In an amount of time that is incredibly short, the evolution of cloud networking has blossomed into a lifestyle habit that most people cannot do without. As a result, businesses have joined the bandwagon and followed suit.

These days, discussions involving clinical issues, devices and oncology drugs have become faster, easier and more global due to the cloud. When it comes to a cure for cancer, there is undeniable potential in the development of new treatments.

In the last ten years, pharma brands like Pfizer, Merck and GSK have found soaring costs for new drug-development. Because of this along with other factors, pharmaceutical companies are making more attempts to become partners with worldwide organizations of research that are more nimble and smaller to develop medical breakthroughs for the new generation.

One example is when Eli Lilly partnered with Innocentive allowing researchers to post challenges of science that members of the community can pay for to be able to contribute in the search for a solution.

One participant came up with an affordable method of manufacturing a TB drug. From that collaboration, over 100 partnerships have thus been established to look for solutions in areas that include cancer, arthritis and diabetes, among others.

Another prime example of how oncology can benefit from cloud collaboration is demonstrated by this inspiring TED Talk below on open-source medical research. The talk tells the story of how in Jay Bradner’s lab, they found a molecule that might hold the answer to curing cancer, and instead of patenting, they published their findings and mailed samples to 40 other labs to work on.

Will this collaborative effort bring the world closer to a cure for cancer? It seems almost guaranteed that finding the cure will be due in no small part to social media.

Nitro Digital is a digital marketing agency specialising in delivering online solutions that add value to your business. With over a decade of experience in the healthcare industry we have a wide range of services designed for pharma brands. If you want to learn more about the services we offer, call us on 0845 450 5545 or email us at info@nitro-digital.co.uk .

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Watch Facebook’s introduction to their new Messages product, which is definitely not email!

2. Third Life: Merging of the virtual and real worlds

It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the online from the offline world anymore. Many online media companies, such as Google, are working to ensure that the online and real worlds become seamlessly connected. Find out about the Third Life.

3. Editing your Google Docs on the go

Google’s new document editor supports editing on your mobile browser.

4. The web may be lawless, but it won’t stay that way

These skirmishes over Twitter are a reminder that, for all its pretence to liberty, we can’t stop the internet civilising itself

5. Why the 2011 ‘Social’ Super Bowl Will Break Digital Records

Evidence of integration is everywhere, this year most notably in what my colleagues at Nielsen referred to as the Engagement Trifecta — the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics and the World Cup. This eight-month window saw the biggest single concentration of media investment in ad history.

6. Twitter’s Official Analytics Product Has Arrived

Twitter has started inviting a select group of users to test a new analytics product, Mashable has learned. Such a product has been rumored for some time, and a Twitter executive said earlier this year that Analytics would debut by the end of 2010.

7. Amazon.com going into movie producing with new website, first look deal with Warner Bros.

Hollywood has seen some unusual entrants to the business of film producing over the years, but the world’s largest online retailer might just be one of the least likely. Amazon.com is launching Amazon Studios, a new website that lets users upload scripts and sample movies and then use community tools to evaluate and edit each other’s work.

8. Fascinating Social Media Facts of Year 2010

Social media is not just a social instrument of communication. Social Media when compared to the year 2009 shows a fantastic growth in terms of people participation, penetration, user-ability, business and more.

Come back next week for more Social Media News from Nitro!

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However, these sites fulfill a very basic criterion for humans. It is that of communication. People living in extreme corners of the world are seen to be getting married, friends from far-off places are able to keep in touch with each other (see a couple of our previous blogs on social media in space and the internet on mount everest). These help us make new friends, stay in touch with the old ones and let us know more about the people who we care about and are interested in… their likes, dislikes, interests and emotions.

There is an element of addictiveness in these sites and the youth of today are indeed becoming more and more dependent. The most appealing thing about these sites is that they provide a platform for the individuals to express their views, giving them the freedom of choice and expression… from anti-Government campaigns to global warming issues, from Manchester United fan clubs to G.W Bush hate clubs… there is everything for everyone to share and speak about.

What else could be more appealing than the thought of being heard not just by your group of friends but by the whole wide world? And that is why I feel these sites are here to stay. It just emphasizes the fact that man is a social being and shall always remain so.

