Earlier this month, The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases announced the launch of its END7 campaign, which focuses on eliminating seven Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) by 2020. Working in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The World Health Organisation (WHO) and 13 pharmaceutical companies from the United States, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates, the campaign aims to eliminate lymphatic filariasis, trachoma, and infections caused by three soil-transmitted helminths, schistosomiasis and onchocerciasis.

To aid the initiative, pharma companies have donated pills to treat these NTDs. Novartis in particular has made headlines in the news by extending its commitment to help achieve the elimination of leprosy in partnership with the WHO.

The campaign has been promoted primarily through Facebook and the Global Network website.  The Facebook page has gained an impressive 800 fans in less than two months and features success stories, photographs and campaign videos as well as a real-time donation counter.



The welcome page also features an animated video entitles ‘Our Mission in a Minute’, which you can view below.

Are you looking to launch a condition awareness campaign? Nitro Digital can help you! Call us on 0844 450 5545 or email us at info@nitro-digital.co.uk. To find out more about our work, check out our pharma marketing services.

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1. Facebook Timeline for all

On Tuesday, Facebook announced that Timeline will soon be activated for all users.

Facebook Timeline was introduced last September at the annual f8 conference in San Francisco. In December, Facebook began giving all users the opportunity to switch over. All you had to do to get Facebook Timeline was click the ‘Get Timeline’ button on the Introducing Timeline page, rather than going through the multi-step process of creating a developer account.

Facebook Timeline, for those of us already using it, has meant a whole lot of changes and new features. Timeline neatly packages your life events in the form of photos, status updates and wall posts.



Will you miss the old Facebook profile? Let us know by commenting below.

2. Twitter to censor content in some countries

Twitter is giving itself the right to withhold content in specific countries, while keeping that content available for the rest of the world, the company announced Thursday.

Until now, the only way for Twitter to censor content was to universally eliminate it from the site. This change means content deemed inappropriate by a specific government can be withheld locally, explains a blog post called “The Tweets Still Must Flow.”

If and when content is withheld, affected users will be notified of either an account or tweet’s censorship.

3. YouTube changes again

Building off its homepage redesign in December, YouTube is rolling out design updates to other aspects of its site.

The changes include updates to the Browse page, Video Editor and Video Manager and align with the overall rebranding that Google has pushed out to the majority of its sites and products.

The Browse page now boasts a cleaner design with a focus on discovering new channels and videos. YouTube displays the most viewed videos as well as recommendations based on your past viewing habits.

4. Twitter Lets Employees Loose at Hack Week

Twitter announced this week that is has been hacked by more than 100 coders and developers.

But don’t go cancelling your account. This is all part of Twitter’s official 2012 Hack Week, a week-long event where employees from across the company are given time away from their desks to hack Twitter, coming up with new tools, ideas and designs to make the Twitter experience even better.

“Hack Week is one of the ways we actively promote innovation through experimentation around the company,” the company wrote in a blog post. “This week, a wide range of folks here are taking time away from their day-to-day work to collaborate and develop ideas that they are passionate about.”

5. 20 things that happened on the internet in 2011: Can you spot them?



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Pfizer has the most Twitter followers and takes 3rd place in having the most number of Facebook likes. However, the study also showed that in many cases pharma brands’ social media presence outperformed their promotional spending. Roche for instance ranked fifteenth in overall spending for promotions while it came second only to Pfizer in Twitter followers. This may effectively show that succeeding in the world of social media is often determined by the strategy you adopt, which allows you maximise its impact of your online campaigns.

Another point to bear in mind is that it is not just about volumes. Social media performance also has to be judged based on the quality of engagement. You can have thousands of followers but if you fail to effectively influence and educate them about your brand, than what is the point?

Clearly, pharma companies are increasingly establishing their social media presence. What may cause marketers to wonder however is what role social media should play in their promotional efforts and what impact this will have on the bottom line?

Mobile health apps are becoming an increasingly popular digital tool for improving health outcomes, condition awareness and brand awareness and loyalty that comes with it. Have a look at our latest post on pharma Android and iPhone apps here.

Do you want to effectively engage with patients, HCPs and journalists? Nitro Digital are experts in digital pharmaceutical marketing. To build a successful engagement strategy, get in touch by calling 0844 450 5545 or email info@nitro-digital.co.uk

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Welcome to this week’s social media news.

1. Twitter unhappy about Google’s social search changes

Twitter has complained about changes made by Google to integrate its social network Google+ into search results. The new feature, called Search plus Your World, will automatically push results from Google+ up the search rankings.

