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<\/a>Recently, I caught an early New Jersey Transit train to Manhattan to attend BDI’s Social Communications & Healthcare 2011 Case Studies & Roundtables conference. I also moderated two roundtable discussions on Connecting with Healthcare Professionals.<\/p>\nAfter the conference, I attended a Tweetup organized by Shwen Ghee (@shwen) at the Birreria (@birreria) rooftop beer garden. Unfortunately, they didn’t let Shwen up — something to do with “regulations.”<\/p>\n
Anyway, I enjoyed a couple of beers with Xavier Petit (@xpetit; Shire), Marc Monseau (@MDMonseau; formerly of J&J), Robert Halper (@JNJVideo ; currently the YouTube guy at J&J), I M Wolfman (@imwolfman), and Mark Bard (@digitalhealthco; formerly of Manhattan Research, now at Digital Health Coalition).<\/p>\n
Back to the BDI conference. A few presentations were of interest to me and I mentioned them in an on-site interview with Sarah McLellan — the Aussie that Ate the Big Apple<\/a>. See that that interview embedded below. If you haven’t been interviewed by Sarah, you’re missing a great treat!<\/p>\n John Mack, Pharma Guy, at BDI1<\/a> from Zemoga<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n As in the past, Ray Kerins (@raykerins), Vice President of Worldwide Communications at Pfizer, made the\u00a0Keynote presentation, in which he\u00a0mentioned Pfizer’s “groundbreaking internal Social Media Playbook” that we’ve all been hearing about since last December or January. At that time, Kate Bird (@katebird; Digital Communications Professional for Pfizer), talked about the playbook at a BlogWell conference (see here<\/a>). Bird explained what is in the Pfizer social playbook: definitions, resource repository, best practices specific to each channel, templates, samples and “watch-outs,” links to all Pfizer channels, and examples of best and “next practices.”<\/p>\n I also hear that the playbook includes this flowchart (from the Canadian branch of Pfizer, see here<\/a>), which only a process wonk would find useful:<\/p>\n “The playbook and social media policy are constantly evolving. We thought we had it finished last December, and then we realized we didn’t and we went back to update it. So, it’s constantly moving. While I don’t want to say it’s proprietary, I also don’t want to make too big of a deal about it because we call it common sense.”<\/p>\n Then he trailed off about people helping people and said “you’re actually seeing it in action.”<\/p>\n Of course, I am not satisfied with that answer and I don’t see a lot of action in social media as far as Pfizer is concerned. Yeah, it has Twitter accounts and Facebook pages in practically every country. But where’s the social media “meat?” In fact, many of the social media sites attributed to Pfizer in the online Pharma Social Media Wiki (here<\/a>), such as “MS Voices,” “MS Champions,” and “Addressing Psoriasis” are no longer available. Others, such as the “Our Hemophilia Community” Facebook page are nothing more than drug.com websites for which the playbook has long been out of date. BTW, “Our Hemophilia Community” may soon have to shut down because of Facebook’s new rules<\/a> that require accepting comments on walls — something that Pfizer does not allow (I guess that’s in the playbook — ie, don’t play with consumers by allowing them to post comments).<\/p>\n Although several people tell me they have actually seen the playbook, no-one can actually give me a copy (citing client confidentiality). Some one sent me “Corporate Policy #407,” which was written in 2008 and covered “Corporate Blogging Policy.” It includes many “groundbreaking” rules such as “Adhere to all Pfizer policies,” “Adhere to all compliance related rules,” and “Do not use discriminatory, harassing, intimidating or offensive language as defined and discussed in Corporate Policy 303, Equal Opportunity.” Basically, it’s telling employees how to make personal posts on blogs. <\/p>\n Corporate Policy #407\u00a0cannot be what Kerins was talking about!\u00a0It does not have anything to do with rules and best practices for official Pfizer social media projects.<\/p>\n Hoping to get hold of the\u00a0AUTHENTIC Pfizer Social Media Playbook (if it exists),\u00a0I tweeted this message after the conference:<\/p>\n See below for what may be the precursor to the “playbook.” Also, here’s a great social media playbook from Eloqua<\/a>, an online marketing company.<\/p>\n [This article originally appeared in Pharma Marketing Blog<\/a><\/b>.