Social Media in PharmaMaking it Happen

Gary Monk

Social Media in PharmaMaking it Happen

Gary Monk

Presentation includes speaker notes on slides

@garymonk

garywmonk

gary@garymonk.com

@garymonk

garywmonk

gary@garymonk.comI have delivered social media programmes inside and outside of pharma and understand the challenges, I hope I can share some useful learning’s!

This presentation centres around Facebook, it is the biggest social media platform however the learning’s can be transferred to almost any social media platform or programme

There are other pharma companies on Facebook. These ‘FAIRLY BIG 4’ corporate pages have been compared and contrasted. The Top 2 pages by likes are J&J and Bayer. A subject for another presentation...

This presentation is not about beating up ANY of these companies, rather identifying and sharing valuable learnings

ALL of these companies deserve recognition for being brave and actually going out there into the social space!

Terms and conditions are warm, welcoming and friendly. The language is fun, yet explains clearly WHAT is allowed, in terms of comments and WHY

Example of Boehringer using human language to outline community rules

Boehringer have an interesting approach curating exciting health technology news and innovations in combination with their own news

“So we're changing from just Boehringer Ingelheim 'boring pharma company', just giving out its news, to become more of a news source.”

Quote via PM Live on why they have taken this approach

Approach

The content approach thus combines a blend of internal and external news

Responding

Boehringer respond quickly to questions in a friendly way

Responding

Responses are considered, compliant but warm

Engaging

Boehringer like to ask questions and they usually get a good response

Infographics

Note Boehringers use of infographics and the split between German and English language

• Nice friendly introductory explanation as to what can and can’t be discussed• Very transparent list, If you choose

to list these in your own page, consider how you word these to ensure they remain friendly• Consider the resources required to

deal with non-english or non-local language. What language do your stakeholders want to express themselves in?

Good transparency from Novartis, asking employees to ‘announce’ themselves in Social Media

Approach

Novartis produces engaging content primarily internally focused, around the company

Responding

Novartis are very good at responding quickly. In this case they had to hide a product mention for compliance reasons however responded back with clear next steps for support

Infographics

Novartis also use engaging infographics

Employee support

Novartis employees strongly support the Facebook site and help to dilute any negativity

GSK are clear on what is allowable on their page and explain why

ApproachGSK talk primarily about themselves, they use interesting hooks to generate engagement such as celebrity endorsement i.e. F1 driver Jenson Button. They also had a great sponsorship campaign of the London 2012 Olympics

Historic negative comments

In a previous blog I highlighted historic negative comments to GSK. These seem to have reduced. It is not clear if they becoming less prominent or if GSK are taking a stronger line in terms of moderating them

Non English comments welcome

GSK have a global approach with comments allowed in multiple languages

Strong employee support

Employees are very positive. Even assuming the ‘KILLERS’ comment is negative and not simply an off topic reference to the band of the same name, it is diluted by the positivity cultivated on the page.

Responding

A really nice example of GSK responding quickly and openly to questions about a negative GSK news story. It is very important to get the responses to these constructive questions right, and of course to not hide these sort of comments!

Responding

Another example of a typical response although a little slower

Pfizer are clear what is and what is not permissible. They do suggest people reach out to them which is a nice touch

Approach

Pfizer use strong news articles that people tend to interact with. These are very much focused on Pfizer

Unanswered questions

Unanswered questions

There are several recent questions asked of Pfizer on their page and they elect not to reply. It is important to consider your approach. Usually it is a convoluted legal process that prevents responses being given to questions in a timely manner, rather than a desire not to talk to people

Strong employee support

Employees are extremely ‘loving’ to Pfizer. It would be good to see at least some discussion here with differing view points

Different companies, different tones and styles however some common principles on using corporate social media

Page likes

43367 95748 92989 84545

All companies have significant numbers of page likes

Average post likes

99 153 171 347

Boehringer have a significant number of average post likes, partly driven by rich media such as video and curating exciting and relevant healthcare news

Average post comments

4.4 4.6 5.5 4.3

All companies are generating a similar amount of comments with GSK slightly ahead

# posts last 3 months

25 26 25 37

All companies are generating good interactions with their posts and could consider increasing the volume of quality content that they post

Learnings

• Human and friendly ‘engagement policy’• Defined process for managing comments• Rich content schedule• Approval processes to support a quick &

human response• Stakeholder value?• Consider approach to multiple languages

@garymonk

garywmonk

gary@garymonk.com

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