If you’re not calling upon social advocates as an extension to your wellness brand’s advocacy efforts, it’s time. Nielsen’s Global Trust Advertising Survey found 92% of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth and recommendations, above all forms of advertising. Online consumer reviews are the second most trusted form of advertising. While these influential brand ambassadors make up just 1% of a brand’s social community, they are primarily the ones driving the conversation and the shares. This group of loyalists can drive up to 70% of traffic to any given campaign. Identifying these influencers who are driving the conversations is the first step to understanding the audience in your social community.
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Archive for the ‘Trends’ Category
Brand Ambassadors: How To Activate
Building on Past Social Media Success as We Move Forward in 2013
As we head into 2013, social media continues to establish a strong presence across all industries, with healthcare being no exception. As we move forward in the New Year, it’s important to reflect on success stories in 2012 to extract key learning’s as we continue to enhance social media strategies. Below are a few healthcare social media success stories from the past year, as well as a few key trends we see taking shape in 2013.
In the past year, we saw one major pharmaceutical company begin to rewrite the rules of social media by jumping online and networking with a specified disease category via Facebook and Twitter. What we’ve learned from this pioneer is that transparency from the pharmaceutical manufacturer is key – introducing the moderator of the group, outlining the purpose of the group, and offering a Q&A session with the company’s head of U.S. regulatory affairs to discuss how the site would function. In this instance, the approach quarantined posts internally – meaning posts were sent to an administrator for the brand for approval before appearing on the site, which allowed time to ensure product information was correct and no protective health information (PHI) was being shared – a strong move to meet FDA and HIPAA guidelines.
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Welcome to IMRE Health IQ
2013 is a new year, and with it, you can expect new insights from IMRE’s healthcare team! We’ve been busy this past year learning from our healthcare clients and working collaboratively with them to develop integrated marketing solutions that drive results. On this blog we plan to share some of the key learning’s from our experience, continue offering industry insight from our healthcare leader Jeff Smokler, and stay abreast of emerging healthcare trends (and legislation) as they continue to unfold.
You can subscribe to our new feed by RSS and can also follow us on Twitter at @IMREHealthIQ.
Or, you can always reach out to our team directly by emailing Brian Simmons at brians@imre.com.
All We Want for 2012
While the beginning of a new year always prompts a watershed of trend lists and stories, we thought we’d take it a step further and combine our trend watch with a wish list for 2012. No question, there are big—even revolutionary—things happening in healthcare. But, trends without the potential for long-term influence are just fads that fade away.
1. Mobile Health: With the market for mobile health apps projected to quadruple to $400MM by 2016, we anticipate continued growth in the volume of sports, fitness and wellness tools designed for use on smartphones and tablets. And, no doubt we’ll see more key tech players coming up with new applications that offer further integration with social networks and other apps, plus durable yet fashionable products to track activities and behaviors.
Wish List: An iPhone app/wearable device that combines RunKeeper, Gain Fitness, The Eatery and LARK’s sleep tool to manage personal health from one product. We think Fitbit is coming close and anticipate the release of the My Basis watch for a tool that aptly combines almost all of these functions.
2. Crowdsourced Dieting: With the introduction of experimental dieting apps like The Eatery and Jawbone’s UP interface, we’re beginning to see that calories are taking the back seat to photos and user feedback for diet monitoring. From apps that allow you to rate how you feel following a meal, to those that allow the users’ friends to weigh-in on a meal choice, it seems like crowdsourcing feedback socially on what you eat is more effective than counting digits, unless you keep that chocolate mousse a secret.
Wish List: A Jawbone UP band that still works after two weeks. #FAIL
3. Regulatory Implications: We’re glad that the FDA finally weighed in with its recent draft guidelines for pharma doing social. Depending on whom you’re talking with, it’s either too little or it’s just what the industry ordered. We’re somewhere in between. But as the industry looks toward social for further engagement, we see it as only good sense that the FDA step in with clearer guidance—faster.
Wish List: We’re listening, FDA! Move!
4. Glocial Health: Pharma’s going big investing in emerging markets, and there are significant challenges—communication, regulatory, skilled workforce, and more. We see communication with a spectrum of stakeholders as crucial to pharma’s success, including consumers, HCPs, and government representatives. And, we know these emerging markets are using social networks and are highly mobile.
Wish List: A brand looking to tackle international social marketing from one Facebook hub. Share your ideas; we’re listening!
5. Health Reform: Even though President Obama uttered a mere forty-four words about healthcare in his recent State of the Union address, we see this as a driving discussion among candidates and legislators as we enter election season. Expect that discussion to play out across social networks, and watch how candidates listen and participate in those exchanges.
Wish List: Meaningful social discussion and common-sense legislation to help us, the people and patients.
What are you looking forward to or anticipating in healthcare this year? Share your thoughts below or email us at healtheditor@imrehealthiq.com to share!
Healthy Behaviors Not Improving. Who’s Accountable?
A recent poll from IMRE conducted online by Harris Interactive reveals some sobering data. Bottom line: The more things change, the more they stay the same.
At the highest level, the survey shows that two-thirds of adult Americans admit they don’t live a healthy lifestyle all the time. The primary reasons aren’t surprising: Time, money, and that living a healthy lifestyle at all times is just not a priority.
Call them excuses, but it seems that despite a national push for greater attention to getting and staying healthy, increasing healthcare costs, and obesity and chronic disease epidemics that are sucking the life out of us, it’s just not resonating.
So, what can we do about it?
First, consider that this is—or will become—everyone’s problem. Whether you’re an individual, an employer, a school, a government organization or a nonprofit. Everyone needs to buy in to the fact that problems don’t fix themselves, people fix problems. This particular problem needs hoards of attentive and motivated people.
