HealthTalker: Small Talk

Why Pharma Needs To Encourage Conversations

2012-02-03T04:20:15Z

By Andy Levitt

For pharma marketers, 2012 needs to be the year when they figure out how to stimulate positive conversation about their brand, both online and offline. The recent FDA Draft Guidelines didn’t provide much to go on, but at least it’s a start - and perhaps can offer some level of ammunition for marketers to educate their MLR teams on where the lines really are.

I can hear pharma marketers now, ringing their hands in frustration, expressing annoyance about their perceived inability to engage with consumers in a more authentic and compelling fashion. Some might even be wishing they could run an ad this weekend during the Super Bowl and all of their problems would be solved.

Think again. And take note of two really important findings that came out today.

First, the smart folks at Edelman released their annual Trust Barometer report that compiles feedback from over 30,000 adults from around the globe. This year’s findings confirm that trust continues to decline across nearly every sector, driven by a weakening global economy, political instability, and the deteriorating ways in which companies maintain transparency. The pharmaceutical sector took a hit as well, dropping nearly 10%, from 61 to 56%. Technology retained high marks year-over-year, remaining stable at 80%.

But what really caught my eye was the fact that ‘a person like yourself’ rose in prominence by over 50% from last year, from a modest level of 43% one year ago to a dominant level of 65% today. This was also the category with the greatest movement year-over-year, making this finding all the more relevant and critical. The fact remains that so many of us rely on the opinions of others when making purchasing decisions. And when that other person is a lot like you (attitude, age, socio-economic status, etc.), we tend to be influenced positively by their opinions. Therein lies the power of word of mouth.

The report concludes by encouraging companies to “recognize that operational factors responsible for current trust won’t build future trust, [but] social and engagement behaviors will.” You mean, TV ads aren’t enough anymore? I love it.

Another report from eMarketer appeared today, building on the same theme. That report, provided by BazaarVoice, analyzed the online behavior of millennials (18-34 year olds) and how they create and digest content which influences purchase behavior. Not surprisingly, this large consumer segment trusts others like themselves too, yet they tend not to discriminate between what they hear from ‘friends and family’ from what anonymous reviews and perspectives they read online. This same group prefers to share their experiences online with the masses at a much higher rate of 42% (vs. just 17% for the baby boomer set), likely a leading indicator of behavior for other consumer segments in the years ahead. Both millennials and boomers alike trust user generated content more than brand messages, news articles and advertisements. Again, it’s that issue of trust.

To quote the article, “Whatever brands do, they need to follow the general path of transparency, understanding there’s a huge group of consumers right now who just don’t trust them. There’s only upside to opening up and giving people the ability to talk about your brand. That’s going to become the expected norm.”

I recognize that it’s not an easy path forward for pharma, given the need to control the message, and the steady fear of FDA criticism. But solutions do exist - and to the victor goes the spoils.

Think again. And take note of two really important findings that came out today.

This was also the category with the greatest movement year-over-year, making this finding all the more relevant and critical. The fact remains that so many of us rely on the opinions of others when making purchasing decisions. And when that other person is a lot like you (attitude, age, socio-economic status, etc.), we tend to be influenced positively by their opinions. Therein lies the power of word of mouth.

Another report from eMarketer appeared today, building on the same theme. That report, provided by Bazaarvoice, analyzed the online behavior of millennials (18-34 year olds) and how they create and digest content which influences purchase behavior. Not surprisingly, this large consumer segment trusts others like themselves too, yet they tend not to discriminate between what they hear from ‘friends and family’ from what anonymous reviews and perspectives they read online. This same group prefers to share their experiences online with the masses at a much higher rate of 42% (vs. just 17% for the baby boomer set), likely a leading indicator of behavior for other consumer segments in the years ahead. Both millennials and boomers alike trust user generated content more than brand messages, news articles and advertisements. Again, it’s that issue of trust.

I recognize that it’s not an easy path forward for pharma, given the need to control the message, and the steady fear of FDA criticism. But solutions do exist - and to the victor goes the spoils.

Social Guidelines for Our Social World - Not Quite Yet….

2012-01-25T23:42:33Z

By Andy Levitt

I was honored to be contacted recently by the good folks at WOMMA to solicit my perspective on the draft guidelines issued by the FDA last month. For those of you not familiar with WOMMA, it is the premier non-profit organization dedicated to advancing and advocating the discipline of credible word of mouth marketing, founded in 2004 by my friends Jonathan Carson, Dave Balter and Pete Blackshaw. WOMMA represents more than 350 member companies including brands, marketers, researchers, service providers, agencies, non-profits, and academic institutions - and the pharma sector is beginning to take note, more and more each year.

