Digital Pharma: Byte-sized roundup
pharmafile | March 30, 2010 | News story | Medical Communications | digital pharma
This week’s roundup of digital developments includes GSK in the new UK web archive, WebMD launches social networking site, Boehringer moots European Twitter expansion, CIM sets up social media group and how to quit on FaceBook.
GlaxoSmithKline’s website has been chosen for inclusion in the UK’s first web archive. Run by the British Library, it aims to preserve for posterity sites that “publish research, that reflect the diversity of lives, interests and activities throughout the UK, and demonstrate web innovation”. The GSK pages chosen include information on pandemic planning and a press release on the CHMP recommendation for the company’s swine flu vaccine Pandemrix.
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US online health information company WebMD has unveiled a social networking platform, the WebMD Health Exchange, which allows users to ask for, and offer, help health advice. It includes a combination of company-run, expert-led communities, but also allows users to create their own community, either for public viewing or on a private basis for friends and family.
The new site will also enable third party sponsors to create branded exchanges and to host consumer discussions on the ‘health and wellness’ topics that are most important to them. Chief executive Wayne Gattinella said: “We expect Health Exchange will quickly become a trusted source of information for our users and an important new communications platform for our sponsors.”
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Boehringer Ingelheim is considering expanding its Twitter use with new Spanish and German accounts. The company already has a corporate @boehringer account and a US one at @boehringerUS. There is also a (currently dormant) Dutch account at @boehrinernld.
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The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has launched a Social Marketing Market Interest Group. Officially set up in January, its members are drawn from a wide range of backgrounds, including social marketing consultancies, the NHS, multinational companies and the National Social Marketing Centre. Membership is free and not limited to those currently part of the CIM, and the group’s 2010 plans include holding two or more regional events.
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A new FaceBook app tapped into the recent No Smoking Day to try and help the social network’s users kick the habit. We Quit was produced by the charity behind the campaign and aims to boost people’s motivation to stop smoking by helping them track their progress, share the challenge with their friends and raise money for charity.
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Dominic Tyer is web editor for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and the author of the Digital Pharma blog He can be contacted via email, Twitter or LinkedIn.
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