1. Pharmaceutical Companies and
Social Media: Developing New
Strategies
Jena Cutie
jena@saaraams.com
Karthika Karindalam
karthika@saaraams.com

2. 1
2
3
2
Executive Summary
Best Practices and Strategies
Pharma Industry Trends

3. Executive Summary
How do we
benchmark social
achievements?
Best Practices and Strategies
Where on social
media should
pharma engage?
Pharma‘s audience is
larger on Facebook
but Twitter yields
higher ROI
What drives
consumers to be
social about health?
Pharmaceutical Industry Trends
Sanofi, AstraZeneca,
Pfizer, Roche, and
J&J dominate
pharma‘s social
media landscape
Where are pharma‘s
social media
success stories?
Consumers are drawn
to official healthcare
providers on social
media because they
crave more care
Benchmarking social
media ROI shows
achievement builds up
in phases
3

4. Pharma online marketing reached $1 Billion in 2010
Marketing is turning social—even in the pharma industry
4

5. Best Practices and Strategies
Benchmarking social
media ROI shows
achievement builds up
in phases
5
How do we
benchmark social
achievements?
Part I — What is social ROI?
Definitions:
• Social feedback
• Engagement and trust
• Proxy ROI model for Twitter
Conclusion:
Sanofi and AstraZeneca
attain highest levels of
engagement and trust

6. more content
content
comments
pharma
pharma
consumer
Consumers
engage
content
Pharma can review
comments, fine tune
messages, and release
more content
Social investment generates its own feedback
6

7. ―Engagement‖ and ―trust‖ are proxies for return on investment
Trust
Likes on
messages on
Facebook
Followers
on Twitter
sentiment
Engagement
User vs.
company
messages
User vs.
company
tweets
activity
Following
on Twitter
Likes on
Facebook
pages
Positive vs.
negative
posts
Retweeted
on Twitter
Retweets
on Twitter
7

8. Pharma Benchmarks
very high
high
low
Q20Pharma engagement levels develop in phases
Peak Engagement ROI Score
very low
90percentile
(retweets/tweets)
T8
0.8
0.8
1
1
1
1
1
1
1.8
2
4.8
9
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Astellas
Eli Lilly
Bayer
Boehringer-Ingelheim
Johnson & Johnson
Novo Nordisk
Pfizer
Roche
Merck
Glaxo-Smith Kline
Sanofi
AstraZeneca
All Twitter pages over 24 months(Jan 2011- Dec 2012)

9. Pharma Benchmarks
very high
high
medium
low
very low
Q20Sanofi & AstraZeneca‘s trust level is superior
Peak Trust ROI Score
90percentile
(retweeted/tweets)
T9
1.8
2
2
2
5.8
6
6.8
9
11.6
11.6
22.4
24.2
25.4
25.8
30.6
34
37.6
45.8
48.8
64.6
65.6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Merck KGAA
Baxter
Gilead
Hospira
Abbott
Amgen
Bausch + Lomb
Eli Lilly
Astellas
Bayer
Takeda
Boehringer-Ingelheim
Novo Nordisk
Roche
Johnson & Johnson
Pfizer
Merck
Glaxo-Smith Kline
Novartis
AstraZeneca
Sanofi
All Twitter pages over 24 months(Jan 2011- Dec 2012)

10. 10
Engagement & trust depend on content over volume
T10
Astrazeneca
Sanofi
GSKMerck
Novartis
Merck KgAA
Pfizer
J&J
Roche
Boehringer
Low Engagement
Size by Average Activity over 24 months
All Twitter pages over 24 months(Jan 2011- Dec 2012)
High Engagement
Low Trust
Low Trust
High Engagement
High Trust
Low Engagement
High Trust

11. Best Practices and Strategies
Sanofi, AstraZeneca
Pfizer, Roche, and
J&J dominate
pharma‘s social
media landscape
Where are pharma‘s
social media
success stories?
11
Part II —Where does pharma have social success?
Early adoption is key
strategy to attain high
fidelity presence
Definitions:
•social feedback loop
• engagement and
trust
• proxy ROI model for
Twitter
Twitter findings:
Sanofi and Roche
attain high levels of
engagement, highest
level of trust