While we are able to express our views freely on social networking sites they do invade personal privacy and raise security concern since your life story is outlined on a one page profile, with your interests, likes and dislikes, pictures and friends. Nowadays, if you are applying for a job, the company could do a background check on you by going onto your social networking page and finding out what you get up to in your personal life. Social networking sites are gold mines for ex-offenders and identity thieves as anyone could take your personal details and create fraudulent accounts in your name.

So to sum up; yes, social networking sites are great and provide easy communication. They allows you to stay in touch and increase your social connections. Social networking sites allow us to keep in touch with people across the world without the need to leave our front room, and it can be accessible at work or on the move using mobile phones. So, you don’t need to waste a minute communicating with friends. However, they do have a few negative effects, but that’s the case with any technology.

Want to see the sources for this blog?

Check out our digital effects on society bookmarks on Delicious

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This journey is guaranteed to blow your mind

The digital fever has hit us hard

So folks your unlucky if u aint gota bodyguard

It started in 71 when my mum was just a baby

The digital revolution came around, do u feel me?

In the streets of New York a programmer was born

He’s as fat as pork, a ginger beard he’s as hairy as a Yetty

Ray Tomlinson the inventor of e mail

If it wasn’t for him I would never have had my G-mail

He did his thing and something else came along

Teletext magazine making 76 a year for digital mix already

Mobile phones the size of a brick and Dr Martin Cooper’s Motorola so ugly it makes me sick

We come to the early 80’s when I feel a big change

CD roms taking a storm and magazines now using Yetty’s e-mail

Marketing? What the hell is that? Brainwashing the rich and poor for money with this new technology

In 1989 Tim Burners Lee changes it all

He runs up in our face and the World Wide Web is here to stay

Our lives are changed forever and we’ll be gone without this

In 94 we got poor as Amazon started

Google hit back in 98 and we can search and search until we find what we lookin’ for

We get everything on this web even if it’s against the law

We start making our content – its user generated

Facebook and twitter, MySpace is now hated

Now Groundswell comes along, it’s the boss’s favourite,

They say everyone’s online use it to your advantage

Companies promote online even in Pharma

Healthcare professionals fight back and deliver Karma

For having bad marketing before the digi revolution

Press and TV? That’s advertising pollution!

Iphones and ipad, web and walk

What’s next, use your iphone as a TV remote?

I’m too late, that’s already happening

This journey will keep continuing for as long as I live

And beyond.

Please be aware that no harm or offense was intended during the making of this rap. All rights reserved.

Check out our digital history bookmarks on Delicious.

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It puts things into perspective thinking that those at the lowest income level, or in single-parent families can’t afford basic resources such as email, financial services and consumer services, which have all become prevalent in society as necessities as a result of the Internet.  Whilst I have the privilege of complaining about the slow internet connection at home and having to wait for more than 5 seconds to have a new webpage appear, there are people out there who don’t even have a computer at home. These people are the ones who suffer from the digital divide in the UK and also worldwide. There are fewer job opportunities available to them; restricted access to information and support; and they become disenfranchised in terms of access to basic resources mentioned above.

Actually, even those of us who have a PC and have access to the internet still feel the effects of the digital divide. Although for many of us, searching online is easy and we usually find the content we’re looking for, there are a number of cultural and ethnic groups who have been marginalised with their search needs frequently left unmet. In order to bridge this digital divide a number of minority groups have built their own search engines that bring the content that they’re looking for to the top of search results. For example, Web Wombat Search is Australia’s answer to this problem as it compiles 20m Australian webpages for users to search. This is the same for India’s Gurji; Israel’s Jgab and Annzi; and Gateway Black, a search engine looking to cater to the needs of the global black community.

So, it seems there are answers to solving the problem of the digital divide. But, in order to give more people access to the Internet more creativity needs to be put in to finding efficient and innovative solutions. There are many disadvantaged communities across the EU, who would greatly benefit from being given greater access. For example those living in rural areas still don’t have access to high-bandwidth technologies. In order to make these technologies accessible to more people, the EU estimates that it will cost €150bn to €300bn to build the infrastructure.  So as to bridge this digital divide, U.S. Ambassador to the EU, William Kennard suggests that we should be looking at hybrid methods in order to find a more efficient solution. He talks about using wireless technologies to complement fibre optic lines and using satellite and terrestrial networks in combination.

There is still so much that needs to be done in order to achieve equality across all communities in society in terms of digital media and technologies. The digital revolution is upon us, and it’s a shame that not everyone has been given the capability to access the wonders it holds.

Do you know of any initiatives being implemented to bridge the digital divide?

