ePharma Pioneer Club
The Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award
Recognizing Excellence in Social Media Marketing Leadership
Defenders of pharma “social media” site awards, such as Dose of Digital’s Dosie Award, insist that we must reward even the most elementary attempts that pharma is making to have online conversations despite all the regulatory obstacles that they face. I agree. But instead of having awards for the work product, why not give awards to the pioneers who have lead the way to create these sites? We can learn more from how these pioneers overcame the obstacles to launch a social media project than from the end result — even if the end result is flawed or faux. Marketing campaigns and Web sites come and go, but pioneers move on to new positions and continue to spread their influence far and wide.
To better recognize the value of these pioneers, I propose the
Pharmaguy Pharma Social Media Pioneer Award.
Learn more about the award here and view the current list of nominees here.
Nominate and Vote for Your Candidate(s) Now!
Your comments are confidential (anonymous) unless you specifically give me permission to attribute comments to you personally.
The Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award is sponsored by ExL Pharma and the 4th Annual Digital Pharma East Conference. The “winners” will be announced during the conference in October, 2010.
Thank you for your participation.
John Mack (Pharmaguy), Editor of Pharma Marketing News
General Information
Pharma Marketing Network’s ePharma Pioneer Club is an EXCLUSIVE, members-only Facebook Group through which pharmaceutical eMarketing experts “meet” to discuss and exchange views on how to advance the use of the Internet and other technologies in pharmaceutical marketing, sales, and communications.
The Club’s “badge” is shown on the left. It is meant to depict the situation ePharma Pioneers generally have found themselves in for many years — a hardy band of people sharing the same goal, but still wandering in the wilderness. The bleak, gray landscape represents the paucity of resources the pharmaceutical industry has devoted to Internet marketing and communications com-pared to other industries. ePharma Pioneers are looking for the ePromised land of greener pharma marketing pastures.
In the old days — the 1990s, not the 1820s — the Internet was often referred to as the Wild Wild West. Modern day ePharma Pioneers, like the pioneers who settled in the American West, persisted in their quest despite hardships. The original pioneers faced tremendous hardships and some never made it. ePharma Pioneers also have faced hardships. They have been laid off, outsourced, and marginalized within the pharmaceutical indus-try or have been rewarded with nothing more than a mere sliver of the pharma marketing pie.
This is not to say that ePharma Pioneers are unsuccessful in their careers. On the contrary, most if not all the members of the Club are highly successful individuals who have founded their own digital businesses or are executives in larger corporations. It takes more than luck to survive in pharma these days — you must be a profit center for the company as well.
ePharma Pioneers, however, are likely to see the glass half-empty because they believe that despite all their successes, it’s been a difficult trek and they still are faced with tremendous obstacles. They believe fervently that with more resources they could do much more to make pharma health communications more effective and more useful.
The most pressing goal of ePhanma Pioneers, whether or not they are members of a club, is to convince pharmaceutical marketers to increase the share of “e” in the marketing mix. We need a new strategy to accomplish this, because the old “golly, it’s just great” strategy hasn’t worked.
There are four simple criteria for being a member of the ePharma Pioneer Club:
- A passion to engage, educate, and entertain through digital media,
- Long-standing involvement in the field of pharmaceutical e-Marketing or e-Communication,
- Specific experience developing or using innovative digital media, and
- A need to help pharmaceutical marketers achieve success in the “e” realm.
Every member of the ePharma Pioneer Club should satisfy one or more of these criteria or demonstrate a willingness to take them on as goals.
Want to Join the Club?
The first rule of ePharma Pioneer Club is: prove it! Why do you think you are an ePharma Pioneer? Use this online form to tell us your story.
For more information about the Club, download this article:
http://www.news.pharma-mkting.com/pmn81-article02.pdf