12. 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012
First pharmaceutical corporate
and product blogPharmaceuticalasstart blogging
Johnson& Johnson‘sJNJBTW
Pfizer‘sTHINK SCIENCE NOW
Glaxo‘s QUESTIONEVERYTHING
First pharma Rx
branded Youtube
channel
Pharma‘s first social game
Boehringer‘sSYRUM
GAME
First pharma-sponsored
Youtubevideo
First pharma youtube
channel & facebook
page
NovoNordisk and Bayer
first to join Pinterest
http://www.news.pharma-mkting.com/pmn1010-article01.pdf
Early adoption is a key indicator of dominance on social media
Rocheand Pfizer are
first to launch Google+
pages
5.94
3.99
0.94
0.62
0.51
0.48
0.42
0.36
0.30
0.19
0.14
0.09
0.07
0.06
0.04
0.03
0.03
0.01
0.01
0.00
0.00
0.00
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Millions
Early adopters rewarded with high fidelity presence
Supporters of Pharma on Social Media
Calculatedmonthly using ―Likes this page‖ on Facebook and ―Followers‖ on Twitter
TF12

13. 0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
Audience Growth on Facebook
Roche Boehringer Sanofi
Boehringer enjoys benefits of early
social media initiation on its
main corporate page
Boehringer
Roche
Sanofi
Likesthispage
Data from main corporate Facebook page for three companies
Success is influenced by early social media initiation
Boehringer‘s social presence
drives more fans to Facebook over
Sanofi, a competitor and a
relatively late social media entrant
F13

14. Where on social
media should
pharma engage?
Pharma‘s audience is
larger on Facebook
but Twitter yields
higher ROI
Pharmaceutical Industry Trends
14
Part III — Where and how can pharma engage?
Influence is better
than audience:
• Facebook has biggest audience
• Twitter has biggest influence
Smart behavior:
• Ask questions
• Be personal
•Calls to action
Definitions:
•social feedback loop
• engagement and
trust
• proxy ROI model for
Twitter
Twitter findings:
Sanofi and
AstraZeneca attain
high levels of
engagement, highest
level of trust
How to win:
Early adoption is key
strategy to attain high
fidelity presence
Best Practices and
Strategies

15. Pharma‘s popularity is larger on Facebook
3.0 3.1 3.1
57.5
62.0 64.0
0
20
40
60
80
Nov-12 Dec-12 Jan-13
Audience(Thousands)
―Audience‖ on Facebook and Twitter
Twitter Facebook
Average audience per page over all pages from Nov 2012 – Jan 2013 TF15
Facebook
audience ≈
‗Likes this
page‘
Twitter
audience ≈
‗Followers‘ J&J (27%)
GSK (14%)
Pfizer (9%)
J&J (27%)
GSK (14%)
Pfizer (8%)
J&J (27%)
GSK (13%)
Roche (10%)
J&J (38%)
Pfizer (33%)
J&J (34%)
Pfizer (28%)
GSK (14%)
J&J (33%)
Pfizer (28%)
GSK (14%)

16. Pharma‘s influence is superior on Twitter
34.9
76.0
47.1
34.7 34.2 32.3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Nov-12 Dec-12 Jan-13
Influence(perThousand)
―Influence‖ on Twitter and Facebook
Twitter Facebook
Average influence per page over all pages from Nov 2012 – Jan 2013 TF16
Facebook
influence ≈
‗Talking about
this‘ per 1K
audience
Twitter has power to influence its
audience beyond Facebook
Twitter
influence ≈
Retweeted per
1K audience
members

17. On Twitter, asking questions generates more feedback
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 50 100 150 200 250
UserTweets
Company Tweets with Questions
Impact of Interactivity on
Volume of Feedback
Only about 13% of pharma tweets only
contain questions
Boiling down industry
data yields positive
correlation between
interactivity and user
engagement
Interactivity
calculated from
tweets with
questions
Data trend from all pages Nov 2012 – Jan 2013
Good news: responses
are not typically
inquiries requiring
company action
10%
90%
Responses
Questions
Non-
Questions
For example @Diabetes_Sanofi asks questions in
22% of tweets but questions are less than 1% of
user tweets
Interactivity encourages feedback
T17

