Editor’s voice: January – audience reach and feedback
Rebecca Aris
pharmaphorum
Rebecca Aris explores pharmaphorum’s highlights from January, by sharing some of your opinions on our content through the social media messages and comments we’ve received in January.
Every day we engage with our audience, through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, the list goes on... Through these channels we receive some great feedback and comments, all of which help us to learn what content is popular. In addition, these channels help our content to reach a much broader audience than it would have done otherwise.
This month, as our discipline focus is based on communications, I thought it would be nice to share with you some of the feedback we’ve received through some of these channels throughout January on our content. So let’s look at some of the topics that got you debating and sharing this month...
Anonymous doctors interview series
In order to gain a doctor’s perspective on the pharma industry, we interviewed five healthcare professionals and published their opinions anonymously. The interviews received some great attention on LinkedIn....
“I really like this interview... It clearly portrays the message on how Doctor's feel about receiving updates/important information and also the way in which they prefer to be approached.”
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"The videos were shared on Twitter by some of the larger pharma companies, which was really nice to see..."
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And on Twitter...
Finding anonymous doc interviews v. Interesting – @FarmerFunster
Interesting, thanks for sharing :)– @johnty_cairns
Thanks for taking the time to comment about these pieces!
Innovation in pharma video
Last year we attended the Cegedim Relationship Management’s ‘2012 Life Science Forum’. We interviewed a number of attendees on their thoughts on innovation within the pharma industry. Throughout January we have been publishing this video interview series in four parts. The full video can be viewed here.
The videos were shared on Twitter by many including some of the larger pharma companies, which was really nice to see:-
@pharmaphorum Enjoyed your innovation series. We've just been researching potential open &, consumer-centric innovation models. Much to learn - @StrategicNorth
“Thx 4 the great video!..” – @SanofiUS
“Series themes: Patient 1st + a little tech MT @pharmaphorum: How is delivery of #innovation changing for #pharma? bit.ly/XGNb8L ^jm - @Lilly_COI
In addition, we got some great feedback from one of the video participants -
"Now, with this video, I am reminded that I am not the only person thinking about pharma innovation differently."
It’s really nice to see some of our content being appreciated and also seeing comments that reflect that our content is really tapping into the current thinking of issues within pharma.
Blog mentions
In January, we interviewed Shaun Grady, Vice President of Strategic Partnering &, Business Development at AstraZeneca on what AZ looks for in a licensing partner. AZ kindly shared and promoted this interview on their blog, which really helped to increase the visibility of the interview.
Steven Grossman followed suit and shared his pharmaphorum blog post ‘FDA post-election: continuity and progress likely to mark 2013’ on his FDA matters blog.
As a result we’ve seen an increase in audience numbers for both pieces so we’re really pleased with these shares.
European CME
This month, we also interviewed Professor Robin Stevenson, retired consultant physician in respiratory medicine, on his thoughts on how we can unify standards in CME across Europe. When we posted a link to the interview to the European CME Forum LinkedIn group, we received a great response. See some of the comments below:-
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"It’s great to see some of our content sparking debate in these channels!"
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“I agree that " there’s no reason why sponsorship by a drug company should not continue...”
“here goes the Provider accreditation again as being the "wholy grail"...”
“There are many advantages of both provider accreditation and activity accreditation under specific contexts.”
“I'm sure that doctors can figure out what is purely marketing and what isn’t without help.”
Medical communication and CME in Asia
Another content piece that drew some discussion on our LinkedIn group was an article on the med comms and CME environment in Asia by Lisa Sullivan.
Comments included:-
“The similarities with Europe seem more prominent than the differences.”
“I can only say it is a pity that quality seems to have been lost in the new world of procurement and price...”
“I strongly believe that for the pharmaceutical industry, which promotes an image of superlative quality, the dedicated buying function often lacks the understanding to serve the company well.”
It’s great to see some of our content sparking debate in these channels.
