Janssen to Shut Down Psoriasis 360 FaceBook Page Due to Lack of Commitment

Janssen to Shut Down Psoriasis 360 FaceBook Page Due to Lack of Commitment

Janssen Pharmaceuticals has announced it will shut down its Psoriasis 360 Facebook page, which was first launched in October, 2010. At the time, I praised this Facebook page as the "first [pharma FB site] to publish ALL comments BEFORE they are reviewed" (see "Markets as Conversations: Can You Have a Discussion with 'Psoriasis 360' on Facebook?").

Janssen cited its inability to moderate posts made to the Psoriasis 360  wall, one-third of which "mention[ed] a specific drug by name, or talk[ed] about the efficacy of a particular treatment is (or its side effects)." In such cases, Janssen had to ask for the post to be removed or to "pull" it, which I guess was too much work for them to handle after Alex Butler, former Janssen Digital Strategy and Social Media Manager, left the company. Alex was the person responsible for Psoriasis 360. For his efforts, I awarded him (not Janssen) the first ever Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer award (see "First Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Given to Janssen's Alex Butler").

In a statement published on the Psoriasis 360 FB wall, the "Psoriasis 360 team" said "we have found ourselves removing a larger and larger proportion of posts, stifling worthwhile discussions." According a PMLiVE article, Janssen said that "within the last three months alone a third of all posts to the page had to be removed, the majority because they mentioned prescription-only medicines, but a 'significant minority' were disallowed because they included offensive language" (see here).

If one-third of the comments had to be removed or blocked, that means that two-thirds of the comments were NOT blocked. The total number of such comments I find on the Psoriasis 360 site is about 379, including 95 comments submitted by the "Psoriasis 360 team" itself. There were also several comments made by associates of Psoriasis 360 such as from "www.psoriasis360.com." That leaves 284 comments, which represents about 2/3 of the total comments Janssen had to review over the course of 18 months. Doing the math, I estimate that Janssen reviewed about 423 comments during that time for an average of 24 comments per month or less than 1 per day!

Holy cow! What a burden to bear!

What really happened was that when the social media pioneer Alex Butler left Janssen late last year, no one was left to manage the site and Janssen obviously did not feel it was worth it to devote 0.125 FTE (ie, one hour per day) to do the job or to outsource the moderation of comments.

It's obvious that Facebook did not offer Janssen a good return on investment however they may have defined that. There is still a psoriasis 360 YouTube site, which is NOT required to allow comments.

What I don't like about this is not the lack of commitment to social media conversation on Janssen's part, but using regulations as an excuse for its lack of commitment. Reviewing one comment a day is NOT a regulatory hurdle difficult to overcome. Even on sites that are not regulated -- such as this blog -- weeding out unsavory, "offensive," or spammy comments is a fact of social media life that has to be dealt with. Love it or leave it. Janssen has chosen to leave it.

"On Course with Phil" Lacks Social Media Pizzazz!

"On Course with Phil" Lacks Social Media Pizzazz!

This is NOT an attack on Phil Mickelson! I've already done that, been there (see Phil Mickelson "Opens Up" to Arthritis Today Magazine and Is Phil Mickelson Shilling for Enbrel?). So, relax and proceed to the back nine! This is about the "non-branded" disease awareness campaign just announced by Pfizer & Amgen, the companies that bring you ENBREL.

The centerpiece of the campaign is the "On Course with Phil" website, which is pretty lame by today's social media standards. Before I get to that, let me show you the homepage screen that I just captured:

In case you missed it, I circled the "money shot," which is not Phil hitting the ball in the hole, but the prominent link to a "treatment option." The link, of course, leads directly to the branded ENBREL website. Surely, this biologic compound that has a LONG list of things you need to tell your doctor about before taking (eg, "if you live or have lived in ...the Southwest") is NOT the first treatment option one should consider!

Amgen and Pfizer have teamed up (ie, given money to) the Arthritis Foundation and the National Psoriasis Foundation -- patient groups -- to form the "Joint Smart Coalition," which is responsible for the "On Course with Phil" campaign.

On the "On Course with Phil" website, Phil says that he first experienced pain right after the 2010 U.S. Open, which was held in Pebble Beach, California -- the same "Southwest" that the ENBREL package insert says you should tell your doctor about if you ever lived there.

Anyhoo, the website is pretty primitive. I was hoping to see at least a video clip of Phil shooting some balls or maybe even telling us personally about his experience. Instead, you have to click "1", "2", etc. to read what he has to say. Very BORING!

And that "SHARE" button in the upper right corner -- it's not what you think. All it is is a form whereby you can send an email to one other person. Where's the social media share button that allows you to share this site on Twitter, Facebook, etc? I can get code for that and not even pay a dime for it! Like this one:

Share |

Pfizer is often touted to be a leader in social media. But if Pfizer built this site, then it's not worthy of wearing that mantle. I think, however, the real reason this site is basic Web 1.0 is that AMGEN and PFIZER spent all their money on signing up Mickelson and they have none left over to do anything fancy like video or social media integration (see Amgen Blows Its Marketing Budget on Phil Mickelson Campaign).