Twitter argued that; “For years, people have relied on Google to deliver the most relevant results any time they wanted to find something on the internet. Often, they want to know more about world events and breaking news. As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and tweets are often the most relevant results. We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone.”

Do you think Google’s new search algorithm will decrease search accuracy when it comes to news and world events? Let us know by commenting below.2. London Olympics restricts volunteers Twitter and Facebook use

London 2012 Olympics volunteers have been banned from posting updates and photos to Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. The London Organising Committee announced Friday that Games Makers, the 70,000 person volunteer squad, cannot post their roles, locations, or details about the athletes and other VIPs online.

Broadcasting our whereabouts on Foursquare or snapping an Instagam of a celebrity sighting have become second nature for many of us. While athletes are permitted to tweet or post Facebook updates, the London Organising Committee has made a decision that will limit the citizen discussion of Olympic events.

Do you think these social media restrictions will be possible to monitor effectively?



3. Creative use of Facebook Timeline

Israel’s Anti-Drugs Authority along with agency McCann Israel makes creative use of the Facebook Timeline’s design, which splits your profile content evenly down the middle. A profile for “Adam Barak” compares pictures of the fictional character over the course of a year – on one side, he is on drugs, on the other, he is not, effectively capturing the split personality of a drug-user.

Of course, Facebook Timeline is not open to brands yet, but since this is still a real profile of a person – albeit an imaginary one – this may just slide past Facebook’s policy.



4. Social Media Tracks Haiti’s Cholera Epidemic

Public health systems may be losing their monopoly on data about outbreaks of disease.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston found that news reports and social media can also collect accurate data, and deliver those results faster than government agencies.

When the cholera epidemic began in Haiti in late 2010, clinics and hospitals began sending reports to the Ministry of Public Health, which tracked the spread of the disease.

Is social media the solution to disease prevention? Let us know by commenting below.



5. What does your Tweet smell like?

A company has found a way to incorporate smells into the Internet. Imagine, your significant other mentions you on Twitter and magically you smell his/her perfume. If someone tags you in a Facebook video, the scent of buttered popcorn or fruit fills the room. Olly makes an Internet with smell possible.

Olly — a web-connected smelly robot — created by London and New York-based company called Mint Foundry will give all your online notifications a scent. The creators figured since the web incorporates sight and sound, it’s time to experience it in a different way.

Olly would scent anything from a tweet on Twitter, Like on Instagram, to a photo tag on Facebook.

As seen in the video, Olly is a compact white box that has a removable space in the back that can be filled with any scent you desire. The company suggests essential oils, fruit, perfume, cologne or a drop of gin. They can be stacked, so you can give all your online accounts a different smell.

Cool or pointless? Would you consider adding a scent to your Twitter/Facebook account?

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Welcome to this week’s social media news! Hope you are all feeling festive!

Google ‘let it snow’ brings Christmas to your browser

If you’re yet to get into the Christmas spirit, allow Google to help, and with a tech twist. Type ‘let it snow’ into the search engine, and snowflakes will start falling from the top of the screen. Not only that, the screen will start misting up too. You can even write in it by dragging the cursor, just like wiping your finger over a misted-up car window.

All I want for Christmas is…. Siri?

Apple’s new iPhone spot does an unusual thing for an advertisement: It doesn’t mention the iPhone at all. The advert is a commercial for the iPhone 4S’s digital assistant, Siri, used by Santa himself!

KML to offer mile-high dating via Facebook

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has taken bli8nd-dating to new heights by launching an initiative that will allow customers to pick their seat-mates on Facebook.

The pilot programme is being praised for those people who are sick of being stuck next to crying babies or the passenger from hell – or for those simply looking for mile-high love.

The airline announced its plans to start a “meet and seat” service early next year that will link travellers’ Facebook and LinkedIn profiles to their check-in information.

Would you use ‘meet and seat’? Let us know by commenting below.

O2 is spreading Christmas cheer through its social media campaign

Thanks to O2’s ambitious festive social media campaign, this year, you have the chance to receive a personal video message direct from Santa Claus himself!

Anyone with a Twitter account can send their Christmas messages to the O2 Santa via the company’s @O2 handle using the #O2Santa hash tag and a personal video message is then created for the user to share.

Angry Birds UK activity park to launch in 2012

The first Angry Birds activity parks are going to launch next year, featuring slides and rope swings based on the hugely popular app.

Having already made a fortune out of a merchandise range featuring the games’ popular characters, such as soft toys and jumpers, there will now be a series of Angry Birds-themed parks around the world.

