I’m a people person — I really am!
I started my newsletter (Pharma Marketing News) to support an online community of professionals that communicated via an email listserv that I founded in 1997!
listserv! So 1997!
After ten years of care and feeding, in January 2007, I disbanded the listserv and set up a Web-based discussion board — the Forums at Pharma Marketing Network (see “An Online Community to Call Our Own“).
Anyway, getting back to people. It’s always nice to read about people who are changing jobs or being promoted. I get a charge when I read about someone I know, but haven’t talked to or seen in a while. “I should call or email that person and re-establish contact,” I say.
This is why a few bloggers such as Ed Silverman over at Pharmalot occasionally write posts — “Up And Down The Ladder… Job Changes” — about people who change jobs. You also see this kind of thing in the back sections of trade publications.
I often get press releases announcing promotions, new hires, etc. from companies that hope I will publish them in my newsletter. But despite being a people person, I just don’t have the resources to do this. Besides, such notices offer limited means to establish contact.
This is where the Web 2.0 tools available at Pharma Marketing Forums with its support for user-generated content (UGC) and profiling come in handy. The Forums site includes the forum Pharma Marketing People in the News, which is specifically intended for announcements about promotions, new hires, etc.
User-Generated People on the Move
For all you Media Relations Managers out there who want to get the word out about someone in your company that your just hired or who has been promoted, I make this offer:
Publish the notice it yourself in the Pharma Marketing People in the News Forum! You can include photos and even attach PDF files.
This gives your announcement extraordinary visibility in search engines. And it doesn’t cost you anything!
Try it yourself: search Google on “pharma people in the news” and you will find the Pharma Marketing People in the News Forum listed as #5 in the natural search results; or try “pharma marketing people in the news” and you will see that it is #9 (it gets pushed down because other Pharma Marketing Network sites occupy positions #1, #3, #6, and #7!) Sorry, Pharmalot is not listed on the first page of Google results!
Before posting your announcement, you should register and make sure to update your User Profile so that people know who you are and how to contact you. Of course, be sure to include your contact information in your posts.
What I suggest is that you start start a New Thread — it could just be a one-time announcement or you can start a thread for all such announcements and name it “[COMPANY NAME] People on the Move” (substitute your company’s name for [COMPANY NAME]). Then, whenever you have another announcement, just post a reply to the original thread!
Utilize Social Networking Tools
Go one step beyond announcing news about people — encourage these people to register at the Forums site and set up a profile so that you can provide a link to that profile in your announcement. Here’s what your people can put in their profiles:
- A list of interests
- Occupation
- Birth Date (can be invisible to others but will be used to send birthday greetings by email)
- Expanded bio
- Photo – can be included with every post the person makes
- Avatar image – user’s representation of himself or herself (use your imagination!)
- Set up how you want to communicate with others
- And much more…
In this day and age of Web 2.0 self-publishing, I give you the tools and hope that you use them. All I ask is that you stick to publishing information about people in your company and not promote products or services — I have other options for that (learn more about those options here).
