Coordinated Social Engagement by a Traditional Media Giant

I review data... I visualise data... it's my job.

To that end, I keep an eye on who is publishing what and how. So, when I see a weird trend, I stop and ask to see if it's as weird as I think it is.

The Wall Street Journal recently published an online article from Jeanne Whalen, "Why the U.S. Pays More Than Other Countries for Drugs", and it kinda went ballistic. If you look at the page, you see 5,523 shares from Facebook.

OMG!

Not really.

This is a huge topic, right now. Of course an article on this will get a lot of shares.

What struck me as odd, then?

I want to know who shared this article.

Part of what my agency does is track social profiles for a lot of different categories. It's kind of our thing. It's proprietary, and it's awesome. It's called MDigital Life. We started with physicians, and have expanded into other areas, such as media outlets and journalists.

Which is why I can tell you with authority that there were at least 25 of our identified journalist influencers who shared this article.

"Yawn..."

But wait, there's more.

Of those 25, 17 of them were from WSJ.

17 of 25.

Who organises that well? Apparently, WSJ.

At first, I'm thinking, "Okay, it's mostly their health desk."

Nope.

To name a few, I've got a page one editor, an EMEA markets editor, a relationship columnist, and a housing and mortgage market reporter. I also have the Asia, Canada, and Infographics desks sharing the article.

Colour me impressed if WSJ got their teams together to put in a concerted effort for blowing this article up.

If not, colour me wicked surprised that such a huge, unlikely coincidence occured and gave them an unexpected windfall.

"We don't need to keep that old URL..."

As somebody who's been involved in Social Media for a while, I've had a number of websites. And I've allowed myself to fall prey to this logical error. Pharma seems to live this error, but usually buries it under a, "Well, we don't market that brand anymore, so we're going to let it expire...". You have to protect your URLs because bad things can happen.

So... how has this effected me? If you Google yourself, like I Google myself sometimes, you will find that you probably own the front page of Google search results. I've worked hard for about 11 years to make sure that if you Google me... you find me. I've reserved imetbrad.com for a number of years, because it's an awesome URL.I also used to run a PodCast, Whole Lot of Nonsense, and owned a URL for that. I posted comments on other PodCast's sites, had the URL on business cards... you know, did all the personal brand management you're supposed to do. Then I let it lapse... I'm a moron. Let's just admit that and move on. First, it was owned by somebody shilling gear for PodCasters, and now it's owned by a Japanese firm... (no I'm not giving them any more free Google Juice).

"So... this doesn't matter to businesses..."

Oh, ye of little faith.

Heinz is the latest and biggest victim of what happens when you let a URL lapse. An article from the Verge, "Heinz ketchup bottle QR code leads to hardcore porn site" points out what can happen when you go to the effort of doing all the cool social and digital things... and then let your URL lapse. Really? Your marketing managers probably bill back more in coffee as a corporate expense in a month than your URL will cost you.

"Fine... but if that's all Pharma has to worry about... it's no big thing... We'll just apologize like Heinz."

Sure... you can do that.

But let's say that you have a campaign for raising Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) awareness in Australia. The campaign was designed to point out that HSV is a problem bigger than cold sores. The virus can lead to bigger health complications, and people need to be open, honest, and communicative about HSV.  It's a consumer generated content contest... It's AWESOME. The company got some great content, like this YouTube video "Sign from above..." in which a couple tries to decide if it's worth following up on some flirting.

The URL that leads to all this great content, though... has lapsed.

The company is Novartis. The campaign was called "Live and Love".

If you type in the URL for Live and Love, somebody else owns it. I mean, why wouldn't you? Somebody else has already put in all the effort of making the URL marketable.

"Still... not a problem..."

Okay. Let's talk about what's on the site, now. If you go to the website that used to be "Live and Love" discussing the serious importance of HSV, it has now become a site called, "Best Cold Sore Remedies & Treatments". I would argue that this site pretty much sets the conversation back to where it was before the campaign started. Which, I would also argue should not have been an objective of the campaign, and furthermore becomes another example of how Big Pharma is only interested in promoting "disease awareness" when it's profitable.

Honestly, this could have been worse.

Imagine if the URL had lapsed and been purchased by someone who wanted to market homeopathic cures for HSV.

What if an organisation that wanted to stigmatize HSV patients had purchased the URL, and the site was now filled with hate speech?

Okay... ethics be damned... what if a competitor who had a brand that was in direct competition with Novartis' product bought the URL and redirected it toward its microsite, or social media content, or just their corporate home page.

I'm used to hearing companies say that disease awareness is a waste of time because the advertising will be a "rising tide that raises all boats"... also called "brand effect". That's a topic for a whole other post. But, if you're going to invest the marketing dollars in setting up a campaign, a website, advertising, press releases, tweets, QR codes, Foursquare check-ins, Snapchat channels, Instagram content, Pinterest boards... you should really PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT

"Ok... fine... let's say you're right... HOW?"

Here's a couple of free ideas:

Hold onto that URL. Just keep the thing renewed. It's not that hard. (insert expletives where appropriate).

Redirect it to a sub-page of your corporate page describing what the content was, and note that it is no longer available. You know that abstract you wrote to get funding for your brilliant idea... you can use that again. Repurposing content is what the internet was designed for.

Create a hilarious 404 page... with the abstract... Have some fun with it. Make a cat video. Show puppies trying to fetch content. Paste your website logo on a llama and run it through the streets.

Point to a Slideshare page detailing the program as a white paper... that agency you probably paid to create the campaign, can create one for you... Everybody gets to learn how awesome you are, and you can attract better candidates for positions in social and digital media.

If you want more ideas, you should come check out the agency I work for. We're pretty damned smart.