This blog post was featured in today’s WOMMA’s newsletter that goes out to its membership. Enjoy.

————

Many people in the pharma world have been champing at the bit for the FDA to provide guidance about how to use social media in the promotion of prescription products.

For what it’s worth, I tend to think that the use of social channels in the Rx space is widely over-hyped, and that the real opportunities lie in old fashioned, face-to-face word of mouth dialogue. (Disclaimer: my company, HealthTalker, provides WOM services for life science companies).

Manufacturers and many of the agencies that support them have wondered how to avoid regulatory headaches but still tap the power of Facebook, Twitter and the like, hoping they’ll strike gold with some magic formula with these dynamic channels which will lead to noteworthy promotion and increased market share.

I actually find the whole thing a bit laughable as it suggests that people in the industry have become too afraid to think on their own, to apply good judgment to marketing and promotion, and to push the envelope a bit further. That statement might piss some people off and offend a few more, but at the end of the day, the FDA will never tell us exactly what to do; they will only provide draft guidance.

The way the game works is that marketers will try to expand their reach; MLR teams will push back; and in the end, the most effective outcome will be finding the solid balance between appropriate promotion and persuasive marketing, no matter the medium. But taking no action, standing on the sidelines, and waiting for permission will never be the winning approach.

So have all of the social marketing secrets for pharma been revealed with the arrival of this new document? Not so fast. When you take the time to review the guidance, there is actually very little here that will satisfy the curious and the hopeful.

Perhaps even more upsetting is that there is a perception that the FDA actually provided guidelines for social media in this document - when in fact, the entire emphasis of the document is about off-label use of products and how companies can adequately and safely respond. Should the FDA earn kudos because they made note of Twitter as a “microblogging tool”? That was nearly the extent of their reference to social media!

Instead, the emphasis of the draft guidance is on the appropriate treatment of off-label inquiries associated with prescription products. Though the subject matter seems very narrow in its focus, the document does provide several good examples, indicating when and how a manufacturer might communicate with interested consumers.

In the document, the FDA is saying it is ok for manufacturers to respond in a truthful and balanced fashion (one might have thought that even acknowledging an inquiry about off-label use might run afoul of what the FDA would permit). However, that response needs to be done privately - in other words, the manufacturer firm cannot promote this information to the public at large. Furthermore, sales and marketing personnel should have no input on the response, nor should the response be promotional in nature.

Really? An off-label response shouldn’t be promotional? The FDA needed to issue this document to tell us that?

Forgive my frustrations here, but what people in our industry really want to know about - and where this draft document fell short - is guidance about how to address on-label uses of a product. Had this document included that sort of information, I suspect that it would open a floodgate of social and WOM activity where pharma would finally know where they can step, and where they can’t.

Right now, there is a paralysis that hinders pharma’s ability to engage with consumers in a natural and authentic manner. It would have been great if companies were given a morsel of information about what they can do when someone makes a post about their medication’s effectiveness, inquires about a product’s known side effects, or even says that a certain drug has made a huge difference in their life. The FDA could even call it “Social Guidelines for Our Social World.” How catchy.

Unfortunately, those guidelines won’t be coming anytime soon – if ever. And this latest document doesn’t get us any closer.

Looks like we’ll just need to continue to rely on common sense!

Social Marketing Success: Take A Holistic Approach

2012-01-10T19:46:32Z

By Andy Levitt

As the value of social marketing begins to mature in our industry and companies get more comfortable with the incorporation of social media channels into their business, questions still persist about the right way to utilize all that these social tools have to offer.

Today, two studies were released that provide somewhat conflicting messages about the role of social marketing, and are well worth a review.

The first study, featured by eMarketer, challenges the widely-held belief that consumers mention and learn about brands through Facebook and Twitter. In fact, only 42% mention brands in their updates on these channels, perhaps much to the chagrin of brand managers who are hoping for influential digitally savvy consumers to spread the word. Ironically, TV, print, and word-of-mouth remain as the three core channels for consumers to learn about brands. Go figure.

The other study that was released today offers a strong call-to-action for companies to connect with consumers in the social space. An overwhelming 49% of respondents “would essentially never consider a brand again if their questions or feedback went unanswered on Facebook, Twitter or any other social platform. Another 38.8 percent said they would be less likely to buy from the company again.”

