auroracomms's posterous

Request to #hcsmeu community: At the London #hcsmeu drinks last Wednesday (6 June), I suggested to the assembled group that it would be really useful if the person that submitted a question for the Friday tweet-up also took on the voluntary role of writing up the discussion and posts it up in their own web space (as I have attempted to do for my recent question).  The collective response was that this was a good idea as it meant that the dialogue would be searchable (tweets in a PDF aren’t) and also when the #hcsmeu hub is established the content can be linked to / copied across. I don’t want to deter anyone from submitting questions and the task of summarising people’s insightful tweets is not a simple one but it might be one worth doing.  Over to my fellow #hcsmeu community members…

Tip about the tweet up: I have learnt from writing this summary is that it is really useful to go through the transcript of a tweet up.  In the fast paced tweet-up environment you can miss some of the information.  Reading through the transcript drew my attention to some important points that had previously passed me by in the heat of tweeting. @andrewspong creates and files the #hcsmeu transcripts here.

Internal communications and sharing of information is a huge challenge. I run an agency and it is often really challenging to share information around a team of people all sitting in the same open plan office. As you highlight for siloed global pharma it presents an enormous challenge. If this could be harnessed effectively just think what commercial benefits this would bring. I have heard that a number of clients have used Yammer and we are trying it out at Aurora. Basically is is Twitter in a closed network. Good for both pharma 'practicing' with a social media type tool and also keeps knowledge sharing out of the inbox - we all get too many emails! This (and tools like it) could help silo bust and share the knowledge.

This is a comment a left on a post from Mike Rea, IDEA Pharma on www.pharmaphorum.com.

To read the full post and other comments then please click the link above.

Does anyone else use Yammer (whether you work in pharma or another sector)? Any top tips to share?

To fake anything in the health arena (even with clear disclaimers), especially a product or service of real health benefit, is just dumb and unlikely to work. In this case the proof is in the number of ‘likes’, of which there are 57 today, hardly a rip roaring success!

At 12:30 CET on 1 May 2010 a COPY/PASTE of the ‘disclaimer box under the profile picture reads: “ If you haven't uncovered our secret yet, here it is: Sara isn't a real person. But she does represent heathcare consumers like you and me. Each of us has our own "Sara Baker" story about a healthcare experience... share yours with us!”

A sane person’s response to the request to ‘share’ with Sara is "NO I WON'T". Who wants to share a healthcare experience with a person who is made up! The whole idea is just plain stupid. There is also a deadly typo in the disclaimer: I don’t know what a ‘heathcare consumer’ actually is anyway!
OK a typo is forgivable (I might have one in this comment) but I think it just highlights that the whole concept is stupid and shouldn’t set any benchmark in healthcare marketing online :+)

In terms of ethics, making stuff up (faking it) is poor form. In healthcare marketing I believe EVERYTHING should be credible and transparent, which through engagement leads to trust... There are simply too many dodgy (and potentially dangerous) healthcare claims out there on the web already.
This doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for cleaver use of irony in marketing (Sara isn’t ironic by the way), it’s just that wrapping your healthcare product or service in fakery just isn’t healthy for anyone.

This was a comment that Neil Crump, Aurora MD left on a HealthBlawg post about a 'fake' FaceBook page being used to market a medical site for patients in the US.

Have a look at the FaceBook page for yourself: http://www.facebook.com/eSaraBaker