Much has been made about the viability of social media in the world of pharma.  On this blog, we have explored both the challenges of social media for pharma companies and the challenges of traditional PR.  In the year since that original post was written, significant strides have been made and pharma companies are beginning to dip their toes in the social media water.  The question is: why now? 

Surely, the same challenges that were present a year ago still exist today.  Corporate bureaucracy? Check.  Heavy regulatory issues?  Check.  Sensitive topics? Check.  Questionable reputations?  Check.  The pharmaceutical industry is so wrought with roadblocks and landmines that few companies have mustered the courage to test the water.  In tech, the saying goes: “No CIO was ever fired for purchasing Cisco.”  Well for PR managers at pharma companies, perhaps the saying should go: “No PR manager was ever fired for issuing a press release.”  But as evidenced by the efforts of companies like J&J, GSK, The Mayo Clinic and Pfizer (to name a few), healthcare companies are growing less wary of jumping into the mix. 

So why the steady shift toward social media for pharma companies?  For starters, pharma companies may finally be coming to the painful realization that tried and true methods of marketing are no longer effective.  Consumers have grown tired of the onslaught of ads touting the next great drug for hair loss.  For too long, marketers in the healthcare industry have relied on highly impersonal forms of marketing for issues that are the exact opposite.  Even traditional PR efforts have lost some luster with the average consumer.  It is no wonder then that pharma companies are seeking new ways to engage with the patient. 

In some respects, it is surprising that it has taken this long for pharma companies to come around.  When you think of the benefits of social media—direct engagement with the consumer, a captive and targeted audience, a group with similar interests, etc…—social media is perfectly suited for pharma companies.  This is primarily because there are few industries that deal with issues as personal as a healthcare company.  Sure, you might be emotionally invested in the next purchase of your iPhone or car, but few things make as significant an impact on an individual’s life as health.  This personal nature is what has rightfully brought heavy-handed regulation on the industry. It is also this personal nature that has scared many marketers away.  But, this personal nature is EXACTLY why pharmaceutical companies should be embracing social media—not shunning it.  Social media engagement provides those companies with the ability to get past expensive advertising campaigns and to fully engage with their consumer.  Why not become a part of communities focused on managing diseases better or living a healthy lifestyle?  People tend to congregate online around issues they care deeply about—and health is certainly chief among those issues.  The risks of engaging at this level are real and should not be overlooked.  And of course, any social media efforts should be carefully planned and only done with the utmost transparency—devoid of any sense of exploitation.   

If the efforts of some of these early leaders is any indication—the pharma industry might just be coming around.

Posted by Chris Iafolla at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Have you heard?  The sky is falling. The Dow is down another 7% and it appears everyone is susceptible to this downturn.  There has been no shortage of opinions on how the increasingly tight credit markets will impact business.  And if the last few days are any indication, we likely have not seen the bottom yet.

But I am no economist or financial planner.  I don’t know how this will end up or when we will come out the other side.  What I do know is this financial crisis will force us all to hunker down and prove our value.  In the PR industry, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. 

For years after the tech bubble burst, the common axiom is that in an economic downturn, PR is one of the first line items to get cut from the budget.  Time will tell if all those prognosticators were right. Recently, many people have weighed in from that perspective and debated the strength of PR in the face of another downturn.  Nearly 10 months ago on this blog we explored the very subject of the strength of PR in a down economy.  The crux of that post, and I think it still holds true in the current crisis, is we have to, without a shadow of a doubt, prove we are more than a cost center.  I realize that is a broad statement, but when you boil it down, that is where the rubber meets the road.  Social media is a piece of the puzzle that adds to our value.  Strategic counsel is another piece of the puzzle.  In fact, there are many pieces of an intricate puzzle.  In today’s economy, showing value not just to the VP of marketing, but to the CEO and the CFO is critical.  Think about that.  Do you consider the CFO an integral part of your PR program’s success?  Maybe you should.  If you, like me, are questioning how to protect yourself, your team and your business in the midst of this economic crisis, ask yourself who else at your client you can forge a relationship with.  The more advocates you have at the table the more likely you are to come out on the other side. 

Beyond that think about the little things:

• Does every client get a call back after an interview?
• Do client emails get answers within an hour?
• Are you providing unvarnished counsel to what worked in the interview in regards to messaging?
• Are you looking for opportunities to expand the content creation beyond the nuts and bolts of your program?
• Are you more than a PR agency, have you helped to shape messaging and marketing programs?
• Do you monitor the industry as a whole and ensure your client responds appropriately to relevant developments?
• Do you have quarterly strategy meetings where discussing tactics is forbidden?
• Have you asked your client for an update on their business plan—no their marketing plan?
• Have you asked the CEO how he/she feels the PR is impacting mindshare or shortening the sales cycle?

