The 3rd Annual Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award

The 3rd Annual Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award

Nominate a Candidate for 3rd Annual Pharmaguy SM Award

The winner will be announced at the 6th Annual Digital Pharma East Conference
on October 17, 2012, in Philadelphia, PA.

Nominees for The Pharmaguy Social Media Award

If you are a regular reader of Pharma Marketing Blog, you know that I generally do not like awards sponsored by pharma trade publications (see “Awards. What Are They Good For?”). Such awards are somewhat suspect because of the inherent conflicts of interests involved -- the winners tend to be the agencies that advertise the most in the sponsoring publication or that purchase big page ads announcing that they won the award.

The Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award
Defenders of pharma “social media” site awards insist that we must reward even the most elementary attempts that pharma is making to have online conversations despite all the regulatory obstacles that they face. I agree. But instead of having awards for the work product, why not give awards to the pioneers who have lead the way to create these sites? We can learn more from how these pioneers overcame the obstacles to launch a social media project than from the end result – even if the end result is flawed or faux.

Sometimes, pioneers work "behind the scenes," making it possible for their colleagues to develop customer-facing social media projects. We must recognize these efforts as well. Marketing campaigns and Web sites come and go, but pioneers move on to new positions and continue to spread their influence far and wide.

To better recognize the value of these pioneers, I launched the Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award in July, 2010. The first award went to Alex Butler (see here) and the second award went to Tony Jewell (see here).

The Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award is meant to recognize pioneers who work (or have recently worked) within regulated drug and device companies. The award recognizes courage in the face of regulatory and corporate culture boundaries!

What's With the Hawaiian Shirt?
Let me explain the Hawaiian shirt motif of the award. Around the time that the FDA announced it would hold a public hearing regarding regulation of pharma’s use of the Internet and social media, I started appearing at conferences in a yellow Hawaiian shirt, which was left over from a Hunter S. Thompson Halloween costume (see “Pharma Social Media Crips vs. Legal/Regulatory Bloods: Call for a ‘Peace’ Conference” for a sighting of me in the shirt at the 3rd Annual Digital Pharma East Conference). I also considered wearing the shirt when I made my presentation to the FDA at the November, 2009 meeting (see “Fear and Loathing in Washington, DC”), but out of respect for the FDA and the audience, I opted for a traditional suit and tie.

Although I didn’t wear my Hawaiian shirt at the FDA hearing, it became an emblem for standing out from the crowd, which is a necessary trait for a social media marketing pioneer. I think a Hawaiian shirt motif befits, therefore, what the Pharmaguy Pharma Social Media Pioneer Award stands for.

The Nominees Are…
I have several people in mind as contenders for this award (see the end of this post), but first let me discuss what I consider to be the qualifications for nominees.

What are the qualifications to be nominated to receive this prestigious award?

First, a nominee must work or have worked within an FDA-regulated pharmaceutical, medical device, or biotech company when he or she pioneered in social media marketing or non-branded communications or was an advocate for such. Although there are many people in agencies that are true social media pioneers and who have been involved in many pharma social media projects, only the insider has the experience and courage I am looking for. The insider has to contend with many stakeholders inside the organization and is ultimately responsible for the project. Consultants and agencies do not have nearly as much skin in the game as do insiders.

Although some pharma social media pioneers have subsequently moved on to other positions in non-pharma companies (see, for example, "Is There an Upward Career Path Within Pharma for Social Media Pioneers?"), they are still eligible for consideration as nominees for the Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award.

Second, a nominee must have been a true social media pioneer. By that I mean someone who has been involved from the early days in marshaling the forces necessary to ultimately build a social media campaign. No matter if the campaign has been a failure. We often learn more from our failures than from our successes. Above all, we want nominees who have learned and who can share their learnings with us.

Third, although it is not necessary that a nominee to have experienced a “Mack Attack” such as that experienced by Novo Nordisk’s Ambre Morley (see “Novo Nordisk's Branded (Levemir) Tweet is Sleazy Twitter Spam!”), it can’t hurt, especially if that person has survived and gone on to be interviewed by me (eg, “Novo Nordisk's Race With Insulin Campaign: It's Not Just About Twitter”).

The type of social media that a nominee has been involved with is immaterial as long as it is one or more of the following: a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook page, a network (community), a YouTube channel, etc.

That’s about it for qualifications.

Who Will Nominate Candidates and Determine Who Wins an Award?
Since this award has my Twitter name associated with it, I take ultimate responsibility for who to consider for this award and who wins an award. I already have several candidates in mind (see below).

However, I also depend upon my readers and colleagues to assist me. You can vote for my nominations and write-in other candidates using the online form here. Not only your vote, but the comments you add will go a long way awards influencing me, especially if you offer details that back up your choices. I especially need help identifying former pharma people who may be working at agencies, but who did a lot of their social media pioneering while employed at a pharmaceutical company.

Ultimately, I will use my best judgment and experience to decide who is qualified to enter the contest and who wins an award. My decision is final.

NOTE: It occurs to me that many pharma marketing initiatives – including social media initiatives – are the result of teamwork within the organization. For example, a SM Pioneer may operate behind the scenes to support a pioneering product manager who makes the decision. Both are pioneers and should be rewarded. It is possible, therefore, that several people may share the same award. I also recognize the fact that outside consultants and agencies may have played a critical role. When appropriate, these pioneers will also receive honorable mention when the awards are announced.

Let me start the process by nominating several people that I know and have interacted with listed in alphabetically by last name. You can click on each name to learn more about this person and add comments. More names will be added as the nominations continue. Please add your nominations and/or votes here.

