Twitter, Twhirl, Flicker, Stumble and Hunch.
Members of a 70’s rock band? A circus act? The cast of a kids TV show?
No – just some of the forty plus recommendations of ‘useful’ technologies received from the ‘well meaning’ when starting my blogging expedition!
Overwhelmed, dazed, daunted and confused, to the point of giving up!
Well that’s how I felt!
If I am representative, a heroic assumption (?), wouldn’t a Pharma executive planning their digital communications strategy feel the same?
What about the Pharma executive gods, how would they feel? You know the ones with the purse strings. How would they react to the proposition:
“Here at Drugs Unlimited, we should support our social networking strategy with Remember the Milk?”
Unrealistic?
Once upon a very recent time a senior executive…….
The Agenda
Once upon a very recent time a senior executive from a global technology supply company had to create a live ‘demo,’ to explain a simple digital marketing concept to top senior Pharma gods.
Excellent PowerPoint just didn’t cut it even for their disciples.
Why? Was their inability to grasp the PowerPoint grounded in fear, ignorance, capability, generational differences, time availability, status, the ‘Doubting Thomas Syndrome,’ or what?
Was the reason: “Technology, it’s all too hard; Why is this relevant, we are in the Pharma business; Don’t our sales reps do this” state of mind. “
Is there a clear message here?
If the myriad of technologies available for Pharma communication are to be seen as relevant they need to be tangible, proven, valued, implementable and above all focussed upon real, ‘bottom-line’ impacting business applications?
(See: Scobelizer Technology, innovation, and geek enthusiasm)
The Lesson: It’s the THOUGHTWARE that is important not the software!
If Pharma is having problems utilising digital communication technologies, where does that leave their clients, the physicians, payers, regulators and health consumers?
Is it possible that health consumers or third-party organisations are just getting on with it?
Or, is this a Pharma` marketing opportunity?
To achieve effective communication doesn’t one need to be on the same wavelength, in the same space, talking the same language, communicating on a common platform, meeting common needs?
A Strategy?
So, what to do? Where to go? How to sort the communication wood from the digital trees?
Fast Company's - All of 2009's Web Trends, on One Handy Map and Being Productive Online: Time Management Lifehacks genuinely helped me!
I then realised my “technology recommendations” fell into categories such as:
- Searching for Information – from Google to Reddit
- Managing Information – from Delicious to Twello
- Publishing Information– from Treejack to You Tube
- Collaborating to share Information – from Sermo to all the applications that have widgets
- Social Networking – from Facebook to LinkedIn
Progress? BUT, “I want to apply it to my business tomorrow.”
I wanted to be empowered. I wanted to ‘Do Something.’ I wanted a strategy that met my needs.
NO, I didn’t want to give it to someone else to map out my strategy or listen to some more techno-gobbledy-gook from the ‘we’re here to help you’ IT gurus.
Recently, when dealing with the communication of a conceptual issue for a client I found that the only quality thinking came from a Harvard Professor. Following her work I discovered that rather than extending her thoughts she had moved onto providing Decision Support and Frameworks.
Thoughtware - making ideas relevant to the real world.
The Opportunity?
Is this a direction I could/should take? Is it a direction for Pharma’s?
Creating a big Pharma idea? Helping clients think. An opportunity to ‘own’ a platform?
Is this the opportunity for Pharma? If Pharma facilitated the making better decisions by its clients and consequently their client base, wouldn’t that be a big idea?
How would Pharma clients view Pharma if that outcome was achieved?
In terms of owning a platform how about the ideas behind the The Semantic Web as promulgated by Tim Berners-Lee.
The Semantic Web naturally lends itself to augmentation by Decision Support Frameworks and Tools.
By just providing Decision Making Support to its target audience Pharma could empower its client base, own the technology (Thoughtware) platform and be seen as a valued partner.
Isn’t that Pharma’s digital technology opportunity?
What’s the alternative?
Technologically; Poleaxed; Irrelevanct; Naïve; Incompetent; etc - You Choose?
(Tomorrows Blog: Whatever happened to Web 1.0?)
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