OK for employees to tweet?
Jinfo Blog

20th August 2010

By Joanna Ptolomey

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Have you tweeted today? What did you tweet about? And if you are an employee of an organisation did your tweet represent the values or message of your employer? In fact does the organisation that you work for allow you to tweet as a company employee? Do they encourage or discourage social media and provide guidelines and procedures as their employee? This week there has been great excitement in the healthcare sector with the publication of social media guidelines by the leading global pharmaceutical company Roche. You may be thinking so what? Many other organisations have produced such documents in the last couple of years especially those working in the media sector such as the BBC (http://digbig.com/5bcfbw). However, the pharmaceutical sector is a highly regulated industry that requires high investment research and development, the right partnership deals and a certain amount of secrecy. To recoup investment and get great returns often marketing can be the number one priority (obviously as well as great health benefits for patients and users of treatments). It is not often we see this forward thinking open approach from a global pharmaceutical player. I applaud Roche for their step forward and as most industry insiders and commentators have been discussing this week it is the implementation on a global basis that will be the proof of the pudding. There is no denying it is a step in the right direction for their employees but also the industry. For further information, discussion and link to the document you can do no better than read Andrew Spong’s excellent blog report (http://digbig.com/5bcfbt). Brand marketing is important and social media is an important tool, but I believe it is a perfect vehicle for finding, using, managing and sharing information as an industry – communication and sharing everyone can benefit from. Every industry sector has confidential information, from sewerage treatment to banking, that doesn’t mean we don’t have to talk except send out marketing messages. The healthcare sector, and indeed the pharmaceutical industry, believe that they have their own special requirements. Well I have news for them - every industry sector as their own special requirements – get over it. But I applaud Roche for taking the initiative and reading through their short document you get a real sense that they have grasped the ‘fullness’ of what social media tools can do for a business via their employees. I believe it will be a case of seeing where Roche take this now – just another marketing ploy or the first real steps into implementation for two way communication. Social media is here to stay, platforms and applications may change over time, but the gates have been open. The horse has bolted. Businesses need to decide whether they are ‘coming to play’ and if they do they need to have a game plan that is real, built on trust, open and can be implemented and delivered upon. Question - how can your employees help?

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