Nominees
For the most up-to-date list, see Nominees for The Pharmaguy Social Media Award.

NOTE: Every nominee for the Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award is a winner and deserves recognition. But only 1 individual will be awarded the coveted Hawaiian shirt. This is NOT a popularity contest. "Winners" will be chosen solely by Pharmaguy (me) based on my evaluation of merit. Your votes, however, will also count to influence my decision. Also, I need your comments about the people you nominate so that I can profile each and every nominee in recognition of his or her pioneering effort.

AZ's Tony Jewell Receives 2nd Annual Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award

AZ's Tony Jewell Receives 2nd Annual Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award

Yesterday, I figuratively gave the Hawaiian shirt off my back to Tony Jewell (@tonyjewell), Senior Director of External Communications at AstraZeneca US, for his pioneering use of Twitter. I picked Tony specifically because AZ was the first pharmaceutical company to host a Twitter chat (#rxsave; see "OMG! AstraZeneca Hosts Twitter Chat & World Does NOT End!").

This memorable event was captured on video by the Pixels & Pills/Zomega people at the Digital Pharma East conference in Philadelphia:


Pharma Guy Gives Tony Jewell the Shirt Off His Back from Zemoga on Vimeo.

There were several other contenders worthy of this honor, including

• Brad Pendergraph, Novartis
• Dennis Urbaniak, Sanofi
• Kevin Nalty, Janssen
• Ray Kerins, Pfizer
• John Pugh, Boehringer Ingelheim
• Craig DeLarge, Novo Nordisk

Over 100 readers of this blog voted for their candidate in an unofficial poll (see "2nd Annual Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Goes to..."). Although Tony did not garner the most votes in this poll, I still picked him as MY favorite -- after all, this is the PHARMAGUY award, which is not a popularity contest.

Tony received many kudos via Twitter, but at least one fellow blogger -- PharmaGossip -- was not pleased because of Tony's PR role in defending Seroquel against critics (see "What a week for AstraZeneca's Tony Jewell!").

The open #rxsave chat was a pioneering event not just because it was the first ever pharma chat. It was pioneering because AZ did it even though it knew that Seroquel critics might try and "hijack" the discussion. In a Twitter chat it is not possible to "edit" or "not publish" comments made by participants. And the conversation can actually be hijacked by "disgruntled" patients or employees (see here).

As I noted previously, two critics were by far the most prolific tweeters during the chat. These 2 people made 256 posts -- about 30% of the total -- during the one hour chat session. @AstrazenecaUS made just 37 tweets and mostly listened and learned. AZ (ie, Tony Jewell) did not ignore the "critics," who posted off-topics tweets about Seroquel.

Despite the volume of off-topic, critical, and branded tweets made by a few people during the chat, the conversation about how AZ can help more consumers save money on prescription drugs went on and was, IMHO, successful.

So, even though Tony may be a PR person whose job is to promote good news about AZ and "spin" bad news, he deserves my award and I hope his pioneer social media effort is emulated by other pharmaceutical companies.

Is There an Upward Career Path Within Pharma for Social Media Pioneers?

Is There an Upward Career Path Within Pharma for Social Media Pioneers?

I just tweeted this bit of news: ".@Alex__Butler - 1st recipient of Pharmaguy SM Pioneer Award - leaves J&J to start online comms agency: @The_Social_Moon #hcsmeu #hcsmuk" Alex received the FIRST Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award last year when he was Digital Strategy and Social Media Manager at Janssen UK (see "First Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Given to Janssen's Alex Butler"). His pioneering work was the Psoriasis 360 Facebook page (see "Markets as Conversations: Can You Have a Discussion with 'Psoriasis 360' on Facebook?").

At that time, I presented the following chart showing how readers of Pharma Marketing Blog voted for a list of nominees:





Since then, several people on the list are no longer employees of pharmaceutical companies. Aside from Alex Butler, the "dropouts" include Marc Monseau, Shwen Gwee, Len Starnes, Gary Monk, and Michael Parks.

This year, I put together a list of seven contenders for the 2nd PharmaGuy SM Pioneer Award (see"2nd Annual Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Goes to..."; vote for your favorite). This year's list is considerably SHORTER than last year's! Included on the current list are:

• Craig DeLarge, Novo Nordisk 
• Tony Jewel, AstraZeneca 
• Ray Kerins, Pfizer 
• Kevin Nalty, Janssen 
• Brad Pendergraph, Novartis 
• John Pugh, Boehringer Ingelheim 
• Dennis Urbaniak, Sanofi

I sincerely hope that I am not jinxing people by including them on my list of award nominees!

Seriously, however, are we witnessing an exodus of SM pioneers from pharma similar to the exodus of interactive pioneers back at the turn of the century? That last exodus presaged the infamous "dotcom" bust. Perhaps the current exodus presages a similar setback for the interactive industry. In any case, there now appears to be a glut of independent social media communications "agencies" out there as these people set up their own shops. Not all of them will be successful, unfortunately.

Just coincidentally I came across this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Rating Pharma on the Steve Jobs Checklist," which attempts to assess if the pharma sector follows Steve Jobs' principles. The relevant section is this (I highlighted in bold text the most relevant section):

• Don't waste your time living someone else's life

Jobs' reflections on his own mortality led him to an insight reached by Jean Paul Sartre and other philosophers. Man's knowledge of his inevitable demise, something no other animal possesses, provides the spark for understanding one's purpose. Since our time on earth remains limited, none of it should be wasted on inauthentic pursuits.

