What to do about new media? To anyone involved in new media, it is apparent that the pharmaceutical industry is very slow to coming to the table.
For example, while blogging started out as a diary that people made public on line, often filled with such tantalizing bits as "who I slept with on Capitol Hill" the medium has morphed considerably and the number of corporate or professionally-related blogs, such as Eye on FDA, have been growing in number and influence.
But for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as with any other heavily regulated industry, there are special considerations and trepidations connected with venturing into new media.
That said, given the growing numbers in new media, its growing influence and the burgeoning variety of media, participation in this new frontier in some way is absolutely essential.
Consider, as mentioned before here, that Google Finance puts any latest blog mentions onto its profile of a company – front page. That made the voice of bloggers much louder…. bloggers can mention a company and be on their finance profile page in minutes – journalists have a whole process to face of editing and publishing before getting there. Other finance pages do this as well, but often hidden.
Or consider also that many electronic versions of newspapers now connect to bloggers who have written on the same topic – the Washington Post, for example has frequently linked articles back to Eye on FDA. To pretend that this vast conversation in new media is not happening and to not participate in it, is simply folly.
Not long ago, I wrote a posting about RSS feeds and how important it is for companies to begin distributing press releases by feeds as well as by traditional means. I also wrote about the importance of blog monitoring. Those were two examples of how pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies can be participating in new media. In the coming weeks, I will write intermittent postings on how pharma and biotech companies can use other means in new media, to ensure that they are not left far behind as the world’s communications progress.
By the way, I also have a tutorial prepared on this same topic which I recently presented at the PRSA Health Academy.
