PHARMA NEWS, MULTICHANNEL & CROSSCHANNEL MAKETING

The tired “a picture paints a thousand words” maxim is never more relevant when it comes to expressing this human side, simply because images appeal to emotions when words either fail, or take longer, to hit the mark. Yet deciding to use visuals is only the beginning when it comes to marketing, and from that point you can either master the art or fall flat on your face in a spectacular way.

Fortunately the Instagram story feature does all the hard work for you, so the only input needed is simply to upload the pics or a short video. From there, the ‘story’ will be posted on your page and – more importantly – on the news feeds of your users.

The relevance to users is assessed by algorithms which track their interests, so your stories will appear on their walls in order of this relevance – and therefore there’s no need for you to re-post content and therefore run the risk of bombarding your followers and turning them off. More importantly, the content itself is as quick and easy to read as it is to upload, so viewers will be infinitely more likely to engage with it.

If anything on social media has the wish you were here factor, it certainly isn’t adverts or even updates with the words “wish you were here”. Pictures (or even live videos) of an event come first by a mile on that front.

So the pharma Instagram user has a prime opportunity to promote medical conferences, patient meetings, community get-togethers and anything which aims to draw crowds – and without the need to conjure up persuasive words to do so. Yet best of all, such stories will not bore followers (even if they don’t attend the events), and so users are more likely to view – and engage in – future content when it comes their way. The knock-on effect is that your brand becomes more known, and then liked, and then eventually trusted. Gradually, your intended customers will be happy to take time out to hear what you have to say, and trust your products and treatments also.

The new ‘Comment Moderation’ feature

With any platform there’s always a risk of unwanted comments, and sadly this risk increases with popularity. Moderating a well-visited site, therefore, can often be a full-time job.

The good news? Instagram offers a new Comment Moderation tool which does the job for you. The even better news? It’s much more effective than Facebook’s moderation system.

The latter uses a ‘hide’ tool which removes comments, but – if you didn’t know already – these comments don’t disappear to everybody. Followers are still able to see the author’s comment (forever), and that could potentially be a large number of people. Instagram’s tool, however, blocks the comment to everyone but the author.

In terms of which content is blocked, the user chooses a list of words (of up to 10,000 characters in total), and comments containing these words will be flagged by the program. Then, the user can choose to accept or reject the comment, with no-one seeing it besides themselves and the author. Instagram also offers suggestions as to what these words could be, but with the added bonus that the list can be altered at any time.

Pharmaguy’s Select List of Big Pharma Companies with Corporate Instagram Accounts

With the ability to reach billions of followers around the world each day, businesses are using social media to promote specials, attract followers, and expand the reach of their product. Right now, the up and coming new social media platform is Snapchat.

Created in 2011, Snapchat is a mobile messaging app where users send photos and videos to each other that self-destruct after a few seconds. Within the last year, Snapchat’s daily video views grew from 2 billion to 10 billion, according to Bloomberg Technology News. 

Despite the growing popularity of this social media platform, it seems the healthcare industry is slow to utilize Snapchat as a marketing strategy. Of course HIPAA laws must be taken into consideration when using social media in regards to healthcare, but there are multiple, creative ways for the healthcare industry to use Snapchat.  

For instance, healthcare professionals can create Snapchat stories, a feature which allows the user to string together multiple snaps and create a video narrative that is available for users to view for 24 hours. This feature could be used to highlight a “Day in the Life of [insert medical professional here].”

The reason Snapchat works so well in marketing is its simplicity and ability to create a sense of intimacy in a short amount of time. In a world where understanding healthcare is becoming more complicated and the digital world is making us feel more connected yet disconnected at the same time, Snapchat offers the ability to send quick, simple messages that still feel heartfelt.

Given that healthcare is now looked at by the general population as a consumer market, Snapchat may be underestimated as one of the best tools available for healthcare providers to create trust and comfort in patients and convey health information to the public.

[Instagram may be better for pharma. For more on that read: “Now May Be the Time for Pharma to Get Serious About Instagram”; http://sco.lt/79K5JZ]

Related stories:

• “Poof! FB & SnapChat Offer #pharma Marketers Transient, Untraceable Messaging”; http://sco.lt/7HPp2n
• “Snapchat: A Social Media Platform Too Far for Pharma Marketing?”; http://sco.lt/7pA3WL

• Infographic: What About Social Media Do Healthcare Professionals Find Useful?; http://sco.lt/6rGmTB

iDespite the fact that FDA recently cited Duchesnay for a violative Instagram Diclegis ad that featured celebrity Kim Kardashian, Instagram may be the social medium of choice of pharma marketers now that it has added a new feature.

Until now, I didn't think Instagram was good for pharma. While its demographics may skew too young for marketing most of the products pharma has to sell, it is a growing population. Plus, now that it is owned by Facebook, the demographics -- especially among women (the best target for drug marketing) -- will likely shift to resemble FB's demographics.

According to eMarketer, now that Instagram is open to all advertisers, by the end of 2016, 48.8% of marketers are expected to the platform.

Of course, due to FDA regulations, the necessity to expend resources to monitor comments for adverse reactions (read "One (BIG) Reason Pharma Shouldn't Reconsider Instagram"), lack of expertise in measuring social media ROI, etc., pharma marketers have not given social media a warm reception no matter what the platform.

Continue reading to see why I feel a new Instagram feature will make it more appealing to pharma marketers.