Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - November/December 2007 - (Page 50) 50 The Mix Nov/Dec 2007 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe Let’s Get Digital Lynn O’Connor Vos reflects on why embracing the digital communications revolution requires not just a whole new mindset, but a whole new set of skills. earch, blogs, social networks… the facts speak for themselves. Every day, eight million American adults search online for health information — the same number pay bills online, read blogs or surf the internet for a phone number or address. Search engines are the new family doctor; the internet, the number one source for healthcare information. Online influence is also shifting, fuelled in large part by the rise of consumer-generated content. 1.5 times every day, a patient starts a conversation by posting a comment on the internet. And with 80 million blogs and counting, your company’s messages and brand exist not just in the materials and ads you create, but in the voices of the customers, employees, and physicians who talk about you online. What’s a pharmaceutical company to do? Get smart… and fast. And that goes for everyone. The pace of change means it’s now time to adapt from having digital specialists to having digital as a core competency. At the heart of this urgency lies a sense of confusion in the market place about where digital fits within an organisation and how it can be leveraged to reach consumers. Moreover, since the regulatory environment can often stifle the willingness to test new ground of even the most informed professionals, it’s vital that companies have the right training programmes in place — and the right partners to work with. Many business experts agree that digital fluency will soon be one of the most important qualities of ‘transformational executives.’ Educators and hiring managers who focus exclusively on finance and marketing at the expense of technology strategy will be making a big mistake. S Your company’s messages exist not just in the materials you create but in the voices of customers, employees and doctors who talk online. Lynn O’Connor Vos, CEO, Grey Healthcare Group Digital world immersion The world has gone digital, and it’s not going back. A new way of thinking and operating is warranted. That requires total immersion. With immersion training, and a new structure that creates shared responsibility for digital know-how, employees feel fully engaged, not just as people who can talk the digital talk, but as professionals who are actually living it. Erin Byrne, chief digital strategist at BursonMarsteller, reflects, “So often companies think they can vest digital proficiency with their younger, high potential employees. That’s a big mistake. The digital revolution is not just for early adopters. It affects us all and, to be successful, digital must be ubiquitous. Understanding it and participating in digital communications is critical to advancing the interests of our companies and our industry. It must be part of all our jobs.” Many people are surprised to learn that nearly half of all MySpace visitors are 35 and older. As such, companies shouldn’t feel uneasy about sharing digital wisdom. On the contrary; you can’t grow a company without an understanding of digital technology — and you can’t relegate that understanding to someone else. By ensuring employees across all disciplines are digitally engaged, pharmaceutical companies can create business and marketing strategies that have considerable impact on the public health. How? Through the sheer power of social media. By involving people in a conversation — not pushing information — healthcare companies can redefine the way people learn to live longer, healthier lives. And by participating in online conversations themselves, pharmaceutical companies can establish deeper connections to patients that turn into long-term loyalty. Social networking: your brand and the public health Many leaders in other industries have learned the impact that online users can have on their brand. Unilever, for example, developed a social networking site for Dove that engaged 200000 women in 22 countries in a dialogue about beauty. Through community building, Dove’s employees demonstrated the impact that unconventional marketing can have on a conventional brand. Of course, issues of health are often far more complex. And information found online can give consumers a false feeling of security. Indeed, a recent study found just 3% of health seekers wonder whether the information they find is trustworthy. But this disconnect can be a boon to organizations with the public health at heart, and the right people to make it happen. Trusted destinations, where users come to get smarter about their health using information validated by experts, will be the wave of the future. Inside our industry, leading edge companies are already using digital strategy to identify and partner with new types of influencers. And why not? Today, the technology exists to identify online influencers, monitor their opinions, respond to consumer sentiment, and track potentially problematic issues. The real risk emerging is the risk of not using the data out there, understanding its impact and engaging new groups of influencers in the dialogue as active partners.
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