A Little Guilding of the Eli Lilly

Consider how Lilly’s social media presence grows.

Riding the success of its LillyPad blog and broader social media identity, Eli Lilly & Co. is branching out from the U.S. and Canada to Europe and south of the border in Mexico.

Lilly launched its LillyPad blog (http://lillypad.lilly.com) less than two years ago as a platform to discuss healthcare innovation and policy. On Twitter, the company tweets under the LillyPad handle about similar issues and has nearly 9,000 followers. Like most social media networkers in pharma, Lilly stays away from product-oriented issues and devotes attention to broader subjects in the healthcare realm.

With LillyPad branches in Europe and Mexico, the company can play by nation-specific rules and discuss off on the issues that are relevant to individual nations. Lilly also wants to give a tailored voice to specific business units. The company's clinical open innovation team, for example, has begun blogging and tweeting.

 Lilly’s emerging social media strategy appears to include establishing a wider presence in the global social media world while building targeted audiences based on factors such as geography and subject matter.