ePharma Summit Recap

Thanks to all the presenters who braved "Snowmaggedon" to present at this year's ePharma Summit in Pennsylvania.

There were a lot of interesting presentations including some highlights from @skypen on his recent FDA interview with DDMAC's Dr. Jean-Ah Kang.

Of particular interest to me, since we are actively involved in developing guidelines and training, was the presentation from Mel Halkyard, who discussed the process she manages at Eli Lilly to implement social media guidelines and practices.

When talking about her learnings from the process, which is almost complete, Mel highlighted several themes:

• 1. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid). When talking about personnel guidelines, it is important that everyone understands what is needed and required.
• 2. It's important to ensure that your social media guidelines are in sync with the rest of the personnel policies and procedures you already have in place.
• 3. It s a good idea to assign ownership so that there is a clear decision tree, and decisions can be made when needed. Ideally, a single point of contact, possibly a Social Media Czar, or an Interdisciplinary Social Media Steering Committee. Also needed is the sponsorship of senior leadership; preferably from someone who also sees the value proposition.

It's important to bear in mind during this process that it is a living document. Because of the rapidly changing communications landscape and the tools that go along with it, new situations will develop which may require that your guidelines change.

When using social media in particular, it's necessary to distinguish between the blurry lines of personal and corporate communications and to make it clear for staff what is acceptable from the company's perspective. Once you have your guidelines in place, it is then necessary to educate staff on the most productive uses and implementation of social media.

Does your company offer social media training or do you have guidelines or policies in place?

Originally published on Full Spectrum Blog Feb 17th 2010