Pharma: Socializing in a Straightjacket
Adweek has a great story (which I was interviewed for) about the hesitancy in pharma to embrace social influence marketing. With the FDA slow to issue guidelines on what the drugs can and cannot do, few pharmaceuticals are comfortable with taking any risks at all in the direct to consumer space. It is a pity though because healthcare more broadly is one area that can and does really benefit from social media. In fact, some of the strongest online communities are those related to patient care like this research highlighted. Needless to say, these communities do not have pharmacutical firms participating directly. Some do basic sponsorship but that's about it. What makes this all the more ironical is that when we look at social influence marketing and the value of influencers, a lot of the learnings come from the rigor and scientific approach to influence marketing that the pharmucenticals deployed decades ago.
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