The focus on this article is to help you find “value” through the use of social media tools. The idea came to me when I read the Community Pharm post entitled Hindsight Is 20-20 But Foresight Is Critical. In this article, the main idea was on the Pharmaceutical brand manager’s focus on budgeting. I want to discuss ways in which this budget can be applied to activities that ultimately add ‘value,’ and how you can find ways to apply social media tools to drive revenue your products.
In setting the context for this discussion: I have the task of starting up a new business unit. So along with the usual business plan and strategic sessions that go into creating a new practice we need to find ways to promote our product and services. Most of us will also go through a process of creating a marketing plan. What I want our Marketing group to carry out is to:
- drive revenue and specifically top-line revenue
- create a positive image for our products and ultimately our company
- help us understand the market and our customers
We’ve elected to merge the use of social media tools into our plan, and began a search for how to do use these tools. One article that I found helpful was 12 Reasons to Use Social Media to Grow Your Business by Pam Dyer.
She provides both growth information as well as twelve compelling reasons to use social media to grow your business. I would also recommend bookmarking these sites:
- Social Media Today – a great source of information on this topic http://www.socialmediatoday.com/
- Blogging Innovation – another treasure trove of articles on marketing, innovation and social media http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/wordpress/
So now you know the how to use social media. Now let’s get back to the brand manager and his budget. The obvious question is what business models to invest in when your focus is on Healthcare? A good friend of mine Andy De (http://www.andyde.com/) has an article entitled: Will Social Media find “Meaningful Usage” in a Healthcare Context.
He proposes a ‘strategy framework’ around six business model scenarios for social media and healthcare. Of the six models our company has embarked on the business model scenario E. You see we offer IT services and solutions for Life Sciences and Healthcare. We have a keen focus on the “mHealth” market (also called “telehealth”). What is your focus/business model?
Our next steps are to start with tools such as Twitter, and Blogging, along with LinkedIn to create awareness around a set of products and services within Life Sciences and Healthcare. Your plan will be different. Our goals are set-up to allow our company to get accustomed to the use of social media tools. So far taking small steps has helped us evolve our company as we break into new markets. We have allocated budget for this activity and the value will increase over time. Do you have a story to tell about the use of social media for you company? Community Pharm (http://cp.pharmalive.com/) is a site for sharing such ideas. Let us know if this article was of value and if you want us to present relevant topics.
Thanks,
Jim