What's all this social media stuff then?
Finally ! Some people are figuring out that social media is not the knight in shining armor and that it's not going to save their brands. About time !!
By on Dec 3, 2009Finally ! Some people are figuring out that social media is not the knight in shining armor and that it's not going to save their brands. About time !!
Some news came out this week that should be a wake up call to all the social media purists that believe social media is going to save pharma's ass. Harris Polls reported that not only do consumers not trust pharma but they feel that pharma needs more regulation ! So what about this data is it that social media purists believe consumers want to have a relationship with a pharma company ? Can you imagine the FDA telling Congress that they are approving social media at a time when some drug companies are paying record fines for illegal marketing and others are admitting that they hid data? No wonder 5% of adults don't want to get a swine flu shot !
So does all this mean that pharma should abandon social media? Of course not but at a time when resources are being cut and FTE's are harder to come by they need to allocate resources to channels that will reach their audience where they are. This means that social media may or may not be a great channel for their brand objectives but it surely is not going to provide a lot of new Rx.s. A lot of marketers are realizing, the hard way, that having a lot of followers on Facebook does not translate into business objectives or the bottom line.
In my new presentation called Social Media is not going to save your brand (http://www.slideshare.net/rmeyer52/social-media-is-not-going-to-save-you...) I try and dispel the myth that social media is the Goose that laid the golden egg. The drug industry has a long path to take to try and earn back consumers trust and I believe it's going to take a long time without any headlines to earn back this trust. In the meantime the FDA has a lot of work to do also to earn consumers trust. Time to let social media stand for what it really is: a marketing tactic that may or may not be an integral part of your marketing strategy.