The Idea Exchange

FDA approved medical device companies are slow to adopt social media into their marketing mix, according to a recent online survey by BB Marketing Plus.  The study focused on respondents who worked for FDA-regulated medical device companies, how they use social media and if it is affected by FDA regulations. The poll focused on firms located in California, Massachusetts and Minnesota.

Qualitative interviews with a small subset of the 251 respondents' findings suggest that FDA regulation does not play a role in a company's decision to participate in social media.  Recommendations from the marketing department or advertising agency and competitor's use of social media were all cited as reasons for the decision to adopt social media practices. Of the five FDA-regulated companies interviewed, the majority could not provide a measure for the impact; however, most agreed that they would pour more resources into it.

When reviewing the findings, I thought to myself "What are the pros and cons of social media?"  Having been slow to adopt social media myself, I have yet to be convinced as to why I should be using it in the first place, other than being told "You should" and "What is wrong with you? How can you not have a Facebook account!"

Polling my colleagues of which some are adamant users and others who care for it less, I found the following pros and cons:

Pros

• Allows you to connect, network and communicate to large groups of people
• More involved and informed with ideas shaping the world.
• If you are willing to give up the idea of rigid control and one-way communications, then social media can become powerful tools for *two-way* communication with customers and stakeholders on your products and services  (See what Manish Mehta, Vice President, Social Media and Community, Dell has to say).
• Enormously useful when people who are interested interact to create something together. 

 Cons

• Social media are harder to "control" than traditional forms of Marketing Communications in the government and business worlds.
• Annoying and subject to misinterpretation.
• Information overload.
• Privacy issues.
• Verification/validity of information.
• Not a good forum for discussing intellectual property.

If you are a medical device company, how do you use social media?

Social Media Reviews:

• Heads of top US companies snub blogs, Facebook study
• Q&A with Coleen Klasmeier, Partner and Head of Sidley's FDA Regulatory Practice and former Staff Attorney/Special Assistant to the Chief Counsel of FDA