Rovio, Angry Birds’s Finnish parent company, has just signed a global deal with activity park manufacturer Lappset Group, which has already started creating themed swings, slides and towers.

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Roche and Pfizer’s swift response to developments in social media is truly admirable considering that the pharmaceutical industry is notorious for being rather ‘sluggish’ when it comes to adopting new digital marketing methods. However, while having a Google+ page is at present considered to be ‘novel’, without a long-term strategy brands will fail to maximise the real potential the channel holds. So, following on from my previous post on ‘Why Pharma Brands Should Use Google+’, this article looks at how Roche and Pfizer (and other pharma brands) could work Google+ to their advantage.

1. Set clear goals and targets

The first step is to establish the reasons why you want a Google+ page in the first place. Is it to connect to consumers, engage with healthcare professionals (HCPs), nurture relationships with key opinion leaders (KOLs) in the industry, or maybe all of the above? Then, think about what constitutes ‘success’ on the channel and how best to go about achieving it.

Given that Google+ is still a relatively ‘underused’ social network, compared to the likes of Facebook and Twitter, it is a good starting point to consider what it is that you can do on Google+ that you can’t do on other social networks. For instance, Google+ is mainly used by social media enthusiasts at present, which creates huge opportunities to engage KOLs within your industry who generally speaking tend to be particularly active within the social sphere.

For this reason, Roche and Pfizer could aim to reach out to KOLs through Google+ and build up a relationship with them by creating a separate circle for advocates for a specific condition area and organise regular hangouts -group video chat- that allows them to connect to brand representatives. The same could be done for journalists, where media professionals could get unique insight on topical issues from brand representatives. In this case ‘success’ could be measured by the level of engagement between the brand and its circles i.e.: the number of people participating in the hangout.

2. Make the most of Google+’s unique features

One unique feature to Google+ is its famous ‘circles’, which allows pharma brands to exercise a certain degree of control over what information is being shared with whom. For instance, you can create different circles for ‘patients’, ‘HCPs’, ‘journalists’, ‘researchers’, ‘students’ etc.

Another element that makes Google+ special is it’s ‘hangouts’ feature, which has been mentioned earlier. To learn more about Google+ hangouts, watch the video below.

3. Integration with other social media channels

It cannot be emphasised enough that all social media activities must be coordinated effectively in order to maximise the outcome of your marketing efforts. First of all, do not forget to link your website – or whatever platform you use as the hub of your marketing activity – to your Google+ brand page. Secondly, if you are planning on holding hangouts for instance, make sure you are advertising it on other social media channels like Twitter and Facebook.

Google+ also allows you to design a funky profile image (see Coca Cola for example), so make sure that yours stands out from the crowd and effectively reflects your brand’s image.

Using Google+? Add Nitro Digital to your circles! Or, if you want to learn more about Nitro Digital and the services we offer, visit our pharmaceutical marketing page or call us on 0845 450 5545.

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Welcome to this week’s social media news!

Stumble Upon branded pages

Last Monday, StumbleUpon’s website has been revamped to include a new logo, design and a channel feature that gives brands a non-intrusive role in the service.

While the social web discovery site sported a green and blue logo with its initials, SU, winding through it Sunday, it switched to an orange logo that includes more abstract initials Monday. The website’s once Facebook-like design has been reworked to be visually driven, and a new StumbleUpon Bar integrates the Explore box that the company launched in August (the Social Bar, which launched on the iPad app in July, is still nowhere to be found).

What do you make of the new StumbleUpon design? Let us know by commenting below.

Google is bringing high-end gaming to Chrome

Google is bringing console quality to your browser with heavy hitters like Supergiant and Square Enix porting fan favourites in the months to come.

Google showcased the power of its Chrome browser recently, announcing a slew of new console-quality browser games exclusive to Chrome. Among the companies utilising the browser’s Native Client feature include Square Enix, Bungie and Unity Technologies.

Google plans to combine Gmail with Google+ Circles

While Google+ features continue to slowly seep into other Google-owned products, Gmail is getting some social love with a direct tie into the Google+ Circles system.

Mentioned on the official Gmail blog last week, Google announced plans to integrate Google+ Circles into the Gmail interface and has already started rolling out this new feature on Gmail accounts. On the left side of the interface, Gmail users will find a new link that brings up all Circles connected to their Google+ account. Users have the ability to add someone to a Circle through the Gmail interface. When clicking on an email from any contact that also has a Google+ account, Gmail users will be able to view the most recent Google+ wall post from that person on the right hand side of the screen next to the email message.

