A path to social media success in the pharmaceutical Industry

With estimations now going past 50% of the world’s population using social media in 2021, and this number still constantly growing, it is crucial for businesses to be present on some of these networks. For pharmaceutical firms this means to take the next step closer to connect and interact differently and more directly with patients, their families and their impacted network as a whole.

Given the regulated and traditionally rather risk-averse nature of this industry, many companies joined the world of social media rather late. Slowly they found themselves having completed their first steps, projects and programs in this fast-paced environment during the last years, and with these experiences and learnings now take the time to re-evaluate their situation and adjust the course of action to improve their positions in the social media marketing.

The text below describes thoughts and considerations on how pharma companies can succeed with social media strategies and engagements and how they avoid typical pitfalls.

First step: Understand what social media really is about

It’s a matter of only a few minutes to create a new (company) account, which then allows to share content. But with the creation of content there are some challenges that rise. Let’s take a look at the situation in the pharma industry.

Social media is all about providing interesting content leading to engagement and interactions with users and potentially resulting in more reach and visibility. But at the same time the fast-paced environment of Social Media and the expectations of being active regularly and with high frequency collides at times with the traditional ways of working and thinking of pharmaceutical firms. Pharma companies are known to take their time for content creation, reviews and approvals in a regulated world, safeguarding and protecting the companies and brands. This hurdle can only be taken successfully by companies giving their social media channels the same dedication, attention and assigned employees as all of their other marketing activities.

Second step: Social media needs to be a part of the company’s marketing strategy

It is crucial for the success of pharmaceutical companies that the social media strategy is part of their integrated digital (marketing) strategy and includes a strategy for content creation and distribution. Companies should ask themselves the following questions:

• Which goals do we follow by using social media?
• Which channels should be part of our communication mix? Image 1 shows the vast possibilities that Social Media offers. Only some of those will be value adding for your company.
• On which chosen channels are we sharing what kind of content?
• Do the defined key target audiences for the content types match the general overarching user bases of those channels?
• What reactions, engagements or feedback do we expect from our audience?
• And last but not least: Which KPIs and metrics do we want to achieve to measure our success on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis?

Once decisions are made on the social media channels it is important to determine the expected returned value and purpose of these and obtain senior executive sponsorship. This will allow for visibility of the initiatives within the corporation, continuous support and proper funding to obtain the required resources. The overall aim is to gain support and buy-in from the early stage, which then leads to a momentum needed for future initiatives. The choice of the channels should be closely linked to the company's business and marketing strategy and should not stand alone.

Third step: Storytelling, regular activity, engagement and responsiveness are keys

Depending on the available employee power that is working on social media marketing it is recommended to start slowly with clearly defined social media channels, each one with their individual purposes and contents. It is wiser to deliberately not consider some channels rather than opening up accounts on every platform and trying to find your ways around it. Dead accounts with no activity and no responsiveness leaves only frustrated users and a bad company impression.

When it comes to filling the selected channels with life, the most value adding question is how do companies obtain interesting content on a regular basis? The attention span of social medial users scrolling through their news feed is rather short. This means catching the users’ attention immediately is crucial through interesting headlines, added with photos, videos or links.

In order to spread the content wider than the company’s immediate following network and increase its reach, it is recommended to create guidelines for the employees participation. Taking into consideration the own employee’s networks on top of the company’s direct following is a great and quick way to reach exponentially more following. It is assumed that employees will be eager to (re)-share the corporate messages, when feeling connected and given clear instructions which aim at avoiding doubts and ambiguity and providing a safe space with reassurance of being on the right path, following the right steps. These guidelines that aim at the workforce to feel more comfortable interacting with the channels and the education around those needs to be provided by the company. Few more facts and figures, based on data published by LinkedIn’s top 500 influencers:

• Over 90% of employees are estimated to use at least one social media account.
• The chance of having brand messages re-shared when distributed by employees is over 20x higher when shared through the company’s brand channels directly.
• Over 80% trust recommendations from friends and family.
• Engagement on content is likely to increase by 8 when shared through employees.

Fourth step: Reduce noise and compliance risk in digital engagements

It is no coincidence that companies within the regulated pharmaceutical industry were late adopters when it comes to social media trends, and still are. As part of their risk mitigations in engagements on social media, companies need to connect with their compliance and legal departments to answer the questions. How would you take into account pharmacovigilance? How would you handle any adverse events reporting on any social media channels? How would you handle any potential defamatory allegations from users or competitors? Who monitors the channels consistently and which processes will be triggered once concerns were spotted in order to trigger a response? How would you handle situations where content has been shared that needed to be taken offline but was already distributed further through other users? It is crucial to create a safe space with clear do’s and don’ts for the involved teams in which they are able to move independently and take their own decisions in order to guarantee the required pace, (re)activity and responsiveness. These guidelines will have to be adapted to local markets, taking into consideration the local laws and regulations, to avoid sharing confidential and proprietary information and other content that is not allowed to be distributed to the general public such as product brands or internal project names.

Final step: Bringing it all together

We have shined a light on four fields and viewpoints: Social media background, the marketing strategy, Storytelling and Compliance. Considering these will add most value to your company’s social media engagements.

• Remember that social media is all about content and dialogue. Plan exactly which channels you use for which purpose based on demographics and stakeholders.
• Obtain senior executive buy-in and run a strategy focused on your audience, content and engagement.
• Keep a close eye on compliance risks, whilst leveraging your own workforce and asking them to join your journey.

To obtain the expected returned values from different initiatives, companies will need to understand how their businesses are expected to change with the newly introduced social media strategies, and then adjust their tactics based on the decided metrics.