Engagement on pharmaphorum
We’ve also noted more debate and comments being posted on our articles on pharmaphorum itself. Regular pharmaphorum authors Michael Spitz and Daniel Ghinn both received insightful comments on their articles this month:-
“Industry must invest in understanding the specific behaviour and demands of audiences before investing in the tools to serve them.”
“IMO Twitter still doesn't have the penetration to where the majority of the patients are sharing and engaging on the Internet, which is in forums and blogs where individual posts can be far more than 140 characters at a time.”
We really do appreciate it when you take the time to comment on our articles, more often than not the author will respond and it’s a great chance to discuss a topic of interest to you with an industry thought leader.
A history of... Sanofi
Every month we look at a different pharmaceutical company and research how they became to be the company that they are today. This month we explored the history of French pharmaceutical company Sanofi. It was nice then to receive these tweet from @SanofiUS:-
@pharmaphorum @Hannah_Blake2 Thanks so much for the great article!!
And:
Wonder how Sanofi came to be? Our friends at @pharmaphorum lay out the history: http://ow.ly/heiBA #yam cc: @Hannah_Blake2
This second tweet is currently our second most retweeted tweet (see tweetreach for more info), and so really helped to share the article.
More tweets of note
On an article on data transparency in clinical trials, by Deputy Editor of the BMJ , Trish Groves, tweet by @AspireSci
Excellent, "must read" article from @trished on clinical trial transparency. See bit.ly/11dMjjA #ismpp #pubplan via @pharmaphorum
On an article looking at the two schools of digital marketing, tweet by @MKAT_digital:
Love this: "‘going #digital’ is more about #strategy than technology." RT @pharmaphorum: 2 schools of #digitalmarketing bit.ly/UzP5Ly
On an interview with Lupus patient Tiffany Peterson, tweet by @BunnyEllerin:-
Loved reading @tiffanyandlupus: Patient perspectives on Pharma: Tiffany Peterson | via @pharmaphorum goo.gl/L2dtD #SocPharm #hcsm
All of these comments help us to see what content is popular. But, perhaps more importantly, it helps to facilitate the sharing of our content so that they can be viewed by a much wider audience. So if you plan to write an article for us in the near future do have a think about how you and your contacts can help to share the piece and increase its visibility. After all, if it’s worth writing about then it’s worth sharing too.
I also hope that this article has encouraged you to engage more, we have many channels in which you can communicate with the rest of our audience so please do use them.
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"...if it’s worth writing about then it’s worth sharing too."
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What’s on the horizon in February?
As our disease focus is on rare diseases next month we will be hosting a tweet chat on the topic this Friday 1st February at 4pm GMT / 10am CST. pharmaphorum will be using the outcomes of the tweet chat to create a content piece for rare disease day 2013. Please use the hashtag #pharmaphorum to follow and in every related tweet.
Not taken part in a tweet chat before? Here are ten good reasons why you should, and some suggested tools to help you become involved.
In addition to hosting this tweet chat we’re keen to hear from rare disease patients. If you suffer from a rare disease and are happy for us to share your story please get in touch. You can find out more here (in another, much appreciated, blog mention).
In addition to our disease focus, our discipline focus next month will be on ‘patients’. As such, our patient nomination continues, so please do vote if you haven’t already.
Other news
Finally, I’d like to thank our January sponsors – ‘Clinical Current’. You can read about how Clinical Current thinks social media changes med comms here.
Until next time, keep sharing and commenting.
About the author:
Rebecca Aris is Managing Editor of pharmaphorum, a very fast growing online thought leadership channel for pharma, representing an audience of senior pharma execs from all over the world.
Rebecca was the first full time employee to join pharmaphorum, starting in her current role in mid-2010, and is responsible for coordinating all editorial content on the site. Prior to working at pharmaphorum she was a medical writer at a healthcare PR agency. In addition, she spent three years working as a commissioning editor on three journal titles at a biomedical publishing company. Rebecca holds a BSc (Hons) in pharmaceutical science.
For queries she can be reached through the site contact form or via Twitter @Rebecca_Aris.
Will you be taking part in our rare disease tweet chat?