Among the modern industries, a high percentage of pharma's professional workforce began their careers as a result of an individual passion and a sense that their organizations encouraged personal contributions from them. During the recent years of downsizing, however, the sense of alienation among the industry's workers has grown considerably. Critical thinking, for example, has dissipated in an atmosphere where companies encourage narrow vision, smaller steps, and timid acquiescence to innovation-killing lawyers and soul-chilling finance managers.

Could it be that SM Pioneers inside pharma are feeling "alienated" within their companies, which no longer need their "critical thinking"?

I have often heard from my colleagues who work inside pharma sentiments that support the feeling of alienation in the wake of mergers. These people have often praised my "critical thinking" on issues -- ideas that they themselves would love to espouse if only they could and also keep their jobs.

Let me end with a personal note I just received from Alex Butler:

“The time has come for me to hand the shirt [symbol of Pharmaguy SM Pioneer Award] on to a new recipient, I doesn’t seem like a year ago I was awarded the Pharmaguy award with the famous Hawaiian shirt by John. So much has happened, the landscape has changed tremendously in that short 12 months. I always believed that social media and digital technology has the capacity to revolutionise healthcare, I think we can start to see what the possibilities could be. Whether it is the ability for people to bring their data together to change a civic culture and place translational medicine on fast forward, or simply giving people a greater voice and a chance of informed partnership in the management of their health.

The new economy in pharma companies will be the passionate dedicated people who are prepared to change not just tactical implementation of ‘social platforms’, this does not make a social business. I have been very proud to work in pharma for over a decade and very proud to work for J&J. I am sure the new Pharmaguy pioneer will have the same passion and hopefully will inspire more people within pharmaceutical companies to open up the research and development, clinical trial recruitment and management right through to communications and the broader relationship pharma has with the outside world. We can also develop a new more successful marketing model. I congratulate the winner and look forward to another 12 months of social business development in pharma.”

2nd Annual Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Goes to...

2nd Annual Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Goes to...

Readers of Pharma Marketing Blog may recall that last year I presented the first ever "Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award" to Alex Butler, Digital Strategy and Social Media Manager at Janssen UK (see here).

I've decided to make this an annual event and will present this year's award -- which is the coveted Pharmaguy Hawaiian shirt depicted in the illustration on the left -- to another pharmaceutical company employee who I believe deserves recognition for doing pioneer work in social media.

I will make the presentation at ExL's 5th Annual Digital Pharma East conference in Philadelphia (day and time TBD). I hope you will be there to witness this major event.

During the presentation, I will "pass on" the shirt that Alex Butler has been keeping safe in a secret location in the UK.

Who will be the lucky recipient of this year's award? Will the shirt return to America and reside in the closet of an American? Time will tell.

Here's a list of contenders. Pick the one you like. While this little poll will not determine the winner -- that's Pharmaguy's prerogative -- it will be interesting to see who readers of this blog think should be the winner.

Who Should Get the 2011 Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award?
	Craig DeLarge, Novo Nordisk
	Tony Jewel, AstraZeneca
	Ray Kerins, Pfizer
	Kevin Nalty, Janssen
	Brad Pendergraph, Novartis
	John Pugh, Boehringer Ingelheim
	Dennis Urbaniak, Sanofi
	None of the above

Fair Social Media Practice Principles: Rules for Third-Party Engagement in Patient/Physician Social Networks

Fair Social Media Practice Principles: Rules for Third-Party Engagement in Patient/Physician Social Networks

Recently, there's been some discussion on Twitter and certain blogs about Sermo, the online physician community based in the U.S. When Sermo representative Thomas Rines (@tomrines) tweeted that "Sermo is an online community for US physicians. We provide our clients the ability to engage with the community" in a recent #MedDevice chat, he caused a "What? Wait!" doubletake (see "The Twitter Chat that Killed Sermo").

It seems that many physicians -- including some who are Sermo members -- are not aware of Sermo's business model, which is “Sermo is free to practicing physicians. Revenue is generated as healthcare institutions, financial services firms and government agencies purchase Sermo products to access this elite group of practitioners.”

Here were some responses to Rines' tweet:

"Sounds like @SermoTeam is willing to host docs for free in order to gather info and push products for $"

"Do docs really know their conversations are being mined?"

"I doubt docs know exactly how Sermo mines their conversations."

"Seems many topics of late come back to transparency & the motives for not being transparent."

"May be a blog post to be had from this."

The last two comments are relevant to why I am writing this blog post.

Before I proceed, you should know that Sermo is a client of mine. I recently helped them promote their services to the subscribers of Pharma Marketing News, most of whom are interested in accessing Sermo's  elite group of practitioners (see the message I sent out to subscribers here: "Get $3,000 of Market Research, FREE"). I've also had a conversation with Daniel Palestrant, Founder and CEO of Sermo, about how pharmaceutical companies can interact with Sermo members (listen to the podcast: "Pharma, Physicians, and Sermo: A Social Media Win-Win-Win!").

I have also wondered how happy Sermo physicians are with its policy and whether or not a majority of them approve of it (see "Pfizer has a Gold Mine in Sermo!").

Given all the publicity and transparency about Sermo's business model, I am surprised to see comments like the ones above and this one by "SteveBMD," author of blog "Thought Broadcast," who said (see "Discussing social media with physicians on Sermo"):

"Sermo is not a physician-only community," says SteveBMD.

"Sermo generates revenue by selling access to its site to “healthcare institutions, financial services firms and government agencies.” See this link on their site: http://sermo.com/client/research/overview

"Unfortunately, this is not made clear to doctors when they sign up or participate. Instead, doctors are led to believe that this is like an “online doctors’ lounge.” A better description would be a doctors lounge with insurance companies, pharma companies, market researchers, and government agencies peeking through the window."

