New Social Media News, Events, and Strategies Featured Briefs: J&J Earns High Social Media Score eHealth Initiative Report ­Identifies Social Media Use in Managing Chronic Disease Boehringer Tweet ­Campaign ­Increases ­Engagement, ­Awareness, and ­Followers Sidebar: Pew Research Center’s Internet ­Project Tracking Surveys, 2012 -2013 Facebook Remains Dominant Social Networking Platform University Study Extracts ­Depression Statistics from ­Twitter Sidebar: Landscape of Social Media Use Trendwatch: Social engagement increases within the industry, including the FDA. An IMS Institute report finds almost half of the top 50 drug manufacturers participate in active social media engagement, with Johnson & Johnson leading the way with an IMS Index score of 70. The FDA, however, has a higher relationship score on the IMS Health Index than any pharmaceutical company, and its European counterpart, the EMA, operates its Twitter feed with one of the highest reach index scores, second only to the FDA. The study — Engaging Patients through Social Media — found that 23 pharma companies actively participate in social media on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. However, only 10 companies use all three of these major social networking services for healthcare topics. Other companies included in the top 10 IMS Index ranking have scores ranging from 25 to nine, far below J&J’s 70. Mid-sized organizations, including Novo Nordisk, Boehringer Ingelheim, and UCB are using social media as effectively, or more effectively, than the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers. The report also found that age is one of a few differentiating factors in the use of social networking sites, where utilization is less dependent on gender, education, income, or other forms of social advantage. Younger people tend to conduct online investigations before the start of therapy, as measured by prescriptions or sales of medications. By contrast, patients 50 or older tend to begin their treatments before seeking information online. The difference of utilization by age groups will diminish as “digital natives" increase their involvement and influence professionally and privately within their networks. { For more information, visit theimsinstitute.org. or download as an app via iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/app/ims-institute/id625347542. Social Buzz eHealth Initiative Report ­Identifies Social Media Use in Managing Chronic Disease A recent eHI report examines how adults use social media tools and technologies to alleviate mental health conditions and prevent behavioral risk factors associated with chronic disease. Funded by the California Healthcare Foundation, the report examines the impact of social media and role of online communities in enhancing health promotion and behavior change efforts targeting wellness, healthy eating, and active living across a variety of settings, including occupational, behavioral, personal, clinical, public, and community health. In spite of many challenges, social media offers an array of benefits to the prevention of risk factors associated with chronic disease, the report says. The study identifies effective strategies for promoting health and wellness through social media, such as: » Develop multiple synchronous and ­asynchronous functionalities to allow flexible 24/7 communication among users. » Include online roles for trained health providers and caregivers to mitigate concerns about ­misinformation without breaking users’ trust. » Provide dynamic privacy controls and use ­requirements that encourage users to share as much or as little information as they prefer. » Incorporate user-centered design to ensure that the platform is developed ­appropriately for the intended user audience with relevant ­features. » Provide an open, safe environment for users to comfortably share information about health ­issues, which may be heavily stigmatized. » Apply evidence-based behavioral theory to leverage social networks for peer support and motivation. » Redefine the role of patients by empowering healthcare consumers with ­information and opportunities to be involved in patient-centered care and research. » Leverage long-lasting community ties to sustain user engagement. { For more information, visit ehidc.org. Boehringer Tweet ­Campaign ­Increases ­Engagement, ­Awareness, and ­Followers Twitter’s business page lists several successful case studies of companies that have used Twitter to reach its target audience. One of those studies involves the success of Boehringer Ingelheim, which used Twitter ads and chats to engage the medical media, pulmonologists, general practitioners, and digital opinion leaders in conversations about COPD during the European Respiratory Society Congress, using #ERS2013. The company used Tweet chats to trigger conversations and engage a niche audience on COPD and used promoted tweets to ensure messages appeared in relevant users’ search results and timelines. The result was a 2.79% peak engagement rate on promoted tweets and an average engagement rate of 1.9%. The average engagement rate for the UK healthcare and pharma sectors is 1.01%. The campaign earned 1.7 million tweet chat impressions and gained 1,200 new followers, representing an increase of 7% compared to the period previous to the campaign. Its tweet address @Boehringer was mentioned at #ERS2013 more than 489 times in one day. @Boehringer held real-time Tweet chats, one of them hosted by @MacCOPD (Professor Andrew McIvor, a highly regarded professor of medicine from Canada), during the #ERS2013 to spark COPD conversations among healthcare stakeholders and the public. In advance of the conference, @Boehringer used promoted tweets in search and in timeline to highlight its planned Tweet chat and encourage members of the press and medical communities to take part. To maximize engagement, @Boehringer embedded a highly targeted invitation in its tweet. It also introduced the hashtag #COPDChat to help users find and follow the Tweet chat conversation. This allowed @Boehringer to track and measure the reach and effectiveness of the campaign as it unfolded. According to Twitter, @Boehringer was the first in the pharma industry to use Tweet chats to encourage awareness and engagement within the medical community around a specific disease. { For more information, visit business.twitter.com/ success-stories/boehringer-ingelheim. Facebook Remains Dominant Social Networking Platform Some 73% of online adults now use a social networking site of some kind. Facebook is the dominant social networking platform in the number of users, but a striking number of users are now diversifying onto other platforms. Some 42% of online adults now use multiple social networking sites. In addition, Instagram users are nearly as likely as Facebook users to check in to the site on a daily basis. These are among the key findings on social networking site usage and adoption from a new survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project. (See graph) Despite recent growth by services such as Pinterest and Instagram, Facebook remains the dominant social networking platform. While Facebook is popular across a diverse mix of demographic groups, other sites have developed their own unique demographic user profiles. For example, Pinterest holds particular appeal to female users (women are four times as likely as men to be Pinterest users), and LinkedIn is especially popular among college graduates and internet users in higher income households. Twitter and Instagram have particular appeal to younger adults, urban dwellers, and non-whites. And there is substantial overlap between Twitter and Instagram user bases. { For more information, visit www.pewinternet.org/2013/12/30/social-media-update-2013/ University Study Extracts ­ Depression Statistics from ­ Twitter According to Technology and Media columnist Sam Frizell at Time Magazine, the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences at the University of Washington is studying how to identify signs of depression in individual users through following its Twitter feed. Part of the research will involve improving earlier Twitter depression models, by weeding out false or misleading data and figuring out areas where depression-related data is being underreported. The university team has also identified a group of first-year students at a number of colleges across the country based on their Twitter feeds — hashtags, posts relating to orientation — and is following them for “red flags" that could indicate emotional issues. Assistant Professor Tyler McCormick at the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences at the University of Washington is quoted in the article by Time as saying, “Our attitude is that Twitter is the largest observational study of human behavior we’ve ever known, and we’re working very hard to take advantage of it." { For more information, visit business.time.com/2014/01/27/ how-twitter-knows-when-youre-depressed/#ixzz2sHQRuSBt Landscape of Social Media Use A recent Pew Research Center’s report breaks down how cultural differences among different ­ subpopulations effects their use of social media platforms. Social media platform % of Internet users Most used by Any social networking site 72% Adults ages 18-29, women Facebook 69% Women, adults ages 18-29 Twitter 18% Adults ages 18-29, African Americans, urban populations Pinterest 15% Women, adults under 50, Caucasians, people with some college education Instagram 13% Adults ages 18-29, African Americans, Latinos, women, urban populations Tumblr 6% Adults ages 18-29 Source: Pew Research Center

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