And when it comes to ROI, I think the issue is knowing what to measure (i.e. objectives) rather than trying to measure it against traditional standards… And to your point, “immediate ROI” is not always evident, especially if you are measuring the wrong data.

I think this is one of your best posts EVER. It really sums up a lot of what you have been saying over the past few years and sometimes banging your head in frustration! Like anything else in life it is all about follow through and commitment to what you are doing and right now that is just not evident in this industry. If you can’t show immediate ROI then the common thought is that it must not be working.

Thanks for ur nice nice words. Hopefully, that’s how all corporate initiatives will view social media engagements (not just pharma). It’s important to understand that it’s not just a trendy advertising medium. Otherwise, the corporate blog will really be an oxymoron.

While I do agree with much of what you said, the issues for pharma go far beyond the fear of negative comments. There’s a whole federal regulatory issue (e.g. adverse event reporting, off-label promotion, etc) that lead to the industry’s conservatism when it comes to open communication, even for the most basic task of “listening”.

However, I do believe that it would be in the industry’s best interest to find ways of adopting these tools within the legal and regulatory guidelines, in order to restore a healthy relationship with its customers (pardon the pun). Many are trying, but the uptake is slow.