Leveraging Social Media for Pharmaceutical Companies. In 2010, a Synthesio survey revealed that health was the most disc
Global Social Media Monitoring
Leveraging Social Media for Pharmaceutical Companies
The use of social media has increased phenomenally: people are now sharing 30 billion comments on Facebook every month, along with 2 billion tweets and several billion comments on blogs and forums. 20% of this user generated content menAons a specific drug or disease. This natural tendency of paAents, physicians and caregivers to share when it comes to their health can be of huge value for brands. The challenge comes from making sense of large quanAAes of data while abiding with legal regulaAons.
Summary How Social Media is Changing the Rules in Pharma DetecAng and Managing Adverse events CreaAng digital iniAaAves that meet legal regulaAons
Leveraging Social Media for Pharmaceutical Companies How Social Media is Changing the Rules in Pharma Pa(ents seek and share informa(on online
In 2010, a Synthesio survey revealed that health was the most discussed topic, represenAng 20% of all online conversaAons. This result confirms Pew Internet’s 2009 analysis that indicates that 60% of people turn to the Internet first when seeking health-‐ related informaAon.
Social media fulfill a basic need for safety People behave online as they do in “real life”. In a recent survey, Forrester made an interesAng correlaAon between the Maslow hierarchy of needs and what moAvates people to share content online. According to the analysis, people join online communiAes and share with others to fulfill a need for safety ; this is the second level in the Maslow hierarchy of needs. Many people wishing to socialize converse on online forums, Facebook or TwiXer to ask for or look for advice, gain experience and parAcularly to be reassured about their health condiAon. Thus, it was not surprising to find out that 10% of all the comments published using social media menAon the word HELP.
Pa(ents are in control Social media and the overwhelming volume of content published daily online have made a significant impact on relaAonships between physicians, brands and paAents. The laXer search for their symptoms on sites like PaAentslikeme or DocAssimo and formulate their own diagnoses from all feedback published by other web users. Brands, Physicians, clinics, and hospitals are increasingly faced with over-‐informed paAents that demand prescripAons for the medicaAons they have already chosen online and that do not hesitate to post their own reviews of their experiences. Synthesio recently analyzed several new websites like Vitals.com that allow paAents even to evaluate their doctors.
A new rela(onship between pa(ents, physicians and the web
In this social media context, the need for physicians to manage their online reputaAons has become criAcal. They are using the Internet to learn more about certain pharmaceuAcal companies and devices and have started to group into professional online communiAes like docboards.com. A new triparAte relaAonship has been created between the paAent, the doctor and the Internet in choosing the right medicaAon. It has therefore become crucial for pharmaceuAcal brands to understand how social media affects both physicians and paAents. 2009, Pew Internet Survey The Social Life of Health InformaAon 2010, Secret of successful social communiAes from Forrester
Leveraging Social Media for Pharmaceutical Companies Know Your Patients Expectations Building “super focus groups” to discover insights
Cancer, depression and diabetes are all diseases that have specific social networks where thousands of paAents, physicians and families around the world gather in “super focus groups” and share on a large scale. This new situaAon has given researchers an opportunity to become amazingly inAmate with customers they usually can only see through a focus group looking glass.
Crea(ng more relevant marke(ng materials
Different biases that can arise due to social representaAon or fear of expressing feelings publicly do not exist in discussion boards where privacy is respected. This inAmacy allows paAents to share their thoughts and quesAons that they didn’t think or dare to ask their doctors. Insights can be discovered naturally as web users are not misled to responses that certain brand would like them to have. Exploring these conversaAons provides a new understanding of language and expressions used by paAents. It gives brands opportuniAes to create beXer markeAng materials, including packaging and communicaAon strategies aimed towards physicians and paAents.
Saving money on tradi(onal focus groups
Surveys are expensive. The structural costs of a focus group do not exist in social media (recruiAng charges, faciliAes, moderators fees). Using social media for collecAng insights allows brands to save money and focus on providing beXer answers to their paAents’ and physicians’ needs.
Case Studies
Milk oden has a negaAve online reputaAon due to environmental concerns and worries about allergies and organic vs. geneAcally-‐modified milk. The milk lobby began monitoring and has since discovered new insights on customers’ needs. The results were surprising for them : They first noAced that 70% of the content was provided by women worried about their children’s health. Several topics reported as important in their last “tradiAonal” surveys were not well-‐represented (eg environmental issues), while other topics that they weren’t expecAng were well-‐represented (eg “weight-‐loss diets” and milk were associated). They hired a community manager to work side-‐by-‐ side with a nutriAonist to provide consumers with up-‐to-‐date informaAon on milk’s benefits and conveniences.
A major Pharma brand wanted to listen to online conversaAons to idenAfy new insights around diabetes in 6 countries. An in-‐depth listening of social media brought about some unexpected results. They were surprised to noAce that most discussions were about insulin devices rather than the disease, itself. Pumps and pens were the main source of concern of recently diagnosed paAents who struggled to find the best device opAon for themselves. Using these results, the brand reported that their goal is to work on new materials for physicians and paAents on how to cope with the disease by answering simple quesAons such as: How to choose a device? What are recent improvements in research?, etc.
Leveraging Social Media for Pharmaceutical Companies Detecting and Managing Adverse Events The impact of social media on reported adverse events
When monitoring social media, brands must be prepared to discover adverse events that must be reported to legal authoriAes. Studies show that the percentage of reportable adverse events within online conversaAons ranges from 0.2% (Nielsen survey 2008) to 7% (PaAentlikeme survey 2010). These staAsAcs highlight the difficulty of meeAng the 4 criteria that qualify an adverse event as reportable (ie menAons of the drug, the brand, idenAty of the paAent and the reporter). At Synthesio we monitored 2 adverse events that caused major crises for their brands. In both situaAons, these adverse events had been idenAfied at the same Ame as through other channels (physicians, FDA, paAents, etc) but social media contributed to over 60% of the content published about them.
