Canadians, FaceBook and Healthcare

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Pfizer helps its employees better understand and use social media

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Pfizer Canada shares its social media response flow chart

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A wicked social media initiative by McNeil Consumer Healthcare (Division of Johnson and Johnson)

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FaceBook Healthcare-Related Ads (November 2010)

Here are some of the healthcare-related ads that were targeted to my personal profile on FaceBook during the month of November 2010.  All previous posts on FaceBook healthcare-related ads that targeted my FaceBook profile can be found here.

FaceBook ads stats feature of the month: Comscore.com reported that from July-September 2010, FaceBook had the top online ad impressions at 297 billion.  This represented over 23% of the online display advertising market.  I would like to know how many of these ads appeared on FaceBook profile pages (many of the ads that I post in my blog come from the FaceBook ad board, and not from my profile page) and how many clicks they got.

This month, I will comment on the ‘Will Grandma die’ FaceBook ad.  I am just one person, and my opinion on this ad is my own.  Others may have a similar or different opinion based on their experience and their personal preferences.  Therefore, I encourage you to add your feedback on this particular ad as well, whether you like it or not, or on any of the other ads included in this post as well.

I was drawn to comment on the ‘Will Grandma die’ ad because I am familiar with VirtualHospice.ca‘s unique and much needed services.  I like this particular ad very much because it targets an audience that may not be in an emotional state to search out this type of service, yet they could benefit so much from it.  Therefore, having an emotionally-charged ad flashed in front of them while they are on FaceBook, one that may hit home with the viewer, seems like an effective way to get the right person’s attention.  The title and text are well crafted in a simple yet very clear fashion.  The chosen image complements the copy very well.  In its entirety, this ad tells an emotional story quite effectively.  There is no branding of VirtualHospice.ca in the ad, but this is not what is important to their target audience.

Also, although there are no words that spell out the call-to-action, it is evident that the organization is trying to drive traffic to its website as the website is clearly listed below the copy.

In my opinion, VirtualHospice.ca did a fantastic job with this ad.

Here are other ads that appeared on my FaceBook profile over the month of November.  Note: Ddrops and Kidney Cancer Canada are clients.

Every once in a while, I see a non-FaceBook online healthcare-related ad that catches my interest.  I capture these in my FaceBook healthcare-related ads post as added value to you, the reader.

The GSK ad was found on the paper.li e-newspaper by Ddrops Company (client), Canadian-Mom-Bloggers.  For those not familiar with the paper.li e-newsletters, the posts and ads are automatically selected via the paper.li process.  The hosting organization has no control over what articles or ads appear.  The only control that the hosting organization has is either the Twitter hashtag that will be focused on, or the Twitter list.  I am a fan of paper.li e-newsletters, but I do wish that more prominence would be given to the originator of the article, and less to the person who posted it (but that’s another topic).

The other two were Yahoo ads.

Tell me what you think of these ads in the comments below.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:

FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

MSWatch.ca makes a comeback: Now within Canadian Rx-DTC guidelines

Last month, I posted an article about the removal of the MSWatch.ca online forums. Many people around the world responded to me stating that they felt it was the MS patients who had lost the most from this changed website. I agreed.

On Monday November 15 2010, I was delighted to receive another e-mail from MSWatch.ca, this time welcoming me to the new MSWatch Oasis:

Tell your friends:

There’s a place that we go to for comfort after a long day, where can help find some relieft and peace. It could be your favorite part of the couch, the smell of fresh baked cookies or a phone call with a loved one. Whenever you’re there, it’s as if you’re transported away.  Today we’re exited to announce that there’s something new on MSWatch, a place where you can help build a world of understanding and support for the MS community.

		Keep track of your treatments and help manage your appointments in a fun and engaging way.
		Perch in the tree where you can find resources in the birdhouses and check in on fellow Oasis members.
		Chirp others in the tree and check in on your buddies.
		Earn badges just by keeping up with appointmens and therapy.
		Update your profile to connect with others in the MS community. Add links to your Facebook, Twitter, blog and website.

Join in to help manage your treatments, connect with other patients and caregivers, and access learning resources and helpful tools. Help build a world of understand and support.

So I decided to take a look at their new site.  I was able to sign in with my username and password from the original MSWatch.ca online forums.  After I logged on, I had the opportunity to let the community members know how I was feeling by selecting one of several pre-written statements.  This protects the pharma company from statements that could suggest an adverse event or one that could fall outside of Rx-DTC guidelines:

Then, I was prompted to update my personal profile.  As part of the profile, I could include my blog website, Twitter username, and FaceBook page.  This is a very interesting feature because it allows members of the community to meet each other on the MSWatch Oasis and then take their conversation onto their personal networks, where they are free to discuss all aspects of their disease and treatment.  Justin Seiler, Electronic Media (Marketing) Associate at Teva Canada Innovation, told me that MSWatch wanted to act as a ‘hub’ for their MS members.  That way, they are facilitating networking amongst the members, yet forcing them to go on third party sites.  As such, Teva Canada Innovation does not hold any responsibility of the discussions held off their site.