Think about that for a moment. Never consider a brand again. That’s a strong statement, and one that marketers need to take to heart.

So what is a pharma marketer to do with this information? Continue to rely on traditional media and WOM to inform consumers about your brand, and help them understand why your product is right for them. Use social media as a way to help them fall in love with your company, increasing the positive perception of your organization with exquisite customer service and rapid, consistent responses. In fact, this simple strategy aligns quite nicely with the general guidelines issued by the FDA a couple of weeks ago.

There’s no silver bullet tactic that’s going to be your solution - but a smart and well-orchestrated approach to media outreach will pay great dividends in the year ahead.

Six-Pack Abs and Get-Rich Quick - It’s The Start of A New Year!

2012-01-05T01:50:14Z

By Andy Levitt

It’s the first week of January, and that means that it’s time for all of our new year’s resolutions to take hold. Most of us focus on getting into shape and losing some of that extra holiday weight. In fact, gym membership enrollments hit their annual peak over the next three weeks. Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig increase their media buys in the first quarter to tap into this human desire to lose weight and be around to enjoy all that life has to offer. Marketers add to the weight loss craze with plenty of get-rich-quick schemes as people want to believe that “this will be the year” to achieve their financial independence.

For me, like many others, I’m hoping to stay in shape and feel a bit younger. In fact, I just bought the highly-acclaimed P90X yesterday as a way to kick-start my new exercise regimen. Rather than sign up for a gym membership, I’ve decided to take the P90X company’s 90-day challenge. The structure their program provides sets me up with realistic goals and mile markers to track my success. I’m no expert in exercise; instead, I’m looking for a plan and a strategy to help me hit my goals - and sure, who wouldn’t want those six-pack abs!? But it’s no get-fit-quick scheme - in fact, from what I can tell, it’s quite the opposite, requiring a lot of hard work with regimented activity to achieve results.

Pharma marketers trying to accomplish their brand objectives for 2012 are likely in the same boat, and are searching for the magic bullet to help them do it. For some, it may be TV advertisements; for others, it may be a mix of social media and digital marketing; and for others still, they may focus on engaging a small tribe and empowering them to make a difference.

No matter what your end game is, it will be important not to lose sight of the value of trusted experts who can share their expertise and experience to help you reach your goals. And much like me with the P90X DVDs, it’s going to take discipline, patience and perseverance to succeed within our highly-regulated pharma environment. Brands need to be willing to put in the work and make the sacrifice to get the results they want.

Remember, Eric Clapton didn’t become the world’s greatest guitar player overnight; Seth Godin didn’t get one million subscribers to his blog with a few posts; and Ina Garten cooked thousands of meals before making it big with cookbooks, TV shows and endorsements.

Overnight success never really happens overnight.

We’re getting close to celebrating our 5-year anniversary here at HealthTalker, and are still looking to get even better at what we do. And we have a lot of things planned in 2012, and hope you remain engaged with our us and our updates. Just enter your email address to get this blog through our RSS feed, or choose to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. And that’s no scheme!

Here’s to much shared success and growth in the year ahead.

Customer Loyalty and The Future of Engagement

2011-12-23T05:00:39Z

By Andy Levitt

As we enter the last few days of the holiday shopping bonanza, stores in the area are swamped with last-minute buyers who are desperate to find that perfect gift. And while these crowds should give most store owners a sense of satisfaction, the registers might not be ringing in direct proportion to the crowd volume.

A recent article in the Boston Globe highlighted the influence of various smart phone apps on shoppers’ behavior. Price transparency coupled with incredibly intelligent software have empowered consumers to browse their local stores and then use their iPhone or Android to find that same item elsewhere - either at another nearby store, or from any number of online merchants.

This new era of shopping behavior represents substantial risk to those stores who fail to make themselves remarkable. Relying on the basics, failing to innovate, and doing things just like the year before will no longer cut it - it takes much more to stand out from the crowd of me-too merchants. In fact, those merchants who have invested the effort to create an enjoyable and personal shopping experience (think: Zappos, Nordstroms, Apple and Harley-Davidson, to name a few) will be able to retain their customers over time, apps or no apps.

Pharma marketers, take note! If you want to be successful in selling the pills and inhalers and suspensions that you promote, learn from the lessons in the retail industry. There may not be apps to help someone find the lowest price for their prescription heartburn medication, but consumers are searching for a reason to believe the messages that drug companies are pushing. And using the same approach that you took the year before won’t be good enough.

