There is a new tool in the healthcare toolkit.
Blogs have been around for years, but only recently has blogging taken center stage in pharmaceutical marketing and outreach. In the recent PharmaVoice article, “Help Wanted: Pharma Bloggers,” Robin Robinson explains the rise of a new position — that of a social media specialist.
Pharmaceutical companies are now hiring individuals (or pulling them from their current ranks) to not only master the social media space, but to create a corporate online “footprint.” This type of blogger must be familiar with the products and the regulatory constraints of public communication, but still be comfortable responding to and engaging with the audience.
Blogs (and their blogger) should also reflect an understanding of where people go online for information. According to Marc Monseau, the director of corporate media relations at Johnson & Johnson, “We realize that people look in different places for information, so we have developed several destinations for them.” His examples include different blogs, as well as a YouTube channel.
Creating nodes of outreach that are consistent, and yet appealing to different audiences, offer a broader and more targeted outreach for the corporate message.
Consider the blog as an alternative to the press release. It is less formal and certainly more interactive. Your customers/readers/fans can participate in the conversation, optimizing your messaging strategy.
Robinson suggests that you start small and build upwards, exploring all of the possibilities that blogs have to offer and meeting your outreach needs.
We believe the same.
