we need to talk about social media
Navigating the pharma social media remains fraught with danger
A lot has been posted since the The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) published its social media guidance on the 26th January 2023.Here’s a link in case you missed it:
Internally, the Indigo Medical compliance team discussed the revisions and summarised the actions to 3 bullets in an internal email:
- Indigo Medical employees and contractors should not create, post, comment, tweet, retweet, like or share information that directly or indirectly links to pharmaceutical products of clients and competitors.
- Retweeting/posting screenshots of content from any pharmaceutical company is strictly prohibited.
- Where appropriate, clearly state where linking to and visibly indicate whether the link is to the pharmaceutical company material/website or other non-company material/website.
However, to reiterate, the Indigo Medical team (both compliance and medical communications departments) were following these best practices anyway.
So, a question to you regarding pharma social media posting:
In your world, has much changed?
We’d love to hear from you either way!
Let’s now talk about general use social media in the pharma world
I think it’s fair to say that this picture might sum up the mood for anyone within pharma marketing managing a social media account: apprehension.
A pharma company and brand team need to capitalise on expert conversations / opinions at congresses and these online interactions with the public (see our post on implementation science and the disparity between whether a drug works and whether it can be delivered in a wide variety of real-world settings; link below).
Unfortunately, thought leader opinions at congress, managed by pharma teams (mainly LinkedIn and / or Twitter), tend to have more stop signs than Go…
… and the potential hot-water that a rogue post could land a brand, and worst yet, the pharma company as a whole, often leads to a post either going out days / weeks after the congress buzz, or worst yet, never at all.
Introducing the Indigo medical sms offering
SMS = Social Media Service
Why?
We believe every brand team should be able to post about thought leader opinions compliantly at anytime (pre/peri/post) congress.
How?
The 3 Social media tenets we live by are:
(1) Coordinated and compliant
Our team will work with your team 6-weeks prior to congress to ensure you have a fully compliant and well managed schedule to work from.
(2) Partnership across businesses
We work with your internal systems (e.g. Fuse, Khorus, Congrego, etc.) and we work alongside your agency content creators / campaign planners.
(3) Always on
Congresses fall on weekends, that’s just a fact. Whether live or virtually, our SMS specialist will ensure your post goes out within 20mins of a congress “event” (e.g. key note presentation, post-embargoed data presentation). We can also offer the at-congress signatory option, to deal with those unplanned approvals.
Our cost model is affordable and will ensure a high ROI.
And in terms of experience:
Indigo Medical successfully ran 15 SMS-Congress led campaigns over 2021-2022 and we have 14 planned in 2023.
And these are managed by two of our most experienced final nominated signatories.
Want to know more?
It’s simple. Contact Jeet and ask for an intro call to our SMS offering.
He’ll do the rest.
Jeet@www.indigomedical.co.uk
And remember, the window to post at congress is a small one.
If you don’t get your voice out there, then your competitor will.
END.
Photo by Kai Pilger on Unsplash
Link to Implementation Science post:
https://www.www.indigomedical.co.uk/2023/02/20/way-of-water/