What are the trends for 2010? Fellow FUMSI editor Martin Belam thinks that social media tools have been hot news in 2009 and will continue to be in 2010. But is the hype justified? The next three issues of the 'Use' practice contributions will be case studies of specific industry sectors and their experiences of using social media. Part 1 focuses on the pharmaceutical industry. -- contributing USE editor Joanna Ptolomey
The rise of social media has turned the Internet from a platform being primarily used for one-way information 'broadcasting', to a dynamic, conversational 'Web 2.0' environment where searchable two-way dialogue takes place in real time. In the world of pharmaceutical companies, a revolution is taking place as researchers and communicators learn the value of insights that can be discovered from information in this dialogue.
A wealth of information to discover Evidence shows that people discuss their health online. According to Microsoft's search engine Bing(1), health is one of the most popular topics searched for online with 45% of people, across all age groups, using the Internet to research health issues. And there is plenty of content for people to access; a search on Google for 'diabetes' returns the first of what Google says are about 16 million results. Such results include information from health providers, charities, government, and significantly, a vast number of conversations amongst people using social media such as blogs and social networks.
Social media is used by healthcare professionals such as doctors and nurses; patient groups and health campaigners; government health advisors and regulators; and of course health consumers such as patients or their careers. For pharmaceutical companies, conversations taking place about health-related issues amongst people using social media provide a potential wealth of information to be mined for market research and product development.
Pharmaceutical companies want discover information about the health issues that matter to people, to gain competitive intelligence about their marketplace, and to learn about the perception of their brand amongst stakeholders. They might also want to be amongst the first to hear of problems people experience with their medicines, although capturing and responding to this kind of information is made somewhat more complex by the regulatory environment in which pharmaceutical companies operate.
Discovering information There are primarily two approaches used by pharmaceutical companies to discover information using social media: 'external discovery', where information about conversations taking place is measured and analysed remotely; and 'internal discovery', where an environment owned or managed by the pharmaceutical company hosts social media activity. Both approaches are necessary in order to gain a complete picture.
External discovery The external discovery approach provides breadth of information, but not the depth of insight that comes from hosting social media activity. Nevertheless, the richness of information that can be gained by external discovery makes it a highly valuable activity and an essential starting point for pharmaceutical companies seeking information.
A range of free tools exist for external discovery that will measure and report on conversations taking place in social media. For example, tools to monitor Twitter include simple search tools such as Twitter Search(2) which will simply return all current conversations taking place on any topic, and automated services such as SocialOomph(3) which will email a summary of 'tweets' containing specified keywords.
Extract from SocialOomph's Twitter Tweets Keyword Alert Digest email
With the volume of conversations taking place at any time on any health issue, collecting and analysing information from a wide range of social media platforms can be a daunting task. The solution to this is provided by commercial social media monitoring tools which index conversations taking place across social media platforms and allow extensive analysis of the data.
One such tool is Radian6, which provides a graphical interface for illustrating information trends. For example, the chart below illustrates how the majority of conversations relating to 'stop smoking' in a given period took place in forum replies.
Radian6 analysis of media types for conversations relating to 'stop smoking'
Amongst Radian6's tools is a topic trend analysis tool which illustrates the correlation between different topics discussed in social media.
Radian6 analysis of mentions of smoking and smoking-cessation medicines over time
Other social media monitoring tools used by the pharmaceutical industry include the recently launched ScanBuzz which focuses purely on medicine products, and Techrigy's SM2. SM2's features include an analysis of 'emotions' expressed through social media conversations on given topics, as illustrated below.
SM2 analysis of emotion expressed in social media discussions on a health topic
Internal discovery The opportunity to gain internal insights through hosting social media activity presents a dilemma for pharmaceutical companies. On the one hand, if they can establish the trust of patients and healthcare professionals and host open conversations about health and medicines, they can potentially be the first to gain new insights. On the other hand, there is a burden of responsibility for content that is generated by such conversations on sites owned or managed by the company. In the heavily-regulated world of pharmaceutical communications, this is the subject of much controversial debate including a recent public hearing by US government regulators the FDA.
This debate has not stopped some in pharmaceutical companies from encouraging dialogue by implementing their own social media tools. Johnson & Johnson's blog JNJ BTW(4) is a platform for dialogue between the company and anybody who will engage with them. As Marc Monseau, a director of communications with the company told me(5) after the site's first year, the blog engages a wide section of the company's stakeholders:
'One of my biggest surprises was that the people who read the blog are not who I originally thought they would be - they are not just members of the media or healthcare bloggers - but include doctors, nurses, employees, competitors, retirees, supporters of J&J and detractors. It's that the audience - and this is important - the audience is defining itself - which is different from how we've looked at the world in the past.'
Whilst Johnson & Johnson's blog is a simple example of an internal platform that engages people in dialogue with the company, other pharmaceutical companies have gone further to create communities for people to connect and communicate in social networks. One such example is Bayer Healthcare's MS-Gateway, a resource and online community for people living with multiple sclerosis. MS-Gateway encourages patients to register and take part in their online community.
Rather than building their own platforms to host social media activities, many pharmaceutical companies are engaging with people using existing networks and communities on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. These have the added advantage that they present a familiar environment to millions of Internet users who are connected to others.
Tools for internal discovery Whilst the primary objective of the social media examples above may be to allow the pharmaceutical company to engage in two-way dialogue with people, the internal discovery opportunities are significant and essential components for future successful ongoing engagement. Direct insights may be discovered simply by monitoring questions asked and topics discussed by participants, whilst Web analytics tools such as Google Analytics(6) may be integrated with a company's own platform to provide extensive data about the way people use the website or social network.
YouTube's Insights(7) analytics tool allows a YouTube video publisher to learn about the demographic profile of those who have viewed and engaged with its content, and to break this down by geography.
YoTube Insights provides a demographic analysis tool for video publishers
Applying discovered insights It's one thing to research and collect information, but the real value of information discovered comes when pharmaceutical companies use this information to inform their business. One of the most significant areas where insights from social media can inform the business is in engagement strategy. Defining a strategy for successfully engaging people requires a thorough understanding of the issues that they are already discussing.
An example of such discovery-led engagement strategy can be seen in Pfizer's 'Get Real. Get a Prescription' campaign(8) which warns people about the real risks of purchasing prescription-only medicine without a prescription, form illicit Websites. Prior to developing the campaign's strategy for engaging with people about the important health issues in the campaign, Pfizer carried out research into social media discussions and search activity around online medicine sales, analysing the tactics used by illicit Websites to attract Internet users.
Through this discovery-led approach to strategy development, Pfizer partnered with stakeholders including the UK Government regulator MHRA and key patient groups, to achieve significant awareness of the campaign's important health issues.
With a social media measurement framework already operating for the campaign, Pfizer were able to monitor and respond in real time to Internet user activity.
This kind of discovery-led approach being adopted by some pharmaceutical companies is leading to more effective engagement on healthcare issues and ultimately, better health information for patients.
Daniel Ghinn is Director of Digital Engagement for Healthcare and Government with consultancy Creation Interactive. He works with some of the world's major pharmaceutical companies, helping them to make sense of the way the Internet is changing healthcare, and is a regular speaker, teacher and author on the subject. He lives in Kent with his wife and three children.
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What are the trends for 2010? Fellow FUMSI editor Martin Belam thinks that 
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