I am not a physician, so I cannot join Sermo and look at exactly what Sermo leads doctors to believe when and after they join. But I do know that Sermo has a 4,278 word "Terms of Use" document that it links to right on the Sign Up page (see below; click for an enlarged view).

This is a typical legal agreement that most of us see on Web sites, but automatically FAIL to read! If you want to become a member, you MUST agree. But what exactly are Sermo members agreeing to?

The Sermo Terms of Use document gets to the point of this blog in ITEM #7, which explains "Hotspots", which are "visual indicators within the Site that enable Sermo and its clients to present opportunities ('Opportunities') for interaction with You." Further down in ITEM #16, Sermo explains that "any material, information or other communication You transmit or post to the Site or third party site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary" and "Sermo and its designees will be free to use for any purpose, copy, disclose, sell, distribute, perform, incorporate and otherwise use the Communications and all data, images, sounds, text, and other things embodied therein for any and all commercial or non-commercial purposes to the extent permitted by applicable law."

OK, so Sermo DOES explain its business plan in its Terms of Use.

I question whether this is ENOUGH, considering that most everyone ignores these documents written in legalese -- a language that repulses many of us ordinary folk, including doctors!

Instead, owners and operators of online discussion sites -- whether they be independent corporations such as Sermo, or hospitals, other healthcare organizations, and even pharmaceutical companies (someday) -- should publish SOCIAL MEDIA POLICIES that are separate and different from their Terms of Use agreements.

A Social Media Policy is not just an agreement that users must abide by. More importantly, it is a PROMISE to users from site owners/sponsors concerning how they will protect or attempt to protect user-generated content, personal conversations, interactions, and engagements with third-parties on the site. The policy should also explain how users should "behave" on the site (eg, "rules of engagement").

Fair Social Media Practice Principles
It used to be that privacy policies were written in legalese incorporated into terms of use agreements. Even when separate privacy policies were developed, they varied from site to site owned and run by the same organization. After government (ie, FTC) privacy policy guidelines and laws were enacted, privacy policies were required to comply with standard fair information practice principles that make certain promises about protecting a user's privacy (see, for example, "Pharmaceutical Compliance with Fair Information Practice Principles"). Privacy policies also have become much easier to read and understand.

The same should be true of the social media policies I am talking about. I hope, however, this is done on a voluntary basis by the industry rather than by new laws.

Therefore, in summary, I propose that owners and operators of online discussion sites -- whether they be independent corporations such as Sermo, or hospitals, other healthcare organizations, and even pharmaceutical companies (someday) -- publish SOCIAL MEDIA POLICIES that comply with as-yet-to-be-determined "fair social media practice principles."

But what are the essential elements of "Fair Social Media Practice Principles?"

That's the question I plan to address at a June 22, 2011 workshop in Paris at the Doctor's 2.0 & You conference. Find my workshop on the agenda here.

Some ideas for essential social media good practice principles include:

• A comment moderation policy that explains how discussions are reviewed before or after publication
• Qualifications for discussion moderators, if there are moderators
• How site moderators are trained regarding policies
• Rules for participation in discussions by site owner employees
• Rules for participation by third-party sponsors, clients or their agents
• How "misinformation" is defined and what the policy is for correcting such information

Survey
What do you think? Please give me your input on  this by responding to my Rules for Pharma Engagement in Patient/Physician Social Networks survey. It will only take 5 minutes. I promise that when I get back from Paris, I will write up what I learned from this survey and from workshop participants in Pharma Marketing News. Your responses can be confidential (ie, anonymous) or you can opt in to being cited in the article should I publish your comments.

More Pharma Social Media Pioneers Recognized

More Pharma Social Media Pioneers Recognized

As evidenced by the first-ever pharma-hosted Twitter Chat (see "OMG! AstraZeneca Hosts Twitter Chat & World Does NOT End!"), there is still plenty of work for Pharma Social Media Pioneers to do and new pioneers to be recognized.

Last year, I awarded the coveted "Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award" to Alex Butler (see "First Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Given to Janssen's Alex Butler").

I will continue to search out, find, and promote new pioneers, especially those who are actively using Twitter to engage in conversation. The chart below shows the pioneers I currently have in my database (view that database here). You can also follow selected tweets from these pioneers in the ePharma Pioneer Tweets & Posts Forum.


I have included in my list people who are employed by pharmaceutical companies (or very recently so employed) and who have over 200 Twitter followers.  If you know someone who should be included and is not, please let me know (click banner below).

UPDATE (12 July 2012): I have dropped the requirement that people have over 200 followers to be on the list -- only a few meet that criterium. Nevertheless, I want to recognize all pharma people who have personal Twitter accounts so the world can see what these people are tweeting about and thus get a more personalized view of pharmaceutical employees who can be the best "ambassadors" for their companies. You know, show the human faces behind the corporate curtains.




Use of Twitter by Pharma Company Employees

[Using the above form/survey, you can also tell me whether you agree or disagree with these statements:

Every pharmaceutical employee should be ENCOURAGED to engage and participate in online discussions to help improve their company's reputation as long as they follow guidelines.

• Every pharma company should have Twitter/Social Media GUIDELINES (rules) for their employees to follow.
• Pharma employees should ALWAYS reveal their employment status in their Twitter profiles, even if they do not tweet about their companies or products.
• More pharma companies should host their own Twitter CHATS such as the #rxsave chat hosted by Astrazeneca

Thanks for your input.]