This of course is just a partial list and each point on its own adds minimal value.  But in the end, the goal is to be more than just publicists; we need to add strategic value at every turn.  So you, tell me, what other questions should we be asking in order to cement our strategic value?

In the age of social media, one thing we have let slip as an industry is measurement.  A CFO likely doesn’t care whether or not his company’s name is on Twitter if we can’t prove it helps move the sales needle.  This is not a time to slip into bad habits or run and hide.  As an industry, now is the time we need fight even harder to prove our value.  Because don’t kid yourself, budgets will get cut in the marketing program—will it be yours? 

Posted by Chris Iafolla at 06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the four short years of my PR existence, the face of PR has changed at a dizzying pace.  In that time period we have revamped the industry’s most commonly used communication vehicle, used new social media tools like Twitter and have gone from gatekeepers to discussion facilitators. 

At times, I wonder whether every industry moves this fast or if I just entered the field on the verge of that proverbial tipping point—after all, industries like enterprise software have seen sweeping changes of late as well.  Is PR alone?  The difference lies in the fact that PR has undergone a fundamental shift in how business is conducted.  We are no longer viewed strictly as publicists hell bent on landing the next piece of coverage.  No, our job extends directly to the customer base of our clients. 

That brings me to my larger point—PR used to be so damn easy.  Looking to launch a new company or product into the market?  Simple, all you have to do is brief some analysts, pre-brief some press under embargo and open the flood gates as the coverage pours through.  I’m oversimplifying the process of course, but you get the point.  We could plan a launch with the relative certainty that at least 7-10 IT publications would bite on the news.  Now, you are lucky to even find 7-10 IT journals.  When the “public” in public relations only meant traditional media outlets, it was simple to score some quick ink—now, not so much.

And maybe the past ease of our industry led to some of the lazy practices that continue to rear their ugly head.  Could we as an industry have grown accustomed to hitting send on an email and then putting our feet up?  I think so.  But the good PR people and agencies never indulged in this type of laziness to start with and are now ahead of the curve when it comes to the next wave of PR.  Because some relied so heavily on the easy approach to, many our now left scratching their head wondering how the industry passed them by and why they can no longer secure ink like they used to.  What that person should know is it never was about ink before and it certainly is not about ink now.  Sure, we need to continue to land good coverage for our clients.  But more than that, we need to find new outlets.  We need to bridge the gap between our clients and their customers to foster an ongoing conversation.  If we are focused on ink, how are we supposed to work toward those goals?

If I can borrow a page from Eminem’s book, if anything, as this business continues to evolve it will force the real PR pros to stand up.  Will traditional forms of PR become obsolete?  I doubt it.  But it really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things because the lessons we are learning will make us better at all aspects of our jobs—not just when we are Twittering.  If I’ve learned anything in the past four years it would be: “laziness need not apply.”       

Posted by Chris Iafolla at 05:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Did you ever have a moment where someone says something so perfect, so extremely spot-on that you wish you had a tape recorder to replay the statement for every client, colleague and professional in your life?

Yesterday, I experienced one of those moments while discussing blogger relations—and media relations in general—with a client.  We talked about the value of being a trusted resource and how PR, though an extension of sales, is not all about hocking products.  It’s about being a leader, a respected source of information and through that, the public will want to buy your products because it trusts your brand.  Moreover, media relations is about the “relationship.”  A blogger or reporter can write something fabulous, but what’s better, a one-and-done article or a reporter who continually returns to you as a resource and mentions your brand again and again?  One great hit can do wonders, but fostering relationships with your media counterparts can take you ever further.

Many product marketing and product development professionals have quarterly quotas to meet and push for results within a specific timeframe.  But, what really should be measured—a mere mention alongside competitors in a topical article, or a great conversation and some noteworthy feedback showcasing how the relationship with that writer is deepening?

I’m finding more and more of my clients are “getting it,” but understandably, there will always be Board meetings and superiors requesting numbers.  Just one piece of advice—please don’t sacrifice an important relationship just so your coverage count can appear higher.  Like any relationship, you need to establish trust and something mutually beneficial to get where you want to be—I promise the clips, the coverage, the glowing product reviews will surely follow.       

Posted by Danielle Mancano at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

More so than most businesses—PR is very much a “what have you done for me lately” kind of industry.  Come 2009, your client will quickly expunge the memory of your many 2008 successes and start looking at the year to come.  One slip-up and that Wall Street Journal article will become nothing more than a footnote on the way to an unhappy client. 

Because of this stark reality, PR pros can be prone to errors in judgment resulting from the need for a quick fix.  Perhaps this propensity for instant gratitude plays a role in the recent rash of PR bashing in the blogosphere.  On many fronts, we as an industry have stubbornly resisted the changing media landscape before us—insisting on falling back on the tried and true PR practices of yesteryear.  Many of these gaffes and snafus that set off blogger firestorms can be attributed to the constant need to satisfy the client.  So as an industry, is there a solution or are we caught in a situation with a no answer—desperately trying to please two masters?

