Social Media trends, regs, and apps
Roche Diabetes Care Increases Social Media Presence Trendwatch: Developers of health services and devices turning to patient engagement Roche Diabetes Care uses multiple social media channels to engage patients Roche Diabetes Care, which develops blood glucose monitoring systems and provides diabetes management systems and services for the diabetic community, has expanded its social media efforts for its brand Accu-Chek. Earlier this year, Roche Diabetes Care added a Facebook page and a Twitter account and extended the reach of its Canada-only blog, Diabetes Link, to the United States. The multiplatform campaign’s aim is not to promote brand information, says Todd Siesky, public relations manager of Roche Diabetes Care, but rather to act as a repository of resources for all things diabetes. “The overall arching factor over all these spaces is the goal to stimulate conversations focused on diabetes and how people can better manage it," Mr. Siesky says. “People are not going to find a lot of product mentions on these sites." Roche Diabetes Care has been dialoging with the diabetic community for more than two years via its social media summits. The company held its third summit this past June. Mr. Siesky says the idea for the summits came from those working at the company who noticed the vast amount of traffic that was occurring in the online diabetes space. The company decided it would be a good idea to bring everyone — bloggers and social media experts and Roche Diabetes Care staff — together in one room to exchange ideas. “Companies are more notorious for talking at consumers instead of talking with them, so we wanted to bring the diabetes community together to find common ground and to discover what it wanted out of a diabetes care company," Mr. Siesky says. The take away from the summits was that Roche Diabetes could help by offering a far-reaching online space to have open and honest communication with others. The summit participants included patient bloggers, who expressed interest in getting Roche’s support in driving people to their sites as well so they could share their experiences and knowledge with a wider audience. Mr. Siesky says Roche Diabetes Care was more than onboard with that. “As a trusted partner, we could offer that and our blog features many guests who write very well about living with diabetes on other social media platforms and we would much rather point others to those great online resources so people get the support they need," Mr. Siesky says. Roche Diabetes Care partnered with one such blogger, Manny Hernandez, founder of tudiabetes.org and the nonprofit Diabetes Hands Foundation. For two years Roche has helped sponsor the Big Blue Test, a program by the Diabetes Hands Foundation that takes place every November 14 on World Diabetes Day. People with diabetes are invited to test their blood sugar, do 14 minutes of activity, test again and share the results. Roche Diabetes also sponsored a video promoting the Big Blue Test featured on YouTube. Mr. Siesky says interacting with Mr. Hernandez at the summits helped the two organizations develop a stronger relationship that naturally led to the mutually beneficial partnership. Others in the industry should seek out the same types of relationships with patients, he adds. “The industry has a vital role and a responsibility to consumers to be more than manufacturers — our relationship has to be deeper than that — we must also be a source of health information and support." “As a person without diabetes, I have learned so much about what living with diabetes is like that it helps me do my job better," Mr. Siesky says of his relationship with the community. “And that could work for anyone, no matter what company or industry you are working in. The industry should remember that there are these advocates out there and they are already talking about you, so you might as well engage with them." Roche Diabetes Care does not shrink from engagement, the AccuChekUS Facebook page has always been comment enabled, even before Facebook made it mandatory. The diabetic community is very active online and it heavily uses the blog, the Facebook page, and Twitter to communicate and share. { For more information on Roche Diabetes Care, visit the blog accu-chekdiabeteslink.com, the Facebook page at AccuChekUS and Twitter at accuchek_US. { For more information on the big Blue Test, visit the blog tudiabetes.org, the Facebook page Tudiabetes and Titter askmanny { To download the video, visit youtube.com/watch?v=nkLHgK94Z0E Social Networking Report Roundup Facebook Users Like to Connect With Brands According to a report by Edison Research and Arbitron, 80% of U.S. social network users who follow a company/brand in social media prefer to connect with brands through Facebook. One in four social network users knowingly follow brands, products or services on social networks. For those who use these sites and services several times per day, this figure increases to 43%. Almost a quarter of social network users indicated that Facebook is the social site or service that most influences their buying decisions. No other site or service was named by more than 1% of the sample, and 72% indicated that no one social site or service influenced their buying decisions the most. { For more information, visit edisonresearch.com. Report Shows More Than Half Of Physicians Use Social Media More than 65% of physicians have used social media to support their practice, reports QuantiaMD, which recently conducted a study of more than 4,000 clinicians to quantify physician social media use. According to the study, almost 90% of physicians use at least one social media site for personal use, while more than 65% have used at least one to support their professional practice. Various physician communities, along with consumer sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, are