Most of these Twitter accounts are truly personal views and are not meant to speak for the company. They usually include disclaimers such as:

"All tweets are my own and do not necessarily represent my employer's view."

"Opinions tweeted are my own; not those of my employer"

"These tweets=Me and not my company"

A few are sanctioned by the company such as Marc Monseau's @JNJComm.

NOTE: Marc also has a personal Twitter account (@MDMonseau), which is included in the database as well. To be fair, we should really compare this account to the others, which are also personal accounts (except for Rob Halper's, which is @JNJVideo). Marc is kind of a special case. From day 1, his @JNJComm tweets were very personal and mostly were free of "corporate speak" language.

It's interesting to see how some accounts have grown over time (see @Alex__Butler vs. @JNJComm in the chart below).

@TonyJewell, who was responsible for the AstraZeneca #rxsave Twitter chat (see my interview of Tony here), is a recent addition to my list. I notice that before the #rxsave chat, Tony was adding about 1 follower per day. Afterward, he is adding maybe 2 followers a day. Which goes to prove that hosting a Twitter chat can DOUBLE the rate at which you add followers! I don't think, however, that Tony will surpass Alex any time soon.

Although there was an "anomalous" spike in followers of Alex Butler in January, it wasn't as dramatic a spike that @Pfizer_news experienced back in December 2010 (see "How Did Pfizer Get So Many Twitter Followers?").

Addendum: Tweets vs. Followers

Just out of curiosity, I also plotted the number of followers vs. number of tweets for these pioneers to get the following scatterplot:

I notice right away that the top two accounts in terms of followers -- @JNJComm and @Alex__Butler (labeled "A" in the chart) -- have attracted a large number of followers but have not posted very many tweets. Their Follower to Tweet ratio is 4.7 whereas the norm is closer to 0.35 (that is, # followers = 0.35 x # of tweets). The "B" people are also somewhat off the norm. Obviously, it's not about the quantity of your tweets, but could be about the quality.

"C" (@shwen) is way out their on his own. Shwen has posted an incredible 13,280 tweets! But he has been doing this probably longer than anyone else.

Addendum: Followers vs. Following

Another factor to consider is how many people these pioneers follow. We always praise those pharma people who follow a lot of other people on Twitter. It indicates they are listening to many points of view. Here's another chart:

There's definitely a "gang of five" pioneers that stand out from the crowd in this regard:

1. @jimlefevere (Jim LeFevere)
2. @durbaniak (Dennis Urbaniak)
3. @shwen (Shwen Gwee)
4. @JNJComm (Marc Monseau)
5. @Alex__Butler (Alex Butler)

Addendum: Followers vs. Klout

Another parameter that is often used to rate Twitter accounts is the "Klout" score, which measures overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score. You can find anyone's Klout score by typing "http://klout.com/[twitter name]" as in http://klout.com/pharmaguy.

In the chart below, I plotted # of Followers vs. Klout to see if there was a relation between the two:

There doesn't seem to be much relation between a person's Klout score and the number of followers of that person (ie, having many followers doesn't guarantee you will have a proportionately high Klout score and vice versa).

In this case, there is a "gang of three" pharma Twitter pioneers that stand out from the crowd:

1. @shwen (Shwen Gwee)
2. @JNJComm (Marc Monseau)
3. @Alex__Butler (Alex Butler)

@brainygirlnyc (Zarya Rubin, who works for UCB as CNS Medical Science Liaison) has the highest Klout score of the group: 55

Klout says that @brainygirlnyc is an Explorer who actively engages in the social web, constantly trying out new ways to interact and network. She's exploring the ecosystem and making it work for her. Her level of activity and engagement shows that she "gets it." Klout predicts she'll be moving up.

There must be many other ways to measure the "influence" these pioneers have besides the number of followers, followings, and tweets. What I intend to do is pay closer attention to what these people are saying on Twitter and give each of them my own unique "Pharmaguy Influence" rating, the parameters of which are yet to be determined.

Are Doctors Avoiding Twitter Because of "Doctor Bashing"?

Are Doctors Avoiding Twitter Because of "Doctor Bashing"?

"Recently, I was told that some doctors avoid social media because of what they view as 'doctor bashing,'" said Kelly Young (@rawarrior), author of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior site.

In a post to The Orthopedic Posterous blog (here), Young cited a Twitter exchange during a recent #rheum (rheumatology topics) chat. She quoted one doctor who observed this Twitter interaction: "[I'm] a bit uncomfortable with content of these tweets. Doc bashing online puts docs off communicating with patients via this medium."

I am not sure how many doctors use Twitter to communicate with patients. But if they are hesitant to do so, they have many other reasons than online "doctor bashing," which isn't really new. "Doctor bashing" was here already, long ago, on online patient bulletin boards and listservs that are "old school" types of social media.

So what are some of the concerns that doctors have about communicating with patients via today's (Web 2.0) social media tools such as Twitter? How are physicians and patients currently using Social Media? What are expectations and limits? What are Best Practices?

As it so happens, those questions will be addressed at the Doctors 2.0 & You conference in Paris this June (see the agenda here). Denise Silber (@Health20Paris) is the conference organizer. Denise and I have set up an "old school" discussion board on Pharma Marketing Network (here) where you can contribute to the discussion about doctor bashing and other issues that will be covered at the conference. Also, you can follow the #doctors20 hash tag via Twitter (especially if you are a doctor! Don't worry, there will be no "doctor bashing" by us!).

