15 June 2011| Article by Sanne Godiksen
June 2011 | Article by Sanne Godiksen, Senior Consultant, NNIT
Can pharmaceutical companies use social media for internal collaboration and external communication and start sharing knowledge rather than archiving it? The answer is yes. And not only they can, they have to. Users, stakeholders and employees belong to a rising species which must be taken into account. Say hello to “Homo Conexus”.
For more than 10 years the research company Strategy One has monitored business trends and published them in the Edelman trust barometer. In a recent barometer Antoine Harary, Director of Strategy One, claims that we are moving towards a “stakeholder world - not a shareholder world” (ref.1) Thus, stakeholders have an increasing influence on the CEO’s business decisions (in EU countries). This shift is closely related to the convergence of social media as the transparency, the connectivity and the velocity of the online societies affect the foundation of decision making.
But who are these stakeholders with the power to influence decisions? According to Wikipedia a stakeholder is “a person, group, organization, or system who affects or can be affected by an organization's actions”. Hence, a user of a company website can be considered a stakeholder. And as such he must be taken into consideration – and he has a lot to offer.
Relationship drivers
Relations are all about trust. At least if you want them to persist. This also applies for online relations, and perhaps even more so. Peggy Brønn, Professor from Norwegian School of Management, states, that there is a direct connection between trust and commitment. She stresses that good relations between a company and its’ various stakeholders is an important factor in the corporate reputation and improved likelihood of exchange (ref.2). The exchange between e.g. company and stakeholders is important as it generates value by procuring a mutual understanding of beliefs and actions.
Peggy Brønn defines 5 important drivers for building relationships:
• Trust
• Openness
• Investment
• Involvement
• Commitment
These are the building blocks of conversation and commitment. In order to establish valuable and meaningful relations we have to trust each other not to be telling lies, we have to be open and personal, and dare to speak about more than just truisms, we have to invest time and energy in the relationship and be receptive to alternative perspectives with that in place we become more committed to build and maintain relationships.
Homo Conexus – generation network
If you transfer the discussion of relationship drivers to the online media it seems that a lot of people are quite comfortable building relationships online. They are using the relationship drivers as they share information and intimacies, they show commitment and involvement by participating in blog discussions, wikis, twitter etc. They socialize. And apparently they do it without questioning whether they should be doing it at all – it is simply part of their daily life. Say hello to “Homo Conexus – Generation Network” (ref. 3).
Socialize and create social capital
To “Generation Network” networking is a life style. They live through and by the network and engage in a wide range of networks. They are on facebook, twitter, blogs, forums related to work, leisure etc. When people socialize online, they create social capital by the use of the different social functionalities e.g. “I like” ratings, send-to-friend, number of contacts or “friends” in a network. The more active and engaging they are the more capital they generate.
Also in a professional context socializing makes sense. For many life science companies it is a persistent issue how to break down the silos of information and unleash the knowledge and intellectual capital internally – or how to share knowledge rather than archive knowledge. By allowing the intellectual capital to be shared via interactive communicative frameworks new relationships can be created and ideas developed.
There is a lot to be gained when pharma businesses establish internal as well as external forums for online socializing and networking in order to share knowledge and create social capital. However, the industry has to confront a number of challenges and barriers before a full-fledged participation in the social media is possible. Regulations and a constrained access to stakeholders such as health care professionals and patients are some of them.
Pharma’s first contact with social media
If your company is considering social media you should start out by implementing a network strategy in order to support the users’ situation as they are networking individuals participating in different groups both online and offline. When building a framework for networking with your stakeholders you must develop solutions targeted to specific stakeholders. A pharma company can be involved in e.g. 3 types of online networks:
• Health Care Professional trial investigator community
• Patient community
• Deportalization solution
HCP trial investigator community
This is a Health Care Professional /specialist community created for stakeholders with a professional relation in a specific clinical trial (phase 4). It’s a closed community and participants will need a password and username from the pharma company. The main content is a personal profile page where each stakeholder profiles herself to the peers in the community. This feature motivates the dialogue and knowledge sharing as we are keener to trust someone we know a little. The profile page also facilitates that the stakeholders build relationships outside the online community when they meet at e.g. conferences.
The trial investigator community must be governed by a person from the pharma company who sees to that all rules and regulations are kept. He can also facilitate dialogue and knowledge sharing by posting articles and news on the community. In the validated community the GxP processes associated to a trial can be included online, making the community more relevant and part of the work-processes in a trial.
The patient community
In a patient community the pharma company creates a framework with articles and an expert panel available for patients and relatives. Stakeholders in this community can not contact each other directly but they can see what others in same situation ask as well as the answers from the expert panel. This knowledge is deployable in other networks.
The patient community network must also governed by a person from the pharma company. But even though it’s not possible to have an unrestricted online conversation the community generates knowledge and facilitates dialogue for patients moving around in other online networks.
Deportalization
Some patients create their own community. Deportalization is online solutions moving away from the big portals towards smaller vertical niche sites for a limited number but highly committed and engaged stakeholders. For example a patient creates his own network as he is an enthusiastic runner and uploads blogs posts, videos, audios etc. about running with his specific disease. He links to peers, patient communities etc. and thereby creates a dedicated network.
This kind of solution is out of the hands of the company and it’s extremely important to follow the networks and participate in the dialogue. Otherwise the company can be seen as not committed, not trustworthy and no relationships or social capital will grow between the company and its stakeholders.
Recommendations for success in social media
While we await more formalised guidance as how to act in social media from e.g. FDA, who by the way already uses twitter and Facebook on a daily basis, be inspired by these 7 points to establish successful relations in social media:
1. Map your stakeholders – choose your target groups
2. Content is still king – create and update interesting content
3. Develop a governance strategy and social media policy
4. Support with other communications channels
5. Doing the web is not a free ride – spend time and resources on it
6. Monitor frequently and adjust your efforts accordingly.
7. Be creative– try new things!
References:
1. Edelman’s Trust barometer 2011, http://www.edelman.com/trust/2011
2. Peggy Brønn, Professor from Norwegian School of Management, presentation in Danish Communication Association, “Kom-dag 2011”
3. Morten Bay, Homo Conexus (Gyldendal Business 2009)