The truth is that PR pros need to realize that the road to success is littered with land-mines.  Along the path, there are a number of potential quick fixes that will result in short term success.  However, those successes do not feed long-term success.  Recently, this lesson presented itself to me square in the face.

One of our accounts received an inbound media inquiry from a large, well-known business publication.  Most PR pros work tirelessly to get this type of publication interested in a start-up company, and here we were with one that literally presented itself to us.  Seeing the name of the publication, my first instinct was to jump on the interview request.  But upon closer inspection, something in the email didn’t smell right.  It was a land-mine.  It was clear to me that this particular reporter was fishing for a story that did not exist, and it would be of no benefit for my client to get on the phone with a reporter that had an agenda.  To complicate matters, the client was included on the email and expressed a desire to move quickly to get this scheduled.  In a world where instant gratification reigns supreme, the easy thing to do was to schedule the interview and deal with the consequences later—after all, the client expressed an interest.  But this is a short-term view that does not take into account the future success of the program.  By letting a client walk into a land-mine for the sake of one national business hit, we would have been ignoring our duties for unvarnished PR counsel.  We ultimately were able to explain to the client why this was not an opportunity worth pursuing, and crafted a response to explain why were declining.  I know that upon reading this, some may feel this is just one more example of a PR person acting as a stonewall to client interviews.  Let me assure you that is not the case.  Rare is the day that I advocated my clients turn down opportunities of this profile, but this particular opportunity was clearly not what it purported to be.  

This is just one recent example of the field of land-mines on the path to PR success.  As PR pros, we need to look beyond the next big clip or the next big launch.  If we continue to only think for that one-hit-wonder we will continue to be plagued by errors in judgment, and more importantly, we will forever be viewed as a cost center on a company’s balance sheet. 

Posted by Chris Iafolla at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

NOTE: This is a guest UnSpun blog post from SHIFT staffer Emily Bain Murphy.

Well, after a whirlwind weekend at BlogHer, I am back in the office with a chance to reflect on the conference (and bask in the comfort of knowing a men’s room is always around the corner, unlike the show, where a men’s room was a scarce resource).

From a PR standpoint, the conference was a great place to meet some of the more prominent bloggers today.  I was lucky enough to meet the likes of SoCal Mom, Susan Getgood, Stacy DeBroff of Mom Central and many, many more.  As a PR practitioner, I was most interested in picking the brains of these bloggers on their view of PR.  What works?  What doesn’t?  What is most effective when reaching out to bloggers?  These are all basic questions, but ones that are integral to becoming a successful PR person.  While each answer was slightly different, the refrain I heard time and time again was: “treat me like me.”  Not unlike most bloggers or reporters, the women I talked to only ask that PR people do their homework before reaching out. 

People, it really is not rocket science.  Do your homework, take the time to ensure your pitch is relevant, understand that bloggers are interested in fostering conversation and not just one-way communication and perhaps most importantly, do not expect a blogger to serve as a company shill—it just won’t happen.  This is all basic stuff that all PR people should understand, yet we somehow continue to perpetuate the myth that we are nothing more than a bunch of spammers intent on spinning any story we can get our hands on.

To truly fix the problem, we need to understand why the problem exists in the first place.  Like any new trend, blogging rose to its current position in furious fashion. Before PR people could fully understand the medium and the rules of engagement, they were already jumping on the bandwagon.  The problem is: PR people jumped on that bandwagon only knowing they could make a buck from their clients.  There were no rules of engagement.  In the minds of PR people, this was just one more medium to push out a message. 

And therein lies the crux of the issue—it is no longer about pushing a message or agenda.  That just won’t fly with bloggers.  In a rush to capitalize on the emerging medium, agencies quickly jumped to false conclusions to beat their competitors to the punch.  The result is a slew of PR people that lack an understanding of how to interact with bloggers effectively.

That is the bad news.  The good news is this is changing.  More PR are making an effort to understand how to interact with bloggers.  Slowly but surely, agencies are waking up to both the potential of working with bloggers, but also the shift in thinking that is required.  We are not all the way there yet as an industry, but we are well on our way.

In addition to PR people waking up to working with bloggers, large corporations are finally expanding communication’s programs beyond just mainstream media to include bloggers as well.  Look no further than BlogHer for proof.  HP, Johnson and Johnson, Michelin, GM, Microsoft, Starbucks, iRobot, Bocca and Nintendo were some of the names with a presence at the show.  In a short period of time, large corporations have gone from largely ignoring bloggers to understanding that they are a vital source of information for today’s consumer.  

But these companies cannot engage in the world of social media without sage counsel from us PR people.  It is incumbent upon us to ensure that the first social media forays of the Fortune 2000 are not flubbed up because we were ill prepared.  If BlogHer was any indication, we are sitting on that proverbial tipping point.

Posted by Chris Iafolla at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)