As I’ve written about before on this blog, the web is starting to transform how we, as patients, obtain healthcare information. Recognizing this, healthcare companies have become much more aggressive in how they’re using the web, specifically social media, to disseminate information. Forbes recently reported on a creative way one organization chose to promote a pivotal study.
In the Forbes piece, reporter Rebecca Ruiz, explains how the Mayo Clinic out of Rochester, Minn used Twitter to tease an upcoming study on celiac disease. They followed the folks re-tweeting the news and chose a select few to share the findings with exclusively. What’s unique about this, is that Mayo didn’t give the results to traditional reporters. They gave them patients with celiac and offered them an embargo of the study, with free reign to blog about it. A privilege typically reserved for journalists.
The results were also distributed on Facebook and through this YouTube video.
This example from Mayo is likely to be the wave of the future. Undoubtedly, more and more healthcare organizations will begin using Facebook, Twitter and other emerging social media tools and communities to reach out directly to the people affected by the disease states and conditions for which they are providing education. It will be interesting to see how these interactions impact new and traditional media as well as the consumption of healthcare information.
The Forbes piece also includes a great slideshow that highlights the best resources on the web for obtaining healthcare info. Check it out here.
Recently we had the opportunity to chat with new media evangelist and consultant, Ron Ploof, of the popular RonAmok! blog. Ron shared his thoughts on his recent case study that evaluates Johnson & Johnson’s social media platform and how other pharmaceutical and medical device companies can integrate social media into their communications programs.
Here’s what he had to say…
What is it about Johnson & Johnson that makes them a good example for other healthcare industry companies to follow in implementing a social media program?
Johnson & Johnson had a vision that social media could work for them, but had to find a way to put a toe in the water. With their first blog, The Kilmer House, they chose to look backwards, focusing on their 123 years of public education. The choice to look backwards is brilliant because no one can get into trouble for backward-looking statements. By choosing something safe that fit within their corporate culture, J&J learned lessons and built upon that experience.
With compliance issues and medical companies under constant scrutiny for communication tactics (among other things), isn’t there a risk for companies to join in the conversation?
With healthcare you have to ask if what a company says online actually hurts the public. We started regulations to protect people from big-bad corporations, like the elixir salesman in the J&J case study. But what happens when such restrictions put a stranglehold on the conversation? I think the government is going to have to think through that question.
The other important thing to consider is that if they don’t figure out how to communicate online, patients will do it for them. If J&J doesn’t host the conversation about a particular disease or treatment option, people who are suffering from a disease state will collect together and talk about it–independent of pharmaceutical and device companies. For instance, PatientsLikeMe is a great place for people to discuss their ailments. A social network of like-minded people is totally different than talking with a company or a doctor, so people on PatientsLikeMe and other patient networks, like SugarStats, will probably share more information than the pharmaceutical companies ever dreamed of them sharing.
So do you think social media is the future for companies in healthcare communication?
It doesn’t matter, because the conversation is going to happen regardless. Companies and government regulators will have to figure out how to make it work, and if they don’t, the patients will. The tricky thing is that lawyers and regulators want absolutes–for everything to fit into black and white terms. Such a hope is impossible with conversation. Conversation is gray. The good news is that the issue will be solved. The question is: who will do it first?
Companies with the best chance of cracking it are those willing to take a little bit of risk. The risk being: we have decided to talk about this subject because we think there is a benefit for the greater good. When you look at companies like J&J, you see that healthcare companies keep inching closer and closer. As companies push the envelope further, some might get slapped, but maybe that will be the catalyst for change. For example, if a company creates a portal so valuable to patients, yet is removed because of some arcane regulation, the public uproar will force the regulations to change.
What are some basic steps a company looking to experiment with social media can take now?
Across industries, the most common obstacles include internal resistance and fear of losing control of your brand. Let’s face it. When you go online, you lose all control. The first step, then, is to explain this fact to upper management and gain their support.
