“There are some companies that will never enter social media,” according to rising star Tac Anderson, Digital Consulting Director with WE Studio D™ of Waggener Edstrom. Who are those companies? (full video)
Tac was recently the guest presenter at the the first “LiveBar Live” social media event at the Roger Smith Hotel in New York City. As promised, a number of “cool kids” were in the crowd including marketing and social media folks in healthcare and pharma. Lively conversations could be found among Ellen Hoenig of AdvanceMarketWoRx and Paulo Machado of Health Innovation Partners on one side of the room, while B. L. Ochman was on the other side telling everyone “what’s next.” You may know B.L. recently caused a sensation with her research showing there are now nearly 16,000 self-proclaimed social media experts on Twitter, and they are multiplying like rabbits!
So what was the social media advice for healthcare and pharma from a “real” social media expert? Tac says, “Where a lot of healthcare clients really fall down is they’re not allowed to talk about certain things about their business or…clients, that doesn’t mean they can’t talk in social media. I mean, why is that every company thinks they have to talk about themselves when it comes to social media. There is a lot of expertise within your company that can speak to a lot of things related to your industry without ever getting into any of these issues, without ever getting into ‘what is your company doing’ or patient privacy issues.”
“I’ve learned that nothing trumps a lawyer and their decision more so than money, actual revenue….(we’ll) start seeing more and more revenue tied to social media activities. As we do, that is going to shut a lot of lawyers up…It’s just a risk equation,” according to Tac.
In giving advice about the social media space, Tac reminds brands that the basics of business and marketing haven’t changed and neither have the ways people communicate, only the tools have changed.
Tac Anderson has been focused on social media technologies and communications for the last five years and has an industry blog called, “New Media Comm.”