Blog

The chat: We hate social media mashup

Posted on 23. Jul, 2010 by phaedrus in Communications, Health, News, Web 2.0

Aurora has dived into the social media ocean head first and can’t wait for the ripples to reach you. We recently posted six home-made videos on our own YouTube channel, ironically named We Hate Social Media. At Aurora we don’t hate social media, far from it in fact. Some of us are positively geeky about the ins, outs, and what-have-yous of social media dialogue and platforms from Facebook to the blogosphere, Twitter to YouTube. And the reason we don’t hate, or fear social media, is because we understand it and use it every day. Understanding is the first and crucial step to using social media in a responsible and Code compliant way to support healthcare communications activities. Here is our mashup compilation of the six videos followed by a synopsis of each video. To see the individual videos, go to www.wehatesocialmedia.com.

Neil’s introduction

Social media (SM) is a massive buzzword at the moment, but web 2.0 folk and evangelists don’t understand the pharmaceutical industry, the challenges faced and the resulting frustration. As a specialist healthcare communications agency, Aurora understands these concerns and how they can be handled within the remit of the Code, and can help our pharmaceutical company clients find the love and develop strong value propositions for dialogue.

Claire on appropriateness

SM is a pharmaceutical hot potato, as taking part in the conversation could potentially be deemed promotion, and in breach of the Code, but SM has taken off at a staggering pace. People check SM channels for information before other traditional media and online sources. The barriers between personal and professional use of digital media are coming down and staying silent in this climate means you don’t get heard and leaves an organisation open to criticism and an inability to respond. Dialogue through SM is becoming essential and the pharmaceutical industry has a role to play.

Siân on regulations

SM appears at first to be a compliance minefield, where rules are prohibitive and the Code may dictate that any online chat is promotional, so pharma plus SM equals impossible. But there are no hard and fast rules. We just need to ask ourselves one question: “What are we actually trying to achieve by getting into a dialogue with people?” If it is for increased access to balanced fair and accurate information on health issues for various audiences then it is a good place to start, but if it is about promoting or advertising specific medicines then SM is not the medium to use. Regulations don’t make doom and gloom and there is lots of change on the horizon. We need to be prepared to move in the right direction with this change.

Sarah on risks

People say: “we hate social media because it represents a danger to our organisation”. People may be talking about us and we believe we can’t do anything to respond to these statements, even to correct any errors or inaccuracies that we see. We fear SM because it represents a loss of control. Traditional media is more predictable and secure and we can see great risks arising from talking with people online. However, the pharmaceutical industry is happy to respond to traditional media when necessary, so should be ready, willing and able to do so within SM too. There is no reason why a pharmaceutical company should not respond to online conversations, provided they have listened attentively and are making a relevant, accurate and useful comment. Being silent or guarded will appear suspicious and attract criticism. Any risks can be managed. The best course of action is to put appropriate systems in place, find your ears and listen to the conversations, then find your voice and engage sensibly and responsibly in the discourse.

Aaron on resourcing challenges

The resourcing argument for social media goes something like this: “To set up a SM project in the UK, the required governance would necessitate SOPs, conversations with legal and other signatories, holding statements, issues mapping and securing support from colleagues. Will I have the resources to deal with all this?” In response to this, there are some valuable examples of SM projects ongoing in the UK. Companies delivering these projects have successfully put appropriate governance in place. Aurora advises that the first step to take is an early round-table discussion with all relevant people, who will influence SM governance. This includes representatives from legal, med info, drug safety, medical regulatory, brand and communications teams. This will help identify obstacles and manage SM projects and also provides a great opportunity to bring heads together at an early stage. SM can then be set up in a time and cost effective way. Worthwhile activities like this take time and effort but need not be laborious.

And finally… Neil on the benefits

Critics of SM in pharmaceutical communications may claim that it can do nothing for their brand or organisation, that there is no specific, measurable ROI for this type of activity, and that no one wants to talk to or hear from the pharmaceutical industry. However, our experience shows that online dialogue can be a good addition to communications strategy, and ROI can be monitored. The SM arena can be considered as a giant advisory board. The conversations are open and ongoing and participants can engage for half an hour of every day, rather than just one afternoon in the year at a business hotel in the M4 corridor. This encourages and develops valuable discourse on health topics that can be easily monitored and shared. Additionally, there is much call for the pharmaceutical industry to engage in SM, so people do want to talk to pharmaceutical companies and to hear what the industry has to say. Given how much can be learnt from this engagement, it is a worthwhile activity to which resources should be allocated with at least the magnitude of an advisory board programme.

If you want to find the love for social media then give us a call on +44 (0)20 7424 7940 and ask to speak to Neil, Claire, Siân, Sarah or Aaron, or send us a tweet to @aurorahealthpr.