Facebook Requires Drug Companies to Socialize

In an effort to increase socialization amongst businesses and consumers Facebook forces drug companies to enable comments

Facebook wants to encourage interaction between its users and drug companies that have pages on the social networking platform. Recently Facebook decided to try and solve an underlying problem; the lack of socializing between companies and users.  Facebook has been used as a means of advertising not socializing, by major pharmaceutical companies around the globe.  Drug companies have had their walls disabled because they are worried users might make negative comments about their products, they just want to advertise them.

According to an article in the Washington Post, starting Monday, drug companies will have to open up their walls to comments as a means to encourage interaction between Facebook users and businesses. While some companies such as AstraZeneca, which sells the antidepressant Seroquel, will shut down a page devoted to depression and Johnson Johnson said it will close four of its pages Monday. Other companies said they will monitor their pages more closely once the changes take effect.

Perhaps they should put a disclaimer on the site that reads, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!” As funny as this may sound, because of all the regulations that are part of the drug corporation world, they are scared that allowing users to make comments could eventually lead to paperwork that ends up at the FDA (i.e. negative event reports).

As with any open forum, there is the risk that people will discuss their not-so-flattering experiences with products and until now, drug companies have been protected from Facebook in hopes to avoid this issue.  Product sharing is one thing, however if users were to interact on how pharmaceutical drugs affected their systems than the medical world as we know it has potential to change.

Pharmaceutical companies welcomed the idea of using social networking via the popular social media site, as long as the site made it so users couldn’t post comments on their Wall.

It’s not clear why Facebook decided to reverse that feature for the companies, but Andrew Noyes, manager of public policy communications for Facebook, said in an e-mail, “We think these changes will help encourage an authentic dialogue on pages.”  Noyes may be right as many Facebook users rely on information via friends, connections and pages they find while browsing.

Facebook will allow companies to continue to block wall comments on specific prescription product pages, but most pages would be focused on companies themselves or on disease or patient-specific communities, which then have ties to the companies’ prescription products.

The Post reports that Facebook has become an increasingly popular destination for patient communities, with many shifting over the past couple years from message boards and other Web sites to pages hosted by companies, according to Lisa Gualtieri, an assistant professor at the Tufts School of Medicine who studies social media and health.

While it may take some monitoring, why don’t the drug companies just delete the unwanted comments from the wall? This might just be the course of action for those that don’t want to completely shut their pages down. Another option would be to include some terms that the user would have to agree to so that there may still be an open forum, with the understanding that the author has the right to remove inappropriate material.

“We’ve been able to get feedback that’s more genuine and relevant,” Dennis Urbaniak, Sanofi’s U.S. vice president for diabetes, said. “We see [the page] as a way of getting to know patients better.” To avoid problems, the company avoids discussion of specific products and sets up “clear terms and conditions with the user” on its page, which also features safety information for its diabetes products.

The FDA has not yet released guidelines for online engagement but is working on releasing their two cents on proper procedures of online communication. Hopefully Facebook will continue to be a place for genuine social communication, as opposed to a place for shameless plugs and corporate product updates. It is, after all, a “book of faces” and not a “book of drug producing billionaires.” What do you think? Are major corporations abusing the whole concept of social media?  Or is Facebook just tired of handing out free advertising?  A pharmaceutical companies page without comments is basically just a large ad that tells users the drugs or products that are available.  Facebook is ending the pharmaceutical companies ability to control what users see and do not see, its about time!

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