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SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATING SOCIAL MEDIA
By James Pietz

Social networking online is a fact of life. The question nowadays is not whether to participate but how. Lost in some of the discussion has been the importance of navigating a safe route through the sometimes turbulent currents of the Internet.

Understanding the new media is a first step. The term “social media” embraces everything from Facebook and Twitter to disease sites, patient advocacy communities, Wikipedia, and blogs. An online media outlet is more than a channel of distribution. It is also a vehicle for communication that allows participants to connect, learn, share information, and influence one another. The process is fluid, and the information shared—good and bad—is not static. Product managers can protect their brands from the dangers lurking beneath the surface by playing an active role in the process. Here are the four C’s to successful social marketing.

Content
Start by analyzing the content of various websites, including health portals, dot-orgs, blogs, and community sites. Determine the share of positive information or voice (for instance, lifestyle, medication support, and disease education) over negative (FDA warnings, patient criticism, medication risk). For asthma, Google Blogs and Blog Pulse show an 86% positive share of voice, while YouTube has a 51% positive share. The key is to recognize the proper balance of positive versus negative news, and choose an environment in which your brand will flourish.

Create content that is educational rather than promotional. In social marketing, content designed to educate the patient or caregiver can be branded or unbranded. Either way, the message is likely to go unchallenged because the content is valued.

Contribution
What can the brand add online? Product managers should seek out brand advocates, who comment about their positive experiences with the product. Engage them in a dialogue and, in the process, learn what it is the online community wants to know. These advocates can be identified through current programs and initiatives or by contacting frequent contributors to specific websites. Once they have agreed, marketers can educate these advocates as spokespeople, who share the knowledge they have gained with their own networks. Unlike with traditional advertising, the audience—not the publisher—disseminates the information.

Control 
Some marketers think that by building their own site or vehicle, they will exercise more control over the content. The opposite is true. In general, participating in an existing site is less likely to draw scrutiny than creating one from scratch. It is also less expensive. Brand and legal teams need to accept the fact that they can’t control the dialogue. However, in the right environment, they can manage the information flow.

Connection
Social networking requires a two-way connection. Information must move back and forth, creating a dialogue between the brand and the patient or consumer. That’s where relationship marketing comes in. Using the insights of behavioral science, this marketing strategy identifies key audience members—those most likely to become brand advocates—then listens to them and responds to their questions and concerns. With this kind of approach, marketers can build relationships that will ultimately help them overcome barriers between the patient and the brand.

Social Media and Adherence
Brand managers who want to test the waters of social marketing need to educate management—and particularly their legal teams—about what this kind of networking can and cannot do. Traditional advertising generates awareness of product benefits; it can be unabashedly promotional. Social marketing requires a different approach, since its goal is to enlist consumers in the educational process.

Leveraging the social media space—co-opting it through the development of close relationships—can be especially effective in increasing adherence, which is a major challenge facing the medical and pharmaceutical community today. With online networking, patients who are skeptical about treatment can be taught to overcome their doubts and continue taking their medications as prescribed. It’s a win-win situation for both sides of the relationship.

James Pietz is VP, Group Director Strategic Services of MicroMass Communications, a relationship marketing agency noted for using behavioral science to solve marketing challenges.