Excellent commentary on business and the web


By Betsy Raymond Stevenson, posted July 16, 2010

“Twitter, Twitter Little Stars” in Bloomberg Businessweek, by Felix Gillette — as customers make or break brands online, companies rush to hire social media directors….and figure out what they do

“On Language, the Web is at War with Itself” on NPR, by Linton Weeks

Making the Case for Public Relations


By Betsy Raymond Stevenson, posted November 6, 2009

Sunday I fly to San Diego for PRSA’s Annual Conference themed “Delivering Value.”  I’m expecting to bring back data, examples and measurement tools to help me  help my clients convey the critical business necessity of communications as budgeting begins for 2010. I promise to share the good stuff here for those of you who aren’t going.  My expectations are high because, a month ago, PRSA launched a campaign to raise awareness of PR’s value called “The Business Case for Public Relations.”  The campaign already includes a library of resources.  You can read more about it here.

In my own session, on Monday, with Impactiviti blogger Steve Woodruff, we will talk about ways that healthcare communicators can work with their Legal and Regulatory departments  to (1) integrate social media outreach into the communications mix and (2) move forward responsibly while waiting for the FDA to issue social media guidelines.  Do you have lessons learned on how to show PR’s business value to management that you can share, below?  What has worked for you?  What hasn’t?

Finding a New Way


By Betsy Raymond Stevenson, posted October 13, 2009

“The audience professional communicators end up writing for is the one that has to approve the message, not the one that has to consume it.” Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer

Jason’s statement is true for more than social media outreach. Many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that would never consider putting out an untested product message, still don’t pre-test their corporate messages with the audiences they want to engage, like industry thought leaders, investors and physicians.

For many corporate communicators, the most challenging part of message development is convincing senior management that pre-testing is worth the time and money.  Granted, running focus groups, especially for these expert audiences, is not inexpensive.  Online research companies like Zoomerang and SearchMonkey have made it cheaper and easier to test all kinds of information with consumer audiences, but they aren’t as helpful if you want to test messages with biotech investors, for example.

Read on …

What do the FDA and google have in common? They are making changes that will impact your company’s communications


By Betsy Raymond Stevenson, posted October 1, 2009

So much is happening in social media that will impact pharmaceutical PR and marketing that it is hard to know where to begin in this first post.

The FDA has called for a much-needed public hearing on social media and the internet.  The hearing is scheduled for November 12 and 13, with registration closing on October 9. The FDA will accept written and electronic comments through February 28, 2010.  This is an important opportunity for healthcare communicators to have input into new regulatory policy that will impact their ability to manage their organization’s reputation in the digital world. For valuable commentary on the opportunities and challenges posed by this hearing, read Shwen Gwee’s take on Med 2.0. Mark Senak makes excellent suggestions on what industry communicators can do to prepare effective comments, and provides a link to the announcement on the Federal Register, at his blog  Eye On FDA.

Read on …
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