In a controversial move Facebook, with support from the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration), recently announced that they will no longer allow brands to block the commenting function on most* Facebook fan pages. The move mainly affects the regulated pharmaceutical and financial industries, where comments could previously be disabled in order to avoid regulatory issues.
One of the main reasons that pharmaceutical companies choose to disable the commenting functionality on their Facebook fan pages is the FDA’s adverse event reporting regulations. These regulations have not yet been modified to encompass social media as a reporting channel, leaving pharmaceutical companies unsure what types of comments need to be reported to the FDA.
It’s not entirely clear why Facebook has chosen to enforce this now and an email sent to the admins of pharmaceutical pages last month gave little indication. Porter Novelli’s Peter J Pitts, Global Head of Regulatory and Health Policy, and Brad B McCormick, Executive Vice President & Global Digital Director, recently gave a presentation in partnership with WOMMA, titled Forcing Pharma’s Hand: Facebook’s policy change and the future of regulated health marketing, which aimed to provide clarity for pharma marketers.
One of the critical points made within the presentation pointed towards the fact that it is not “social media” when a company disables the very ability of users to be “social”. The whitepaper released following the presentation hit the nail on the head with this statement: “Disabling comments on a Facebook page is like showing black and white programming on an HDTV. The full capabilities of the platform are not realised when the primary functionality of the platform is disabled.”
So what does this mean for pharma companies?
Pharma content is more likely to be shared via the social network – It is thought that one of Facebook’s main reasons behind the move is to improve the performance of healthcare and pharma related content shared via the network. Facebook uses an algorithm called Edgerank to rank the popularity of content. This algorithm monitors likes, shares and comments made on content distributed by users and pages and the more likes, shares and comments content receives, the more popular the content becomes. Disabling the commenting functionality on a page prevents the content from being as highly ranked as other content, which hinders distribution. If content is not appearing in fans’ feeds then it is less likely to be shared and less likely to engage in the long term.
The need for an increase in social media manpower – The widely held belief that FDA regulation prevents two-way communication with fans on Facebook is incorrect. It is the increase in manpower that is required to facilitate communications on fan pages that is the true obstacle pharma faces in embracing two-way communication with fans on Facebook. The question therefore is not, can pharma communicate with fans on Facebook? But, is Facebook worth the investment?
In conclusion
The Porter Novelli whitepaper concludes that overall Facebook’s policy change should be seen as a welcome development in pharmaceutical marketing. Pharma brands that embrace the change and put measures in place to deal with adverse events reported via the platform quickly will be the ones to begin reaping the rewards of the transparent two-way dialogue.
[ * = with the exception of pages dedicated to a specific regulated healthcare product where the product name appears within the page title - these pages may continue to have the commenting function disabled, pending further review ]
Facebook, pharmaceuticals, social media
