Online social media provide a platform where within communities people are discussing and commenting on anything you can think of. With regards to health and medication, people also debate products of pharmaceutical companies.
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They provide positive or negative testimonials, and share with other online community members or internet users and website readers their life experience with a certain disease and a given drug or drugs, side effects, change in life etc. They do not debate just one drug. The more people participate, the more opinions. The more opinions, the more comments, that’s how community and online forum discussions work.
And of course if you are a pharma company, you can’t monitor and comment on every single mentioning of your product on the web. But you can drive discussions if you decide to lead them and give your patients and communities your own online platform to do so. Some pharma companies have done a few projects in this field already, some present videos on You Tube, some have their own YouTube channels, some have Facebook profiles, some use Twitter.
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Do you do anything to participate in online social media already? Or are you just planning to start? Do you think it is just a bubble but basically can not bring anything to you? Or do you believe the web 2.0 tools can create a positive impression of your brand once you go to internet public and address and solve customers’ questions and problems through online media. Do you believe this can even improve brand loyalty?
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In the next issue: How to use Social Media to Communicate More Effectively in Pharma Industry? Measuring online social media success in pharma.