Leveraging Social Media in the Pharmaceutical Industry - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 490

As firms follow the LEADS strategy for social media strategy, they should also
integrate it with their overall marketing strategy. Pharmaceutical firms can follow a
six-step plan to integrate social media marketing with their overall marketing.

Track brand . This step involves monitoring the brand in all forms of media, includ-
ing social media. Third-party vendors such as Radian 6 provide measures of brand
mentions and enable firms to track their brands.
Identify and communicate with patient and physician opinion leaders (e.g., Six
Until Me diabetes blog, Brass and Ivory blog). Pharmaceutical firms need to first
identify opinion leaders among physicians and patients by monitoring relevant
blogs. They should provide timely unbiased information relating to their brands to
these opinion leaders.
Support social network ( s ) (e.g., Ning, MySpace, WebMD, CureTogether,
PatientsLikeMe). Pharmaceutical firms can be proactive by supporting relevant
social networks of physicians and patients through relevant content and financial
sponsorship. However, they may need to weigh the pros and cons of explicitly
advertising their sponsorship because it could detract from the authenticity of the
site and messages.
Hangout with physicians and experts in their networks (e.g., EyeSpaceMD for
ophthalmologists, SpineConnect, MedTrust). In the relevant social networks, firms
need to engage physicians and patients by discussing relevant issues and ideas.

Use video . Because the visual medium is powerful for memorability, firms should
actively seek opportunities to use video. Posting, sharing, and distributing relevant
information videos will enhance the authenticity of the brand.

Go mobile . Firms should use the rapidly growing mobile media to engage physi-
cians first. Once they start engaging physicians, they can continually experiment to
figure out the best way to engage them. They should establish partnerships with
mobile operators, applications providers, and other technology providers. Because
speed is of essence, firms are better served by forming relationships early and not
waiting for the perfect partner.

16.5 Implications

The allocation of marketing resources while leveraging unmeasured and new media
is becoming a challenging task for practitioners (Shankar 2008 ; Shankar and
Hollinger 2007 ). Metrics that quantify social media activities are needed to measure
social media efforts and their impact on brand performance. The most prominent
and obvious metric of social media activities is engagement, but engagement is not
an easy metric to capture.