FDA spends big on social media outlook
pharmafile | September 20, 2013 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | FDA, Facebook, PMCPA, Psoriasis 360, Twitter
The FDA is looking to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a company to analyse its Twitter and Facebook presence.
Specifically, the US regulator has handed over more than $180,000 to IB5k, a company co-founded in 2009 by Dan Beckmann, a media aide to President Barack Obama’s first campaign for the White House.
The first year of the contract is worth an estimated $43,000, with options to extend the deal up to four more years, bringing the total potential value to $182,814.
Under the terms of the deal, IB5k is charged with providing a software tool capable of analysing the FDA’s “engagement, sentiment, likes, follows, and mentions” on various social media platforms.
The FDA is also seeking to: “Monitor overall conversations to see what the public is discussing about our work, answer questions for them, and develop consumer content for FDA.gov and our social media channels.”
“Every day, as part of FDA’s mission to protect and promote the public health, the agency issues a high volume of often-complex information that is critical to the health of Americans,” assistant commissioner Steven Immergut said.
He went on: “We know that many people use social media to get their health information, and we must make sure this information is well understood,” he continued. “This contract is about promoting public health and making sure that we are reaching consumers with the information they need. It will help FDA more effectively communicate to the public and fulfil our core mission.”
The FDA already uses several social media platforms to publicise its messages, including several Twitter accounts, a Facebook page, Flickr and YouTube as well as having the FDA Voice blog and website.
IB5k, which has offices in Washington, D.C., uses two main tools to help businesses keep on top of their social media.
The first, Correlate, is a tool that allows companies to list to what people are saying about a company online. Key features include the ability to analyse the general ‘mood’ of posts, as well as the audience demographics and the topics of interest.
The second tool, Aware, is similar but more focused on analysing the impact of a company’s own communications, as well as how effective each social media posting is.
The FDA may have been learning from previous problems that pharma has had, which include PMCPA breaches and fines for Bayer after it promoted prescription drugs via its Twitter account, or Janssen being forced to take down its Psoriasis 360 Facebook page due to having too many negative comments.
Worth the cost?
But this comes at a tough time for the agency as most US government departments are currently under a severe lockdown on their finances, given the sequester penalties enacted in the US earlier this year.
Critics in the country have asked why the FDA has been allowed to spend this level of funds on something seemingly frivolous, especially as it is not directly linked to its regulatory duties – i.e., overseeing food and drug safety, as well as tobacco regulation.
Ben Adams
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