Increase in social media adoption by both patients and physicians is beginning to catch the attention of market leaders within the pharmaceutical industry.
While there is undoubtedly greater interest in utilizing social media capabilities, many pharmaceutical manufacturers are struggling to understand how social media activities support their core business goals.
There is one primary consideration when structuring your approach to social media: Integration
Social media should not be considered a stand-along strategy, but rather be used to enhance and support existing business objectives. All social media activities should be tied directly to strategic goals that impact key initiatives for your organization.
While it can be difficult to identify where to direct your social efforts, consider focusing on support for existing business goals with an engagement, education or analysis component.
Many pharmaceutical companies have significant offline initiatives focused around Risk and Drug Safety, Adherence, New Product Launch and Patient Education. What these objectives lack is the social media support necessary to reach key audiences and provide closed loop assistance to reach critical goals. Consider the following social activities for more complete support:
- Risk and Drug Safety: Support existing goals by implementing monitoring processes for early detection of adverse events and legal threats, and providing a convenient online outlet for drug safety reporting and support
- Adherence: Enhance goals to improve patient outcomes and expand market share with social listening to identify adherence barriers, live online coaching and digital reminder program enrollment
- New Product Launch: Provide pre-launch analysis to deliver more targeted promotion, better understand patient needs and identify key social influencers
- Patient Education: Boost initiatives for chronic condition support by adding social education resources and live support through preferred channels to enhance patient satisfaction
To learn more about how pharmaceutical leaders are benefiting from integrating social media into their business, check out C3iHC’s complete eBook.
