Rules of engagement in Life Sciences & Health by InSites Consulting. What can we learn from conversations taking place on Facebook, YouTube & Twitter? Engaging consumers is key, brands try to win the hearts of consumers through social media. What can we learn from those experiences across brands?
3. Brands try to
win the What can
Engaging
hearts of we learn
consumers from those
is key consumers experiences
through social
across brands?
media
4. Goal:
Identifying what is driving consumers to engage in branded
conversations across social media. A specific focus lied on
pharmaceutical companies and epilepsy was used as an area:
brands as well as generic molecules and patient groups.
About this study:
We collected branded conversations on the 3 big social media:
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
• Over 2 million online conversations
• More than 300 brands included in our study
• We applied social media netnography to identify the
rules of consumer engagement
• Results were presented in March
6. Engagement ≠ number fans content
management is key for activity
• A large fan page does not lead to engagement if the brand does
not manage the content (0,11 correlation).
• In case of good conversation and content management, this
correlation increases to 0,92 showing that you can tap into your
social potential with a good conversation strategy.
7. Many more positive conversations than
negative conversations
• 14% positive conversations vs. 8% negative conversations on Twitter
• 36% positive conversations vs. 25% negative conversations on YouTube
• 36% positive conversations vs. 19% negative conversations on
Facebook
• Don’t forget to leverage these positive stories!
8. The main drivers behind negative
conversations are bad
consumer service,
product failure and bad
advertisement
3 offline touchpoints
you can work on
everyday!
BUT…
These were also the three most
positively discussed themes!
9. 1 Thin line for the health industry
Patient centricity is key
Consumers are very sensitive to
“From my point of view the ads are the promotion of health products or
terrible. The ad should all be about
the CUSTOMER, not only about the companies. Positive feedback on
product and it specifications. The ad products in this sector is only found
should say how the product can help
people improve their daily life, but I for over the counter health-related
didn’t see a personal phrase at all in products. Even advertising for the
the ads…”
pharmaceutical company behind
the brand is received with a lot of
criticism.
10. 2 Being positive about something negative
Support organization, solidarity and fundraising is the spotlight
With health care, it is best to
focus on health care
organizations that support the
further knowledge building on a
certain disease or initiatives that
support the patient and his
environment in coping with their
disease. They are among the
most positive conversations
in this sector.
11. What if it goes wrong?
Most companies apologize to their
customers
Consumers are
redirected to
the
customer
service
department The reaction of consumers?
None!
Don’t expect a thank you!
12. 3 Monitoring adverse events
Between x-x branded conversations contain an adverse event
Pharmaceutical companies are very careful
“Hello James, sorry for the
with their social media platforms as they
inconvenience. We are constantly have to be vigilant of and
checking it right now. You
can always e-mail us at
monitor adverse effects mentioned by
sample@novonordis.com”. patients. Customers with complaints are
immediately forwarded to external
websites/customer care.
Between 1 & 5 adverse events are
encountered in branded conversations.
13. 4 When things really get out of hand
Learn from PlayStation how even a disaster can turn into many likes and
positive comments
Last year PlayStation was the victim of a cyber attack. During our
study, they launched an open letter from the senior Director
corporate communications and social media apologizing for the
event. This more formal apology lead to over 10,000 likes on
Facebook and in this case people did express their gratitude.
Clearly, in the case of mistakes that affect a larger group of
customers, apologizing can be a good mean to restore the trust in
your brand.
14. The basic marketing tricks still work
Although social media is a relatively new area, we should not be afraid of applying existing
marketing principles that also work in the offline world.
• Your fans like to share news about your company and like to be kept informed about
the developments relating to their favourite brand. The newer and the hotter the news,
the more conversation power.
• Evoking curiosity: show consumers a little bit of what they can expect later or spread
a rumour to evoke attention.
• Giving away free things is used as a powerful mechanism to increase the number of
fans or likes.
• One of the main pillars of traditional advertising is that funny commercials work. And
this is also the case on social media. ‘Joke of the day’ is one of the most popular topics
on Facebook pages. Jokes or funny one-liners are easily re-tweeted on Twitter. Also on
YouTube we found that movies commented as being funny were often given a higher
YouTube rating.
Find out some more marketing
tricks on the next slides
15. 1 Free always works
This is not only valid for free products or service, but also for free content
or experiences!
Caregivers and patients are
looking for good advice to
cope with their condition.
Free advice is more than
welcome!
16. 2 Gamification
Get inspired by Boehringer Ingelheim
“We always knew Boehringer Ingelheim fans
were a creative crowd! Thanks for all your
wonderful photo submissions. For those of
you who have still not entered, remember,
the theme is More Health and the prize is the
latest Apple iPad 2. Good luck!”
“Only two weeks remain to enter our More
Health Photo competition. Thank you all for
your fantastic entries so far. We will pick a
The pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim shortlist from the best submissions, but the
Boehringer Ingelheim was in organized a photo competition winner of the Apple iPad 2 will be the
the course of developing a via its Facebook page where shortlisted photo with the most “Likes” and
Facebook game where people fans could win an iPad 2. By that will be left to YOU, our Facebook fans to
could run their own virtual organizing the competition, decide! Best of luck and remember to get
pharmaceutical company. The their fans started became your friends involved as well!”
name of the game was create and more involved with
determined through a game the company.
on their Fanpage.
17. The power is in the mix of media
• Social media are a natural place to talk about anything related to the
digital environment. So, digital initiatives from brands will be picked up
easily online.
