Cymfony's Influence 2.0

New White Paper Addresses Regulatory Issues in Social Media for Pharma Marketers

I'm pleased to announce the newest Cymfony Influence 2.0 White Paper: "Connecting with Patients, Overcoming Uncertainty". We've collaborated with other industry experts to help pharmaceutical companies navigate the complexities of launching social media initiatives within the restrictions of DTC promotion regulations.

We're often asked by our pharma clients and prospects how to engage in social media given the strict FDA regulations around direct-to-consumer marketing. The FDA hasn't issued any guidance (in fact, they haven't issued guidance for Internet marketing). For a long time we looked for others who had made suggestions or analyzed the issues involved, to no avail.

So we've put a stake in the ground -- you can download the paper here. I had two great co-authors on this project: John Serio, a lawyer with Seyfarth Shaw LLP who specializes in food and drug law and regulations, and Fard Johnmar of Envision Solutions, a healthcare marketing communications consultant.

In the paper, we propose a framework for identifying the key issues across the entire spectrum of social media types. We review the core principles that are the foundation of DTC promotion regulation and discuss how they should be viewed in light of social media's unique characteristics. We zero in to show how to assess adverse event reporting requirements, off-label promotion risks, and fair balance when designing a social media initiative.    

Of course, nothing substitues for detailed FDA guidance. But we believe drug companies can participate in many types of social media without undue risk. We hope this paper will give marketers, regulatory compliance, and legal professionals in healthcare companies a common understanding of the issues, and ideas on how to mitigate the risks and become part of the active conversation that patients are having every day. 

My co-authors and I will also present these ideas in a webinar on September 11 at 1:00 eastern time. I hope you will register and join us on the call.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first paper of its kind. I hope it will stimulate a lot of discussion and that you'll share your thoughts with me here.

Top Reasons people say NO to Social Media

Last Thursday, at the Social Media Club Boston event, our Director of Professional Services, Pat Fennessey, talked about the Top 5 objections to social media that we hear at Cymfony.  Todd Van Hoosear posted a recap of these objections (with Pat's rebuttal to each of them) on Tech PR Gems.

New Podcast - How to Mine the Blogosphere

Paul Dunay, of Buzz Marketing for Technology, recently conducted a podcast on “How to Mine the Blogosphere” with our CMO, Jim Nail.  In this podcast, Jim gives advice on what companies should think about when looking at online conversations and includes examples of what companies like Sony and Wal-Mart are discovering in the process. 

List of 101 Blogging, Podcasting and RSS Resources

Debbie Weil of BlogWrite for CEO has complied a great list of sites and sources for getting started with blogging, podcasting and rss.  I'm happy to report that Cymfony's Knowledge Center made the list as a blogging 101 resource.  It's definitely worth checking out if you're a marketer getting started with this new medium.

Here are the first few from each list to get you started:

Blogging 101

Blogging 101 by Rebecca Blood (on MSN Spaces)

Blogging 101 by Kari Chisholm

Blogs 101 by Rich Meislin in New York Times' Technology section

Blogging 101 by Technorati

RSS 101

RSS 101: "Really Simple" 5-Step Guide to Get Started

RSS 101 Screencast by Alex Barnett

RSS 101 for Marketers (Forrester report, July 2005)

RSS Beyond Blogs (excellent round-up of corporate RSS feeds by Toby Bloomberg)

Podcasting 101

Podcasting 101 on MacZealots.com

Podcasting 101 on TechWeb

Podcasting 101 by Merle Stinnett

Podcasting: Still Not Going To Change The World

Some of the strongest reactions I’ve encountered to my opinions have occurred when I’ve dared to challenge the iPod industrial complex. I don’t want to be misinterpreted on this topic, however, given the passion levels of so many, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to clarify my position.

I have nothing against digital music players. In fact, I had one of the first Rios, with a whopping 32 megabytes of flash memory. But they’re not revolutionary, nor are complete single file audio programs.

