Pharmaceutical Communication over Social Media Channels: 24/7 Management Challenges

Abstract

Social media marketing is evolving rapidly and gaining popularity within academia and firms. This chapter highlights the major challenges posed by social media to the pharmaceutical industry, assessing the presence of major pharmaceutical firms on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and characterizing their digital engagement strategies. This study gathered data from the top 20 pharmaceutical companies' official websites, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts and examined variables such as Internet presence, engagement, fans/followers, and network structure. Findings from this study show that not all pharmaceutical firms are present on social media, and some platforms are used more than others. Notably, the digital engagement strategies varied between the analyzed social media platforms and remained similar on the two periods. Results also show that the level of engagement assessed was not associated with firm size. In several firms, the communication was mostly directed to the general public. Depending on the company, country-based communities were found. This work can be of interest to practitioners aiming to compare and assess their digital activity. It could also assist future researchers focusing on pharmaceutical social media marketing activity, since few researchers have analyzed this using more than one social networking site.

تأثیر التسویق عبر الفیسبوک علی الإرتباط بالعلامة التجاریة: دور الدیموغرافیا والرسومات النفسیة دراسة تطبیقیة على مستخدمی الهواتف الذکیة فی مصر.

“…Based on the challenge of how organizations can figure out the results of Facebook marketing (Costa et al, 2018) especially in the light of the scientific gap represented in the contradiction between previous researches' results, this study is among the first to fill the gap through testing the consequences of Facebook marketing in terms of brand engagement among smartphone users in Egypt. Moreover, in a trial to extent the theoretical contribution, the current study different from previous studies, investigated the role of demographics and psychographics in the relationship between Facebook marketing and brand engagement among smartphone users in Egypt.…”

“…Social media are being extensively used as a platform to conduct marketing and advertising activities (Alalwan, 2018). However, there is always a challenge in how organizations can figure out the results of Facebook marketing (Costa et al, 2018). Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect of Facebook marketing on brand engagement among smartphone users in Egypt, moreover, to identify the effect of some demographics and psychographics on this relationship.…”

The role of Demographics and Psychographics in the relationship between social media Marketing and Brand awareness among smartphone users in Egypt

“…. However, there is always a challenge in how organizations can figure out the results of social media marketing (Costa, Borges-Tiago & Tiago, 2018). Therefore, this study aimedto determine the effect of social media marketing on brand awareness among smartphone users in Egypt, moreover, to identify the effect of demographics and psychographics on this relationship.…”