And therein lies the great opportunity! Manufacturers can shift from being seen as ‘a company that sells me prescription products’ to ‘the company that partners with me on improving my health condition.’ That’s powerful stuff! Think about it: these patients have an intimate relationship with your products - they ingest them into their bodies and place great trust in the integrity of the medicine you have sold them. Do you treat them with the same level of care and trust? Are you willing to embrace them in new ways in 2012 so that you earn their confidence like never before, and command great loyalty from your efforts?

If you’re being asked to do more with less, just think about how much it might cost you to create a meaningful and lasting relationship with an existing customer versus spending broadcast dollars in an effort to capture new ones?

Mark my words: customer loyalty and effective social marketing will be the pharma marketer’s keys to success in 2012.

Our Top 5 Helpful Tweeple

2011-12-16T00:08:03Z

By Erin Hayes

Stressed from all the last minute shopping you know you still need to get done for the holidays?

Take a break and check out this week’s list of our Top Five Tweeple. These five people keep the hoiiday spirit going all year long with their helpful advice and timely tips. They all make our Nice List!

@BostonTweet

Following @BostonTweet is a must-do if you live in the greater New England area or if you ever visit this neck of the world and wonder what sights you should take in while in town. It’s like having a direct line to Boston’s best-kept foodie secrets and events. Next know what the new hip joint to go is or where to go to get a selection of 100 different whiskeys you’ve been dying to try. (I’m not kidding. It’s Citizen House near Fenway btw)

@MedicalEmperor

MedicalEmperor is a master networking site dedicated to connecting medical professionals, doctors and patients worldwide. This group of smart people created a social networking site to bring other smart people in the Biotech, Pharma, Medical, Healthcare, Biopharma and Life Science industries together. Once a member, you can search for jobs, reach out to a power-group of industry experts with questions and connect with former colleagues and classmates. Their tweets are a great resource to keep up with industry news.

@TRxA

Together RX Access is the result of a several leading pharmaceutical companies working together for a common goal: helping uninsured Americans save on their prescription medicines. With the economy still lagging there are millions of americans out of work and unable to afford healthcare. Together RX Access tries to help by keeping their followers up to date with new health care laws and sharing information about clinics and organizations that help the uninsured.

@MariSmith

Mari Smith is a wealth of marketing tips and best practices and she’s never stingy about sharing her secrets. Mari (‘like Ferrari’) describes herself as Passionate Social Media Speaker and Bubbly Scottish-Canadian. She’s also the author of two very helpful books “The New Relationship Marketing” and “Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day.” If you ever have a question about social media best practices or marketing in general, ask Mari. She always responds.

@TheBuzzBuilders

Curated by the delightful folks from @LikeableMedia (All of them according to their bio), @TheBuzzBuilders help their followers find and follow fun trends and social media facts they may not have come across otherwise. The Internet is a big place - The Buzz Builders help spread the word about worthy content. After all, spreading the word is what Likeable Media - a social media and word of mouth marketing firm - is all about!

Follow Friday: Our Top 5 Tweeple

2011-12-01T21:33:29Z

By Erin Hayes

The week following a holiday weekend is never an easy one, but here are five Tweeple who took the time to create content that made us think and share.

@Bradatpharma:

Brad works for @Novartis and keeps our feed interesting with thoughtful tweets about everything from industry trends to his personal thoughts on the pharma biz. His @instagram photos are always worth a click and we get definitely get a kick out of his @foursquare check-in updates!

@Lovehstyle

LoveHStyle is a community dating site for people living with Herpes and HPV. The site’s mission is to create a forum and support system for those affected by Herpes and HPV and help them find love and companionship. LoveHStyle’s tweets are a great resource for anyone interested in learning more about living with Herpes and HPV.

@WeGoHealth

WeGoHealth is an impressive community of Health Activists. Their site boasts forum groups that discuss everything from cancer to sleep problems, infertility and asthma and a whole lot more. The entire WeGoHealth team pitches in when it comes to Tweeting so their content is always fresh and up-to-date. Right now the team is tweeting away about the Health Activist Awards - join the conversation and stop by to vote for your favorite activist!

@ABCDSocialMedia

ABCDSocialMedia is a Harvard University group that keeps up with social media uses and trends in a variety of industries. Those of us in the pharma space know that issue of Social Media is always a good topic for debate. We find ABCD’s use-cases to be good catalysts for our own internal discussions and enjoy catching up on their input through their tweets.

