Many pharmaceutical marketers consider the risk of using social media in their marketing strategy but what about the risk of not engaging?
There are two main reasons why many pharmaceutical marketers are reluctant to include social media as part of their marketing activities. The first reason is missing guidelines from the FDA. It is almost two years ago the FDA started talking about social media regulations; these guidelines however have not been launched yet. You should therefore ask yourself if you want to continue to wait or if you want to use social media marketing with respect to the general pharmaceutical marketing legislation.
The second reason why many pharmaceutical marketers have been reluctant to use this medium is the reporting of adverse events. Since most pharmaceutical marketers do not want an increase in adverse events, they have chosen not to listen to what is said out there and not to engage. Studies however show that the number of adverse event reportings is significantly smaller than many pharmaceutical marketers think. In fact Nielsen Buzz Metric’s (Adobe PDF, 2 MB) analysis of messages shows that only 1 out of 500 messages met all four reporting criteria (an identifiable patient, an identifiable reporter, a specific drug or biologic and a side effect or fatal outcome). A recent analysis by Visible Technologies (Adobe PDF, 1,23 MB) emphasizes this low number of adverse event reportings. The analysis shows that only 0,3 percent of 257,000 posts (244 different products) mentioned an adverse event. Out of these 0,3 percent, only 14 percent had an identifiable patient.
Instead of solely focusing on the risks associated with social media marketing, pharmaceutical marketers should evaluate the risk of not engaging. If not listening to what is said, you will miss out on valuable information which you can use for many areas of your business and if not engaging you run the risk of leaving consumers and physicians feeling ignored and ultimately distancing yourself from these customers.
Adverse events and lack of guidelines should not be used as a shield against listening and in some cases engaging. Reviewing others’ social media initiatives is one of the best ways to spark ideas and learn from best practices and past mistakes. For more information on which possibilities the social medium can offer your business, give us a call.
Jessica Simonsen, Digital Media Consultant
