Leveraging Social Media in the Pharmaceutical Industry - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 492

( www.twittergrader.com ) ranks the tweets on influence based on a proprietary
algorithm. Twinfluence ( www.twinluence.com ) purports to measure the clout
on the service.
• Twitter's own search engine offers one of the indispensable monitoring tools.
Firms can enter their brand's name or your Twitterfeed's name both with and
without the “@” command. Each search delivers different results on how the
feed is being mentioned and retweeted around the Web.

In communicating with patient audiences through social media, the first question
firms need to ask is not what message they want to see penetrate in a given blog
or forum, but how they can contribute to an ongoing two-way dialog with the
community and meet people seeking health information.

16.5.2 Dos and Don'ts of Social Media

Our preceding discussion on social media and networks offers some prescriptions
for pharmaceutical firms.

• View social media over long term . Social media and networks are here to stay.
Therefore, pharmaceutical firms need to develop a long-term social media
strategy. Although they can experiment in the short-term and improve their strat-
egies, firms should approach social media from a long-term perspective.
• Facilitate dialogs and conversations . Sponsoring a Twitter chat that invites
experts to discuss with patients about a health condition or health story in the
news is a good way of starting useful conversations. Firms could allow consum-
ers to submit questions to experts about health conditions and other questions
around medications.
• Offer content valued by stakeholders . The importance of contents in digital era
cannot be emphasized enough. When information is flooding online, only the
most valuable contents can attract users and drive repeated visits.
• Update content frequently . Firms need to constantly update their sites and online
initiatives. They can continually improve their digital and social media presence
by sponsoring a weekly chat or support a group on social media.
• Don't plug in / push propaganda / ads . Social media are channels to reach new
customers and build loyalty of existing customers through building digital com-
munities and providing valuable contents, which can be ultimately translated
into higher sales. Firms should educate their e-customers and don't hard sell
using plug in/push propaganda or popping out ads, which can only annoy your
e-customers and drive them away.
• Customize content to communities . Given that their competitors constantly
improve their digital and social media initiatives, firms need to offer added value
to the communities they sponsor. One way they can provide the incremental
value is to customize content to the community members.