@Txtngmypancreas

The witty woman behind @Txtngmypancreas is Kim V. Kim’s bio proclaims her pancreas to be her muse and she certainly stands behind that statement in her tweets. She calls herself a diabetic and blogger (check out her blog here) and adds that corgis make her chuckle. Her tweets are lighthearted and fun, but also an informative look into what it’s life is like with Type 1 diabetes.

Thanks to all our Top Tweeple this week for keeping our lives interesting and informed! Let us know who you would add to that list!

Why the Digital Age Can’t Replace Word of Mouth Marketing

2011-11-21T03:15:04Z

By Andy Levitt

When it comes down to it, word of mouth marketing influences the vast majority of our day-to-day decisions.

Think about it. Why did you decide to go out to eat at that new place in the next town over last week? Chances are someone you know suggested it, or perhaps you went to Yelp and read a few glowing reviews by people with your similar tastes. That same logic holds true for the last place you went on vacation, how you chose your interior decorator, and where you decided to send your kids to summer camp.

Welcome to the fast lane of the Digital Age! We’re all currently involved in the most advanced collection, sharing and application of data and information that this civilization has ever seen.

These are heady times, ripe for innovation and growth for companies that embrace and apply the tools and trends that made Pandora, Amazon and Netflix internet legends. These online giants have all tapped into the power of a social persuasion technology called ‘collaborative filtering.’ This is a fancy name that describes the magic behind their latest product suggestion algorithm, derived from you previous selections.

This relatively new, killer app of the tech world manifests itself in your decisions as you interact digitally. The song that comes up next on Pandora, the car rental option when you book a flight, the iTunes suggestions, and the ‘random’ suggestions that Amazon offers you when you purchase a product – these are all the results of collaborative filtering.

How important is it? Recently Netflix held a competition and awarded one million dollars to the company that improved on their movie suggestion algorithms. Yeah, it’s that big. And with services like these - that will serve up more and more precise suggestions as they aggregate more data - the value of human intervention on the decision by others to buy books, music, movies and clothes will actually decrease over time.

So where do prescription drugs fall into this mix? Imagine if a pharma marketer could tap into the power of collaborative filtering just like they do at Amazon with an ePharma marketplace! Just enter your current condition, tell us which drug you are taking for what ails you, and we’ll be happy to suggest three other products that you might like. Day or night, consumers could order from an online pharmacy what they needed to get better! Isn’t that the evolution that Pharma needs to embrace if they are to grow and compete in this Digital Age?

Absolutely not.

The dynamics of the way health conditions present themselves across individuals are much too random than the way large groups of people might enjoy certain cadences and musical patterns or brands of humorous films. No, healthcare is about people, and it will continue to rely on the active exchange of information between a patient and a healthcare provider. You can’t write an algorithm for that. Instead, Phama needs to emphasize the true “social networking” between patients and enhance how to distribute that conversation to create more informed patient-to-physician dialogue.

Our advice to pharma marketers is to leverage the millions of non-digital conversations that happen every single day. We believe that person-to-person conversations - where the relationships, context and knowledge are present – still represent the best form of collaborative filtering for pharma. Here, the value of human intervention is actually increasing!

The digital age’s algorithm is about creating consumerism, helping you figure out what to buy next. Word of mouth marketing is about tapping into the power of human conversations, where trust and non-alogorithmic insights exist, to effectively shape how the right product can get into the right person’s hands.

This responsibility, and this personal touch, is the cornerstone of healthcare and pharma that even this technological revolution cannot replace.

It’s Follow Friday

2011-11-17T19:38:11Z

By John Fitzpatrick

Welcome back to HealthTalker’s special #FollowFriday recommendations.

Each week we like to give back to our community by highlighting our top 5 Tweeple; the people whose tweets provide us with valuable industry insight, trending news and sometimes, just a smile.

Keeping us busy on Twitter this week are:

@healthythinker:
Not only are we huge fans of Jane Sarasohn-Kahn’s Health Populi website, but we were lucky enough to see her speak earlier this year in Philadelphia. Her bio lists impressive titles including health economist, advisor, consumer health proponent, participatory health advocate, design fan, and health-technophile. Whatever she wants to call herself, we can’t get enough!

@mashable:
Pete Cashmore and Mashable need no introduction. As one of the largest independent news sources, they cover all things digital, web culture, social media and technology. With updates coming from Pete and the entire @mashable staff, there is rarely a news story that you don’t see coming from Mashable first. Got a question for them? They encourage you to tweet them at @mashablehq.

