Well, I can’t believe it’s only a few hours before Christmas (what happened to the rest of this year?), so it’s probably too late for a corny “12 Days of Christmas” pharma parody and there’s no point in trying to out do Ellen Hoenig’s very eloquent “T’was The Night Before #FDASM“. So instead, I thought I’d share “10 Things You Should Know About Social Media (But Are Often Overlooked)” as a countdown to Christmas.

Basically, it’s just a list of thoughts and ideologies that I feel are important — but often overlooked — fundamentals of social media that I have come to learn and understand over the course my time and involvement in the social media culture. Those of you who have heard/seen some of my recent presentations will recognize these 10 ideologies, as I’ve added them to the end of my talks of late.

1. It’s NOT a magic pill or the holy grail
2. It will only serve to amplify — not rectify
3. It humanizes your corporate brand — act like a human
4. It’s a commitment — not a campaign.
5. Your biggest investment will be your time and resources
6. It does not replace face-to-face — it enhances and supplements it!
7. Time to stop convincing — time to start compelling
8. Bring booze to the party — don’t be a mooch
9. Empower your audience — and earn their trust
10. Set  Expectations  Xplicitly!

While some (all?) of them may seem rather cliche, I do think they speak to issues that are often lost in the hype when people think about social media. And more than at any other time that I’ve heard many of these issues brought up, these ideologies rang most true to me during the closing un-conference session at the recent Digital Pharma conference (read about it here and here), where many of these topics were brought up, discussed, mulled around, and ruminated. So here’s a bit more detail for each one:

#1 It’s NOT a magic pill or the holy grail
The problem with getting caught up in the social media hype is that we sometimes forget: It’s NOT the answer to everything. It won’t solve all your problems or turn your mediocre product/marketing into something that it isn’t (see point #2). For more, read Tara Hunt’s “Your Social Media Strategy Won’t Save You” presentation from the 2009 Web 2.0 Expo in NYC.

#2 It will only serve to amplify — not rectify
Again, social media isn’t going to save you if you have bad staff, bad marketing, bad product, etc. IN FACT, it’s quite the opposite. Be prepared for an amplification of the perceptions of what already exists…Good OR bad. If you want a positive amplification, then you need to work for it and put effort into what you’re doing to make it better. It’s about genuine, authentic responsibility and relationships with your customers. Not just another sales pitch.

#3 It humanizes your corporate brand — act like a human
A big part of social media is turning cold corporate walls into warm blooded humans. Humans that connect. It’s a very different medium and culture from traditional media, so instead of trying to squeeze the square social media peg into the round traditional hole, think about what you’re trying to achieve. Don’t just take the traditional “corporate voice” and copy-and-paste it into your social media channel — a sales pitch or a speech doesn’t belong in a conversation. For more, read Chris Brogan’s great post on “What Human Business And the Social Web Are About“.

#4 It’s a commitment — not a campaign
This is another one about NOT treating social media like we do traditional media campaigns. The long-drawn build up to launch is not where the hard work and big efforts come in to play. It’s AFTER launch that you really need to put a lot of work and nurture the initiative; monitoring, reviewing, responding, adjusting, etc. See David Armano’s great diagram and blog post for more insight.

#5 Your biggest investment will be your time and resources
As mentioned in #4, it’s not just a one time deal and, just like in any relationship, the biggest effort happens AFTER you meet. The build up before the meeting was just a preface to the hard work that makes any commitment or relationship really work. So make sure you plan for the resources that are required for the post-launch activities ahead of time! There’s no sitting back and waiting to see how a relationship turns out.

#6 It does not replace face-to-face — it enhances and supplements it!
I believe one of the biggest misconceptions that exists about social media is that it’s about a bunch of geeks online all the time, conversing through Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks. However, what many people fail to realize is that social media actually drives and multiplies the opportunities for face-to-face interactions. Look at all the tweetups, meetups, podcamps, foocamps, unconferences, etc, etc. that surrounds new and social media. We love meeting the people we meet online. The technology that drives social media just ends up being a conduit for human interaction and in turn propels us to want to make real world, face-to-face, human connections!

#7 Time to stop convincing — time to start compelling
OK, so this one’s borrowed from the summary of Web MD’s 2009 Health Forum. It’s about doing those (sometimes intangible) things that your customers will feel compelled to tell others about in a positive way. It’s not about occupying a “new category” for your brand in the mind of your customers. It’s about connecting with their hearts and bringing them value, trust, and authenticity.

#8 Bring booze to the party — don’t be a mooch
Another borrowed statement… This one is a slightly altered version of something I once heard Chris Brogan say: “Bring wine to the picnic“. Basically, this really speaks to the need to start thinking about what value we bring to our customers. Ask not what they can do for you (and your profits), but what you can do for them. Create value for them and they will thank you for it…And sing your praises.Ties in very closely with #7.