Certain crises can be avoided if an(cipated
In the midst of a communicaAons crisis, each statement has to abide by a lengthy list of regulaAons that cannot let a Pharma company respond quickly and be as transparent as social media “rules” would like them to be. This leaves liXle room for a Pharma company to say what they would like in a crisis situaAon and they must be prepared by pujng a social media crisis plan into place a before the “fire” happens : • Know what can and cannot be said on social media • Define which people will be alerted when a “fire” occurs • IdenAfy key opinion leaders: both advocates and detractors • Analyze which areas, products and countries are suscepAble to a crisis • Define the right KPI’s to measure the evoluAon of the crisis over Ame as well as the impact of your communicaAon
Facilita(ng the detec(on of adverse events
The best way to detect adverse events is to work with analysts internally or externally that regularly sid through the discussions published about various products. Brands can now define automated alerts for suscepAble search terms and put into place a process for transferring adverse events to the company’s internal pharmacovigilance department.
Epilepsy Community
PaAentsLikeMe is a leading US social website with which UCB partnered to launch a paAent community for epilepsy. This plalorm created parAcularly for people with epilepsy enables UCB to beXer understand paAents, their day-‐to-‐day lives and treatment experiences. UCB is also taking the lead in providing paAents with more informaAon about the disease. The program was also designed to capture and report adverse events associated with approved UCB epilepsy therapies to the U.S. Food and Drug AdministraAon (FDA). Learn more: hXp://www.paAentslikeme.com/epilepsy/community
Implement policies for user generated content Sanofi Voices Sanofi Voices is a network of employees, reArees and partners for the brand that decided to use Facebook as their plalorm. Soon ader launch, the page was invaded by consumers reporAng adverse events. The company had not put moderaAon policies into place and first closed the comments, adding a disclaimer to the page. They have since led their Facebook page untouched.
Leveraging Social Media for Pharmaceutical Companies Creating digital initiatives that meet legal requirements Brand engagement on Social media is difficult
Over the past two years, community engagement iniAaAves on social tools like TwiXer or Facebook have been highly criAcized. Indeed, these tools that promote real-‐Ame sharing with consumers do not match with a brands capability to respond that quickly. Each statement from a brand must be approved by legal departments in order to meet legal requirements. This highly regulated space does not leave much room for social media engagement, as shown in the NovarAs experience with Facebook.
In 2010, the FDA sent a leXer to NovarAs, ciAng violaAon with regards to the use of sharing features on Facebook. The FDA reported that “the shared content is misleading because it makes representaAons about the efficacy of Tasigna but fails to communicate any risk informaAon associated with the use of this drug."
A record of successful digital ini(a(ves
The race for disease oriented online spaces began 2 years ago. Some spaces are officially brand sponsored, while others simply popular online spaces for the discussion of topics that are relevant to the brand. Brands find interesAng opportuniAes here to gather paAents around a single plalorm, considered as a reference for the disease. These plalorms reassure and build trust by offering advice, news on research improvements and answers to quesAons idenAfied during the monitoring process.
Children with Diabetes, U.S.A.
In 2008 J&J purchased this site for a reported amount of $6 million. Children with diabetes is an online community for parents, children, adults, and families living with type 1 diabetes. The site offers advice from health professionals, gives updates on research progress and provide care suggesAons. A forum with over 600,000 conversaAons is available for visitors. Learn more: hXp://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/
“Parle avec elle,” breast cancer, France
“Parle avec elle” (Speak with her) is a site for women to share about breast cancer. Its forum-‐like atmosphere is created via a collecAve blog and various forums. The community is supported by Sophie, a community manager. Sophie writes her own blog “Femmes avant tout” that is clearly marked as a partnership with Roche. The community feeling is reinforced with photos of community members that recently visited. Femmes avant tout has an editorial chart clearly describing the blog’s policies. Learn more: hXp://www.parleavecelles.fr/
CML Earth
CML Earth is a social network for paAents suffering from chronic myelogenous leukemia. It enables people from around the world to gather in a single space and share about their lives with the disease. The site has interesAng geolocalizaAon features that allow people who gather virtually to find their peers that are around them physically. Learn more: hXp://www.cmlearth.com More case studies are available here: Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki
Leveraging Social Media for Pharmaceutical Companies
The ultimate goal
The race for disease oriented online spaces began 2 years ago. Some spaces are officially brand sponsored, while others simply popular online spaces for the discussion of topics that are relevant to the brand. Brands find interesAng opportuniAes here to gather paAents around a single plalorm, considered as a reference for the disease. These plalorms reassure and build trust by offering advice, news on research improvements and answers to quesAons idenAfied during the monitoring process.
Thank you to Pew internet, Forrester, the Pharma and Healthcare social media wiki, and the presenta9on Pharma's Top Social Media Efforts for the quality of their analyses.
About Synthesio Synthesio is a global, mulA-‐lingual Social Media Monitoring and research company, uAlizing a powerful hybrid of tech and human monitoring services to help Brands and Agencies collect and analyze consumer conversaAons online. The result is acAonable analyAcs and insights that provide an accurate snapshot of a brand and helps answer the ulAmate quesAons – how are we really doing right now, and how can we make it beXer. Founded in 2006, the company has grown to include analysts who provide naAve-‐language monitoring and analyAc services in over 30 languages worldwide. Brands such as Toyota, Microsod, Sanofi, Accor, Orange and many other well-‐known companies turn to Synthesio for the data they need to engage their markets, anAcipate and prepare for emerging crisis situaAons, and prepare for new product or new campaign launches. WWW.SYNTHESIO.COM
