Well, after only 9 short months, it appears that CNTO411 may be shutting it’s doors forever and heading towards the “Dead Phlog Pool” — a term I am using to represent Pharma Blogs (or any other Social Media initiatives) that fail or are shutdown.

According to Pharma Marketing News, the main reason for this is because Centocor “...can’t find anyone to take the place of Michael Parks, Centocor’s former Vice President of Corporate Communication. Michael was the creator of CNTO411 and shared editorial duties with his colleague, Melissa Katz — who also left Centocor“.

Actual activity on CNTO411 ceased in OCT’08 (based on last blog update), which is somewhat similar to GSK’s alliConnect Blog, which also hasn’t had an update since SEP’08 (is that a dead phlog too?). This leads to the question asked by John Mack: Could it be that the corporate blog is an oxymoron? Or could it be, as Alex Savic from the Alensa Blog commented, that “…many companies [are] only getting involved because of the hype around blogs without real internal buy-in“?

So all this got me thinking… Isn’t it a shame to build up a large following and then just let it all just fade away? Is a corporate blog or any other social media effort only as good as the person/people who drive the effort? Would this have happened to traditional marketing effots?

Personally, while I DO believe that some companies may have hopped on the blog-wagon out of hype, I DO NOT believe that corporations are unable have a genuine blog. If that were the case, then any form of social media will not work either, as the aim of social media is to develop a more personal relationship with customers and to engage them in meaningful conversation. And yet, there are many good examples where these efforts have triumphed over negativity in large corporations — Comcast, Dell, and Wal-Mart, are a few that come to mind.

So what happened in this case? Here are my thoughts on how we might be able to prevent future corporate phlogs (or maybe it should be “phlops“) before they even have a chance to succeed:

Avoid (too much) “Brandividualism“
David Armano (from Critical Mass) recently blogged about The Age of Brandividualism, a term used to describe “people who represent a brand, as well as their own“. While it’s important to personalize/humanize any social media interaction, there is also a danger of a brandividual “hijacking” the corporate identity; particularly if you’re hiring a well established blogger to launch the blog or if only 1 or 2 people are driving the project and actively engaging with customers. By itself, such a strategy is a short term plan that may see initial gains, but it can easily lead to the same problems that CNTO411 is facing now, especially if the individual(s) decide to leave the company. This leads me to my second point…

Think Beyond Traditional Marketing/PR
So, even if this is a “social media experiment” or “pilot project”, you have to remember that just like any relationship, this is a LONG TERM COMMITMENT… That is, unless you prefer flings and one-night stands for customer relationships. However, it’s not just “another PR/marketing campaign” that generates hype leading up to launch and then is left alone. Instead, it should be thought of as a form of “courting the customer” into a long term relationship — it needs constant communication, honesty, and even compromise at times. As soon as one party drifts away, it’s difficult to maintain that relationship altogether. Which leads me to my third point…

Departments Should Own the Initiatives, not Individuals
At least in larger enterprises, by the time an initiative like a corporate blog launches, the concept has probably already had some amount of management buy-in and gone through several rounds of discussions with the appropriate internal authorities. So, it’s often NOT the case of an over-zealous individual publishing a rogue blog, but more likely, it’s considered an “approved” departmental strategy (typically marketing or PR). Hence, that department should take responsibility for the initiative and support it like any other strategy, just like traditional media. For example, if you have a Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) strategy and your DTC manager quits, would you stop DTC advertising altogether or just put it on hold until you find a replacement? Probably not.

Create a Corporate Social Media Guideline/SOPs/Policies
And finally, the glue that could bind all these ideas together is the need for corporations — especially highly regulated industries like Pharma — to develop their own social media guidelines and/or SOPs and policies. The guidelines should be developed in conjunction with internal authorities and stakeholders, so that there is an over-arching process for initiating any type of social media activity.

SOPs/policies could be developed for each specific initiative (they could be similar) — Internal SOPs can provide the person in-charge with guidelines/boundaries for what is permissible (or not), within the scope of their job function (i.e. marketing vs. PR), or how to respond to certain issues — a nice example of such an SOP is the flow chart that the U.S. Air Force has developed for responding to blog posts.

External policies should clearly explain the purpose and limitations of the blog to the intended audience, such as the Blogroll Policy, Comments Policy and Privacy Policy & Legal Notice on the JNJBTW blog. For an interesting read and lots of additional resources, check out “Corproate Social Media Policies and Guidelines” over at ChristyWeb.com and the Blogging Policy Examples on the Groundswell Blog.

The key here is that there should be a general plan/guideline that ANYONE can adhere to in order to get the job done and that it is not just in the mind of the person who initiated the project.

Summary
Ultimately, I guess what I’ve been trying to say is that corporations need to plan for success AND for succession before leaping into any sort of social media initiative. They need to believe that their initiative will be successful and plan for that, but also be flexible, because it’s not just about planning and executing, it’s also about listening and responding. And, of course, if every initiative has clear guidelines that any (appropriate) person can follow, then they don’t have to worry as much about not having a “successor” and can focus on the more important things, like continuing that relationship with the customer.

One Last Note
John Mack at Pharma Marketing News has definitely sparked a great debate on this topic on corporate/pharma blogs, so be sure to read the comments at the bottom of the post, including a nice counterpoint from the Editor of JNJBTW.com, Marc Monseau.