#9 Empower your audience — and earn their trust
This follows on from #8. If you really want to do well with social media, you need to give your customers the ability to amplify your positive value in their lives. Just look at the Obama presidential election “Social Media Toolkit” (PDF link to Edelman whitepaper) for the many ways that the audience had opportunities to raise their own voices, share it with others, and evangelize their party. However, it’s important that you need to earn your customers trust first, before asking them to do anything. Remember, #8 — bring value first. Otherwise, they will have no reason to sing your praises.

#10 Set Expectations Xplicitly!
Finally, I end with the idea of setting expectations with your customers (I purposefully left off the “E” on “Explicitly” — makes for a better acronym ). This is probably the single most important thing for any corporate entity engaging in social media, especially if there are limitations for how a social platform has to be implemented, due to legal/regulatory issues, etc. By first telling your customers what to expect, you have transparently allowed them to understand the framework that you are working in. See the JNJBTW, GSK’s “More Than Medicine“, and AZ’s “Health Connections” blogs for examples of their frankness about their approach to blogging within the regulated pharma industry. Don’t let the purists or trolls make you think that social media is an all or nothing activity (see my comment on that here).

Phew… That was longer than I expected (Wow — it’s almost Christmas!). But I thought it was worth noting some of the details down for each of my 10 ideologies. To end this post, I thought I’d leave you with a video that was nicely put together by the guys from DigiRedo (including my co-blogger, Erik) from the 3rd Annual Digital Pharma conference, where  you can hear comments around the event itself and the “unconference” approach/principles that we tried to infuse into the entire meeting — enjoy…

Original video here.

At the last DigiPharm congress in London we spoke to John Pugh, Director Corporate and External Communications at Boehringer Ingelheim. John is well known for bringing Boehringer into the Twittersphere, and has quiet some success with that initiative. Using Twitter to communicate with journalists -his primary target in his role as External Communicator- he “can establish a dialogue with them”, according to John himself.

John started in the new/social media space about ten years ago, the time that websites were still written in Comic Sans. You could call John a real internet veteran, in that respect. During DigiPharm 2009 he shared his vision of the future of pharma, and the role new media will have.

In our interview John talks about his passion for new media and the challenges pharma is facing when deploying new media into their communication mix. John is a firm believer of new media and focusses in the opportunities rather than the threats, like we see way too often around us. We need more johns….

View the original video here.

*UPDATED: Day 1 & 2 Hearing Summaries and Resources

The next 2 days (NOV 12-13) marks a VERY significant occasion in the history of social media in pharma. By that, of course, I mean that it’s the kick off to the FDA Open Hearing on Internet and Social Media — the first of it’s kind since 1996! Of course, it was just “Internet” back then — social media didn’t exist as we know it today.

The biggest irony of this meeting on INTERNET and SOCIAL MEDIA is that there’s no wifi connection or cell phone reception (the meeting room is 2 floors underground), so no one there will be able to live tweet/blog the meeting, but at least it’s an open forum. Whatever the case, those of us watching the live webcast will be live-tweeting (because we have wifi! ) using the hashtag #FDASM, so look out for those.

Click image for live webcast on NOV 12-13

There’s already been bevy of write-ups and resources surrounding this, so rather than write my take on it, I’m going to point to several of these so that you can get a variety of viewpoints and information…

If you haven’t heard yet, Astra Zeneca US launched a new corporate blog last week, called “AZ Health Connections“; thus being the third (active) corporate pharma blog online that I know of… JNJBTW.com and GSK’s More Than Medicine, being the other two.

There’s been a number of blog “reviews” and comments about the launch of this new AZ blog and, while you would have expected lots of congratulatory remarks towards taking another step in the world of social media (they also have a Twitter feed: AstraZenecaUS), it turns out that some comments are not exactly positive so far. You can read a summary of some early commentary in Jim Edwards’ BNET article and here are some additional quotes from various sources:

BNET: AstraZeneca’s New Blog Is Slammed by Critics
The criticisms are harsh given that AZ blog editor Earl Whipple has still got his training wheels on… However, the haters do have a point when it comes to pharma company blogs generally: Firms shy away from controversy but controversy is the blogosphere’s raison d’être. unable to overcome that central contradiction, pharma blogs are often pallid affairs.

PharmExec.com:AZ’s First Corporate Blog Falls Flat
So far there have been no comments on the AZ blog. Besides the introductory post, the blog offers only company-line stances on FDA social media regulation and healthcare reform. If content can’t generate the type of product discourse pharma companies are looking for, perhaps a new approach to social media is needed to educate customers in an ethical and productive way.

