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drugplug · 11 years

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What is the Social Pharma Industry?

In the recent years, social media has become an integral part of various companies, helping them advertise their products and offer free information to their subscribers. These days, pharmaceutical companies are also adopting the use of social media to announce new products and build a relationship with their customers. This aspect of the pharmaceutical industry is called social pharma.

In this article, we shall take a brief look at this industry and discuss how it benefits all the pharmaceutical companies and the customers.

The primary goal

Pharmaceutical industries have in the past stayed away from social media, using face-to-face communication as a way to sell their products and services. This approach limited their capability of spreading the word regarding their products not only to physicians but also to future patients. The primary goal of signing up to the social media market is to establish a strong relationship with people and to help patients be more aware of the particular company’s contributions and work.

The previous barriers that were in place with regards to direct communication with clients have now changed completely. Regulations no longer form a barrier to engaging with the customers and the use of social media is currently being encouraged. The importance of using social media has been recognized and building confidence and trust with people across the globe is a brilliant way to do business in today's market.

Following the rules

There are certain aspects of social media marketing that the pharmaceutical industry needs to be aware of. Standards have to be met and codes of conduct have to be adhered to. Doing so will alleviate any anxieties that customers have regarding pharmaceutical companies and help build confidence, making social pharma an innovative, effective new way to do business.

Building up the social pharma industry takes time and has done so for many companies. This is mostly because there can be problems that arise when using this strategy of marketing. The surgery is often performed to ascertain the ideal social media to use in order to communicate with future prospects.

Companies have recognized this power and have dedicated teams that can deal with these aspects of marketing fairly easily. Teams can include social media experts along with legal teams and even medical personnel. However, given that social pharma is a relatively new concept, there is still a fair bit for the staff to learn and a lot more resources that may be required to make it a successful venture.

Long-term benefits

Research is still being conducted to assess the long-term benefits of social pharma. There is no doubt that listening to customers helps build businesses and establish a solid foundation.

Conclusion

The social pharma industry is growing rapidly with more and more companies getting on board these days. There is no doubt that it will play an important role in building the company's reputation and also helping pharmaceutical companies grow at an exponential rate.

DrugPlug wants to help you in your healthcare search. For priority access please sign up at http://druplug.com

Tara Husband, Founder @drugplug

#social pharma #medication pharmacy pharma social media drugplug

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drugplug · 11 years

Video

How to Speak to Your Doctor about What You Find on the Internet.

This video was created for a pharma event in Boston. We were going for serious. :) What do you think? At the pharmaceutical events people are very serious. It's different then my social media and entrepreneurial background where we have fun working and creating. In developing DrugPlug, I see people in healthcare trying hard to find answers in our pharmaceutical troubles.

I grew up in a generation where we didn't just trust doctors, unfortunately. It was post the one doctor per community that everyone knows and pre social media where people are voting for the doctors they love!

Now I see a perfect space of democracy in healthcare. A good place to start is How to Speak to Your Doctor about What You find on the Internet.

Understand the difference between anecdote and evidence. An anecdote is a short amusing story you read on Facebook or heard from a neighbor. Evidence has some kind of proof.

Use other Dr's names and Abstract studies. You can often find the best doctors and research by finding out who is creating abstracts/medical journals. This means on top of their medical practice they are also applying for grants and working on pushing the medical boundaries in their area.

Ask for what you want. After all your research if you think you know what medication you want to be on ask your doctor if that's OK. Ask for what you want. Start the conversation.

Drugplug wants to help you in your healthcare search. For priority access please sign up at http://druplug.com

Tara Husband, Founder @DrugPlug

#healthy #medication pharmacy pharma social media drugplug

0 notes