Communications & New Media Nov 2015 Vol 29 No 11

Focusing on people-centric social media
Patients are at the forefront of everything we do in the healthcare industry , making the notion of
patient-centricity a worthwhile and noble concept. When it comes to social media, however, pharma
needs to learn how to put the person before the patient.
By Chris Iafolla
Five years ago, the tendency for healthcare
companies was to take a “hey,
look at me — I’m on social media” approach.
This is no longer sufficient.
As healthcare marketers, we understand
the distinct differences between our industry
and less-regulated industries like
consumer packaged goods, but consumers
don’t make the delineation. They expect
the same level of service, response and
engagement out of pharmaceutical companies
that they do out of their favorite
beauty brand.
The expectation is that pharmaceutical
companies act like customer service organizations,
disease education experts,
science companies and patient-support
groups all at once. This is becoming increasingly
more important as election season
kicks up and the cost of prescription
medicine takes center stage and consumers
begin examining these companies closer.
When all of this converges, the drive to
be patient-centric has accelerated and the
focus on engagement through social media
has intensified, but the question is: how do
companies evolve their current approach
to better fit this move to more patient-centric
engagement?
It’s the person, not the patient
One key component to changing the
way healthcare companies engage is to not
think about the patient, and instead, think
about the person. It’s a subtle difference
that has major implications on how we
produce content and engage with people
across social media channels.
Pharmaceutical companies tend to spend
disproportionate amounts of budget on
motivating people to seek a prescription. It
makes sense. Without patients on therapy,
pharmaceutical companies would cease to
exist. However, when this thought process
is pulled through to social media engagement,
it begins to cause problems. A patient
is a person first.
A drive to patient-centricity should acknowledge
this fact and be open to engaging
with people outside of simply what
defines a patient. This type of approach
would inform content creation efforts that
stretch outside of simple disease awareness
activities and would include more material
that fits into the daily life of the person. To
truly engage with people on their level, we
have to first understand that their lives exist
outside of their condition.
Human behavior is shaped by core values,
emotional stimuli, aesthetic responses
and other inputs, which are dynamic and
volatile. That means even in a changing
digital and social landscape, consumers
will respond to well-crafted messages,
trustworthy information and relationships
that are cultivated to yield mutual benefits.
The content premium
For years, the words paid, earned, social
and owned have been useful differentiators
— and they still are. But in the healthcare
setting, PESO feels like a blunt instrument.
When the conversation is about illness or
mortality, the biggest mistake is to treat social
media as a push channel.
Social media is undoubtedly an instrument
that can deliver heightened engagement,
but in healthcare, it is also a world
inhabited by people with urgent and sensitive
connections to the products companies
provide. Often, as in other industries,
an aspect of paid promotion will be
required to elevate the story. But “paid” is
wasted in this drive to put the patient at the
center if the content isn’t valuable, the message
isn’t unique and the human element
isn’t immediately clear.
Don’t avoid the important issues
Because consumers now have an understanding
that healthcare companies will
engage with them, their level of expectation
has increased. These people are accustomed
to getting their questions answered
by airlines, their appointment requests responded
to by cable companies and their
product complaints addressed directly by
the manufacturer. The result is that people
expect to be engaged on their terms,
not those of the company. This is a tough
one for healthcare companies operating in
a highly-regulated environment where engagement
on real issues is difficult.
This means finding a way to communicate
on pricing concerns, addressing patient
questions regarding treatment and
providing broad support to those living
with certain conditions. It’s not an easy
challenge to solve for a pharmaceutical
company, and there are certain issues that
lend themselves to other forms of communication,
but a willingness to at least consider
these topics is important.
Healthcare companies operate in an environment
where every communication
carries weight — where people’s health is
the primary topic. Because of this, social
media is a unique tool to change the way
we engage with our audience, but it requires
a renewed focus
on putting the person
first.
The companies that
can find that balance
of empathy, responsiveness
and credibility
will find the most longterm
value on social
media.
Chris Iafolla is Head
Chris Iafolla
of Digital and Social Strategy at inVentiv
Health Public Relations Group, which
consists of Allidura Consumer, Biosector 2,
Chamberlain Healthcare PR and Chandler
Chicco Agency.
PR news brief
Cision debuts PR platform upgrade
Cision on October 26 rolled out an upgrade to its
PR platform encompassing the software company’s
influencer marketing, media insights and mobile marketing
tools.
The upgrade is designed to improve the ability
among PR professionals to find both media reps and
influencers who are most likely interested in their story
pitches.
“what we’re trying to do with [the upgrade] is to
build the right experience for PR and communications
pros,” said Natalia Dykyj, VP of product management
at Cision. “The upgrade is all about how do we expand
our core capabilities and start to offer best of
breed products.”
Major upgrades to Cision’s PR platform include
adding premium profiles from Gorkana, the media database
company that Cision acquired last year for an
undisclosed sum; enhanced influencer profile pages;
influencer “streams” and influencer search.
The upgrade also includes new social performance
dashboards, email distribution improvements and
Google Analytics integration.
On the mobile front, as part of the upgrade Cision
will now offer a new iOS mobile and curation.
Users will be able to download the app to access
a stream of their brand’s (or client’s) most important
news coverage, with tools to curate and share news
with internal stakeholders as well as social media
followers.
The product is available to Cision’s new and existing
customers in the U.S., Canada, France and the
United Kingdom.
www.ODwyERPR.COM | NOVEMBER 2015 35