@RyanMFierce:
Ryan McBride is the executive editor of the life sciences group at FierceMarkets. As a previous Xconomy writer and Mass High Tech staff writer, Ryan is a great resource for New England pharma news and industry trends. FierceMarkets also includes FierceBiotech, a daily monitor, with a special focus on drug discovery and clinical trials.

@Jchernov:
It is hard not to be impressed with Joe Chernov. As VP of Content Marketing for Eloqua, he is a self-described paperboy and award-winning creator. Joe is everywhere; he has both a great following on Twitter and also manages to be seen on conference floors around the country. Joe is also the former chair of WOMMA member ethics panel and a Bostonian who loves dogs.

@cc_chapman:
As a recognized leader in the online and social media marketing space, C.C. Chapman is a great great Twitter handle. Following C.C on Twitter will provide you with thought-provoking ideas, a couple of laughs and a lot of random facts. C.C lists his passion for travel, photography, food and music in his bio, and don’t forget his number one job as a digital Dad.

Interested in talking about Health? Make sure you “like” us on Facebook and join the conversation.

In Honor of World Diabetes Day

2011-11-14T19:31:59Z

By Andy Levitt

Today is World Diabetes Day and November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and we want to do our part to raise awareness for this epidemic.

Would it surprise you to learn that 1 in 13 people on this planet suffer from diabetes? It certainly shocked me to learn that statistic. And unfortunately, the outlook is even worse. It is predicted that 1 in 10 people - over 500 million adults!! - will have diabetes by the year 2030. What’s worse, most cases of diabetes are Type 2, the kind that mainly hits people in middle age, and is linked to weight gain and a sedentary lifestyle, not hereditary factors that aren’t preventable.

At HealthTalker, we believe in the value of conversations about health as a way to increase the understanding and awareness of various conditions and the medications used to treat them. While the internet provides a treasure trove of information about health topics, there is no substitute for hearing directly from real people about the way they manage their condition. Their tips, their experiences, and their personal story can prove inspirational and encourage others to take action.

With that in mind, we’re excited to share this video from John Fitzpatrick, an employee at HealthTalker, as he shares his own experiences as a diabetic. Hopefully, this video sparks your own interest in spreading the word to others as John is doing here.

Even better, we’d love for you to share your own story with us on our Facebook page, and help us raise awareness of this devastating disease.

Thanks!

Follow Friday: This Week’s Top 5 Tweeple:

2011-11-10T19:11:33Z

By Erin Hayes

Each week we like to give back to our community by highlighting our top 5 Tweeple; the people whose tweets provide us with valuable industry insight, trending news and sometimes, just a smile.

This was a busy news week and these Top Tweeple helped us stay on top of it.

Our Top 5 are:

@AndrewSpong

Andrew Spong is a social business developer, health communications consultant and an all-around interesting guy. His motto is “Changing the design and delivery of healthcare, one conversation at a time.” We consider ourselves lucky to be able to take part in some of these conversations with him on Twitter. We always appreciate his perspective on social media matters and look forward to his informative tweets.

@PhilBaumann

Phil Baumann is a fantastic advocate for health care social media - as a registered nurse and a social business consultant. He’s on the Board of Advisors for Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media and he’s a great guy to pay attention if you want to keep up with what’s new and trending in the health/pharma space.

@Jaime Needel

Jamie Needel works for NM Incite, a company that works with large enterprises to develop and implelment successful social media strategies. Her tweets are authentic and always geared toward helping out a cause. A Penn State alumni, she’s been actively supporting a grassroots group, of former Penn Staters (Proudtobeapennstater.com), outraged at school’s recent scandal and determined to help prevent child abuse.

@Debkotz2

Deborah Kotz is a writer for the Boston Globe’s health column, Daily Dose. We rely on her intrepid reporting and insight to keep us up-to-date with the industry’s latest research, regulations and rules. She’s very engaged with her twitter community and is great at responding to her followers’ comments and questions.

@guykawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is a must-follow for nearly anyone. He’s a content curation King and never fails to entertain and teach us something new with his tweets. While his practice of automated tweets and ghost tweeters who post on his behalf is controversial, we still look forward to seeing what he’ll post next.

Who would you add to this list?

A New King in Town

2011-11-08T21:06:30Z

By Matt Thompson

Once upon a time – about ten years ago – traditional advertising was King. Companies worked with the King to control their message and told consumers what they wanted them to know about their product when they wanted them to know it. Educating the consumer was completely in the hands of the business.

