A BLOG does not make a company social media friendly
Mar/06/2008 06:17 Filed in: Web 2.0 ?
A BLOG
is nothing more than then a platform from which
authors can express opinions and thoughts. Although
most BLOGS do have an area for comments they are
usually one way communication vehicles. Social media
is a lot more then that and it is marketers job to
facilitate the conversation between people. A
communications professional writing a BLOG is a good
first step but who is the target of this BLOG?
Consumers? Are we supposed to believe that an
employee of any pharma company can really post their
thoughts and challenge management when bad decisions
are made?
For social media to be effective marketers have to be transparent and have to get people talking among themselves about the brand, product or disease. Would you read a BLOG written by the CEO of GSK or Lilly? Would you expect it to be transparent? Of course not it probably would be more of the same old propaganda that you see in press releases of interviews with the press. But, take a physician from a cancer product team, have her or him go online to talk to people about their experiences with the product, both good and bad, and listen to what between people would be a great first step. Remember our job as marketers is to act as aggregators not pushers of promotional messages.
Saying something negative about a product or brand has always scared marketers to death but the reality is that it is happening all the time. In my research with diabetes patients I have heard over and over again "tell me the negative as well as the positive". People WANT this information to make informed choices and that is why they are turning to social media. In the ED board, for example, there are a number of people who are asking about the flushing and congestion with Levitra and Cialis. On the cholesterol forum people are comparing side effects of different statins. Yet marketers continue to ignore these voices.
Engagement is the key to successful social media utilization by marketers but until pharma becomes a hell of a lot more transparent BLOGS by employees are going to me anything except more wasted web space.
For social media to be effective marketers have to be transparent and have to get people talking among themselves about the brand, product or disease. Would you read a BLOG written by the CEO of GSK or Lilly? Would you expect it to be transparent? Of course not it probably would be more of the same old propaganda that you see in press releases of interviews with the press. But, take a physician from a cancer product team, have her or him go online to talk to people about their experiences with the product, both good and bad, and listen to what between people would be a great first step. Remember our job as marketers is to act as aggregators not pushers of promotional messages.
Saying something negative about a product or brand has always scared marketers to death but the reality is that it is happening all the time. In my research with diabetes patients I have heard over and over again "tell me the negative as well as the positive". People WANT this information to make informed choices and that is why they are turning to social media. In the ED board, for example, there are a number of people who are asking about the flushing and congestion with Levitra and Cialis. On the cholesterol forum people are comparing side effects of different statins. Yet marketers continue to ignore these voices.
Engagement is the key to successful social media utilization by marketers but until pharma becomes a hell of a lot more transparent BLOGS by employees are going to me anything except more wasted web space.
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