Pharma Social Media Behind the Curtain

Like the Wizard of Oz performing his "magic" behind the curtain, there may be many pharma "wizards" happily managing social media projects behind the scenes and out of public view. All it takes is a new age "Dorothy" to pull back the curtain. That "Dorothy" is Jess Seilheimer (@Jaeselle), who alerted me about the possibilities in a comment to yesterday's post  about Shwen Gwee (see "Happy Pharma Social Media Halloween!"). Shwen leads Digital Strategy and Social Media within the Marketing department at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

There's a bit of a brouhaha coursing through Twitterdom and the pharma blogosphere about Shwen. Some critics (eg, Rich Meyer, @richmeyer) say that Shwen "has not really done anything of substance yet and works for a company that does not even have any approved drugs yet." I pointed out that "Shwen may actually be working on ... a [social media] project within Vertex but not talking about it."

Today, the WSJ  published an article touting a drug under development at Vertex that may CURE Hepatitis C! (see "New Hepatitis C Drugs May Be Blockbusters"). Surely, Shwen is hard at work "behind the curtain" developing a social media marketing strategy that will launch in concert with the new drug. In fact, as Jess points out, there may be "plenty of initiatives that pre-launch brands focus on in this phase, some of which may not be public knowledge."

Here is what Jess had to say about that and other ways that pharmaceutical companies may be using social media "behind the curtain:"

I'm of the belief that no one should try to validate who "does what" in social media when you're only qualifying it to an approved brand or initiatives in the public domain.

Exhibit A) There are plenty of ways to utilize social media engagement and digital channel in the pre-launch market awareness phase. Initiatives that pre-launch brands focus on in this phase, some of which may not be public knowledge.

- crowd sourcing HCPs input re: R&D initiatives

- utilizing PatientsLikeMe to identify, recruit and communicate with appropriate patients for phase III trial enrollment

- private HCP advisory board networks built through Ozmosis or Within3 social platforms

- 3rd party social sentiment/listening analysis through Buzz Metrics, et al (something that takes months to garner learnings then analyzed/utilized internally to inform target engagement strategies for launch)

- Unbranded disease awareness campaigns development- creating a need for new market entry (again something that may take months to create---tactics which may be teased out on a phased approach

Exhibit B) There are also corporate level initiatives that utilize building policy around a company's POV on how they approach using these channels to optimize their communications.

- these initiatives happen behind the scenes for months

- corporate initiatives are sometimes not publicly published/available for analysis like Roche or AZ

- corporate level investment in internal staff onboarding, education and applicability of using social media as a means to communicate internally with each other.

My point: Having a public brand/corporate supported "patient community" does not equate to "I have done social media', and we should use caution when trying to qualify someone;s knowldeg or within the area. Lastly, let's please consider using appropriate terminology when referring to utilizing social engagement channels for our business/brand objective-- it's not "doing social media".

Al things to take into consideration when proclaiming "people haven't done anything in social media".

They are.
We all are.
You may just not know it.

Happy Pharma Social Media Halloween!

Shwen Gwee recently received the Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer lapel pin in recognition of his pioneering work as a pharmaceutical social media evangelist.

Just today, Shwen received this mummy on his doorstep from an anonymous source. Needless to say, he's pretty confused. Who would send him such a thing? Perhaps it was an old mummified Web 1.0 pharma pioneer? We may never know.

Shwen leads Digital Strategy and Social Media within the Marketing department at Vertex Pharmaceuticals where I am sure he is playing a major role in educating his colleagues and preparing for the day when his company may launch a social media initiative.

How can someone who has not yet actually been involved in a pharma company social media project receive such a coveted award? Well, first of all, Shwen may actually be working on such a project within Vertex but not talking about it*. More importantly, he is everywhere that social media is discussed within pharmaceutical and healthcare circles.

Like one of the original seven U.S. astronauts, who may not have traveled in space, Shwen is training those who will be there someday and may yet be called to duty himself. So stop trying to scare him, whoever you are!

*Vertex may soon get approval for a blockbuster Hepatitis C "cure" (see "New Hepatitis C Drugs May Be Blockbusters"). Four million Americans may have Hepatitis C and as many as 3 million of them don't know it. This is ripe territory for a social media campaign focused on a population of younger people that includes celebrities.

CORRECTION: Shwen tells me that "most prevalent pop for HCV is baby boomers" like me. Even better I would say. According to Deloitte data, 2009 was the year that social media bloomed for Baby Boomers, with nearly 47% of them actively maintaining a profile on the social web, which is up 15% from 2008 (see "Baby Boomers and Seniors Are Flocking to Facebook").