It is an age of connections; from PC to laptops to mobiles to now wearable devices. Technology is merging itself into human DNA faster and faster. What comes up from this amalgamation is Connections, within people, with machines and with oneself. Nowhere in the human history, have we been more concerned with tracking health and ways to live better. In the ever increasing search for healthcare connected, Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare firms cannot afford to stay behind the curve for long. This has translated Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare firms showcasing active presence across search and social media. While the three granddaddy social networks, Facebook and Twitter, have spent a decade publicly duking it out for share of human attention-span and commercial usefulness, LinkedIn has quietly and efficiently evolved to become an essential pillar of corporate practice, for individuals and organizations alike.

LinkedIn was launched way back in 2003 - two years ahead of YouTube, the platform back then generated only 4,500 members during its first month of operation. By the time Twitter came into being and Facebook had thrown open its doors to anyone/everyone, both in 2006, LinkedIn had already launched its “public profiles” and had amassed close to five million users. These days, the network is available in 24 languages and boasts more than 9,200 full-time employees with offices in 30 cities around the world. The professional social network, LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft ranks India as its second largest market in terms of users after the U.S.The company which achieved a milestone of 500-million-member mark across 200 countries has about 42 million users in India. LinkedIn has grown more than 40 percent in India over the past two years. The country contributes over 35.5percent to the APAC community which has more than 118 million members.

While career advancement and recruitment is still a major function, over time LinkedIn has evolved into an effective publishing platform for professional content, which has had profound implications for corporate communications and marketing activities. The way Pharma can leverage this is multi fold. A big part of LinkedIn's appeal lies in the high level of engagement of its members and the potential for precise targeting of content and talent searches. Healthcare marketers can target audiences by job title, function, occupation, industry, skills, affiliations and more. This precise targeting provides pharmaceutical marketers with the reassurance their advertising efforts reach the right audience.

In the healthcare space, membership encompasses all stakeholder groups;

pharma companies, patients, healthcare professionals, marketing agencies, hospitals, investors and, of course, employees. Numerous pharmaceutical companies have established dedicated company pages in an effort to amass followers, and provide a professional space for employee engagement and collaboration. In India, companies like Biocon, Apollo Hospitals, Siemens Healthcare, Pfizer are few firms actively engaging with audiences on LinkedIn. Not just from a talent perspective, LinkedIn also helps with adding to brand value with a page that is dedicated to establishing corporate presence for the brand.

In the ever-increasing search for healthcare connected, Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare firms cannot afford to stay behind the curve for long

So, what can Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare firms do on LinkedIn?

• Create a complete profile, design matters as much as content on social media pages
• Don't just be present, engage.
• Make relevant company oriented, end audience relevant updates on a regular basis
• Review your wall regularly and share, comment on and like your connections' updates and long-form posts
• Create or join and participate in groups
• Post content on LinkedIn publishing tools

With proper protocols in place for page management, the inherent fear of social media of managing user comments, incidents etc. can be well managed and risk mitigated in advance.

Moving on to another platform, and making big waves in the Pharma space is YouTube. Given that YouTube is the number two search engine (behind Google) the most important thing to note is that pharma companies should be using YouTube. India has 180 million monthly active users of YouTube on mobile devices alone. YouTube has 14 Indian independent content creators on its platform with one million subscribers each. With over 300 million smartphone users now in the country, creators are finding audiences beyond the top metros thanks to improved access to the Internet, as well as more Indians coming online in tier two cities who are discovering new content in their languages. This demand is driving more hunger for YouTube content across all genres.

These trends are driving YouTube's massive growth in watch time, with mobile contributing to 80 per cent of YouTube's total watch time in India. That mobile watch time is growing at a staggering 400 per cent year on year. Earlier this year, YouTube announced that its 1+ billion users worldwide are now watching 1 billion hours of video daily. Video content has the highest consumption rate as it is an engaging way to educate patients and healthcare professionals. Video is especially useful for patients with low literacy levels, in a country like India this provides a huge potential. Video content once created has a longer shelf life and provides for multiple usages. Content is king. If you’re providing valuable video content that consumers are searching for, you will start gaining subscribers.

In healthcare, it is important to position your brand as the trusted expert, and people will want to keep coming back to you. Posting video content that is social, shareable and relevant to the interests of your core audience while still staying true to your brand is a great way to grow your presence in the digital space.

While the consumer market of patients and HCPs is ready for embracing an inflow of information from the healthcare and pharmaceutical players, the firms have to step up and embrace social across platforms. Fears of adverse event reporting, getting content through internal approval processes and other issues appearing as roadblocks can be resolved with a little troubleshooting and a lot of patience. The Pharmaceutical and Healthcare firms have to take the Digital Prescription!