February 15, 2012
Top Social Networking Sites in Canada and the United States
When it comes to online social networking sites, Canadians and Americans are not that different. According to Hitwise, for the week ending January 28 2012, the majority of the visits from both countries went to FaceBook, and then YouTube. The rest of the sites all got less than 2% of the visits, and that includes Twitter. So if you are a small firm marketing to both countries, this is good news, because you can focus on the same top sites to get traffic from your target audience from both countries. Here is a side-by-side comparison of both charts:
August 15, 2011
Novartis Canada kills its entire “Maybe Someday” social media campaign: Site, FaceBook, Twitter
If you were in Novartis` shoes, what would you have done differently?
On August 10th, 2011, Novartis publicly called it quits for its "Maybe Someday" social media campaign. They announced the demise of the campaign on Twitter. Other than the Twitter post, one would probably not have even noticed that the campaign got pulled:
A few stats and pics of the campaign at closure:
Their Twitter stats as of August 14 2011 consisted of 94 tweets, following 392, followed by 125 and listed 5 times. There weren`t many tweets for this account, but I want to give acknowledgement to Novartis for taking the time to thank new followers and those who wrote a `hope` on their main site. In fact, almost all of their tweets mentioned somebody on Twitter.
The Maybe Someday FaceBook page could not be found as of August 14 2011.
The MaybeSomeday.ca site was still up as of August 14th, and it showed a total of 2,811 hopes (despite an objective of 25,000 hopes). When I wrote about the campaign back in April, it had 1,175 hopes.
The Maybe Someday site is still promoted on the main Novartis Canada site, but I`m sure that this will be rectified very quickly.
Reflection on the Maybe Someday campaign:
First of all, the only reason why I even found out that something was up with the Maybe Someday campaign was when I was going through my list of Canadian healthcare FaceBook pages to see if any of them had been shut down as a result of FaceBook no longer supporting pharmaceutical companies` request to disallow comments on their wall. The Maybe Someday page didn`t show up, so I dug further and that`s how I got to their Twitter statement.
Despite the timing with FaceBook`s actions with pharmaceutical pages, I think the closure of the site probably had more to do with the low number of hopes that were generated within the 8-month period of the campaign. This is my gut feel. Nobody from Novartis Canada has confirmed this.
Why so few hopes versus the objective? Was it the lack of advertising? Did Novartis have a `build it and they will come` mentality when it came to social media? The limited `human touch` involved in the campaign, which is typically expected in social media (but of course, is limited when one wants to remain within regulatory guidelines). Was it that people just weren`t excited by the amount to be provided as a charitable donation ($25,000)? Did Novartis Canada just not give the campaign enough time? Social media campaigns are usually expected to run for years. It is probably a combination of all of these.
Whatever the reason, I hope that Novartis Canada has taken some key learnings from this short-lived campaign, and will be willing to apply these in a future tactic involving social media. Eric Shenfield, eMarketing Manager at Novartis Canada, will be speaking at the upcoming eMarketing Canada (Eye for Pharma) in November in Toronto. Hopefully his presentation will allow him to share some of Novartis` key learnings with the rest of us, so that we can all learn.
June 23, 2011
Online Canadian physicians 2011 report by Manhattan Research: A preview
Manhattan Research expects to publish their Taking the Pulse® Canada (2011) report either later this Summer or in the Fall, but they have given me permission to share with you a little preview of the data right away.
- 206 physicians were surveyed using face-to-face, telephone and online interviews in Q1 2011.
Below are key findings regarding online physician professional adoption of the Internet in Canada:
- Among Canadian physicians who are online for professional purposes, four in five say the Internet is essential to their professional practice.
- In 2011, nearly three-quarters of online physicians in Canada own a smartphone – which is comparable to adoption trends among physicians in the U.S. physician market in 2010.
- About 3 in 5 online physicians in Canada can be classified as “advanced smartphone users.” These are online physicians who own a smartphone and use it to browse the Internet, watch online video or access an app for professional purpose.
- Two-thirds of physicians who are online for professional purposes in Canada visit pharma corporate or product websites. Pharma-sponsored services such as patient education and the ability to request journal reprints are in high demand among online physicians.
“Canadian physicians have a sophisticated digital profile; they use multiple screens to access professional content and turn to the Internet for information during the workday,” said James Avallone, Senior Digital Healthcare Analyst at Manhattan Research. “These findings aren’t too surprising, given the overall maturity of the Canadian market. In fact, so far, it looks like Canadian physicians are only a couple of years behind their U.S. counterparts.”
Source: Manhattan Research, Taking the Pulse® Canada (2011)
Many thanks to Manhattan Research for sharing their Canadian data with me, and for allowing my blog to be the first to share it with you.
Are you surprised, or skeptical, about any of the statistics mentioned above? What other information are you hoping to find out from the Manhattan Research's Taking the Pulse® Canada (2011) report when it becomes available?