Although direct communications between members do not occur onsite, you can see which community member is in the “Oasis”.  In fact, you can click on the person’s username to gain access to a limited portion of their personal information, including hyperlinks to their websites, Twitter and FaceBook profiles (assuming the member has updated their profile with this information):

Another very useful tool consists of the calendar which allows patients to input their treatment days as well as their appointments.  And as you can see in the pic below, community members can also ‘label’ themselves with a particular type of bird.  This is a great way to start a conversion with other community members (offsite, of course).

Although I did not find this on the site itself, I did find it as part of the ‘tour’ of the website:  badges.  It appears as though community members can earn different badges depending on what they actually do on the site.  Unfortunately, I was not able to see the range and meaning of the different badges.

Going through the website, everything looks to be within Canadian pharmaceutical promotional guidelines, including Rx-DTC (where we are only allowed to mention product name, price and quantity).  Brands mentioned under treatment options include all of the players within this category, including a link to their individual support groups.

Congratulations to Teva Canada Innovation for not giving up, and for finding a way to allow MS patients to continue to share with one another while staying within the Canadian Rx-DTC guidelines.  By maintaining the ability to help the MS patients network with one another, Teva Canada Innovation continues to achieve its strategic objective.  This is a valuable service for MS patients and I look forward to watching it grow quickly (as did the original MSWatch.ca online forums).  You have proven yourself to be a social media leader within the Canadian pharma industry!

The agency that worked on the look and feel of the MSWatch Oasis is Twist Image. This is the agency that was also involved in the redesign of MSWatch.ca that took place in 2009.

Do you think the MSWatch Oasis is an effective social networking tools for MS patients?  Why or why not?

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Is PAAB Doing a Good Job in Educating us on Social Media Regs in Canada?

Several months ago, the PAAB (Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board) held 3 social media marketing sessions called “Social Media Marketing in Pharma: What Works in Canada”, twice in Toronto and once in Montreal, where they provided some of their insights on Canadian regulations regarding pharmaceutical social media marketing.  This meeting even had a representative from Health Canada as a panel member.

Then earlier this month, they presented even more guidance at the Eye For Pharma eMarketing Canada conference.  Just yesterday, they made their slides from the conference available on the PAAB website: PAAB Guidance on Social Media Marketing (61 slides). Enable audio on your computer as each slide has audio. The audio track on each slide is by Patrick Massad (Chief Review Officer at the PAAB).  Beware – the file is huge.  It slowed my computer down for several minutes.  But once you go through the slides and audio, you will find that it is full of valuable information, some of which was not presented at the recent eMarketing conference due to lack of time.

The PAAB has also made itself more available to the Canadian pharma community by setting up a LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter profile.  The PAAB has been using these avenues to not only update the industry on PAAB activities, but also to share information about social media from other countries.  On Twitter, the PAAB even posted a request for people to join one of their social networs and to start a discussion.

As far as I know, the level of outreach by the PAAB to the pharma industry with regards to guidance on the regulations that impact social media marketing is the first of its kind worldwide.  Please correct me if this is inaccurate.  I am aware of the FDA meetings held a while back, but so far, no guidance has been made available since those meetings.

Whether we like the regulations or not, and whether we feel the regulations are doing justice to the mantra of social media being open for engagement by all stakeholders, we have to give credit to the PAAB for their efforts in helping the Canadian pharma industry understand what we can and cannot do within the legal framework.  I am not a fan of the current Rx DTC regulations in Canada.  They are outdated, and I would like to see these regulations re-visited and modified.  But I don’t blame the PAAB for those regulations.  They did not make the rules.  They just help us work within them.

The only recommendation that I would have for the PAAB (and Rx&D as well for that matter), is to include something about social media guidelines as part of their overall set of guidelines.  Perhaps that is in the works and I am just not aware.

Do you think the PAAB is doing a good job in educating the Canadian pharmaceutical industry on how to apply current regulations to social media campaigns?  Do you have any suggestions for them to improve their outreach to the industry?

Disclaimer:  I have been involved with the PAAB on various social media activities, but this post is my personal opinion.  The PAAB has not had any input or influence in the content of this article.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Canada’s Pharma Digital Awards 2010 Winners (Eye for Pharma)

Eye for Pharma organized the 1st eMarketing Canada conference, which was held in Toronto, on November 1-2 2010.  As part of the conference, marketers from both agency and client sides were asked to submit their e-tactics as nominations for the very 1st Canada’s Pharma Digital Awards.  A panel of judges was selected based on experience with digital pharma marketing and knowledge of the Canadian regulations.  Dr. John Reeves of Kyp Inc. led the award process.

