12-13-2016

To Blog or Not To Blog?

Dear House Rules,

It seems like every website I look at has a blog—except those of most pharma companies. Social media can be a minefield for healthcare organizations. How do I venture into this territory the way we all hope our products work: safely and effectively?

Signed,

Social Media Novice

Dear Social:

It’s great that you want to explore this avenue for reaching your customers, but you’re right that social media can be fraught with dangers for pharma companies. Before getting started, make sure you’re getting the best possible advice on how to develop ready-to-post social media content that your stakeholders will find useful.

Blogging can have many advantages. Consistently staying in touch with your customers and providing them with “news they can use” accustoms them to hearing from you in a non-promotional context. When blogging is deployed correctly, it can bypass the “automatic tune-out” reaction that some stakeholders may have when you wish to provide a more overly promotional message.

As a social media novice, it’s important to remember the following:

  • Keep it short and simple: a blog post isn’t a white paper, nor a press release, long-form brochure, or website FAQ section. Your customers will read your blog post if it educates them, entertains them, and has a catchy headline to draw them in.
  • Don’t draw regulatory attention: a blog post isn’t the venue for making claims or presenting clinical data, but any statement that does make a claim should be appropriately referenced. Don’t use competitors’ brand names either. What you can, and should, include are patient success stories, interviews with internal clinicians, general information in your category (does your company make a diabetes drug? Write a blog post on healthy eating at holiday parties), and other non-controversial topics.
  • Watch your tone: for pharma companies especially, it can be counterproductive to sound self-serving. A neutral, conversational voice is what your customers expect from a blog post.

It can be a real challenge to strike the right note when generating blog content for your customers. In order to avoid pitfalls, your best bet is to partner with an experienced healthcare branding agency that can help you use this type of communication to connect with your customers and serve your product as well. Contact Xavier Creative House to learn more about our blogging capabilities today.

About Xavier Creative House

Founded in 2013, Xavier Creative House (XCH) is an award-winning healthcare creative agency specializing in pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device. XCH’s global team of brand builders and healthcare marketers, tech-savvy go-getters, and innovative dream-vetters are passionate about the big idea that changes behavior in the healthcare marketplace. They believe life is about connections and that healthcare is about life. That is why XCH delivers bold and evocative creative solutions, amplified by meaningful technology, to energize brands and authentically connect with patients and HCPs.

Where Healthcare Brands Live®

For more information, contact

Sunny White
Founder & CEO of Xavier Creative House