I've often said that celebrities and social media is a "match made in heaven" for product promotion and that the drug industry is likely to use this combination more often (see "Use of Celebrities for PR and DTC Advertising"; use discount code: 71-01PMYFREE). So, it's a surprise to me that Pfizer and Amgen have not (yet) taken advantage of the synergies between celebrities and social media as other drug companies have done (see, for example, Danica Patrick: NASCAR Driver, Super Model, Superbowl Lingerie Ad Model, & COPD Spokesperson All Rolled Into one!). But, hey, it could still happen! 

Markets as Conversations: Can You Have a Discussion with "Psoriasis 360" on Facebook?

Markets as Conversations: Can You Have a Discussion with "Psoriasis 360" on Facebook?

Alex Butler, Digital Strategy and Social Media Manager at Janssen and candidate for the Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award, just informed me by email that he and his team have launched the Psoriasis 360 Facebook page, which is part of a larger disease-awareness campaign.

Alex wrote:

"The Psoriasis 360 campaign has been developed by Janssen as part of an ongoing commitment to improving the lives of patients through the provision of useful and relevant information about psoriasis. We know that people who live with psoriasis don’t always get the help and support they need to manage their condition. Many people are not aware how severe their psoriasis is, the impact that this has on their life and how to speak to their doctor about managing the condition.

"This information forms the core of the content on the psoriasis 360 website. We would like people to join our community on Facebook and share their experiences with ourselves and others. They can also connect with us and follow the latest psoriasis and 360 community news on twitter. Shortly there will also be a YouTube channel that has been set up with the primary goal of YouTube itself in mind-letting people touched by the condition broadcast themselves and share their stories with others, helping people to live better with psoriasis.

"We believe strongly that people should be able to share their views in an open a manner as possible for a regulated industry and the commenting policy reflects this attitude."

I think this pharma social media site is the first to publish ALL comments BEFORE they are reviewed. Janssen, however, reserves the right to remove any comments "if they directly talk about medication or could be offensive to people."

It also appears that Janssen will allow links to third-party videos and other information: "Janssen are (sic) not responsible for third-party materials appearing on the Psoriasis 360, including but not limited to linked third-party videos, linked third-party sites, and third-party advertisements," says the comment policy. "Janssen does not control or endorse this third-party content and makes no representations regarding its accuracy."

Of course, this leaves the door open for Janssen and/or their agency partners to post all kinds of links to information that Janssen MAY endorse and be responsible for under other circumstances.

But let's not put the cart before the horse and start criticizing this policy before we see more "conversations" on the site.

Speaking of "conversations," I will be interviewing Doc Searls, one of the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto, about the relevance of the Manifesto for the pharmaceutical industry in today's social media world.

According to the ClueTrain Manifesto "A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies."

The first 6 theses of the Manifesto state:

1. Markets are conversations.
2. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.
4. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
5. People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.
6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

I'm most interested, however, in latter theses that are relevant to the growing list of pharmaceutical Facebook pages; namely "The ideal, according to the manifesto," as reported in wikipedia, "is for the networked marketplace to be connected to the networked intranet so that full communication can exist between those within the marketplace and those within the company itself (thesis 53.) Achieving this level of communication is hindered by the imposition of ‘command and control’ structures (thesis 54-58) but, ultimately, organizations will need to allow this level of communication to exist as the new marketplace will no longer respond to the mass-media ‘voice’ of the organization (theses 59-71)."

What I notice on the "Psoriasis 360" FB Wall as well as other pharma FB Walls is that often the response to comments come from unidentified, branded accounts that may or may not be real "human beings." On Psoriasis 360, the responses come from "Psoriasis 360." It's a closed loop that does not bring me to any real human being.

Therefore, I made this post today to the Psoriasis 360 FB Wall:

"Good luck on your new FB page. A piece of advice I'd like to see implemented is for the Janssen people who are responsible for this FB page AND for the ppl who are part of the psoriasis team at Janssen to perhaps identify themselves and/or post their photos to the site. I know this is sometimes a problem because of pri...vacy issues, but eventually the general public would like to know who they are talking to. Having replies come from REAL identifiable ppl may help generate discussion better than having replies come from 'Psoriasis 360.' What do you think?"

Until pharma can break down the "command and control" structure within its marketing organization and allow voices from real people within the organization to respond to consumers, it will never achieve the vision of the ClueTrain Manifesto.

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The Relevance of the Cluetrain Manifesto in a Social Media WorldWhat's Still Not "Conversational" in Today's Markets?


A conversation with Doc Searls, Senior Editor of Linux Journal and co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, about the relevance of the Manifesto for the pharmaceutical industry in today's social media world. Doc will preview the keynote presentation he plans to make at the upcoming Digital Pharma East conference. (See guest bio.)



Airs LIVE on: Thursday, October 7, 2010 * 2 PM Eastern USA

Go to this Pharma Marketing Talk Segment Page to listen to the LIVE show via streaming audio on the Web or to listen to the podcast archive afterward.