Once you have support, I always recommend starting with a blog first. One of my top ten rules for social media is ‘don’t build an entire social media strategy on rented land.’ A blog on my website is mine. Twitter, Facebook and other social networks are great, but if you build your entire social media presence on external site and they go away, you’ve lost it all. With a blog, if one of the rented properties changes, your audience can trace the breadcrumbs back to your home—the blog. What I really like about J&J is that they built their foundation on their own land first and then built out with rented pieces. They started with two blogs, then went to YouTube, and now they’re using Twitter like a quarterback to tie all of the pieces together.
The other thing is to make sure you’re always measuring what you’re doing. With traditional media, we used to rent an audience from a publisher or a broadcaster, but social media allows us to build a specific audience of people interested in our products and services. To make sure that audience remains engaged, you have to measure its size and level of engagement to see what’s working, and what’s not. If your audience is growing and engaged and you still face internal resistance, show them the measurements. No one can argue with results.
In your J&J case study, you talk a lot about the impact of videos. Why do you think they are so effective, and what are best practices tips for companies looking to make videos?
Humans are very visual beings, so video is one of the quickest growing aspects online. To me, the success is in the stories and storytelling. We pay $10 to sit in a crowded movie theater with people we don’t even know to stare at a screen. Why? Because we’re hardwired to love stories. Therefore, creating online video that tells stories is an excellent way to communicate a message. Probably my favorite quote from C.C. Chapman is “the quality in it (video) is more important than the quality of it.” Companies must get more comfortable with the fact that we don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a studio production. A lot of people think you need expensive studios and lighting to make a good online video, but to me that’s old media. As long as the sound and video aren’t distracting, the success comes from properly capturing the story.
MSNBC put together a great article about the safety concerns of Parkour and freerunning. Parkour, for those who haven’t seen the YouTube videos, is the art of getting from point A to B as smoothly as possible, transversing benches, walls and garages in the urban environment. The popularity of these sports has grown wildly because of YouTube videos and Facebook pages and health officials are warning about the (obvious) dangers of jumping over park benches and swinging from trees.
Would you think twice about the safety of a sport that has been hyped through these channels? And, if you’re a traceur or traceuse, share your YouTube videos!
A colleague turned me on toGrassroot Soccer, a non profit that is driving to make a difference in the fight against AIDS and HIV in Africa. As soccer enthusiasts and communications pros we were drawn by the organization’s M.O. – using the the world’s favorite sport to teach youths across Africa about AIDS.
The spread and prevalence of HIV and AIDS in Africa has been well publicized yet for many it seems worlds away. For Tommy Clark M.D., the true impact that AIDS had caused hit home when he played professional soccer in Bulawayo, the second largest city inZimbabwe.Here he saw those left in the disease’s wake – an estimated 11.6 million orphaned African children annually.With the goal of fighting this epidemic and the vision to leverage soccer as the educational communications vehicle, he founded Grassroot Soccer in 2002.
For nine years the organization has worked to empower African children with the “knowledge, skills and support to live HIV free.”Today Grassroot Soccer and graduated more than 250,000 kids from its program and continues to grow through partnerships and funding from a number of sources including theBill and Melinda Gates foundationand Nike.
Grassroots Soccer offers a number of ways to get involved in its organization - check out the Lose The Shoes events – barefoot 3v3 soccers tournaments in cities in the US and Canada. For locations, dates and times check out the Grassroot Soccer’Facebook page.
The role that pharma companies and communications agencies acting on their behalf play in medical education has been much debated. I agree we need to look at the level of influence pharma companies have over physician education and prescribing decisions. However, as long as pharma companies are transparent in their communications and provide resources that are balanced and fair, it seems to be that their role is a crucial one, especially in an environment where funding for education is limited.
One advance in communications that plays out well for balanced, un-biased information sharing is the Social Web (i.e. the application of the World Wide Web that facilitate many-to-many conversations, debate and information sharing). We are already seeing websites springing up where physicians can share their experiences, ask colleagues questions about clinical decisions, take part in educational webinars, and read peer-reviewed articles rated by fellow medical professionals. Perhaps this is the way forward and pharma companies should be investing their resources in developing online platforms for these two-way dialogues. Anything that is clearly promotional, with little educational content, will be quickly shunned. I know this is a challenging area for pharma companies due to the lack of guidance from regulatory bodies. However, with careful consideration and strict operating protocols, there can be clear advantages for those willing to launch in.
