Small Talk

April 7, 2011 »

The Value of Enchantment

I’m pretty excited to start Guy Kawasaki’s newest book, Enchantment.  I’m a big fan of his work, and this new release focuses on a topic that is taking on greater meaning than ever for me: doing the right thing, and the positive effect of those actions.  When you are good for your word, when you deliver on your promises, and when you give back, you earn social currency.  Your opinion becomes more influential, your trust levels increase, and your word of mouth power grows exponentially.  

I’ve been thinking more and more about reputation management, and what it means for individuals and for brands.  I’m not talking about guys like Tiger Woods who screwed up their reputation, or Charlie Sheen and his torpedo of truth (though his meteoric rise in Twitter followers is a marketing case study in the making!).  Instead, I’m talking about everyday people like you and me - as well as the brands we use and the companies we support. 

When I went to college, I showed up the first day and had connected exactly one time on the phone with my roommate.  He was the only person I knew - and I didn’t know what he looked like until we met.  You probably had the same experience when you went to college.

But now with Facebook, reputation management takes on a whole new meaning and the rules of engagement are a bit different. This morning, I learned from my neighbor that her two sons, who will be going to college in the Fall, signed on to their colleges’ Facebook pages and were able to rapidly connect with and ‘friend’ dozens and dozens of people.  An instant social network, practically overnight!

What I started to wonder about was how teens are going to be managing their reputation through their Facebook pages, knowing that their photos, their favorite bands and the witty comments that they post will define how they are perceived as they enter college.  It will influence who wants to be friends with them, who their roommates will be (yes, the kids can choose their own roommates now, based on who they get to know via Facebook!), and how they participate in their social circle. 

Over the past two days, I re-connected with a number of old friends at the DTC National conference in Boston, and so many people that I’ve known for years have done a great job managing their own brand.  They’ve stayed in touch, they’ve remained grounded, and they encourage ongoing involvement.  And they did this without the help of social media.

Of course, at the conference, social media remained the bright shiny object in the room - but with almost zero documentation about where it was really making a difference in the pharma space.  I still stand by comments I made in the Fall of 2010 that most pharma brands have little to no reason to establish pages in our current environment - unless they can use these pages to establish trust with the consumers by offering something of value.  But therein lies the issue: it is so difficult for pharma brands to offer what people want - like two-way dialogue and meaningful exchange - and the result is static pages that are dull, that generally fail to engage a consumer as the company policy effectively removes the social from social media. 

So what can pharma companies do to help their reputation and enchant a user base?  I’d argue for authenticity.  Be real. Develop a personality. Recognize that there are a lot of people who want to engage with you and know more about what you do.  (Isn’t this what those teens are doing as they gather their fans?) Share details of clinical trials.  Communicate about R&D.  Let them get to know your senior leadership and be human about it.  Do the right thing.  And be good for your word.  As Guy Kawasaki no doubt will confirm for me in his book, enchant a base of consumers and the word will spread! 

This won’t happen overnight, and it will take perseverance and leadership. Maybe famous Argentinian soccer players can garner seven million fans in seven hours, but it will take pharma a lot longer.  But they can get there in time, and it will be worth it.  They just need to do the right thing.

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