In the last decade we’ve watched this one-sided method of advertising be dethroned by more authentic marketing techniques such as content marketing (social media and inbound marketing) and word of mouth marketing. In today’s technological world, marketers can no longer buy the attention of consumers through mass marketing techniques. People are no longer interested in hearing about products only from the companies who manufacturer them; they want to hear it from people like themselves.

With this shift in consumer preference, coupled with the growth of technology, people now have the ability to control the ads they see and block those that are unwanted. Check out some of these statistics from a recent infographic by Voltier Digital.

200 million Americans have registered their phone numbers on the FTC’s “Do Not Call” list (Are you one of them?)
86% of people skip television ads
44% of direct mail is never even opened

As technological innovation has made traditional methods less effective, word of mouth (WOM) continues to influence purchasing decisions more than any other advertising medium. Recommendations from those in your social network are authentic, and therefore have a level of trust that cannot be matched.

In 2007, someone that lived in a major city experienced 5,000 ads per day. In order to sift through the advertising clutter, it’s only natural that we, as consumers, want to seek out trustworthy sources. And who do we trust? The people we speak to on a daily basis – our friends, family, and those in our social network. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association created a great infographic regarding some of the latest trends and statistics that can be seen in the WOM industry. Check it out:

There are 2.4 billion brand related conversations throughout the United States every day
66% of all brand related WOM conversations are “Mostly Positive”
59% of Americans believe offline (face-to-face or voice-to-voice) WOM to be highly credible
54% of respondents said that WOM is a driving force behind purchasing decisions

In its day, traditional advertising was king. It has since been dethroned by a new king - a mix of authentic marketing methods like content marketing, inbound marketing, and word of mouth marketing. And it looks like the days of tapping into personal relationships to spread the word aren’t going anywhere.

Long live the new king!

Drum Roll Please ... This Week’s Top 5 Tweeple

2011-11-03T17:22:29Z

By John Fitzpatrick

Each week we like to give back to our community by highlighting our top 5 Tweeple; the people whose tweets provide us with valuable industry insight, trending news and sometimes, just a smile.

Drum Roll please…

This Week’s Top Five influencers are:

@GalenMoore
Galen is the web editor at the Boston Business Journal and an avid Tweeter. While he spent his childhood growing up in California and Japan, he is always our main man for Boston business news. While it may be cliché, we totally hear it first from Galen.

@RichMeyer
With more than 17 years’ experience with a focus on consumer behavior and marketing, Rich is an outstanding Twitter handle to follow. We love his motto of always asking why, or at least why not! Check out his blog, New Media and Marketing, which concentrates on allowing fellow marketers to share information and thoughts.

@jbselz
Joel Selzer is the Co-Founder & CEO of Ozmosis, Inc. Joel’s tweets consistently cover the huge world of pharma, social media and business. As a frequent conference attendee, Joel always shares the thoughts and concerns of the ever growing world of #hcsm.

@Pixelsandpills
We love the Pixels & Pills blog. Covering the latest developments, events and technology in the Pharma space, P & P is sponsored by Zemoga, and is always looking for guest bloggers. So, if you’re looking for relevant and timely digital pharma content, then look no further than P & P.

@HealthBizBlog
David Williams is the Co-founder of MedPharma Partners and the author of Health Business Blog. The blog focuses on business issues in the health care industry and is a wealth of knowledge regarding all things health.

And those are our Top 5 Twitter Influencers of the week! Who would you add to this list? Should it be you?

Our Top 5 Twitter Influencers

2011-10-28T11:13:55Z

By Erin Hayes

As word of mouth marketers, conversations are the cornerstone of our business. We believe in building communities one conversation at a time. It’s only natural that we gravitate to Twitter in our social media efforts to listen to what our client’s and their customers are saying and to join the conversation of our pharma marketing contemporaries.

We thought we’d highlight five influencers we follow on Twitter and share what we appreciate about their input.

This week’s Top Five are:

@Shwen
Shwen Gwee is a digital health guru. In his bio he shares his desire to combine his diverse backgrounds in science, medical communication and pharma with his love of emerging technology and new/social media. Well, we think he’s done it. His tweets are always informative and he’s a pro at interacting with his followers and keeping the conversation going.

@EyeForPharma
EyeForPharma is the twitter handle for a fantastic social pharma content site. Their Twitter bio describes their mission to assist the pharma industry in creating real patient value, care and service. We appreciate their thought leader tweets and look to them for insight into the human side of the pharma industry. We’ll be at their conference next week in Boston. Hope to see you there!