We’ve been in a collective conundrum about all of this for decades. Some argue that making individuals more accountable for healthy behaviors is key. Maybe. But what about the folks living hand-to-mouth, with language barriers, who sacrifice medical care for a trip to the grocery store or their children’s education? All the talk about making health a priority isn’t translating well to these groups, much less the groups living with fewer such challenges.
As a communicator, I am dumbfounded. If starting a national movement focused on motivating healthy behavior is truly a priority, we are failing. So, here’s my prescription:
Government: Get your rear-ends out of process perdition and come up with solutions that inspire, rather than endless tripping over administrative bureaucracy.
Employers: Give your people a break. We’re a national mess of stress, and we know about the outcomes. Stress leads to depression, leads to overeating, leads to lack of motivation, leads to little exercise, leads to diabetes, heart disease, etc.
Schools: Seriously, start talking to students the minute they enter the system about how important it is to be healthy, and everything they can do to make sure that they develop healthy behaviors. Give them the tools to educate their parents, too. Kids can actually do this. It’s like “teach your parents well.”
All others: If you’re not talking the talk, then start. If you’re talking the talk and not walking the walk, you’re part of the problem. Set an example, encourage, show your stuff and put your money (not junk food) where your mouths are.
As health communicators, we need to push harder for a seat at the big table. Then we need to advocate strongly for a more aggressive point of view, total engagement, messages that are delivered repeatedly in language that is understood, and action that truly motivates.
We’re at a crossroads here. Consider taking the road less traveled and bring some people along with you.
Why Pharma Should Be Thinking ‘Glocial’
It’s no easy pitch to suggest that pharmaceutical companies—many of whom are barely tepid about social marketing—need to get real. And, nothing screams louder for this than the move by pharma in to emerging—or pharmerging—markets.
Conversations are global and, yes, health is social. In two of the most significant pharmerging markets, Russia and China, mobile and Internet use are astonishing.
Fifty-three percent of Russians use the Internet, and 80 percent of them own a mobile device. In China, nearly 320 million people use the Internet via their mobile devices. The numbers are also increasing in other emerging markets, such as Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, and India (where nearly 3 million are already using Google+), etc.
All of this presents a pretty compelling argument for pharmaceutical companies to gather themselves and start thinking globally about their social presence—or glocial presence. Which brings us back to the difficult pitch. With pharma notoriously flappable where social is concerned in the U.S. and Europe, it’s a stretch to think they’d embrace such uncharted territory in emerging markets.
Building Consumer Trust for Pharma
Here’s a reality check: 48 percent of Americans trust pharmaceutical companies less than they did five years ago. Ironically, 22 percent of Americans learn about medications from pharma-sponsored websites. Even more interesting is that 70 percent of consumers believe that pharmaceutical information from peers is credible, even if these peers aren’t experts.
There’s clearly something wrong with this picture. We all know that negative media coverage and misinformation have created a perception that pharmaceutical companies focus more on the bottom line and less on what’s best for the patient. And despite recent efforts for transparency and the allocation of marketing dollars toward patient-centric initiatives, consumers still have not redeveloped the trust they once held for pharmaceutical companies.
Bottom line: Pharmaceutical companies have an opportunity—even a responsibility—to get serious about rebuilding consumer trust.
People trust people. People especially trust peers, particularly if they have a similar medical condition. Fifty-four percent of U.S. consumers now connect to others or to online content created by others regarding health issues. Social media has changed how we gather our information. Online resources, including advice from peers on social networks, are now a main resource for health information. And rebuilding trust means sharing valuable information with consumers that they will want to spread among others.
End the monologue. Conversation has to be two-way. Gaining consumer trust means understanding this and being willing to make some changes. It also requires understanding your audience’s challenges and connecting with what’s important. And, in an era where patients are becoming more “empowered” in their decision-making, transparency isn’t just important—it’s mandatory.
Beyond comfort zones. According to Pew, 80 percent of Internet users have looked online for health information, and more people are tapping in to mobile and social media. These are hard facts, and pharma knows this. Perceived barriers that include sluggish guidance from the FDA are not necessarily reason enough to continue within safe communication strategies. Plenty of pharmaceutical companies have stepped successfully out of their comfort zones.
Me—An ‘E-Patient’—Unedited
I’m having a weird, visceral reaction to all of the recent brouhaha surrounding the term “e-patient.”
For some reason, semantically speaking, the term is slipping in to derogatorium. Up there with “cyberchondriac,” which definitely is derogatory. It’s kind of like research—one day, omigod, it’s Mecca; the next day, it’s the scab on a rotting wound.
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Why So Silent on Mental Health Parity?
The most profound change in mental health treatment is upon us. This major step forward in treating mental illness is on par with laws that challenged racial discrimination against the African American community in the 1950s, so says the president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Carol Bernstein.
It will allow more people to get treatment, provide better treatment, and go a long way toward eliminating stigma so prevalent in this area of medicine.
Yet, you certainly wouldn’t know we’re on the precipice of such fundamental change.
The Four P’s of Healthcare
Call it a silly, useless curse. I get sucked in to trying to find patterns and connections anywhere I can. Most of them are silly and useless. Occasionally I find ones that actually make some sense, if only to me.
As a healthcare marketer who also geeks out on reform, genetics and the e-patient movement, I can’t help but try to wrap healthcare up into a single cohesive package of connection and meaning. That’s what marketers do.
So, when it comes to that monster and what it all means, where it starts, what’s important and how to condense it to its core—where the patterns and connections are—I see P’s. (more…)