\u00a0Make sure you are reading the source<\/a> to get the latest comments.]<\/p>\n FDA Intern & the Quest for Social Media Guidelines<\/b><\/p>\n Let’s join FDA Intern in her latest adventure…\u00a0<\/b> Is This Pfizer’s “Social Media Playbook?”<\/b><\/p>\n I received a policy document from a credible anonymous source that may just be a version of the authentic Pfizer “Social Media Playbook.” You can find the PDF version of this document here<\/a>.<\/p>\n [Like all good “leakers,” my anonymous source had a motive for leaking this document to me: “I hope the info is helpful to make SM a more acceptable form of employee\/customer expression and that large companies shrug off the fear that is currently associated around this platform.” I am not sure this document will help ease those fears or substantiate them. See my analysis below.]<\/p>\n The document includes two sections of interest to me:<\/p>\n [NOTE: This document does NOT include some sections that were described by Kate Bird, Pfizer’s director of digital communications strategy, in her BlogWell presentation; ie, samples and “watch-outs,” links to all Pfizer channels, and examples of best and “next practices.” Bird described the Playbook as being “supplemental” to a longer, more formal social media policy. The document I have may actually be this “formal social media policy” rather than the playbook itself. Regardless, it offers some interesting insights into how Pfizer intends to implement social media programs.]<\/p>\n The first section mentioned above includes this:<\/p>\n “Pfizer-Sponsored external Social Media relating to prescription pharmaceutical products must not permit open fields allowing for real-time publication of user comments or posts<\/b> [my emphasis]. This prohibition applies to Social Media discussing Pfizer prescription pharmaceutical products as well as Social Media that discusses only disease states and not specific prescription products.”<\/p>\n Although the document states that “the hallmarks of all Social Media are user-generated content and interaction,” Pfizer does not allow\u00a0Pfizer-Sponsored Social Media\u00a0projects to use the tools necessary for true interaction… UNLESS moderation can be employed. The document further states:<\/p>\n “Open fields on Pfizer-Sponsored external Social Media relating to prescription pharmaceutical products or disease states may be enabled for moderated comments or posts. If any open fields are enabled, in addition to being screened for adverse events, comments or posts must be moderated and pre-screened prior to publication<\/b> [my emphasis].”<\/p>\n Unfortunately, pre-screening may not be possible on some social media platforms such as Facebook, especially after it implements its new rules on comments (listen to this podcast “Pharma Facebook Commenting Changes: The Final Story<\/a>“).<\/p>\n The third section is short, so I will reproduce it all here:<\/p>\n [No revelations in the above.]<\/p>\n a) must clearly disclose that the communication is sponsored by Pfizer;<\/p>\n b) must be fully consistent with the approved product labeling and with all applicable Pfizer policies;<\/p>\n c) must give a fair and balanced presentation of the benefits and risks; and<\/p>\n d) should appear only in appropriate media which allow for:<\/p>\n [I highlighted the above in bold because this is important. It means that Pfizer prohibits branded tweets. It does, however, leave room for exceptions.]<\/p>\n That’s about it. I look forward to your comments.<\/p>\n [This last section of the above article originally appeared in Pharma Marketing Blog<\/a><\/b>.\u00a0Make sure you are reading the source<\/a> to get the latest comments.] <\/p>\n PMN1012-05 Find other articles in related Topic Areas:<\/b> <\/p>\n<\/a>
I, of course, want to know if I can get a copy of this “groundbreaking” playbook. So I asked Kerins \u00a0if there is anything in the playbook that can be made public or if I could get a copy of it. Kerins said: “NO!” and then he backpedaled a bit:<\/p>\nFDA Intern<\/b>, strange visitor from an Ivy League school who came to FDA with powers and ability far beyond those of FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg or even former FDA commish Andy von Eschenbach, has actually been on the hunt for Pfizer’s “Palybook” in an attempt to get FDA moving on developing social media guidelines!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n
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Issue: Vol. 10, No. 12
Publication date: 20 July 2011<\/p>\n