BTW, I am on the advisory board and will be a speaker at the Doctors 2.0 & You conference. My workshop is entitled: "Essential elements of an external corporate media policy." I hope to moderate an interactive discussion looking at "the good, the bad, and the ugly" sides of social media policies as exhibited in the real world and in the end come up with a list of items that must be included in a social media policy that takes into account the different cultural/regulatory environments of the global pharmaceutical market. End of pitch :-)





[Twitter Bird/Medical Caduseus illustration by Bryan Smith.]

P.S. Here's a doctor that should have been "bashed" online, but wasn't. Posted by @nalts on Twitter: "Who knew what the now-arraigned PA abortion doctor did? Umm. The internet? (vitals.com) http://bit.ly/FreezeYourBaby #fdasm"

A Call for Pharma Social Media Transparency Guidelines for Patient Bloggers

A Call for Pharma Social Media Transparency Guidelines for Patient Bloggers

"Political strategists agree that the acrimony that has tinged many of the attacks on the news media this year feels different," according to a story in today's New York Times (see "Politicians Are Fighting Mad, at the News Media"). “Everyone has always bashed the media,” said Dana Perino, a Republican consultant who was a White House press secretary under Mr. Bush, “but I do think there’s something larger going on.”

What's going on is this: "the eagerness of many candidates to bypass the mainstream news media in favor of social networking or media outlets that they perceive to be embracing of their political platforms."

I believe the pharmaceutical industry has the same "eagerness" to bypass mainstream news media in favor of social networking. This is evident by the growth in Twitter use by pharma companies to push out news that it used to do via press releases distributed through channels cherished by reporters (eg, prnewswire).

Pharma PR and corporate communications professionals have been courting bloggers with dinner meetings and invites to events that previously only mainstream media journalists were privy to. Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer have lead the way ("Bloggers Dining at Pharma's Table", "Thank You Johnson & Johnson for Dinner", and "Chantix 'Roundtable' Apparently Not Round and Not a Table"). Of course, as a blogger, I have encouraged this.

But influential patients and physicians are becoming more important to pharmaceutical companies than industry bloggers like me. Patient bloggers, for example, are high up on pharma's list of people they'd like to influence. At least some influential patient bloggers have put out the PHARMA WELCOME mat (see "Some Social Media Patient Opinion Leaders Want to be Paid Pharma Professionals").

Many patient bloggers claim that it is important for pharmaceutical companies to "join the discussion." But pharma marketers and PR people -- who control the communications budgets within pharma -- want to "influence the discussion" and not merely "join the discussion" on social networks frequented by patients and physicians.

Within these online communities are "thought leaders" who feel equal to or superior to institutions such as the press, or government agencies. Pharma is poised to exploit these feelings and is probably doing so now as I write this.

The only issue I have with this is that a lot of it may be happening "behind the curtain" (see "Pharma Social Media Behind the Curtain"). Often, neither the pharma company nor the social media patient leader reveals the relationship. New guidelines from the FDA will NOT address this issue because the FDA is concerned only that pharma commercial speech stick to the approved labeling when discussing brand name drugs. FDA cannot, for example, regulate non-branded, disease information that pharma companies may share with patients and physicians. Furthermore, FDA cannot enforce transparency -- it has no authority over patients who are free to do and say what they like without mentioning any relationship they may have with pharma companies.

That's why I say that pharma companies MUST make known their transparency policy with regard to social media. I'm not talking about their policy for how they expect their employees to behave when engaged in social media discussions. I'm talking about policy about how the corporation will behave in relationships with patients and how they will reveal those relationships.

For example, imagine that a pharmaceutical company has invited several influential patient bloggers and social network leaders to a 2-day "conference" at a resort in Orlando, Florida, all expenses paid. The "conference" is all about diabetes and support for diabetes, but not about specific diabetes treatments. It's all about "opening up a dialogue," that sort of thing.

Like a physician author in a medical journal, should patients who receive such largesse from pharma companies be required to reveal that? If the answer is "yes," who requires it? It can't be the government. It must be what I call the pharma company's "social media transparency policy," which might state something like "We require all patients who receive money or goods in kind such as free lunches and airplane tickets and other travel-related expenses to reveal that to their readers and social media followers in an appropriate fashion."

I have revealed my relationships with pharma companies many times, but not every time I write a blog post. What I have done, however, is to update my profile by adding this statement:

"I am not a paid consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, but I occasionally get invited to speak within pharma companies or at industry conferences. For this I receive reimbursement for travel expenses and ask that any speaker fee be donated to a charity. As a publisher, I do accept paid advertising mostly from agencies that work for the pharmaceutical industry."

I think patient bloggers should have something similar in their profiles (or whatever is appropriate for their relationship with the drug industry). Patients who participate in social networks and are considered "leaders" in the community might include the transparency statement in their profiles and/or signature files as well. And pharma companies should encourage this by publishing social media transparency guidelines for their patient blogger/social media partners.

P.S.  Recently, GSK invited eight bloggers to visit its manufacturing facility to "tour the facility and learn about the role that vaccination plays in keeping adults and families healthy" (see "Opening Our Doors--Again").

