PR Log (Press Release) – Jun 02, 2010 – AgentD.com, a marketing & strategy consulting firm, has released a white paper: “Pharma 2.0: Heading Toward Social Media Marketing” (Link at bottom).  The white paper discusses social media strategies that pharma companies can integrate with their other marketing efforts.

The value of social media may lie in how powerful a medium it is when combined with larger marketing strategies, both online & offline.  The social media space can be used in an almost infinite number of ways for marketing.  It’s figuring out the optimal use of social media that needs to be addressed…

Pharma companies seem to be in the early stages of understanding the social media space.  Some companies may want to engage their audiences directly, others may want to put forward more relevant information, & still others may see entirely new opportunities to integrate social media with their other marketing efforts – all while minding the regulations that are still being worked out…

The social media space brings with it an entirely new group of challenges & opportunities. Many companies realize that ‘astroturfing’ can have profoundly negative consequences due to the extremely transparent nature of the internet.  However, that doesn’t mean that social media channels can’t be powerful marketing outlets: just the opposite.  It means that social media can be used, but companies need to thoroughly research their target audiences’ interests, the key opinion leaders in the spaces they target & what the best strategies to use may be on a brand level…The integration of all of these different “points of light” often yield surprisingly useful insights.  Insights that just weren’t possible to obtain in the 1 way communication-mass market world.

The collaborative nature of social media makes it unique among other marketing channels.  Consumers have become both creators & consumers: they now help establish the dialogue online, not mere receive messages…The pharma companies that spend the time & money to do a lot of research in the social media space will see enormous benefits from myriad dimensions.

Get the complete copy of the whitepaper here.