-
home telehealth
visits with their
We also expect to see a rise in primary care team
the number of doctors actively and specialists
listening and responding in
social media to build a targeted
practice base.
33. RISE OF THE SOCIAL RX
Physicians are already writing Rx’s
for what to take and where to learn:
100%
We expect a growing number
Yes, to specific
80% Yes, to Yes, to
sites of these recommendations to
specific sites specific sites be social – taking people to
60% places where they can learn
Yes, but not to from their peers, in a
Yes, but not Yes, but specific sites
not
40%
specific sites
safe, trusted environment.
specific sites
20%
No No No
0%
Primary Care All Physicians
Pain Specialists All Physicians
Manhattan Research, 2011
34. THE BIG PUSH TO SELF CARE
The FDA recently held hearings about
using technology to expand the number of
medications that can be administered over
the counter. That’s right: prescribing by
self-screening.
The testimony focused on drugs
commonly prescribed for high
cholesterol, high blood pressure, migraine
headaches and asthma. The agency also
may explore easier access to diabetes Look, too, for new self-guided
treatments. diagnostics that turn the pharmacy
into an on-demand exam room
When the tools and the crowd become
the expert, social communities and
open platforms become more
important. Cracking that new point of
influence will put social media back in the
spotlight.
35. MORE, MORE VALUABLE MEANING
FROM THE SOCIAL GRAPH
You’ve probably heard people
like us say that social media
is the world’s biggest focus
group – the hard part is how
to actually mine it for real
insight.
Look for big advances in the
algorithms that sort and
search social media. We
expect to see innovative ways
to make data more Sickweather uses real time using data
comparable, trends more from social networks to track
communicable diseases – from city to
visible and action more city, or even through networks of friends.
doable.
37. WHAT ABOUT ADVERSE EVENTS?
We might as well start with
the big one, right?
The good news is: Studies have
consistently shown that the
amount of AE conversation that is
social is a fraction of one percent
of the branded chatter.
Visible Technologies did the most
recent study. They analyzed
257,177 posts mentioning one or
more of 224 Rx and OTC brand
names. Only 0.3 percent
actually contained a report of
an AE experience. And, only 14
percent of those posts had an
identifiable full name and contact
method.
38. WHEN WILL WE GET GUIDANCE
FROM THE FDA?
Late last year, the FDA quietly released draft guidance on unsolicited
requests for off-label information. For the first time – it included guidance
for social media.
The FDA noted that this was the first of a series of planned releases.
Although reception of the new guidance was mixed, one thing was clear –
the FDA has become incredibly savvy about the role digital plays in helping
consumers make healthcare choices.
One thing that’s unlikely to ever happen: Straight social media
guidance. For the FDA, it’s about the message, not the medium. They’ve
created guidelines for promotion and advertising (fair
balance, truthful, adequate disclosure of risk, etc). They expect us to figure
out how to apply them on Twitter.
39. HOW DO BRANDS TYPICALLY GET
STARTED?
The most effective social media
efforts start with one question:
What do you want to accomplish?
• Listen to and gather feedback from your customers, employees, investors
• Learn how your brand is perceived by loyalists and detractors
• Build lasting relationships with key stakeholders
• Drive new product and service awareness and adoption
• Act quickly and in a multi-faceted way to crises
• Improve customer service by providing immediate solutions
40. HOW DO BRANDS TYPICALLY GET
STARTED? (continued)
From there, you want to build the right
foundation:
Start listening Audit the space
Build internal
Develop a pilot plan
guidelines
41. WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE THE
RESOURCES TO DO THIS MYSELF?
Long term, social engagement should definitely become part of
every marketing organizations core competency. In the short term:
there’s lots of help from your agency partners.
Distill the Uncover new
conversation ideas and Build a clear strategy
• Consumers
opportunities • Action plan
• Caregivers • Operations plan
• Workshops
• Professionals • Measures and metrics
• Planning summits
• Investors • 101s
42. WHAT REALLY GOES INTO
BUILDING PLAN?
Basically what you’re looking for is a balanced approach – one that
considers the needs of the brand and the people, ultimately
creating a unique, valued experience
THE MARKETPLACE
What assets What the
THE BRAND
What What people
SOCIAL MEDIA and brand wants
competitors want and
OPPORTUNITY resources to
are doing need
are available accomplish
43. SHOULD MY BRAND REALLY BE
ON FACEBOOK?
A little told me that isn’t the right
for every brand. Here’s how you can tell:
• Can you join your audience in a cause?
• Does your brand have advocates?
• Are you open to a dialog?
• Do you have questions for your fans?
• Is your audience searching there?
• Do you have something new to share?