Social Media And Medical Marketing

There is something about the concept of a "shared disease” that makes you think social media might be a great way to communicate with the people who have it.

After all, clinicians and healthcare marketers alike know that people often define themselves through their conditions, or if not then perhaps at times identify with the people who share similar symptoms.

We all know of people (my mum for example, hi mum) who use the subject of their health as a primary source of material for social interaction.

And healthcare marketers have no real interest in wasting scarce resources on people who are unaffected by the conditions for which they promote remedies.

So surely the holy grail of effective healthcare marketing is the creation of a sponsored community of people affected by a specific condition for which the sponsor has a fabulous solution.

People affected by diabetes, prostate cancer, psoriasis or coughs, happily sharing tips and hints, giggling at the sponsor’s viral videos bouncing off to find more about the products via easy links and connections, all grateful for the opportunity to have a good time with similarly affected souls.

Sounds easy doesn’t it?

Well it’s actually not easy at all.

As bloggers constantly remind us, consumers are not sitting there waiting for the next "social media” competition to join, or hoping desperately to be "engaged”

Sometimes they just want "good sausages". For a great consumer perspective see http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QjhMFKRvyqo/TGmCVBlyB5I/AAAAAAAADSA/4cM57HC302c/s1600/letter.jpg

Just because I get frightful hayfever doesn’t mean i want to sign up to sneeze.com or enter a completion to send in a photo of my hives. I might just be interested to find out what antihistamine works best for me.

In any case, the marketer is faced with the challenge which is not always easily overcome. How do they actually flush out the hayfever sufferers? Or the diabetics? Or those affected by arthritis ?

You can try the foundations and patient support groups. But how many of the millions of Australians with arthritis are going to join the Foundation? Almost none.

Some try the "build it and they will come strategy’ – investing enormous funds in the development of videos, fact sheets, forums and patient blogs – hoping to make their domain sufficiently compelling as to be irresistible.

The real answer lies somewhere between the black art of search optimisation and the tried and trusted sales tactic of "incentive”. If you’re adopting the "build and hope strategy” without allocating sufficient resources for promotions and audience building, then perhaps you’re making the most common mistake in that exciting nexus of where social media meets healthcare promotions.

Sponsorship experts like to say that whatever amount marketers spend to secure a sponsorship, they should budget to spend twice that again (or is it three times now?) on sponsorship leverage.

Ditto social marketing, new domains, twitter campaigns and Facebook pages. Whatever you’ve spent on content development and online resources you should spend at least twice that on targeted promotions (Facebook ads, Google Adwords, e-newsletter sponsorships, give-aways, website advertising and many others).

Because if you think you can build a community of happy blokes with fungal toe nail infections that love your product because you’ve loaded a great video of infected toes to your corporate web site, then maybe it’s time to think again.

For examples of effective social media campaigns managed by the Palin communications team in the health marketing sector, go to www.palin.com.au

By: Martin Palin

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