At least two of the bloggers wrote about their experience (see here and here). At the beginning of each blogger's post was a disclosure. Here's what they said:

"My travel, accommodations and food (except for the bagel and an extremely necessary cup of tea) were covered by GlaxoSmithKline. They did not require me to write about the trip at all, nor did they pay me, review this post or dictate what I have to say. Which is a really impressive release of control for these folks." -- Nutgraf

I don't know who "Nutgraf" is -- life's too short to track down a name when it's not mentioned in the "about me" section of the blog -- but he/she states in her/his "A Note on Integrity":

"I review things – including books, products and advice submissions – in my own time and on my own terms. I need your input to make the advice project a success, and you can rely on me to clearly disclose my policies, protect your privacy and generally deal with you and others in an above-board manner. As for products, books, pitches or anything else of that nature, I’m a big fan of disclosure. I disclose early, loudly and often. I am easily skeezed out and want to be proud of what I do here."

Meanwhile, the other blogger (see profile here, which does not include a blanket disclosure statement as above) states at the beginning of her blog post:

"I went on a trip to Philidelphia to tour the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine plant. My flight, hotel, cab fare and meals were covered expenses. The opinions represented in this post are all mine and were not compensated in any way.This is a VERY long post, and yet I feel strongly about it and would really appreciate if you would take the time to read it in it's entirety." -- Scrutiny by the Masses

Happy Pharma Social Media Halloween!

Happy Pharma Social Media Halloween!

Shwen Gwee recently received the Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer lapel pin in recognition of his pioneering work as a pharmaceutical social media evangelist.

Just today, Shwen received this mummy on his doorstep from an anonymous source. Needless to say, he's pretty confused. Who would send him such a thing? Perhaps it was an old mummified Web 1.0 pharma pioneer? We may never know.

Shwen leads Digital Strategy and Social Media within the Marketing department at Vertex Pharmaceuticals where I am sure he is playing a major role in educating his colleagues and preparing for the day when his company may launch a social media initiative.

How can someone who has not yet actually been involved in a pharma company social media project receive such a coveted award? Well, first of all, Shwen may actually be working on such a project within Vertex but not talking about it*. More importantly, he is everywhere that social media is discussed within pharmaceutical and healthcare circles.

Like one of the original seven U.S. astronauts, who may not have traveled in space, Shwen is training those who will be there someday and may yet be called to duty himself. So stop trying to scare him, whoever you are!

*Vertex may soon get approval for a blockbuster Hepatitis C "cure" (see "New Hepatitis C Drugs May Be Blockbusters"). Four million Americans may have Hepatitis C and as many as 3 million of them don't know it. This is ripe territory for a social media campaign focused on a population of younger people that includes celebrities.

CORRECTION: Shwen tells me that "most prevalent pop for HCV is baby boomers" like me. Even better I would say. According to Deloitte data, 2009 was the year that social media bloomed for Baby Boomers, with nearly 47% of them actively maintaining a profile on the social web, which is up 15% from 2008 (see "Baby Boomers and Seniors Are Flocking to Facebook").

First Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Given to Janssen's Alex Butler

First Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Given to Janssen's Alex Butler

I have finally gotten rid of that seriously yellow Hawaiian shirt that has symbolized the Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award and my involvement with pharma's slow march into social media over the past year.  

Alex Butler (see http://bit.ly/AlexButler), Digital Strategy and Social Media Manager at Janssen UK, graciously received the "shirt off my back" at lunch yesterday during the 4th Annual Digital Pharma East conference. That's Alex, the shirt, and my disrobed self pictured on the left. Thanks to Steve Woodruff (@swoodruff) for the photo documenting this historic event.

Kudos for Alex came immediately via Twitter:

@DigitalPharma: Congrats to @Alex__Butler, winner of @pharmaguy's first ever Social Media Pioneer Award! Hope yellow's your color. #digpharm

@pixelandpills: Aaaand the shirt comes off...congrats to @Alex_Butler for his @pharmaguy Digital Pioneer Award win. We think you should frame it. #digpharm

@skoko: Well deserved! Congrats! @Alex__Butler, winner of @pharmaguy's Social Media Pioneer Award /Wish I had seen that shirt come off ;-) #digpharm

@GaryMonk: Well done mate! RT@Alex__Butler: Thnx to @pharmaguy for giving me the famous shirt 2 look after for 1 yr re: social media pioneer award....

@newstream: Congrats! @Alex__Butler, winner of @pharmaguy's Social Media Pioneer Award /Wish I had seen that shirt come off ;-) #digpharm”

As I mentioned in this Pixel & Pills video interview by the lovely Sarah Mclellanny (@sarahmclellanny), I based my choice partially on input from respondents to an online survey. About 65 people participated and the results are shown in the following chart. Each respondent was able to vote for more than one candidate; see the list of ALL the 2010 Pharmaguy Social Media Award candidates here (pdf).

NOTE: ALL candidates will receive the coveted Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Lapel Pin (shown on the left).

Aside form the votes and comments that I received via the survey, I also was very much impressed with a presentation Alex made in September at the DigiPharm conference in London. He talked about the launch of Janssen UK's Psoriasis 360 Facebook page (see "Markets as Conversations: Can You Have a Discussion with 'Psoriasis 360' on Facebook?").

When I handed over the Hawaiian shirt to Alex, I stated that another important factor in my decision was that Psoriasis 360 is the first consumer-oriented pharma FaceBook page to allow comments without pre-moderation. All comments are posted first and then reviewed afterward. So far, only a few comments had to be removed -- mostly because of vulgar language or mentions of product names. If a comment includes a product  name, the moderator(s) ask that the comment be resubmitted with the product name removed.

Psoriasis 360, however, may NOT be the FIRST pharma Facebook page that allowed unmoderated comments to be posted. Sanofi-Aventis' VOICES Facebook was probably the first, but only unintentionally! Listen to that story and its aftermath here: "What Sanofi-Aventis Learned from Its FaceBook Experience & What the Experts Recommend It Do Now".

