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| Stephanie Katzman |
"Healthcare,
overall, and pharma is definitely on the developmental side of the LinkedIn
spectrum, if you will, from an advertising perspective," said Stephanie
Katzman, LinkedIn's healthcare lead in its Marketing Solutions group. "But
over the past three years, we've seen a huge growth in having these companies
consider LinkedIn as a channel."
Many
drugmakers have taken a first step, usually by setting up a company page where
drugmakers can build up followers and create an audience with employees, colleagues
and associates. But pharmas are increasingly using LinkedIn for paid
sponsorships and advertising. Sponsored updates and InMail campaigns are
beginning to move from testing to a repeat marketing strategy among pharmas,
Katzman said.
InMail,
in which sponsored messages are sent directly to targeted LinkedIn members
inboxes, tends to be "safe" for pharma because email bypasses any
open comment possibilities, she said. LinkedIn will only send InMail paid
messages to a user's account once every 60 days, but Katzman said pharma
companies who test InMail more often than not will quickly line up for the next
opening.
Across
her three and a half years at LinkedIn, she said, in the first year there were
just two or three pharma companies using LinkedIn for paid advertising, but the
number has grown to about a dozen now.
Sponsored
updates account for about 50% of LinkedIn's marketing unit total revenue, a
spokeswoman said. However, a note of caution from Katzman: Because sponsored
updates are usually "teaser" content that links to more information,
she encourages pharma not to use those for branded drugs.
"I
think there are a lot of opportunities for pharma companies to be the leader
and the innovator across their competitive set," Katzman said. "…
Professionals on LinkedIn are connected to peers, colleagues and managers so
the platform allows for that much more engagement. You're not hiding behind a
handle or showing pictures of family, this is your professional brand."
As
far as individual pharma executives using LinkedIn, an informal look at the
CEOs of the largest 20 revealed fewer than half have accounts on LinkedIn. CEOs
Ian Read at Pfizer ($PFE) and Joe Jimenez at Novartis ($NVS) are among those who have up-to-date LinkedIn
profiles. Mr. Read is, in fact, in the LinkedIn Influencer network, an
invitation-only designation for corporate thought leaders. Even Allergan ($AGN) CEO Brent Saunders, an active social media
user with more than 500 LinkedIn followers, is not up to date; his profile
lists him as still CEO of Actavis.
However,
when asked about the "missing" CEOs, Katzman said pharma executive
behavior is pretty typical among executives from all industries. Some use it
more than others and typically for more personal professional reasons such as
building networks and consuming industry content.