Twitter introduces brand pages

Last Thursday, Twitter announced a program for Facebook-style brand pages. The announcement, which was coupled with the introduction of a major redesign, will expand the number of brand pages on the platform. Launch partners for the pages include American Express, Best Buy, Bing, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Dell, Disney, General Electric, Hewlitt-Packard, Intel, JetBlue, Kia, McDonald’s, Nike, PepsiCo, Staples, Verizon Wireless, NYSE Euronext, Heineken, Subway and Paramount Pictures, specifically for the release of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol.

Angry birds dress makes big fashion statement

Angry Birds has made its way into fashion before with the introduction of t-shirts and accessories, but the wife of a Rovio executive is taking the brand to a whole new level with an off-the-shoulder ballroom gown that pays tribute to the widely popular game.

Teija Vesterbacka – who is married to Peter, CMO of the company that created the game – wore an Angry Birds dress to an event on Tuesday night at the Finish Presidential Palace to celebrate Finland’s independence. The red dress features the iconic face of one of the Angry Birds characters.

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YouTube Gets a New Look

Since Thursday, YouTube revealed a new more ‘Google-like’ look that reflects the design of other Google products. The New YouTube is all about channels, how you use them, make them, curate them and more. Google states on the Get more into YouTube page, “We’ve given YouTube a refresh. When you login, you’ll be greeted with recent activity from your subscriptions. You can also browse and add new Channels to your homepage. Connect with Google+ and Facebook to share your favourites with friends. There’s plenty to discover, so login and give it a spin”. To take a tour of the new YouTube, watch the video below.

What are your thoughts on the YouTube design? Let us know by commenting below.

What do people look at on your Facebook Page?

EyeTrackShop, a startup business that runs eye-tracking studies for advertisers, helped Mashable to find out what users look at across social networks by applying its technology to a range of pages. The website produced ‘heat maps’ that show which areas of a page get the most attention. It found that profile pictures were the most viewed feature on Facebook, as well as Klout and StumbleUpon, but that on business network LinkedIn job title attracted more attention than the photo.

Mashable reported that “the study used the webcams of 30 participants to record their eye movements as they were shown profile pages from Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Klout, Reddit, Digg, Tumblr, Twitter, StumbleUpon and Pinterest at 10-second intervals. What participants looked at on each page and in what order” was then recorded.

What do you look at on Facebook profiles?

Svpply helps find Christmas gifts

Svpply (pronounced ‘Supply’) is a social shopping site that allows you to follow people and stores that you find interesting and then it locates products that you would like to buy from these stores. The site focuses on the discovery aspect of online shopping – perfect for the wandering gift-giver without a clue.

Svpply is also running three special sections for the holidays. The gift guides section organises gifts into price amounts and categories, like tech, apparel and booze. The “find a gift” option allows users more specific browsing. It locates items based on a price range, gender and category, and then bookmarks and organizes items by who the gifts are for. Finally, the wish lists option scans other users’ wish lists and pulls them together for inspiration from those that inspire you.

What online tools do you use to help you with your Christmas shopping? Let us know by commenting below.

Facebook buys Gowalla

Facebook has purchased location-based service provider Gowalla. “It’s a perfect match,” says the unnamed source quoted by CNN Money. “As far as the big picture, Gowalla’s vision is about people telling stories, and Facebook’s vision for Timeline is about stories about important moments in life.”

Google+ Hangouts Now Offer Free Voice Calls

Google+ is rolling out a feature that allows its users to make free conference calls within Hangouts. You don’t even need a Google account or even a computer to join the conversation. A Hangout group can now call in anyone with a phone to listen in. This could not only lure more people to Google+ and grow its user base, but also has potential to revolutionise the way both party lines and conference calls are conducted — from holding meetings to making plans with friends and family.

Will you be using voice calls on Google+ Hangouts? Let us know by commenting below.

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Improved Facebook Insights

In the past several years, companies across various sectors have come to realise the marketing potential of establishing a company Facebook page. Since fans are 40 to 150 times more likely to consume branded materials in their news feeds than on the actual fan page itself, Facebook has recently expanded its insights page including new metrics and analytics designed to remind businesses that the real value of having a Facebook page is providing engaging content.

Klout now scores your Google+ activity

Google+ users may have seen their Klout scores go up last week as the social media ranking company Klout has built a scoring model to calculate activity from Google’s 5-month-old social network.

Klout — which measures users’ online influence — started allowing users to add Google+ to their Klout dashboards shortly after Google released Google+. Now the San Francisco-based startup has injected its measurement system with the new Google+ scoring model.

