Everyone has a story to tell.
Even Pharma has one.
In fact, Pharma has many many stories to tell.
Some good stories, some bad stories.
For stories to have value in the world of Social Media, they have to:-
- Be about things that people care about
- Be fun, credible and memorable
- Be something that people can easily tell others
- Be true, so that people who re-tell the story to others don’t look like liars.
(See: Alain Thys, Marketing 3 – I am the Media.)
Could Pharma meet the Social Media story-telling challenge?
Social Media Stories also have to resonate with Egocentricity, Contrast, Emotion, Beginning and Ending, and be Tangible and Visual.
Aren’t we all hard wired for stories?
(See: The Seven Basic Plots - Why we tell Stories, by Christopher Booker)
The story is at the heart of success in Social Media.
Is that why Pharma…
Is that why Pharma appears to be basically absent from our Social Media posts?
Why is Pharma Absent from Social Media Story-Telling?
In our humble opinion there’s lots of absolute rubbish out there on Web 2.0, which fortunately no one much ever gets to see.
Thinking Pharma, in your opinion might be a great example. We can hear your thoughts?
There’s also lots of great content out there too.
Sadly, nobody much ever gets to see either.
Thinking Pharma you hear our thoughts?
The reason that both good and bad content doesn’t see the light of a computer screen, is because there’s no story.
It’s just a Web Site, just a product, just another magazine advertisement masquerading in cyberspace.
There’s just no story.
People interact with Social Media when they are engaged by the stories that capture their imagination.
Stories are the viruses that animate and enliven the minds of the surfers, crawlers, bloggers and twitterers.
So where are Pharma’s fun, credible and memorable stories?
The stories of things that people care about, believe and can easily re-tell ?
(Reference : Alain Thys, Marketing3 – “I am the Media” )
Most of the Pharma stories that get told and re-told in Social Media are not good-news stories.
They are stories that paint Pharma in a much worse light than the industry deserves.
Why is that so?
Some people think it might be due to Pharma’s history of “Telling Stories” about their products.
Stories that were supposed to be ‘real’ – But us Social Mediarites Know the Truth – Don’t We?
What Matters in A Social Media Story?
In Social Media World, the concept of ‘real’ is irrelevant.
What matters is representation, participation and engagement.
Thomas de Zengotita’s book “MEDIATED” explains how the media we use shapes our world and the way we live in it.
He makes special mention of people who refuse to face the fact that reality is becoming indistinguishable from representation in a quantitatively new way.
These people, he writes, find permanent refuge in the belief that nothing is new under the sun.
They never fail to remind us that what’s going on now is just ‘More of the Same’.
They are in denial.
Is Pharma amongst these people?
Understanding that Social Media is a ‘whole-new-ball-game’ which does little for the Corporate Ego is a great starting point.
As is the realisation that it could do wonders for the company ROI, if it gets its storytelling right.
As a regular reader of the Thinking Pharma Blog you know that we understand this – Don’t You?
(Tomorrow’s Blog: To Strategise or Not to Strategise – That is the Question?)
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