Has Legal Slammed Your ‘Social Media’ Door? Here’s a Window.

March 24th, 2010 by Corrie Carter

You’ve spent hours researching what makes a successful blog. You understand the need for transparency and frequent posts. You believe in the power of two-way conversation. You may even have management’s green light to proceed. But then you have a conversation with your legal department, and they shut it down.

Understandably, legal departments, particularly at pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies, are wary of blogs. Their open and interactive nature can leave the hosting organization vulnerable. Many companies feel it’s too risky and continue to wait for others in the industry to forge the path and see if the benefits outweigh the bumps. (See trailblazers’ blogs GlaxoSmithKline’s More Than Medicine Blog and Johnson & Johnson’s JNJ BTW Blog.)

If this describes your organization, we encourage you to not give up. There are other, easy ways to participate in social media without directly authoring a blog. Consider these options:

• Engage in Active Listening:
  Monitor conversations taking place online within social networking sites. At a minimum, set up Google Alerts to monitor your organization’s name, as well as competitive companies and relevant drugs, technologies, products and services, as well as disease states and key personnel. Or, you can use a more advanced tool such as Alterian SM2 to monitor the social media sphere for a minimal monthly feel. This allows you to be on constant lookout for opportunities to join conversations and comment.
• Maintain a Presence on Twitter:
  Many pharmaceutical, biotech, and device companies have readily adopted Twitter as a means to communicate with customers and stakeholders. This includes AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, and others. On BNet, Jim Edwards said that Twitter is more popular with drug companies because compliance officials and lawyers think it’s harder to get into trouble in 140 characters than an open-ended blog. So consider Twitter as a way to show your expertise, field questions, and interact with customers.
• Look for Sponsorship Opportunities:
  Finally, there are many blogs dedicated to the education and support of disease states and issues. Seek relevant blogs and secure sponsorship opportunities. It will get your brand associated with the conversations taking place related to your products and services right now.

If your company continues to wait cautiously in the wings, remember: these days your customers are expecting to see you in a social media setting. If they don’t hear from you, they’ll certainly seek the opinions of others.

— Corrie Carter

This entry was posted by Corrie Carter on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 and is filed under Blogging, Brand Strategy, Business, Health Care Marketing, Marketing, Problem Solving, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.