Group 8020, Inc. » Social Media

Twitter Tool to Visualize Health Care Tweets

Mark Hollander — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 01:48:17 +0000

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Have you even been asked “what is twitter?” Twitter can be difficult to explain because it’s text driven and we humans like a good graphic. A twitter search will provide results by no meaning. Pharmaceutical executives who need meaningful answers in a hurry might want to check Health Tweeder / TwitterHub, a Twitter App that:

Answers the question “what is twitter” in just one slide Translates Twitter Search into Twitter Answers Runs in any browser like read more...

Are Facebook Fans Really Worthless to Digital Pharma?

Mark Hollander — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:01:36 +0000

That’s what Augie Ray, Forrester Research’s expert on social media marketing, suggested in his eponymous blog: that the value of a Facebook fan to a Brand is zero. While Ray acknowledges that he hears value estimates from reputable vendors ranging from $136.38 to $3.60 (Syncapse Media and AdWeek respectively) he advises us to start at $0.00. Why? Is this merely to provoke us or is he on to something?

Check Your Assumptions At The Door

It’s the underlying assumptions used in the read more...

Astonishing Shift In Social Media Landscape In Just 3 Years

Mark Hollander — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:21:51 +0000

Video is all about the power of imagery. So what happens when you apply visualization techniques to the social media landscape? In the beginning, you just have fun. That was what Randall Munroe, founder of XKCD did in 2007 when he illustrated the relative size of social media sites like MySpace, Friendster, Orkut and others.

Now, 3 Years later, Flowtown, a company that “helps businesses turn email contacts into engaged customers” has updated that map – with the same art direction read more...

Adverse Event Reporting & Appropriate Dialogue in Social Media for Health Care

Mark Hollander — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:11:09 +0000

Social Media guru Jonathan Richman and author of Dose of Digital blog, writes there is a Myth of Adverse Event Reporting in pharma marketing. Drawing upon a Nielsen Study which found that only 1 in 500 postings on the Yahoo Health discussion boards met the full criteria for adverse event reporting, pharma may in fact be over-sensitized to the issue.

Do AER staffing requirements prevent social media dialogue?

Assuming that the Nielsen study is statistically significant (is a sample size of 500 read more...

Are Branded Pharma Tweets Banal?

Mark Hollander — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:43:44 +0000

John Mack of the Pharma Marketing Blog hosted a fascinating, by invitation only conference call today to discuss the first-ever pharma branded Tweet for Novo Nordisk’s Levemir™. Never one to mince words, Mack suggested in the invitation that:

Novo Nordisk’s Branded (Levemir) Tweet is Sleazy Twitter Spam! Novo Nordisk Selectively Copies & Edits Kimball’s Tweets

With such a provocative invitation you can imagine that the call consisted almost entirely of health care advertising, public relations and promotions agencies. Until each of the speakers read more...

Twitter Experiments With Verified Accounts: You Avoid Brand Hijacking

Mark Hollander — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:15:55 +0000

We advise clients to ALWAYS “register an account on Twitter for both the brand and company well in advance of needing it for crisis communications.” You don’t even have to use it, just be prepared. It’s like putting batteries in the smoke detector: it’s no fun climbing the ladder to do it, but you’ll be grateful at 3AM when it alerts you.

So it’s interesting to note that Twitter is experimenting with “Verified Accounts” which promise the imprint of authenticity on read more...

Social Media is mired in a massive hype cycle

Mark Hollander — Sat, 23 May 2009 20:55:31 +0000

“Signal to Noise” refers to the ratio between the desired signal – music for example – to noise like static and hiss. On your iPod, you want more signal and less noise.

And according Brian Roy, president and founder of Cosinity a firm creating communications applications Social Media is suffering from a lot of noise.

He suggests that some of this noise is attributable to the two groups who benefit: Marketers and the Monitors.

Marketers – looking for a more cost-effective way to read more...

Eularis Releases “eMarketing Using Social Media” Report

Mark Hollander — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:46:21 +0000

Patients and physicians are increasingly relying upon digital word of mouth – Twitter, YouTube, Facebook – for their peer-to-peer information. Separating buzzwords from actionable data is a daunting task. Eularis, a pharmaceutical analytics consultancy focusing on “data-driven decisions” has announced a new report on eMarketing in the age of social media.

Key content includes:

Pharma Internet Marketing Today, Past and Present Creating an Effective On-line Strategy Building a Trusted On-line Pharmaceutical Brand Where it All Began: Web sites Where it Moved: eDetailing and eLearning Where We Are read more...

Pharma and Facebook: Connect, Attract and Promote

Mark Hollander — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:02:43 +0000

Silja Chouquet over at whydot pharma is an advocate of pharmaceutical companies using social media to improve patient outcomes. She’s written a great post highlighting 3 ways pharma is using Facebook to:

Connect current and ex- employees. Attract talent, including student, intern and training program groups Promote disease awareness, including examples like: McNeil Pediatrics’ ADHD Moms (which I blogged about earlier), Novartis’ Zometa Marcia Strassman Takes Role as Patient Advocate, and Merck’s Gardasil Take a Step Against Cervical Cancer (by way of a comment posted by read more...

Health Care Marketing on YouTube – A Tale of Two Channels

Mark Hollander — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:39:09 +0000

As first reported by attorney Mark Senak of Eye on FDA, Pharma is jumping on the YouTube video bandwagon with mixed strategies and varying results. Abbott, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi Pasteur feature what could best be described as “corporate communications meets the kitchen sink.” But it’s product promotion where things really get interesting.

Sixty Second Case Studies

Let’s take a quick look at two great uses of YouTube for pharmaceutical marketing:

Sanofi-Aventis’ “Go Insulin YouTube Channel” for Lantus AstraZeneca’s “My Asthma Story YouTube Channel” for Symbicort read more...