Check out our digital divide bookmarks on Delicious

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Ok, so we’ve come to accept that digital media is going to play a dominant role in the future of pharma marketing activities (now being dubbed pharma3.0). As I mentioned in my last post there are some trailblazers who are championing the use of highly interactive channels such as the iphone or Nintendo wii. Now the worry is that pharma execs will note the potential gains of pursuing marketing activities through digital and social media but that it will just remain a pipe dream. The fear of becoming entrenched in a complex web of legislation and or (in extreme circumstances) punishment in the form of civil and criminal sanctions is just too difficult to stomach.

To help patients to become informed of and receive the best care available to them pharmas need to engage in open dialogue. In the eyes of the pharma exec this is carries a high level of risk. Of course risk is only risk if the boundaries which lie between permissible and non-permissible marketing activities are marred.

My beginners guide to direct to consumer advertising or marketing of controlled medicines is as follows*.

The code of practice operated by the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority is the pivotal regulatory mechanism for the pharmaceutical industry**. Clause 20 of this code details the rules on relations with the general public and media.

1. The Code states that prescription only medicines must not be advertised to the general public.

2.  Statements must not be made which encourage members of the public to ask their doctors to prescribe a  specific  medicine.

3. The code states that members of the general public should be referred to a doctor
if they approach companies with questions about personal medical matters.

4. The introduction of a new medicine must not be made known to the general public until ‘reasonable’ steps are made to inform relevant health professionals.

5. Pharma companies are held responsible by the code for information about their products issued by their public relations firms.

6. Information presented to the public about medicines must be balanced and factual. ‘It must not raise unfounded hopes of successful treatment or be misleading with respect to the safety of the product,’ the clause states.

This part of the clause ‘allows for the provision of non-promotional information about prescription medicines to the general public either in response to a direct inquiry from an individual, including inquiries from journalists, or by dissemination of such information’ via relations with the press. However, all such information must observe the principles set out in the clause.

*In the UK
** The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain

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Renommierte Medienpartner wie Google, doctors.net.uk, Ogilvy Healthworld und natürlich Nitro Digital unterstützen die Veranstaltung.

Bereits in früheren Jahren bot EyeForPharma allen, die sich für das Thema E-Marketing interessieren, eine fantastische Möglichkeit, sich zu vernetzen und Erfahrungen auszutauschen. Weil unsere Leidenschaft Pharma und E-Marketing gilt, freuen wir uns immer über diese jährliche Konferenz und die Chance Gleichgesinnte und ‚alte‘ Freunden zu treffen und über die neusten digitalen Lösungen zu diskutieren.

In diesem Jahr nimmt das Team von Nitro Digital an der Konferenz mit einem eigenen Messestand teil. Wir befinden uns derzeit in der letzten Vorbereitungsphase und arbeiten Tag und Nacht an unserem neuen Website Design. Daumen drücken, dass unsere Banner es rechzeitig nach Berlin schaffen. Eines kann bereits verraten werden, wir verlosen eine Nintendo Wii sowie ein dazugehöriges ‘Super Mario Kart’ Spiel an einen der Teilnehmer – Kommt einfach zu uns an den Stand und versucht euer Glück!

Für mich heißt es auch, dass ich wieder mein Heimatland besuchen kann und obwohl ich nicht aus Berlin stamme, freue ich mich schon sehr auf die Hauptstadt.

Wir freuen uns schon euch alle auf der Konferenz zu sehen.

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Being the new guy at Nitro Digital means I’ve got a lot of catching up to do and when it comes to Digital Media I’m a bit of a novice. Given that I’m the Commercial Manager, it’s probably wise for me to polish up on the basics before I can help any of you guys out with solutions that are right for your business. If you’re no early adopter then we can learn together, on the other hand if you’re the chief Editor of Mashable or some kind of digital media guru then feel free to point out any misgivings. Follow me here.

I hope you enjoy my entries!

Lawrence

What are the benefits of any business employing Digital Media?

Websites

Nowadays consumers have a wealth of information at their fingertips, be it online, on their phones and in the traditional media. Information search pre and post purchase must not be ruled out even for routine low importance purchases. Regardless of your service or product it is unwise to not include a website as a part of your marketing strategy. This may seem obvious but some companies with large portfolios often omit dedicated websites for each and every one of their brands. Brands for low involvement (certain FMCG’s) products are increasingly using their websites as interactive platforms with games and content of a rather ambiguous nature. These websites often encourage visitors to engage in dialogue with the brand through a range of social networking sites and micro blogging tools such as Twitter.

