Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15704

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Comer B.
GSK launches 'More than Medicine' corporate blog
Medical Marketing & Media 2009 May 22
http://www.mmm-online.com/GSK-launches-More-than-Medicine-corporate-blog/article/137356/?DCMP=EMC-MMM_Newsbrief

Full text:

GlaxoSmithKline announced the launch of a corporate blog for the US, titled More than Medicine. The blog went live last January.

Topics covered so far range from healthcare policy news and GSK financial reports, to relieving stress and avoiding sunburn. According to a statement on the blog, its goal is to “encourage an open, productive discussion about a range of topics related to the US healthcare system and how it can be improved.”

Michael Fleming, senior director of social media at GSK, told PRWeek that GSK “would like people to hear from our company and interact with our company in…a less formal, less rigid way than they are used to hearing from us,” noting that the kind of dialogue featured on the blog is “not being offered by any other company.”

Several healthcare bloggers have already questioned More than Medicine’s authorship – articles contain a first name but not a last name – leading to a post on Thursday titled “Content is King Here, Not the One Who Posts It.” The author, Michael F – most likely Michael Fleming – wrote in the post that “legitimate privacy and security concerns” limit the amount of personal information the authors can provide externally. “One of us has already been quoted in the press about this blog, so we’re certainly not hiding anything; but the larger point is that this blog is not about any of us individually; it is about the company as a whole,” wrote Michael F.

Marc Monseau, the editor of Johnson & Johnson’s corporate blog JNJ BTW, commended GSK on the launch in a comment on More than Medicine, and reiterated the need for a “candid, constructive dialogue” about how pharmaceutical companies “can be part of the conversation about health and healthcare issues on the social web.”