• When you spread something online, make sure that you also follow the
rules of social media: tweets that contain a hash tag are more likely to
be spread.
• Don’t think too much in silos. Go for integration of social media types,
not separation. Don’t forget about the offline too.
18. 1 Integration, not separation
Go for integration between online and offline touchpoints
Providing information on different offline and
online platforms to patients and their families
Some diabetes organizations already send
their members magazines, which is well is key in the health sector. Integration, not
received by those members: separation, of offline and online media is
needed.
“Hello, where can I buy a magazine about
diabetes in England?”
We observed a lot of cross referencing
“I really liked the article in the magazine, it is between different types of media. In the
a great inspiration to all diabetics. Thanks
for sharing your story with us!” (A reader on case of YouTube movies, the comments on
the Facebook page of the American the best movies (rating) often contain
Diabetes Association) references to television, radio and the
company website. Also people mentioned
more frequently that they had engaged in
offline word-of-mouth suggesting that if you
integrate offline & online social media, you
are more effective.
19. 2 Social media, the new website?
Not a good strategy if you want to reach engagement
“Question to you, Visa, do you have a credit
card that works both in Europe and the Some consumers use social media as a
USA?” replacement of the company websites.
“I just moved to a new address. Should I use
Tactical questions do not lead to
my new address or the old address where I engagement.
lived for five years?”
Keep your website as the main source for
“I have a question for you, Emirates Airlines. practical information about your product &
Do you have plans for Boeings 747-800 service.
Intercontinental? Please reply.”
20. 3 Hitting the sweet spot
No difference between online and offline movies
For the branded YouTube movies, we looked
at the correlation between the topics that
were raised in the comments and the
“Finally I got to see some innovative and ranking of the movies (1-5 scale). The
cute advertisements on the results revealed that movies with a higher
television....it's different and yet conveys
it's utility in a very fun, creative manner! rating were typically judged as
keep up the good work!” (Comment on a ‘original’, ‘nice’, ‘warm’ and ‘not
YouTube movie from LG Green Health)
boring’. People also made the link more
often with their personal situation: they
mentioned recognizing certain aspects in the
movie or even referred to their personal
memories and childhood. The found
elements are also the crucial
characteristics in offline advertising.
21. Consumers want to collaborate with
brands
• Ask consumers for feedback on your products & communication
• Co-create new products or campaigns with your fans
• Invite them to think along with your brand
• ...it will lead to a lot of activation on your digital platforms!
22. 1 When patients take over
They love it! What about you?
Sometimes collaboration is the
only option. 45% of Facebook brand
pages are owned by consumers
across sectors
On the Facebook page of JDRF, consumers
are very present (by reacting, interacting,..).
23. 2 Treat them as colleagues
Consumers love to know the people behind the brand
Behind the scenes give consumers
Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company, provides ‘behind the and fans a nice peak into the daily
scenes’ blog posts by interviewing medical professionals business of a company and their
from within the industry to provide ‘behind the scenes’ and employees.
educate people as they talk about trial data diagnostic tools
and processes. The anonymous big pharmaceutical
company is traded in for a real person, which gives the
industry a more ‘human’ face.
“Think Science Now Member Jon Milton talks about the life
of a clinical trial data cruncher. While it’s certainly a behind
the scenes job, he explains, “we are nothing without data.”
24. 3 Be one of them
Don’t forget about the small things in life
“Join us in wishing Bret Michaels a very Brands need to be a friend for
Happy Birthday today!”
consumers. They need to act as a
Most liked Facebook post in our study person, paying attention also to the
across sectors is on the birthday of a small things in daily life. It is a crucial
patient recovering from surgery element to stress that you consider
(American Diabetes Association).
your consumer as an equal.
25. It is not about your brand
• It is crucial to understand the (digital) lifestyle of your fans. A customized
approach is so much more powerful!
• Don’t forget about the social graph
26. 1 It is about your customer
Think broad!
Most popular branded YouTube
videos are by airplane You should think broader than just your
enthusiasts filming planes brand and product. Especially on
taking off and landing at Facebook fan pages or YouTube
airports, others filming people like to talk about what they are
themselves and their on-board
experiences. Such videos can
interested in in general. On many
receive thousand and thousands pages, music and sports are very
of views. popular themes. Especially for brands
in a low involvement product strategy,
this seems to be the way to go.
Understanding the digital lifestyle of
your target is key!
The comment above (from the Facebook page ‘The Diabetes
Resource’) can be seen as an example of a general interest in
cooking (and sharing this with others) in a diabetics place
27. Not just me…
2 Make my family or friends happy
Patients do not just talk about their own
“Your research is fantastic! It means SO
much to me and my family. We have a lot of
life and hardships, but also about the
auto-immune diseases in our family. Way impact of their disease on their
too many!” (Patient on the Facebook page family. Caregivers find a platform to
of T1 Diabetes Cure Global Headquarters) connect with people in the same
situation.
28. The rules of engagement
• Content management is key for consumer engagement
• Don’t forget about your offline touchpoints. They will determine the
buzz online
• The basic marketing tricks still work
• The power is in the mix of the media
• Consumers want to collaborate with brands
• Understand the (digital) lifestyle & interests of your target group
31. Want to know more about
research within the
health sector?
Robert Dossin
Business Director Life Sciences & Health
+44 20 7870 2579
robert@insites-consulting.com