When considering brands or products which are purchased less frequently and as such require more in terms of information search (high involvement) the first port of call will invariably be a website. If a dedicated website does not exist for a particular brand the searcher will be influenced by SERP’s (search engine results pages) and the relevance of the results generated. In the instance that the consumer is looking for a product but has not specified a particular brand their search will be determined by what the search engine deems relevant. Research suggests that many people click through from the top half of any search engine’s results page and are too lazy to scroll down. With this in mind all companies need to ensure they sit at the top of SERP’s for all relevant search parameters pertaining to their product or service.

One of the ways to ensure this visibility is to have a comprehensive website which is rich in content and up to date. This method increases what are called organic results on sites such as Google and Yahoo. However, a comprehensive, content rich and up to date website is not always enough to stay ahead of the competition on SERP’s. Marketers need to adopt additional techniques to ensure high levels of visitor traffic regardless of if they’re selling low or high involvement products.

SEM – Search Engine Marketing

The techniques which increase visitor traffic to websites are now essential to marketers. After all, what good is a great website without any hits? This is where SEM steps in, it consists of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay per Click (PPC).

As mentioned, relevant content is highly important to SEO but there are other technical facets which will determine visibility on SERP’s. Firstly the website needs to be formatted to allow for search engine access to content on the website. This process is known as spidering and the website construction must have spiderability in mind. Secondly, the content, however relevant to the search parameters needs to be embedded within the source coding of the given page. These techniques require the skill of SEO’s who specialise in this field.

Search engines rate websites in terms of their trustworthiness in the following areas:

• Age

• Relevant content

• Links from other websites

Since even the best SEO’s can’t increase the age of a domain or website other ways to harbour the trust of search engines must be employed. Linkability is another way which search engines determine a website’s position on SERP’s. Well established sites will automatically have decent linkability (the amount of inbound web links pointing to their site) but newer, less established websites may not. Dependent on how well known the brand, product or service is offline will determine the amount of inbound links it has online. In the case of an unknown, links can be created with the help of PR work, affiliation with other websites, failing that, they can even be bought.

PPC or Pay per Click helps websites to increase their presence aside from the organic results generated by search engines. Instead, the results appear in their search index or sponsored listings section. Because it involves paying the search engine each time a link is clicked on visibility in SERP’s does not hinge on linkability, age or relevant content.

Charges for PPC can range from a few cents to astronomical sums dependent on if there are bidders for the same search criteria. Although pay per click advertisements may generate traffic to a website it does not secure a sale or registered interest, this means the cost per acquisition (CPA) may be inverse to the amount spent. This is why it is wise for business’ to employ the services of digital media specialists who are able to run SEO and PPC campaigns simultaneously which ensure a high click through rate (CTR) whilst maintaing a low cost per acquisition.

Social Media

The way in which people interact with one another is changing, it makes sense that companies need to adapt to the new ways in which people search for information, interpret and disseminate it. Social media consists of various social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook, Weblogs or Blogs are regularly updated forms of User Generated Content (UGC) which tend to provide ongoing news or commentary on a particular subject. Microblogging sites such as Twitter allow for shorter entries or updates on topics relevant to them and Wikis allow for the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages.

According to research, two thirds of the world’s internet users regularly visit social networks and they spend 10% of all internet time on them. With unparalleled reach over many demographics social networks such as Facebook and Twitter now hold the key to business’ who want to engage in dialogue with their stakeholders no matter where they are in the world.

This generation of Web2.0 users are comfortable with the notion of generating online content on Weblogs (Blogs) or in forums, they are keen to share experiences with members of their online communities, good or bad.

Organisations which are spearheading this movement are creating and managing online profiles which allow for highly targeted advertising campaigns, in depth stakeholder profiling and most importantly allowing people to identify with their organisation on a personal level.

Perhaps the most exciting part of using social media is the notion of viralability – developing a message which members of the online community choose to circulate freely and of their own accord. As the message is passed from person to person it spreads like a virus.

The need for any business or organisation to embrace social media is blindingly obvious. Marketing principles since the days of Henry Ford have revolved around a consumer driven market, their needs and how best to satisfy them. Not to respond to the buzz of social media is to ignore the way in which people now choose to live, communicate and learn.

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