The great thing about a podcast (as they’re called now, but they have been around in various forms for years) is that they, in combination with a player, allow for time shifted programming. Like Tivo, they give the consumers far greater degrees of control over a program, and eventually may do to radio what DVRs are doing to tv, that is, disrupt traditional advertising backed models in favor of some sort of on-demand hybrid. But that’s more or less the only great thing about them. That one can download the file just isn’t all that significant, not in a networked world where programs are always available. It’s a stop-gap measure. Similarly, the argument that they’re offering up a new medium of self expression doesn’t hold much weight, the rules of limited attention span still apply. Just because one records it, doesn’t mean anyone is going to listen.

Which brings up the real and most important reason podcasts are just not that big a deal, time. There’s a reason people listen to the radio in the car, or when they’re doing some other activity, rather than in the office or at home, and that’s because it’s inefficient. I read the news, rather than listen to it, because in the time it would take me to hear a single story, I could be done with most of the paper. (And yes, I know TV is inefficient too, but a. people are turning away from TV as a news source, and b. it provides a much higher entertainment value than an audio stream) Sure if there’s something particularly worth hearing I’ll tune in, or I’ll download something I missed from NPR or the BBC, but listening to that program takes a hefty chunk of time, one I’m not so willing to give up without some real promise of worth. While I might read five blogs in a day, there’s no way I’m going to listen to five people drone on for twenty minutes apiece. My mental bandwidth, as well as everyone else’s, is limited, and podcasts by and large just don’t fit through the pipe.

2006 Trends to Watch

As we are nearing the end of 2005, the time for 2006 predictions and overviews of hot trends is upon us. While many trend reports may be focused on the purchasing power of teens and tweens or on the M&A activities in the tech sector, I pulled out a few trends that focus on the adoption of new media & technology by traditional businesses.

• Increased Usage of Social Media for Preventive Healthcare
• Food Market Blogging
• Newspaper Podcasting

Increased Usage of Social Media for Preventive Healthcare?

Gartner released a report and blog on IT trends for 2006. They include the usual predictions of decreased staffing in IT and increased adoption of cellular technology and VoIP in the home. One prediction that I found a little more interesting was that a 50% growth in healthcare software investment could enable preventable deaths to drop in half by 2013. Many healthcare companies are investing in advanced technologies to identify problems early on when they are more easily treated. But another less discussed area of investment is in leveraging technology and media to educate patients and create supportive communities. Even though many traditional healthcare providers still don’t like to admit it, most acknowledge that community support and positive thinking go along way in preventing medical problems and enabling faster recoveries. The tech-knowledgeable boomer generation could really drive adoption of online preventive health services.

Food Market Blogging

Heather Green reported on a new blog site created by Steven Jenkins of Fairway Market, a New York city food store that appeals to the hungry, online whole foods crowd. Jenkins is bored with pessimism and  celebrity chefs and Whole Foods (Market), thrilled with garlic towers and osetra caviar and Catalan toothpicks for tapas. Could this blog be a new trend for attracting affluent buyers and boomers?

http://blogs.businessweek.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/ 2389.1233912850

CEO Jim Mackey of Whole Foods Market has a relatively new blog too. It’s not updated too often but it provides a glimpse into his philosophy on social responsibility and capitalism mainly through interviews posted on the blog. The comments are worth reading as well to see just how much support exists for Mackey’s philosophy among clients and workers of Whole Foods.

Not to be left out, Whole Foods workers have a blog of their own designed to provide a workers unity perspective on everything from social responsibility to ‘not quite as fair as you thought’ fair trade coffee. Like the previous blogs, this one isn’t updated frequently but it’s interesting to read the other side of the story.

Newspaper Podcasting

Last but not least, there seems to be a podcasting trend among newspapers – what a great idea. Steve Rubel pointed out that the Telegraph in the UK is podcasting three articles each day with the hopes that they can reach a younger audience and entice them to read more. They are joining the Boston Globe, Columbus Dispatch, Sacramento Bee and Washington Post among others who have already jumped on the podcasting bandwagon. Sounds like another trend to me, and a good one.

