I spent the last two days chairing the Social Media for Pharma conference and boy are my arms tired.
Actually, it’s my brain that’s tired – because it got a lot of exercise.
Some speaker comments that resonated:
Julie Zawisza (CDER’s Director of Communications): “If we don’t tell our own story – others will.”
So true. And not just for the FDA. The same is equally relevant for pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. Perhaps even more so. In fact, definitely more so.
Paul Buckman, the FDA’s new Dean of Digital, revealed that there is an FDA employee who is (in real time) posting responses to queries generated on the agency’s FaceBook page. This is surprising considering that such a thing would certainly constitute an FDA “written response.” More on this as it develops.
Ambre Morley and Alpesh Patel (product communications and regulatory affairs at Novo Nordisk respectively) discussed their much-ballyhooed Twitter campaign (for Levemir) with IndyCar driver Charlie Kimball. At the beginning of the presentation, Alpesh said that when Ambre first discussed the idea with him, he said, “Let me think about it.” To which Ambre replied, “Actually, you said no.” Success, as they say, has many fathers.
J&J’s always-insightful Marc Monseau shared some gems, discussing the need for well-developed social media “policy, process and guardrails.” The most important pharmaceutical company asset for success in social media? “A cultural willingness to try.” Amen.
Shwen Gwee and Zach Barber (Vertex) discussed their company’s foray into Twitter – and the interesting correlation between number of tweets and number of followers. Shwen also shared their concern over “proactive following.” Add that one to things that make you go hmm. (FYI – current Vertex Twitter guidelines can be found here.)
Both the Novo Nordisk and the Vertex presentations raised questions about retweets – especially those with a hotlink. All present agreed that all links should be carefully vetted before being retweeted. (Here’s a brainteaser – what about retweeting an FDA tweet with a product-specific hotlink that doesn’t one-click to the P.I.? Once again – hmm.)
Relative to FDA tweets and the aforementioned FDA FaceBook – and as if things weren’t ambiguous enough – what happens when you have the federal agency in charge saying (for all intents and purposes) “do as I say, not as I do.” And, of course, this is made even worse since the FDA isn’t saying much.
But I digress.
During one of the breaks, I participated in a very entertaining conversation with three regulatory types from three different companies. We decided there is an unmet need for “regulatory emoticons.” The consensus opinion was for an emoticon representing arms crossed across the chest. We felt that a more, shall we say, digit-based representation was overly confrontational.
Nancy Buono Cartwright (Kaiser Permanente) discussed using social media as an internal communications tool. Much smart thinking and nifty program elements. Her suggestion for engagement --“Play in traffic.” Not the best way to encourage an already skittish audience. Auto de fé indeed!
The omega presenter was Dennis Urbaniak (sanofi-aventis) and he had a keen observation about pharma and social media, “It’s not if anymore – it’s when and how.”
He also pointed out that social media (as part of an integrated marketing strategy) is unlike other, more traditional component – such as advertising. Social media programs are the gift that (properly understood and harvested) is the gift that keeps on giving.
What does that mean? Well, a DTC television commercial doesn’t generate anything once it’s been aired. Social media, on the other hand, generates awareness, interaction, a call to action (when appropriate), and robust metrics that supply real-time competitive intelligence.
Need I say more?
There were many excellent presenters who I have not mentioned. The complete program agenda can be found here.