Clarification (June 23, 9:30 am, E.S.T.):
The press release for Taking the Pulse® Canada is likely being put off til later in the Summer or Fall, but the actual study and deliverables are already available for clients who subscribe to the study (but these deliverables are not public, so this is the first media that Manhattan Research has shared this data with). Here’s a link to more information about the Taking the Pulse® Canada product if anybody is interested - http://manhattanresearch.com/Products-and-Services/Physician/Taking-the-Pulse-Canada
January 10, 2011
Canadians, FaceBook and Healthcare
I am a believer that FaceBook can have positive influence on healthcare. With so many healthcare stakeholders involved on the network, it seems like the perfect place for everybody to get connected. Just looking at the number of people who are members of this network should be enough to make any marketer stop in their tracks and decide whether they should reach out and engage with their target audience on this medium. And over the past couple of years, there have been several reports that have suggested that Canadians really 'like' their FaceBook time (yes, that was an intentional pun, but it is true). The most recent report that I have seen was the one from eMarketer.com's November 29th 2010 post "Canadians Say Yes to Social Media".
Almost 10 million Canadians went on FaceBook per day in September 2010. That is a lot of people when you consider that the Canadian population in 2010 is estimated at just over 34 million people by Stats Canada.
If that is not enough to convince you to at least consider whether FaceBook fits into your strategic objectives, take a look at the video clip below. It is part of Time's Person of the Year issue, in which Time put together a fascinating video clip showcasing statistics about what happens on FaceBook in 1 minute . The statistics are global, not Canadian-specific, but it is worth taking a look at.
The facts from the video are noted below in case you are having trouble viewing the video:
- Shared links: 50,304
- Photos tagged: 66,168
- Event invites: 74,204
- Wall posts: 79,364
- Status updates: 82,557
- Friend requests: 98,604
- Photos uploaded: 135,849
- Messages sent: 231,605
- "Likes": 382,861
- Comments: 510,404
If you need more Canadian-specific stats to help you make your decision, here are a few articles that you might find helpful:
If you are interested in seeing examples of various healthcare FaceBook pages, just go to the Dose of Digital social media wiki. Here, you will find lots of creative uses of FaceBook from all over the world. Keep in mind that advertising and promotion guidelines for healthcare products vary from country to country, so some of the examples that you will find in the wiki may not be suitable for Canada.
I am not suggesting that all healthcare marketers jump on board and set up a FaceBook page. It needs to make sense for your business. Social media is nothing more than a tactic designed to help you reach your organization's strategic objectives. What I am suggesting is that all healthcare marketers should take the time to at least consider whether FaceBook fits their strategic goals or not. For marketers who are not on FaceBook themselves (and I know quite a few are out there), it might seem a little bit overwhelming and obscure to market in this new environment, but that should not stop anybody from at least considering the possibility that the fit might be there for the target audience. Do a little bit of monitoring to see where your audience hangs out, and if they are already on FaceBook, then you might want to join them there.
If you have considered a FaceBook page and decided to forego it, what is stopping you from setting one up? Leave a comment below.
Stay in touch,
Natalie
Connect with me on the following networks:
January 3, 2011
Pfizer Canada shares its social media response flow chart
What better way to kick off 2011, than to provide you with a gift from Pfizer Canada: their social media response flow chart which provides guidelines as to when and how to respond (or not respond) to comments on social media networks.
Every company should have some sort of guidelines as to how they will respond to social media comments about their brand(s) and corporation. Even if an organization has not implemented social media tactics, they may be (and should be) tracking mentions of their brand and corporate names via tools such as Google Alert. Such mentions may require intervention by the company, and a plan prepared ahead of time will help ensure that an appropriate response is provided.
Pfizer Canada has modified an assessment chart that was originally developed by the U.S. Air Force . The flow chart will guide Pfizer Canada in responding to remarks on social media networks which are either the property of, sponsored by or have a relation of some kind to Pfizer Canada (ie. the Canadian Medical Association, CMA, discussion panel which is hosted by Pfizer). In fact, the flow chart was set up when Pfizer Canada launched the discussion panel on the CMA site. At the moment, Pfizer Canada is not scouring the internet for comments. They focus only on the comments made on the networks that are linked to Pfizer Canada in some way.
Pfizer Canada estimates that the original Air Force chart covers approximately 80% of potentialv scenarios. Therefore, Pfizer Canada fine tuned the diagram to address potential medical, legal and compliance issues. Both the original Air Force chart and the Pfizer Canada chart are found below. The most noticeable difference between the two are the 3 columns that Pfizer Canada added, which are found at the far right of the chart. There are a few other modifications that were made by Pfizer Canada, but none of these appear to be major shifts from the original chart.
The response flow chart was designed for the Canadian subsidiary of Pfizer. It is not used globally by the organization.
A picture of both the U.S. Air Force and Pfizer Canada flow charts are included below. They are small, but if you click on them, you will see a larger version.
[caption id="attachment_1646" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="Pfizer Canada: Social media response flow chart"]
[/caption]
I applaud Pfizer Canada for their level of preparedness, and I thank them for allowing me to share their response flow chart on my blog.
Christian Roy (Vice President, Marketing, Pfizer Canada Inc.) and Elena Chouw (Manager, eMarketing, Pfizer Canada Inc.) originally presented this diagram at the Eye for Pharma eMarketing Canada conference, which was held in Toronto, on November 1-2 2010. Many thanks to Elena for taking the time to discuss the flow chart with me.
What do you think of these two social media response flow charts? Do you think there should be any changes to the modifications that were made by Pfizer Canada? Leave your comment below.
Happy new year,
Natalie
Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn
| Connect with me |
|