18. On Twitter, personalization and calls to action have an impact
Pharma can improve user
engagement on Twitter with
interpersonal content and
calls to action
5.63%
1.90%
6.42%
1.98%
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
with personal words without personal words with call to action without call to action
User Engagement as Percent of Total Tweets
Personal content includes
words like ‗you‘
Calls to action include
words like ‗do‘ or ‗go‘ or
‗watch‘ or ‗see‘ or ‗visit‘
@MyAlli weight loss has higher number personal words @Excedrin has more calls to action than other feeds T18

19. What drives
consumers to be
social about health?
Pharmaceutical Industry Trends
Consumers are drawn
to official healthcare
providers on social
media because they
crave more care
19
Part IV — What drives consumers to pharma?
Influence is better
than audience:
• Facebook has
biggest audience
• Twitter has
biggest influence
How to win smart :
• Be personal
• Ask questions
•Use calls to action
• Therapies
triumph over
brands
• Diabetes and
cardiovascular lead
the pack
• Targeting geo-
segments pays off
• Customer-
oriented activities
create interest
Definitions:
•social feedback loop
• engagement and
trust
• proxy ROI model for
Twitter
Twitter findings:
Sanofi and
AstraZeneca attain
high levels of
engagement, highest
level of trust
How to win:
Early adoption is key
strategy to attain high
fidelity presence
Best Practices and
Strategies

20. Consumer engagement peaks at higher level when content addresses specific therapy focus
Facebookdata 2010-Jan 2013
ROI for therapy pages 10 times more than corporate pages
F20
General pages = Corporate Brand Pages
Therapies = Campaign, Biotech, Therapy,
Prescription, Diagnostics, Devices, etc.
Roche has no general pages so all pages
reflect elevated consumer interest

21. Social Media data from Oct 2011- Jan 2013
Diabetes and cardiovascular are top therapies on social media
F21
In addition to official corporate pages, many companies
maintain dedicated pages promoting certain therapies

22. Roche target audience across different geographies through dedicated
pages to promote awareness, diagnosis and Accu-Check management
Roche‘s diabetes content is very geo-specific
22

23. @Power2EndStroke on Twitter is
intended for US fans to share info
Sanofi‘s Power2EndStroke cardiovascular page attracts
consumers from many countries globally
T23
Sanofi maintains content for stroke and Atrial
Fibrillation awareness and education on
@Power2EndStroke

24. AstraZeneca engage audience with
customer oriented activities like Live Twitter chats
T24
AstraZeneca wins Healthcare
Engagement Strategy 2012‘s Open
Dialogue Award for its experiment
in Live Twitter chats
AstraZeneca hosts 1-hour live
Twitter chat promoting prescription
savings program ‗AZ& me‘
Live interaction with the company
generated a positive feel and
potential opportunity to expand
customer base

25. How to win first:
Early adoption is key
strategy to attain high
fidelity presence
Definitions:
•social feedback loop
• engagement + trust
• proxy ROI model for
Twitter
Twitter findings:
Sanofi and
AstraZeneca attain
high levels of
engagement, highest
level of trust
Pharmaceutical
Industry Trends
25
Pharma Benefits from Social Media
Influence is better
than audience:
• Facebook has
biggest audience
• Twitter has
biggest influence
How to win smart :
• Be personal
• Ask questions
•Use calls to action
Consumers prefer:
• Therapies over
brands
• Diabetes and
cardiovascular
• Geo-specificity
• Consumer focus
Best Practices and
Strategies
Step 1: Start Early
Being first in market gives pharma
companies an advantage
Step 2: Start Smart
Even a company not starting early
can join the race and win by being
smarter
Step 3: Don‘t Stop
ROI advances as consumers
become more and more keen to
connect with the source of their
healthcare via social media

26. Our social media data, analytics, and trends
for all major pharmaceutical companies is comprehensive
26