Abstract
Social media and social networks are the rage these days. The healthcare industry in general and the pharmaceutical industry in particular, are being reshaped by the proliferation of electronic communication through social media. Consequently, marketing practices are also evolving rapidly. Pharmaceutical marketers need a better understanding of how social media work and how they influence marketing strategy. This chapter reviews the burgeoning literature on word of mouth, in particular relating to social media and on how social media and social networks are redefining marketing strategy in this context. It provides a framework for analyzing the effects of social media on patients, physicians, and marketers. It offers actionable implications for pharmaceutical companies, provides pointers to successfully develop and implement an integrated social media marketing strategy, and highlights fruitful avenues for future research.
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Notes
- 1.
Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation (or Millennials), Generation Next, Net Generation, Echo Boomers, describes the demographic cohort following Generation X. As there are no precise dates for when the Millennial generation starts and ends, commentators have used birth dates ranging somewhere from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y).
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Shankar, V., Li, J.(. (2014). Leveraging Social Media in the Pharmaceutical Industry. In: Ding, M., Eliashberg, J., Stremersch, S. (eds) Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry. International Series in Quantitative Marketing, vol 20. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7801-0_16
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