Time for DDMAC to move into the present
Social media, it's growing and its estimated that in the U.S. over 60% of all Internet users use social media to some extent.
By on May 6, 2009Social media, it's growing and its estimated that in the U.S. over 60% of all Internet users use social media to some extent. Pharma and medical device companies have not embraced social media because of the risks involved. DDMAC currently states that pharma product websites are promotional and as such any content contained within the sites can also be considered promotional. That might have been relevant in the 90's when pharma advertising was starting but it's not relevant now and it is preventing consumers, patients, pharma and medical device companies from connecting and sharing good information to help in healthcare decisions.
Marketing is changing (understatement of the century I am sure) faster than marketers would like to admit. The United States is in the midst of a transition from a labor based economy to a knowledge based economy. Never before have marketers, consumers and patients had so much information available to them from so many different sources. The challenge therefore is to know which sources of information are credible and which are garbage.
If we were to take a look at a decision making process for patient healthcare we would see that patients go online to search for health information when awareness reaches the target audience. Now most pharma marketers would have you believe that people view a pharma product ad on TV and go ask their physician for the product. This might have been true for allergy or lifestyle products but today most consumers want to know about all their treatment options before talking to their doctors. After all it's not like a doctor today can spend 20 minutes discussing side effects of all the different medications available .
Message boards like Daily Strength.com have hundreds of messages from consumers on subjects from diabetes, bipolar disorder to cancer treatments. People want to communicate with each other and share experiences and what better way to do than via the one channel that is meant for communication, The Internet. They don't believe the promotional messages on product.com websites and trust each other a lot more than drug companies.
Daily Strength.com has a lot of support groups
The new era of consumer connectedness is here and marketers have to act as brand aggregators in order to be effective. DDMAC, however, feels that social media on a pharma website maybe too promotional and the legal people are not about to let ANYONE integrate social media on a promotional website even though I showed it can be done. That thinking is myopic. to the realities of the marketplace and restricts pharma marketers from moving to the 21st century. In addition it shows no respect for consumers and patients in at DDMAC feels that they Consumers know to take social media postings with a grain of salt but it allows them to hear what others are thinking and listen to their experiences.
Pharma and medical device makers should be petitioning DDMAC to integrate social media into product websites. Here are some guidelines that could be used to integrate social media into pharma websites:
1. Disclaimer: When someone clicks on a "community" site within a pharma website they would get a pop-up box informing them that this is a tool for patients and users to share information and is NOT an endorsement of the brand or product. In addition the website owners should have the right to delete content that is considered unsuitable for the audience.
2. Site within a Site: Have the social media section embedded in the site but a site within a site with a slightly different look. Again disclaimers would be needed.
3. Verification of posters: In order to join the community people would have to be verified via return eMail much the same way that services like Gmail and MSN's hotmail use. Just think of the possibilities of connecting with people here; you could, for example, send updates on the product label to people who indicated that they are patients. You could schedule a talk by a physician and invite those people who are considering therapy but not yet there. The possibilities are endless...
4. Develop widgets so people could stay informed as to when responses to their questions are available and allow people to connect to each others as brand ambassadors. You would be surprised how many people are willing to talk to others about their health experiences firsthand.
Of course the problem with this for pharma marketers is that it would require an infrastructure to handle the social media aspect as well as a legal team who was willing to review communications on a regular basis to eliminate any content that is deemed unsuitable. However the upside of this type of program is a marketers dream. When I was at Lilly and we launched Sarafem (obviously before Prozac came off patent) I convinced management to let me have a message board as part of the website. In the first week alone we had over 250 posts from women who were anxious to share their PMDD experiences with each other. However before their posts could "go live" they had to be reviewed my the medical, legal and regulatory team which is not what social media is about today.
Social networks are growing quickly
DDMAC needs to work with pharma and medical device marketers to issue guideline on social media marketing for pharma. Yes there are barriers and marketers are worried about "controlling the message" but lets face it consumers and patients control the message today not marketers. It could be that patients don't want to engage pharma marketers in conversation and that the use of social media would be too promotional for consumers but theses first steps are needed to repair the trust between big pharma and consumers.