@WendyBlackburn
Wendy Blackburn is just all around great tweeple. She’s an avid blogger and passionate digital marketer and her tweets show her personal side as well as her depth of knowledge of the pharma world. You can check out Wendy’s blog at InTouchSol.

@Jonmrich
Jonathan Richman is a former AZ guy and plays a senior role at marketing agency, Possible Worldwide. He runs one of our favorite marketing blogs, Dose of Digital. He’s heavy into engagement and replies to nearly everyone who tweets him. We don’t know how he finds enough time in the day to do what he does, but we’re happy he can!

@PharmaGuy
PharmaGuy (and his secret identity, John Mack) is a great guy to follow. He’s the man behind Pharma Marketing Blog and if you haven’t had time to check it out, you should now. His posts are always timely and definitely always entertaining. He’s as smart as he is witty, and that’s why we look forward to his tweets popping up in our feed. We just try to look beyond his preference for wearing Hawaiian shirts all year long!

Those are our Top 5 Twitter Influencers of the week. Who would you add to that list?

Having The Courage To Follow

2011-10-18T01:42:02Z

By Andy Levitt

On a recent trip to California, I was researching about the power of a movement, and found this great video on YouTube. I remember seeing it for the first time a couple of years ago, but watched it with a new lens last week. The video shows a young man, dancing by himself at a festival with blithe disregard for anything else around him. Curious onlookers took note, and in time, the first brave soul decided to join the original dancer and participate alongside him. Then there were three, four, ten, twenty .... and before long, the entire crowd started to dance with the first set of followers. They were all joining the movement. They were apart of something bigger than themselves. And they felt good about what they were doing. It’s worth noting that those feelings represent some of the most fundamental reasons why consumers participate in word of mouth movements like the ones we manage at HealthTalker.

It wasn’t so long ago that we were that shirtless guy, dancing on the edge, trying to lead the industry with a new way to market. We began attracting some attention from a few curious onlookers - but generally, were moving to our own beat as most marketers hesitated to join in. After a few months, I was fortunate to find one believer who raised his hand and said that he wanted to come dance with us. And so it began as Bob Harrell, the first brave dancer with HealthTalker, transformed our business through his validation. In time, there were two, then three, and then five - and soon, dancing with HealthTalker no longer became that risky, because others had confirmed the wisdom of integrating word of mouth as a marketing tactic in the pharmaceutical industry.

Much like you see in the video, the hill where HealthTalker has been dancing is getting more crowded with more and more believers - but we still see plenty of brands uncertain if they should get up and join us.

For those of you who are still skeptical about the power of word of mouth and what it can do for your brand, perhaps some of these statistics will give you the courage you need to tell your boss to try something new with your brand plan. Here are just a few reasons why WOM can be a game changer:

1.     I realize you might be in advertising if you are reading this blog, but what do you tend to trust more: advertisements or recommendations from people you know? Exactly. Don’t worry - you’re not alone. In fact, WOM is the most trusted advertising medium there is. According to a Nielson Global Online Consumer Survey, 90% of people trust recommendations from people they know where as just 62% trust what they see on TV.

2.     A Harris Interactive study asked what sources “influence your decision to use or not use a particular company, brand or product?” Seventy-one percent claim reviews from family members or friends exert a “great deal” or “fair amount” of influence. WOM influences decision making in a way traditional advertising doesn’t.

3.     A study by Keller Fay found that two-thirds of all WOM is positive. And not only that, “positive WOM is more likely to be passed on to others compared to negative WOM.” Many of our clients used to be concerned about having brand ambassadors engage in their movements for fear that they might say something negative. The reality is that the art of self-selection creates a pool of participants who by nature maintain a positive view of the brand; otherwise, they wouldn’t choose to participate. It’s like you are stacking the deck in your favor, every time.

4.     The average consumer mentions specific brands over 90 times per week in conversations with friends, family, and co-workers. It’s happening online too: 53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and/or products in their tweets, with 48% of them delivering on their intention to buy the product. Are you apart of the conversation, and shaping the way it happens?

If those four reasons aren’t compelling enough, perhaps our big Q4 promotion will motivate you to swap out a few pages of your print publication plan next July and August and invest in creating a movement. To make it easy for you, we’re giving away $100,000 in services this quarter. Check out all the details here and here.

So come on and join our movement. And don’t worry, you’ll blend right in!