EyeOnFDA: AstraZeneca Joins List of Corporate Bloggers
AZ indicates it is their desire to engage with the blog, but the early postings leave little upon which to engage.  For example, their posting on the Part 15 Social Media Meeting is purely informational about the meeting, but doesn’t provide a point of view of what AstraZeneca would say to FDA, either at the meeting or in comments posted to the docket.  Without that kind of substance, it is hard to engage.

So, as you can see, there are some doubts as to the “authentic” nature of the AZ blog, but I really like what Mark Senak (EyeOnFDA blog) wrote overall, as it’s more constructive than critical. In particular, I like what was written in the last sentence of his blog post: “But it is early yet, and this blog, like all blogs, needs time to find a voice and identify its parameters“.

IMHO, I think we are often too quick to judge and point out the negatives, usually to the detriment of any organization that is at least trying to take a step forward in this space. Many “experts” and opinionated individuals  often berate the pharma industry for not jumping-in and engaging in social media; yet when they try, they are often criticized for only taking baby steps and not doing the cannon ball straight into the deep end.

Personally, I think AZ’s blog is a great start. In fact, ANY start is a great start. I believe that with every initiative, there is an opportunity to learn, adapt, and evolve. Particularly with this industry, I’ve always said that it’s better to have dipped a toe and tested the waters, than jump right in and get shocked. From what I’ve seen in the past (especially on Twitter), many companies are only able to start out within a comfort-zone, but then over time, they slowly adapt and evolve as they (and their legal, regulatory, etc. colleagues) get more comfortable and more experience. Yes, it’s a bit of a “tortoise approach”, but remember — the tortoise wins the race !

What really bothers me, is when “purists” and “antagonists” start criticizing new efforts for playing it safe (e.g. turning off comments for YouTube videos or reviewing blog comments before posting)…  As it is, an initiative like a corporate blog takes a lot of time, effort, planning, and approval before it can launch, never mind the need to justify it’s existence and purpose (“what’s the ROI for that???“). To then have a slew of negative comments/publicity hit you at your very first step, can only hinder progress or even scare some into shutting down altogether, thereby taking steps backward (the once-bitten feeling).

Instead, it would be helpful to have constructive advice like those that Mark provided in his blog — he blogs about what they did right:

In setting up their blog, AZ has done a few smart things.  They have a very detailed comments policy that was obviously put together by a fleet of lawyers.  They state that they reserve the right to edit or not publish some comments.  They also state that this blog is not the place for discussion of specific product issues.  But the smartest thing they did in my mind is to provide referrals for people if they do want to report a problem with a prescription product.  That is smart because at some point in the future, companies are going to be compelled to be more aggressive and proactive in adverse event reporting – so why not start now?  It is also smart because it reinforces the message that the blog is a platform for other discussion.  There is also an elaborate “Legal” tab.

And he also blogs about areas to improve upon (which may not be obvious to the authors):

A visible indication of possible multiple authors is the fact that the postings each have different fonts and spacing, indicating that they were drafted in Word somewhere and cut and pasted into the blog without stylizing consistently first.

Whatever the case, I hope that AZ (and any other current or future corporate blogs) will learn, adapt, and evolve through the feedback they receive and not shy away — the journey of a thousand miles (with plenty of hurdles along the way) .

I like that AZ has already responded to some of this negativity with a statement on their blog, showing that they are — at least — listening and responding:

AZ Health Connections: Pharma Blogs Face Unique Challenges
We are presented with some unique challenges  when it comes to mentioning specific products or disease states on our blog, but despite the critical headline, it’s also wrong for anyone to assume that this is how we want things to be… Can more be done to help provide accurate, balanced and timely information about our products, especially through social media channels? Yes, of course. But what the PharmaExec blog post labels as “close corporate scrutiny,” I see as responsibility.  While adding any extra level of “scrutiny” to the comments we receive may mean it will take longer for us to respond to a comment, this is how we will operate for now.

In the end, I leave you with a quote from my friend, Marc Monseau — the well respected editor of JNJBTW.com, which is probably the longest running and probably the most admired industry blog —  which I believe aptly sums up my thoughts on how this industry can move forward with social media… one step at a time:

JNJBTW: Healthcare Comapnies and theSocial Web (October, 2009)
And so what we have ended up doing in many cases is take some small steps to get more comfortable with getting involved. We are also making sure we have processes in place to handle adverse event reports and that we have responsible people involved who can respond quickly to questions… At the same time, projects like JNJBTW and the Johnson & Johnson health channel on YouTube are giving us some great experience.