More on the research findings: social media & pharma

It looks like a lot of people read my entry on the research that we conducted with consumers and social media pharma.

By Richard Meyer on Jul 31, 2009

It looks like a lot of people read my entry on the research that we conducted with consumers and social media pharma.  I wanted to follow up because we are still uncovering a lot of insights that I wanted to share with the audience and with my clients permission I wanted to share.

 

First I can confirm that as much as Twitter is getting a lot of PR there are not many people using the SM platform (estimates are that Twitter penetration remains low).

During the start of the research we provided a description and picture of social media sites and found that for Twitter he had to provide a more robust description of what Twitter is and how it works.   Interesting to note that people may go to a social media health site but view the content with skepticism and as part of collecting health information.  The more serious the hehealth condition the more time spent looking for health information.  Social media seems to be used to either reach out with specific questions or to gauge the risk of different treatments but keep in mind that this is part of the journey for health information not the end destination.

 

We also found that if you're going to do a health social media site you need to keep it updated frequently and I mean in Internet time ( at least 2-3 times a week).  Some women had gone to that Gardasil Facebook page and felt that "nothing had changed" since they launched so why should they go back.  I feel this is a major missed opportunity. Also don't be afraid to use different social media pages to segment the audience; for example one page for compliance and persistence and one page for prospects.   

Thank you all for comments and support and remember in the end it's about delivering a great consumer driven solution which meets and drives business objectives.   I live in California and I am looking for a permanent eMarketing after working on the vendor side for a year so I'm, interested in any opportunities that may arise. My eMail is richardameyer@me.com