Boehringer Ingelheim takes the lead on Twitter
pharmafile | April 8, 2009 | Feature | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing |Â Â Boehringer, Twitter, new media, social networkingÂ
The explosion in the popularity of Twitter is the latest buzz in online social networking, but most pharma companies are taking a cautious approach to getting involved.
But Boehringer Ingelheim has taken the bold decision to take part in the online conversations and communities, and is blazing a trail for pharma in the new media.
Twitter is a social networking site that enables users to send and read micro-blog posts known as tweets.
The site was launched in 2006 and saw its popularity take off in late 2008 thanks to some high profile celebrity Tweeters, such as sportsman Lance Armstrong, author and wit Stephen Fry and even President Barack Obama.
Boehringer is one of a handful of pharmaceutical companies with a presence on Twitter, but is so far unique in achieving the conversational, and interactive style characteristic of blogs and other web conversations.
The company began using Twitter in November 2008 and Pharmafocus can reveal that the face behind the company's Twitter profile is John Pugh, Boehringer's director for global corporate communications/external communications.
"I've been on Twitter myself for a while, but initially wasn't sure how relevant it was as a corporate communications channel," says Pugh. "But by experimenting with it and understanding it, we began to see it as a way of communicating our corporate messages."
Pugh is British and is based at Boehringer's global headquarters in Germany. He says around 70% of his remit is to investigate social media and develop the company's presence in these new channels.
Boehringer has incorporated Twitter into its wider communications strategy and is using the site regularly to engage with its stakeholders.
Along with posting press releases, he uses Twitter to recommend other web-based information about disease areas, as well as articles he thinks followers might find interesting.
The company is leading the way among pharmaceutical company Twitterers, with 678 followers, ahead of Novartis, which currently has 530 followers.
Unlike Novartis, Boehringer follows other Twitterers as well, and occasionally engages in chat with the wider Twitter community.
Pugh says Boehringer has come a long way since the early days when it used the site mainly to publicise links to press releases. The company now sees Twitter as an effective way to communicate with its stakeholders and join in discussions.
For example, Boehringer recently gave a 'thumbs up' to the government's national stroke awareness campaign, reflecting Boehringer's presence in stroke treatment in Asasantin Retard.
Pugh says the company uses media screening programmes to help monitor the constant online conversations which touch on its areas of interest, and responds quickly to engage with the Twittersphere, joining in or starting up conversations.
He says the company's use of Twitter is still in its infancy, and that it offers huge potential for non-promotional communication with patients.
"One of the projects we're looking at is a stroke channel on YouTube, with a series of video interviews which we will promote through Twitter," says Pugh. "Culturally as the company finds out more and more ways of using Twitter, we'll use it more and more, and I think other companies will too."
Social media marketing
Boehringer has also used a healthcare professional-only social network to promote its products to doctors.
Pugh was one of the Boehringer team which devised an online promotional campaign for Asasantin Retard on the doctors' online community doctors.net.uk.
The groundbreaking nature of the campaign was recognised earlier this year when it won a PM Society award in January in the interactive digital category.
The product was marketed solely using e-marketing, which meant no sales reps and no print advertising was used, but nevertheless showed strong growth during the campaign.
Over the 12-month campaign period product sales increased by over 15% and there were 27,000 online doctor interactions.
Pugh predicts social networking sites could play a role in marketing in the future, though the ban on direct to consumer (DTC) communication in Europe means the most direct communications with consumers remain out of bounds outside the United States.
Communicating via Twitter
So why is Boehringer one of the only pharma companies to be using Twitter?
"I think there's a general fear of it," says Pugh. "In the US there's a litigation culture and I think that's a barrier."
Pharmaceutical companies are concerned that messages might be judged as promotional, and fall foul of marketing codes such as the UK's ABPI Code of Practice.
But Pugh says online communications undergo the same checks and same safeguards as traditional media. Beyond that, he says simple common sense is required when engaging with other Twitterers.
Aside from Boehringer, big pharma presence on Twitter is otherwise limited, and few other large companies have active Twitter profiles.
But as in the early days of the internet, where 'cybersquatters' bought up website addresses of established companies, some rogue Twitters are posing as famous individuals or corporations.
One very prominent pharma company is the victim of a malicious Twitter profile which is producing Tweets under the company name, and compiling negative news stories from around the web.
Pugh argues that by actively engaging in the online communications revolution through channels such as Twitter, companies can gain control of their public profile. "You lose control when you aren't part of the dialogue," he says.
He believes that by engaging with the people who are talking about you, you can be part of the conversation, promote your messages, and jump in when necessary to counteract negative stories.
"Twitter is a just different way of communicating," he says. "It's less formal, and more human."
He says the personal approach to Twittering goes a long way: "If you don't have that human element to it then it's not very interesting for people. We see it as very important that there's a human behind the messages.
"It's been described as harmless banter, which it might be, but it also sometimes brings really fruitful information and a sharing and exchange of ideas, which I think is a really positive thing."
ONLINE CONVERSATIONS WITH DOCTORS
A number of online networks and communities of doctors and other healthcare professionals are now well established in the US and Europe, and are shaping up to perform an important role in informing medical practice in the 21st century.
As face-to-face access with doctors becomes increasingly difficult to gain for the pharmaceutical industry, these networks also hold out great promise for the industry to communicate with physicians.
Among the best established is Sermo, which was established in 2006. A US doctors-only site, it now boasts over 100,000 registered users, although only a minority of these are thought to be active users.
One of its core promises is that it will never carry any advertising, and relies instead on what it calls 'information arbitrage' to generate income.
This means Sermo sells on the information garnered from its online discussions to healthcare organisations, government agencies and financial institutions.
Doctors can also earn money by taking part in online surveys and market research. Sermo says physicians who respond to 'client-sponsored postings and surveys' will typically receive payments of between $5-$20.
Pfizer signed a deal with the site in 2007 to explore how it could best engage with doctors online, a move which other companies are now looking to emulate.
In the UK, two doctors' portals, Doctors.net and OnMedica have been established for a number of years, while other European sites include DocCheck Faces, Esanum and Coliquio.
Analysis by Manhattan Research suggests that physicians who take part in these communities are exactly the ones pharma wants to target – their findings suggest these doctors write an average of 24 more prescriptions per week than those with no interest in online communities. A majority of these doctors also said that they expect pharma to monitor the community sites and even view this monitoring as a positive thing.
John Pugh will be speaking about social media, e-marketing and Twitter at the EyeforPharma 4th annual e-marketing summit in Munich on 27/28 April.
Related links:
To follow Boehringer Ingelheim on Twitter click here.
To follow Pharmafocus on Twitter click here.
To follow InPharmjobs on Twitter click here.
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