Official Corporate Blogs are a First for Big Pharma

June 21, 2007 11:23 PM | Written by Yan Shikhvarger

Two blogs launched in June that are a first for Pharma and the entrants (J&J and GSK) have entered the blogosphere with two different approaches. It has taken a long time for Pharma to enter the corporate blog space as they do tend to raise issues and new risks.

J&J
"J&J BTW" (http://www.jnjbtw.com/) is a corporate issues blog and is written by a single corporate communications person. Several months before launch, J&J wisely organized a healthcare blogger conference and so far the blog was positively received by the influentials. (See a reaction by one of the attendees) Overall, this is a good move for J&J because it provides a communications platform that can be used for a variety of purposes - crisis management, csr, and corporate voice on issues.

"On JNJ BTW, there will be talk about Johnson & Johnson - what we are doing, how we are doing it and why. There will be comment on the news about our company and the industry - occasionally correcting any mistakes (not that that ever happens!) or simply providing more context. I hope and expect that some of my colleagues will eventually join me on this blog."

GSK
alliConnect (http://www.alliconnect.com/) is a blog focused on a single product and is collaboratively written by the product marketing team. It aims to build a community around weight loss as an issue. One of the big issues that deter Pharma from entering the blog space is comment control and GSK has addressed this issue as well by promissing to "eview and publish your comment within 24 hours".

It is interesting to follow the evolution of these blogs and see if this sparks more companies entering the blogosphere.

Digg It | Reddit | De.lic.ious | Facebook