How Should Pharma Engage in Social Media?

It’s okay to start small – dip your toes in the water 

Yesterday I presented as part of the “virtual” summit, Social Media in Pharma. What was unique was that technology enabled a mix of international presenters and participants. The events were done live via audio with slides presented via webinar. These sessions are archived for ongoing access by attendees.

I moderated a panel discussion with:
Alex Butler, EMEA Marketing Communications Manager, Janssen Pharmaceuticals
Daisy Chhatwal, Senior Manager Regulatory Affairs, MedImmune
Ellen Hoenig-Carlson, Founding Partner, AdvanceMarketWoRx

The panel was asked to address the following questions:
•    Is social media right for pharma?
•    How can pharma get started in social media? What are the first steps?
•    Who in pharma is doing a good job of using social media?
•    What are some industry best practices?

As employees of pharmaceutical companies, Alex and Daisy were unable to share slides but were able to provide valuable perspectives during the conversation. Ellen has given me permission to share her slides alongside mine below.

What can pharma do?
We quickly moved past the question of whether pharmaceutical companies should engage in social media. The consensus was that, at a minimum, pharma should be listening and learning – gathering online insights and taking action as a result. Ellen also noted: “It’s okay to start small – dip your toes in the water.”

The examples of who is doing social media well included the Psoriasis 360 campaign that Alex worked on. Alex shared that Janssen has had around 15,000 downloads of the application with about 35,000 uses (inclusive) across all the platforms. The app provides a psoriasis severity calculator and impact questionnaire.

Check out the slides and let us know what you think.

(Image courtesy of Shannon Kringen on Flickr).

About Eileen O'Brien

Eileen has more than 16 years of digital healthcare marketing experience. She is an opinion leader on social media and biopharma, and has been invited to speak at industry conferences and quoted in publications. She can be found on Twitter at @EileenOBrien and on Google+.

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