Also, after I made my presentation, Joan Mikardos, Senior Director, Business Innovation, Sanofi-Aventis, reminded me that another S-A Facebook page -- "THE COALITION TO PREVENT DEEP-VEIN THROMBOSIS (DVT)" -- which was launched BEFORE Psoriasis 360, also allows unmoderated posts.

Actually, the DVT Facebook page is technically owned by "The Coalition to Prevent Deep-Vein Thrombosis (DVT)," which is "funded by sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC," as revealed on the Coalition's .org site (see http://www.preventdvt.org/). The "about" page of the site states "In February 2003, more than 60 organizations assembled at the Public Health Leadership Conference on Deep-Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in Washington, D.C. to discuss the urgent need to make DVT a major U.S. public health priority."

Technically, therefore, the DVT Facebook page is not a true S-A site, unless the Coalition is just a front for S-A and not a coalition at all.

Whatever the true provenance of the DVT Facebook page -- a topic I may blog about at some other time -- my award was not a contest to determine who did what first. It is more about people such as S-A's Dennis Urbaniak, who is a bona fide social media pioneer and who received recognition as such in my award "unceremony."

Pay It Forward!
What will happen now? Will another pharma social media pioneer receive another Hawaiian shirt next year?

There WILL be another award, but NOT another shirt. As Alex said in his Pixels & Pills interview, he is now the custodian of the Hawaiian shirt, which he will pass on to the next deserving pioneer a year from now. Just like the Masters green jacket! Meanwhile, keep those nominations coming by taking my survey here.

Proper Care and Handling of the Shirt
Alex and any future Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer custodians of the Hawaiian shirt award have an obligation to maintain the shirt in its original condition. Here are a few proper care suggestions:

1. Wear the shirt with pride on special occasions such as when attending industry conferences, in-house meetings with your managers, etc. However, avoid wearing the shirt to dinner parties or sporting events where it may suffer irreparable staining or ripping!
2. Do NOT machine wash the shirt! Dry cleaning is recommended.
3. You may mount the shirt for display on your office wall, but do not use any mounting technique that will permanently harm the shirt. To protect it while on display, it is best to frame it behind UV-protective glass.
4. Do NOT allow anyone else to wear the shirt! Not even your significant other who you may wish to appear more sexy "when the time is right."

Alex Butler's Signature Says It All -- Well, Almost All.

Alex Butler's Signature Says It All -- Well, Almost All.

I am getting excited about presenting at the upcoming DigiPharm Europe 2010 conference in London at the end of September mostly because I will be meeting several pharma people who are doing digital marketing in Europe! One of these people is Alex Butler who is Digital Strategy and Social Media Manager at Janssen-Cilag.

You can tell that Alex is immersed in communication and social media just be looking at his email signature, which I reproduce below (without revealing his personal phone and email address):

I need to update my sig file to look more like this!

I first learned about Alex when I asked people to nominate candidates for the Pharmaguy Social Media Award (learn more about that here).

Alex's signature says it all, or ALMOST all. There is a lot more to learn about Alex and what he is doing over there in the UK! To learn more about Alex and the other speakers at the DigiPharm Europe 2010 conference, I invited them to participate in my Pharma Marketing BlogTalkRadio show on September 8, 2010. See "DigiPharm's EU ePharma Pioneers: Doing More with Less" for more information about listening to and participating in that show.

My presentation, entitled "New Rules for New Media: A Funny Think Happened While Waiting for FDA Guidance", will be on Thursday, September 30 (see here).

My newsletter -- Pharma Marketing News -- is a Media Partner for this conference.

Who Are The Pharma Social Media "Wright Brothers (Sisters)"?

Who Are The Pharma Social Media "Wright Brothers (Sisters)"?

I just received an email from MM&M announcing that the Finalists for its 2010 Awards have been chosen. When I clicked on the link in the email, I was taken to a Web page where a silent video showed the "rigorous judging process" (see screen shot at left).

Looks like a Day at the Museum in which works of dead artists are displayed! Is this any way to judge a person's accomplishments?

Personally, I think people deserve more than a non-personal perusal of images or screen shots of their work. Of course, the MM&M Awards do not claim to be personal: "The only way to get your hands on an award," says MM&M "is to impress the judges with the quality of your work."

I doubt the judges even communicate with the people behind all that paper hanging on the wall.

When the Wright brothers started on their quest to build and fly the first successful motorized flying machine,  their work product would not have won any awards. "The Wright brothers built seven flying machines in their quest for a practical aircraft, each a test bed for untried theories and assumptions. When they guessed wrong, they crashed -- and the Wrights crashed each one of their aircraft more than once. However, knowing what doesn’t work points the way to what does. After each failure, they rebuilt and modified their aircraft, incorporating what they had learned in the new design. In less than a decade they taught themselves to fly" (see "Inventing the Airplane").

The Wright Brothers story is a good metaphor for building the first successful pharma social media campaign. No pharma social media campaign has yet flown without failure. Rather than look at these failures like the villagers looked at the king with no clothes and say how wonderful it is, I choose to look at the people behind the campaigns and reward the pioneers. That is what the Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award is all about.

My award is PERSONAL because social media is personal. Therefore, I plan to personally "meet" each nominee (find them here) and have each one tell me his or her story. I also plan to collect the opinions of their colleagues and ask them why nominees deserve an award. I've already collected many comments.

You can vote for nominees and write-in other candidates using the online form here. Not only your vote, but the comments you add will go a long way towards influencing me, especially if you offer details that back up your choices. Thank you for your help.