Leveraging Social Media in the Pharmaceutical Industry - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 475

a handful of submissions and over 53,000 page views (Miley and Thomaselli 2009 ).
Similarly, AstraZeneca launched CelebrationChain.com, an interactive effort for
breast cancer awareness that allows patients to create virtual paper doll likenesses
of fellow survivors and e-mail them to recipients.
In September 2008, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) launched the Advanced Breast
Cancer Community, an information source and online community for advanced breast
cancer patients, caregivers, family, and friends. The AdvancedBreastCancerCommunity.
org represents the collective thinking of a partnership among 13 of the leading
breast cancer patient advocacy organizations in the United States, the Advocate
Partners and Inspire. The website also reflects new research, treatment, and clinical
trials information.
Other innovative followers have introduced new ways to reach their patients and
physicians. Sanofi-Aventis rolled out a multimedia GoInsulin campaign designed to
encourage Type 2 diabetes patients to use insulin and control their blood sugar. This
campaign includes a Youtube channel ( www.youtube.com/user/goinsulin ) . Pizer
entered into a deal with Sermo to peephole into Sermo's strong community of phy-
sicians and their ideas about its products. This collaboration is designed to comple-
ment, not replace, Pfizer's sales force activities. Novartis dabbled in user-generated
content with its November FluFlix.com contest on YouTube, asking users to post
2-min videos on how the flu makes them feel and offering three $500 prizes.
Statements by pharmaceutical executives support their focus on social media.
“I don't think there's a question any more as to whether or not we have to get
involved in social media. We have no choice” (Ray Kerins, VP, Worldwide com-
munications, Pfizer). “I think pharma will proceed more deliberately with social
media, but they won't abandon it,” said a former pharmaceutical-company advertis-
ing executive from BMS (Thomaselli 2011 ). Michael Berelowitz, Pfizer's senior
vice president for global medical, says the company wants to communicate more
openly (by utilizing social media), despite the risk. “We live in an environment
where we're closely monitored all the time and have constraints around what we say
and how we say it,” he says. “Given that this kind of (social) medium is the way
forward…we have to learn how to behave in it” (Wall Street Journal 2007 ).
By 2011 end, the top 20 pharmaceutical companies owned one more corporate
Facebook page, 17 (85 %) are on Twitter, 13 (65 %) run a Youtube channel, eight
(40 %) sponsor online physician or patient communities, and six (30 %) maintain a
corporate blog. As social media gradually become accepted in the corporation and
as FDA starts to provide guidelines on social media practices, pharmaceutical firms
will increase their use of social media (Table 16.1 ).

16.3 Word of Mouth

Word of mouth (WOM) is the building block for understanding the effects of social
media. There have been extensive studies on the topic of word of mouth for nearly
half a century. Early studies found evidence for WOM to be an important driver of