The Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award recognizes pharmaceutical executives or teams who have innovatively used social media for marketing and communication. Notable recipients include Alex Butler for the first pharma Facebook page allowing comments, Tony Jewell for the first pharma-sponsored Twitter chat, and the Sanofi US diabetes team for their persistence with social media despite challenges. The document highlights the evolution of social media engagement in the pharmaceutical industry over the years.

1. The Pharmaguy Social Media
Pioneer Award
Recognizing a pharmaceutical executive or team who
has "pioneered" in the use of social media for marketing,
research, or corporate communications purposes.
Pharmaguy
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

2. 2
What’s With the Hawaiian Shirt?
At ExL Pharma's 3rd Annual Digital
Pharma "un" conference in October,
2009, Pharmaguy wanted to “stand
out” from the crowd. So he wore a
bright yellow & black Hawaiian shirt
that was left over from his Hunter
Thompson Halloween costume. It
was appropriate considering all the
“fear & loathing” that was in the air
just before FDA’s pivotal November,
2009, public hearing on social
media.
The shirt has come to symbolize how pharma social media
pioneers stand out from the crowd despite the drug industry’s
“fear” and FDA’s “loathing” of social media.
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

3. 3
Alex Butler Received 1st Award
October 19, 2010
Alex Butler (@alex__butler), former
Digital Strategy and Social Media
Manager at Janssen, received the
first Pharmaguy Social Media
Pioneer Award for Psoriasis 360 –
the first (and only) pharma Facebook
page that allowed comments without
pre-moderation.
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

4. 4
Butler on Moderation
Alex tweeted:
“moderation is about engagement, leading and responding to the
community, not censorship. Negative comments r V[ery]
valuable”
“If you want to receive the
benefits of SM engagement it has
to be real, community moderate
themselves in the end”
“if a brand, company, person is
that worried about comments in
SM there is probably a deeper
issue under the surface”
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

5. 5
Janssen on Moderation
March, 2011
In a statement published on the page‟s wall, the "Psoriasis 360
team" said "we have found ourselves removing a larger and larger
proportion of posts, stifling worthwhile discussions."
Janssen cited its inability to postmoderate posts made to the
Psoriasis 360 wall, one-third of
which "mention[ed] a specific
drug by name, or talk[ed] about
the efficacy of a particular
treatment is (or its side effects).”
© 2013 Pharmaguy™
The page was removed in
August, 2011, presumably due to
Face-book‟s new policy
disallowing comments to be shut
off.

6. 6
What Alex is Doing Today
July 2013
View "The Healthcare revolution will not be televised” here:
http://youtu.be/ocZpntYmYIE or Next…
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

7. 7
Tony Jewell Received 2nd Award
October 18, 2011
Tony Jewell (@tonyjewell),
former Senior Director of
External Communications at
AstraZeneca US, received
the second Pharmaguy
Social Media Pioneer Award
for #rxsave – the first (and
only) pharma sponsored
Twitter chat.
View the Video here: http://vimeo.com/30755497
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

8. 8
First Live Pharma Twitter Chat
February 16, 2011
AstraZeneca hosted a one-hour chat on Twitter to raise awareness about
helping patients save money through prescription savings programs.
Pharmaguy said, "This is quite gutsy of AZ considering that anyone can
„join‟ the chat simply by posting a message containing the #rxsave hashtag.
And anyone can and DID post messages about AZ drug side effects.”
Although the most posts were
made by people attempting to
“hijack” the conversation and
focus on the side effects of
Seroquel, the conversation
continued and was productive.
AZ acknowledged these posts &
offered to discuss the issues offline.
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

9. 9
What Tony Is Doing Today
August 2013
Tony started his own public
relations firm and is kicking
back, enjoying the Jersey
Shore!
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

10. 10
Sanofi US Diabetes Team
Received 3rd Award
October 17, 2012
PharmaGuy presented the Award to Dennis Urbaniak, VP, Joan
Mikardos, Senior Director, and Laura Kolodjeski, Senior Manager,
Patient Solutions, at Sanofi US Diabetes. Accepting the award on
behalf of the winners -- who could not make it in person -- was
Wendy Blackburn of Intouch Solutions.
View the Video here: http://youtu.be/3oJFbjuevBY
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

11. 11
Sanofi Diabetes FB Success
This team deserved recognition because it didn't give up on social
media even after a "disgruntled" patient caused Sanofi to shut down
a Facebook page that did not have comments turned off. Urbaniak et
al learned a lot from this experience and applied what they learned
to the Sanofi Diabetes Facebook page.
“Since we operate in a heavily
regulated industry, we… must
preview all messages.”
“While some messages may not
be posted, we are listening and
encourage you to continue
sharing.”
“Likes” have grown from 522 in Jan 2011 to over 6,700 in June 2013.
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

12. 12
Joan & Laura Give a Shout Out
View the Video here: http://youtu.be/kU2Tc6EuPI8 or Next…
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

13. 13
Roche Digital Academy Team
(Italy) Received 4th Award
October 15, 2013
Pharmaguy presented the 4th Annual Pharmaguy Social Media
Pioneer Award to the Roche (Italy) Digital Academy Team and its
leader Davide Bottalico, MD, Digital Marketing Manager. Denis Dina,
Digital Strategic Planner at Roche, accepted the award on behalf of
the team.
Davide Bottalico,
Team Leader (center)
Gaetano Vancheri,
Stefania Nicastro (left)
Alessia Ferrario, and
Denis Dina (right)
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

14. 14
Denis Dina Accepts Award
View the Video here: http://youtu.be/urMDb8eAOes or Next…
© 2013 Pharmaguy™

15. Contact Me
If you can’t decode, hit the road!
© 2013 Pharmaguy™