Mmmmmmmm. Bubblicious……..

There’s a lot of talk about bubbles floating about. There’s the housing bubble (with its new mascot, Mr. Housing Bubble), there’s the blog bubble, and now, with the recent funding of Podshow and Odeo, enter the the podcast bubble.

Please forgive me. I must be missing something. While I do understand the desire to expand into audio blogging, or perhaps more specifically citizen created collaborative radio, I just don’t get the pocast thing. Yes, it’s a audio program delivered via a feed. Um. Okay. I could get mp3 files of a show e-mailed to me too. Hasn’t Audible been around since, um, 1997? It’s not exactly revolutionary, or for that matter, even evolutionary.

iPods, in their current incarnations, are a stop-gap solution. They’re means of addressing the lack of connectivity we experience when we leave our desks. But as the next generation of wireless technology grows up (be it Wi-Max, 4G, etc.), locally stored content will increasingly give way to on-demand streaming. Podcasting isn’t really a step in this direction. If anything, it’s largely a step backwards, removing the interactivity of the network.

That said, since everyone’s doing it, I’ll be launching podiansolutions.com next week, and accepting venture funding soon after.

Apple pushes Podcasting into the mainstream

This morning, Apple released a new update to their popular music software, iTunes, with support for Podcasting. They also updated their iTunes Music Store with a directory of podcasts that users can browse through and easily subscribe to.

While podcasting has received a lot of attention from those who closely follow new web technologies, it's still a relatively new and experimental development in the world of consumer generated media. Until now, there hasn't been an elegant solution to keeping track of podcasts. Apple's support of podcasting in iTunes brings it to the forefront and will have a significant effect on making it a viable alternative to radio. Podcasting might be as much of a disruptive technology to radio as blogging has been to mainstream text media.

The question arises, "How will people be able to track and analyze podcasting content?" The technology isn't quite there yet for being able to translate audio files into searchable text, at least not on a large Google-esque scale. As podcasting gains popularity, it will be interesting to see how the market develops for services that can capture and analyze podcast content.

Podcasting: Disruptive and Exciting

Podcasting, a buzz word around the technical crowd, has been making headlines lately.  Most recently, Sam Whitmore authored an article for Forbes.com entitled Podcasting: Making Waves.  In my opinion Sam hit on what many of us are thinking, "just when we've grasped what blogging was all about, along came podcasting, which in some ways is even more disruptive and exciting than blogging."  Podcasting is still in an early growth stage and as Sam points out there's already disruption within the podcasting community itself.  But with the growth of blogs and RSS feeds making it easier to self publish audio files, podcasting is not going away any time soon. 

To go back to the basics, Wikipedia defines podcasting as a way of publishing files to a website that allows users to subscribe to the site and receive new files as they are posted.  Most podcasts are spoken word audio created by individuals, often on a particular theme such as technology or movies.  Because new files are downloaded automatically by subscribers, podcasting allows individuals to have a self-published, syndicated radio show.

Users subscribe to podcasts using podcast reader software, which periodically checks for and downloads new content. It can then sync these to the user's portable music player (hence Apple's "iPod" and "broadcasting.") However, podcasting does not require an iPod: any digital audio player or computer with the appropriate software can play podcasts.

The main advantage of podcasting appears to be convenience for the listener.  Unlike traditional radio or even streaming media, listeners control when they wish to hear the recording.  Also podcasting allows individuals to easily transmit content worldwide. 

A few sites come to mind if you're interested in learning more on podcasting or downloading podcasts such as iPodder and Podcast411.  Also, For Immediate Release is a weekly podcast for professional communicators from Shel Holtz, ABC and Neville Hobson, ABC.  And Corante, described as the worlds first blog media company authors its own blog dedicated to podcasting.