There were 6 winners:

Healthcare professional sites:

1. Canadian Healthcare Network (Rogers Publishing Healthcare Group)
2. Advisory Space (Agency: Impetus Healthcare, Client: Nycomed)

Consumer sites:

1. More Than Medication (Agency: Klick Pharma, Client: Pfizer)
2. Contour USB Program (Agency: Brightworks, Client: Bayer)
3. Smidge (Agency: Klick Pharma, Client: Pfizer)
4. iMD Health

The judging panel consisted of the following members:

• Neil Follett, Bightworks
• Annemarie Edwards, CPC Healthcare Communications
• Ian Ross, Merge Inc.
• Laurie Demille, GlaxoSmithKline
• Murray Forrestall, Bmod Group
• David Pattenden, Microsoft Canada, Healthcare
• Paul Kostoff, Mediresource
• Glen Webster, Klick
• and me, Natalie Bourre, Marketing 4 Health Inc.

Over the next few weeks, an article highlighting the features of each of the winners will be published on my blog.  Since the healthcare professional sites are gated, I may be limited in what I can show of these, but I will do my best to share as much information as possible.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

eMarketing Canada – Twitter Transcript

Eye for Pharma organized the 1st eMarketing Canada conference, which was held in Toronto, on November 1-2 2010.  The Twitter hashtag used was #efp.

Here is a transcript of the online Twitter posts and discussion which used the #efp hashtagh :  Down #efp transcript pdf file.

For those of you keen on stats, here are some data from the tweets that took place on November 1st and 2nd, using the hashtag #efp (via What the Hashtag):

• 673 tweets
• 61 contributors
• 96.1 tweets per day
• 75.6% come from “The Top 10″
• 24.4% are retweets
• 30.6% are mentions
• 2.8% have multiple hashtags

Not sure what is meant by Twitter hashtags? Then view this video by Mari Smith to learn about hashtags.

Just curious – do you find the information in this post useful? Please leave me a comment below.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Do Canadians talk about healthcare online? Do you want to join the conversation? Check out #hcsmca

If you are on Twitter, you know that hashtags have a powerful way of uniting people with common interests.  For months now, I have been following and participating in discussions with the hashtags #hcsm and #hcsmeu.  I even subscribe to their paper.li daily e-newsletters here and here.

But now, we have our very own Canadian healthcare social media hashtag, #hcsmca, thanks to the initiative by Colleen Young, who is also known as @sharingstrength on Twitter. Colleen manages Sharing Strength, a Canadian online resource and community for women with breast cancer.  She describes herself as a “plain language writer and e-patient advocate”.

Yesterday marked the very first #hcsmca Twitter chat.  Although I was only able to attend the first few minutes of the session (such is the life of a work-at-home Mom with a teething baby and active preschooler), I took the time afterwards to review the tweets that were posted as part of this Twitter chat.  From what I saw, there was a diverse mix of participants; e-patients, healthcare providers, non-profit organizations, health 2.0 enthusiasts and consultants and others.  In fact, there were a total of 75 tweeps who used the hashtag #hcsmca yesterday.  That is  very impressive for a first time event.  You can see the transcript of today’s discussion on Twitter here.  The discussions included introductions of participants, questions about how to use Twitter more effectively, exchange of ideas of how to manage social media for one’s own organization, and more.

Here is the link for the daily #hcsmca e-newsletter.  This will include articles that people on Twitter have posted along with the #hcsmca hashtag.  These posts are not all necessarily related to the #hcsmca Twitter chats, but rather articles that people thought other Canadian healthcare social media enthusiasts might find valuable.

Not on Twitter? Well, I would like to convince you to join Twitter because it is such an effective tool for meeting and talking with people with common  interests, but that is an entirely separate dicussion (but if you want to ask me questions about why and how to use Twitter, send me a note – I’m a big fan of this network).   You can view the discussions happening on Twitter that are related to #hcsmca.  Just check out the links I posted above.  They are available to anybody who uses the Internet.  The only thing is that you won’t be able to participate in the discussion, you’ll just be a listener.  Maybe once you see the quality of some of the discussions, you’ll see the benefit of joining Twitter (again, feel free to send me a note and I would be happy to help).  It also looks as though Colleen will set up a FaceBook page as well as a LinkedIn group, so you will be able to join in the discussion on those networks if you are a member there.  Once I get the links to the new FaceBook page and LinkedIn group, I will share them with you.

UPDATE: FaceBook page and LinkedIn group are now live. Join us!

Congratulations to Colleen for starting a great initiative which will allow Canadians with an interest in healthcare to connect and exchange ideas on the topic.  And who knows, maybe we can help improve Canadian healthcare one tweet at a time.

Do you talk about healthcare topics online?  If so, what do you get out of these discussions?  If not, is there something holding you back?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.