Facebook makes the world smaller

A theory stemming from an experiment by social psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s claims every living person is connected to any other through only six friends. According to a recent study, Facebook reduces the six degrees of separation to only four, meaning the world’s largest social network makes the world even smaller (figuratively).

The study, a joint effort by Facebook and Università degli Studi di Milano, shows that the number of “hops” separating any two persons on Facebook is in fact smaller than six. According to the study, “99.6% of all pairs of users are connected by paths with 5 degrees (6 hops), 92% are connected by only four degrees (5 hops),” with the average “distance” between users getting smaller over time.

Google search app with Siri-like features

Google unveiled the latest version of its free Search app for the iPad on Monday, making searching on the Apple device faster and more intuitive — and, ironically, giving Android tablet users another reason to switch.

Google’s YouTube video on the app highlights some of the key new features of the free app — including an easy way to recommend and share content with others on Google+, Siri-like voice search, and Google Instant — that is, seeing display results as soon as you begin to type, without the need of pressing the search button.

Domino Pizza app lets you make your own pizza and order it

Domino’s Pizza has found a novel way to engage iPad users and maybe sell a few more pizzas along the way. The pizza chain has created an app that lets you make a pizza onscreen and then order it in real life.

Domino’s Pizza Hero is a game/app that simulates the experience of kneading dough, spreading sauce, sprinkling cheese, placing toppings and cutting slices all while a timer ticks away. The object is to make the pizza as quickly as possible and to closely mimic the experience of real Domino’s workers.

Players can compete against each other on a leaderboard and share their scores on Facebook and Twitter use the “Make An Order” tab within the app to order their creations.

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Facebook and Google Team Up to Fight the E-Parasite Act

Just when we thought the battle lines had been drawn on the Stop Online Piracy Act, tech giants Facebook, Google and Zynga have announced their opposition to the proposed bill.

The companies joined the opposition with a letter to members of the US Senate and House of Representatives about the Stop Online Piracy Act, also called the E-PARASITE act, CNET reports. While they support the bill’s goals of preventing rogue sites from distributing copyrighted materials, the tech giants say the act would “undermine the effective mechanism Congress enacted in the Digital Millennium Copyright ACT (DMCA) to provide a safe harbour for Internet companies that act in good faith to remove infringing content from their sites.”

Third Party Page Management Comes to Google+

Google+ pages for brands & businesses were announced last week, and Google has been busy rolling out supporting features.  On Tuesday, Google began displaying select Google+ pages in the search results and on Wednesday, it has been announced that Google+ partnered with six companies to create Google+ page management tools including HootSuite, Context Optional and Buddy Media.

Are there any additional Google+ features that you would like to see in the near future?

Skype Happy Birthday Songs

Skype wants to make saying “happy birthday” on Facebook more interesting than a generic wall post. The company is planning on launching a Facebook app that allows its fans to instead post a birthday song performed by a favourite band — and sing along, if they so choose.

This is the first time that Skype, which has grown its Facebook Page from 1 million to 5 million fans in the past year, will be launching a social media campaign.

The campaign is intended to promote Skype Group Video Calling, a premium feature that launched in January. Bands such as Imogen Heap, The Parlotones, Bowling For Soup, Charlie Simpson, Scarlet Grey, Body Language, Kill The Young, CSS, and Ash recorded original versions of Happy Birthday using Skype Group Chat. When Skype fans launch the app, they can choose to record themselves in an additional group video chat window, and recipients of the greeting receive one free week of the service.

Will you be using Skype’s ‘Happy Birthday’ song service?

Facebook’s Real-Time Ticker to Show Sponsored Stories

Facebook will increase the distribution for Sponsored Stories by allowing them to run in the ticker across the site, ClickZ News has learned. Since the ticker — a lightweight newsfeed seen on the upper right-hand part of Facebook.com — was launched in August, the social context ads had been running only via the app ticker for Facebook games.

In an email last week, Annie Ta, Facebook spokesperson, said, “Starting on Monday, we are continuing to slowly roll out Sponsored Stories in [the] ticker across Facebook. Sponsored Stories help people see more relevant marketing on Facebook and they can be twice as engaging as ads on Facebook.”

National Unfriend Day

Last Thursday marked the second annual “National Unfriend Day” in the US which encourages Facebook users to delete anyone who isn’t actually their friend. Millions of Facebook friends were deleted during last year’s “National Unfriend Day.”

Do you regularly filter through your Facebook friends or the more you have the better? Let us know what you think by commenting below.

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