the online networks most used for professional purposes, and top uses for sites such as these are for education and communicating with colleagues. More than 20% of respondents are “Connected Clinicians" who use two or more social media sites for both personal and professional use. More than half of the respondents believe there is potential for a wide range of physician-patient online interactions. Chief among these are sharing educational materials and monitoring patients’ health, behavior and drug adherence. Top challenges holding clinicians back from interacting with patients online include concerns about liability (73%), privacy (71%) and lack of compensation (41%). Only 20% of physicians see online communication with patients as inappropriate, underlining the potential of this medium if the challenges can be overcome. { For more information, visit quantiamd.com. Nielsen’s State of the Media Social Media Report Nielsen’s Social Media Report looks at trends and consumption patterns across social media platforms in the U.S. and other major markets, exploring the rising influence of social media on consumer behavior. Highlights of the report include: » Reading social networks and blogs account for almost a quarter of Americans’ total time spent on the Internet » Americans spend more time on Facebook than they do on any other website » Almost 40%of social media users access social media content from their mobile phone » Internet users over the age of 55 are driving the growth of social networking through the mobile Internet » Across a sample of 10 global markets, social networks and blogs are the top online destination in each country, accounting for the majority of time spent online and reaching at least 60% of active Internet users { For more information, visit blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/ Social Networking Report Roundup Facebook Users Like to Connect With Brands According to a report by Edison Research and Arbitron, 80% of U.S. social network users who follow a company/brand in social media prefer to connect with brands through Facebook. One in four social network users knowingly follow brands, products or services on social networks. For those who use these sites and services several times per day, this figure increases to 43%. Almost a quarter of social network users indicated that Facebook is the social site or service that most influences their buying decisions. No other site or service was named by more than 1% of the sample, and 72% indicated that no one social site or service influenced their buying decisions the most. { For more information, visit edisonresearch.com. Report Shows More Than Half Of Physicians Use Social Media More than 65% of physicians have used social media to support their practice, reports QuantiaMD, which recently conducted a study of more than 4,000 clinicians to quantify physician social media use. According to the study, almost 90% of physicians use at least one social media site for personal use, while more than 65% have used at least one to support their professional practice. Various physician communities, along with consumer sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, are the online networks most used for professional purposes, and top uses for sites such as these are for education and communicating with colleagues. More than 20% of respondents are “Connected Clinicians" who use two or more social media sites for both personal and professional use. More than half of the respondents believe there is potential for a wide range of physician-patient online interactions. Chief among these are sharing educational materials and monitoring patients’ health, behavior and drug adherence. Top challenges holding clinicians back from interacting with patients online include concerns about liability (73%), privacy (71%) and lack of compensation (41%). Only 20% of physicians see online communication with patients as inappropriate, underlining the potential of this medium if the challenges can be overcome. { For more information, visit quantiamd.com. Preferred Social Network for Connecting with Brands Apps… iTunes creates app room for healthcare category Visual: none iTunes has opened a new section just for healthcare applications available on iPhone and iPad. Apple’s new healthcare section includes six categories of apps: reference, educational, EMR & patient monitoring, imaging, point of care, and personal care apps. { For more information, visit itunes.com/healthcareprofessionalsiphoneapps DocBookMD rated top healthcare app for docs One point of care app listed in Apple’s new healthcare section, DocBookMD, was rated by Apple as one of the top healthcare apps to allow physicians to efficiently collaborate in real time. DocBookMD was developed by physicians exclusively for physicians and its On-Demand Messaging and Multi-Media collaboration features help physicians save time and enhance patient care, a prepared statement from the developers of DocBookMD states. Apps like DocBookMD are changing the way physicians practice medicine, resulting in enhanced patient care, stated Dr. Tim Gueramy, DockbookMD founder and CEO, in the company’s press release. And it’s free to download at iTunes. { To download, visit itunes.apple.com/us/app/docbookmd/id301558273?mt=8 Videos… Why Pharma Should Pay Attention To Empowered Patients At the recent 2011 e-Patient Conference sponsored by Kevin Kruse of Kru Research, empowered patients shared their stories of how they are dealing with their disease, including mentioning the pharmaceuticals they are using for treatment. This video is a quick synopsis produced by attendee and guest patient participant Mark King of myfabulousdisease.com that speaks volumes as to the power of creating relationships with e-patient advocates. { To download, visit http://marksking.com/my-fabulous-disease/finding-support-in-an-e-patient-world/
