I have a friend who works for a Pharma company in Marketing and PR (as I understand it) and she is pretty keen on social marketing but her company is not.

Lets think about how my on-line life has distributed my experience with the new wonder diet drug ‘Orislat’ or ‘Alli’ to see if social marketing does work with an industry like Pharmaceuticals.

So where have I done social marketing for Alli without really knowing?

- Facebook -

I updated my status to say I was trying Orislat for two weeks. Four friends commented and two emailed to ask me to keep them updated on my progress. I have already generated interest, and that was only from friends who felt the need to comment.

I updated my status twice to indicate the weight I had lost. Two of my ‘friends’ on Facebook have confirmed that they are now taking it.

- Twitter -

Again I mirrored my dealings on Twitter, I don’t have as many friends but some random people have contacted me (through Hairfreax as that’s my twitter name) to ask how it is going. I replied, girls like to talk diets.

So I have possibly sold for up to 6 months 3 lots of Orislat RRP of £900 at the cheapest price I could find on the net, probably more. This has cost the Pharma company nothing.

I HATE social marketing advertising. I ignore it mostly, but real experiences and positive genuine comments are what sells. Are these big companies (or their PR teams, as it would be their jobs on the line) afraid to put their reputations in the hands of the web socialites? It would mean that they would have to be well….customer focused….

Peoples experiences can kill your reputation if you are not customer focused. I bring your attention to this thread:

http://www.tamebay.com/2009/05/question-answers-with-frooition.html

As an example of a company being lynched by customers then proceeding to re-hang themselves with their own words. Silence WAS better. If you are not good with PR, get a good solid company who will sort it out for you, they can work wonders and there are even companies out there who specialise in on-line PR. But first you have to admit you have a problem!

Customers have a voice now, so if you don’t bring the social marketing to them, they will bring it to you and you might not like it!

Oh, I have lost 8lbs in 3 weeks and have another 16lbs to shift but my weight loss has slowed this week. I won’t give up quite yet though!