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Rebecca aRis inteRviews - James musick, PaRt ii - multi-industRyMULTI-INDUSTRY

Rebecca aris interviews

James musickPaRt ii

Interview Summary

RA: How do you think other smaller emerging biotechs could use social media to connect with both healthcare stakeholders and possible investors?

JM: What’s great about social media is because of its size, reach, and complexity, it allows one to find specific niche audiences, so it’s almost a paradox, and you have access to a large system whereby you are able to find small subsets of audiences that you’re not going to be able to find in other ways.

For a small emerging biotechnology they need to have a good understanding of their audience, what technical, scientific and patient audiences they are interested in engaging with, who their possible stakeholders are, and to not treat all the social media channels as the same. A common mistake I see is that large companies, not only in biotechnology, but across the globe, assume that Facebook and Twitter are this huge multi million-user hydra monster, and don’t take the time to discover that there are very intelligent, inquisitive people who are interested in specific areas and complex stories. You don’t need to dumb down what you’re saying, and you don’t need to turn down the level of rigour on your science, or what you’re talking about, because the point of these channels is that you’re going to be able to reach the audience that message actually resonates with or you want to have that conversation with.

RA: Obviously Genentech is a member of the Roche group, so how much input does Roche have in your social media activities?

JM: We collaborate with our global counterparts if not daily, then certainly weekly, and in terms of the input and influence, the Roche-Genentech merger happened at a

Last week we brought you Part I of pharmaphorum’s interview with James Musick. He discussed his role of heading up social media at Genentech, the similarities between software engineering and drug development, and the recent success that they have found by using YouTube.

Today James continues his conversation with Rebecca Aris, discussing his thoughts on how social media can best be utilized, how he plans to convey complex concepts in 140 characters or less, and what social media initiatives Genentech has planned over the next year. Here’s how the conversation concluded:

very fortuitous time from a social media perspective. As all the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies were starting to use social channels, so were we. All of a sudden we went from having a team focused in the US, to being connected with a global team that was experiencing many of the same issues but in a global context and together we were able to work on developing great social media guidelines.

RA: Because of the nature of Genentech’s work, you’re dealing with some pretty complex diseases and targeted therapies. How have you managed to convey these highly technical areas through social media channels?

JM: Well that’s definitely a challenge, and we obviously don’t try to tell the whole complex story in 140 characters. However in these cases, like I mentioned before, it’s important not to dumb down the science. Instead, we use social media for reach, targeting, aggregation and refinement, highlighting some of the amazing work that’s being done in genetics, epigenetic, biotechnologies, pharmaceuticals and bringing to light areas where the entire industry is moving forward.

RA: Many pharma companies are still reluctant to get too heavily involved in social media due to fear of breach in regulations and legal issues around two-way online communications. Given your experience, what key advice would you give them?

JM: The concerns are very reasonable; however, one thing that is sometimes overlooked is that the regulations are there for a good reason. If you take time to become close with your counterparts in legal and regulatory from the start, you’re usually able to find a way where you can communicate or engage without breaching those regulations.

RA: Finally, can you tell us anything about what Genentech has in store for its social media initiatives over the next 12 months?

JM: Certainly – there are a couple of things I’m really enthusiastic about. One I alluded to earlier, as I think this is going to be a great year for Genentech and YouTube. We’re building on the great success we had last year; our team has come up with a new set of eight to 10 videos across a wide range of topics related to scientific innovation done in creative ways which will help people better understand some of the cutting edge science that is happening and how it connects to amazing new medicines for patients.

The other thing I’m excited about is a social engagement experience we did at this year’s TED conference. It was a huge hit, with over 1,100 people turning their genes into music over the course of 4 days. Using a combination of digital and social media, we started a conversation with participants about recent leaps in biotechnology, and left them with a unique and personalized reminder of their experience. Now we’re looking to leverage this work in a broader social context to help science communicators and educators, so it will be interesting to see how it scales for a larger population.

Rebecca Aris is the Managing Editor of pharmaphorum. Tweet her @Rebecca_Aris

“If you take time to become close with your counterparts in legal and

regulatory from the start, you’re usually able to find a way where you can communicate or engage without

breaching those regulations...”

About the interviewee:

James Musick is an interactive digital media strategist, focusing on the convergence of social and mobile technologies. As the Director of Social Media & Web Communications at Genentech, Musick integrates strategic business value with user experience and adoption through the development of mobile, social, and interactive initiatives.

His background includes a doctorate in neurophysiology from the University of Washington. There his creation of neural behavior computer models sparked an interest, and then a career, in software engineering and architecture in the fledgling social/knowledge management/collaboration software space. Musick complemented his enterprise software experience with work in corporate IT strategy and then as a strategy director for a digital agency.

Founded over 35 years ago, Genentech is a leading biotechnology company that markets itself as a research-driven corporation that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercialises medicines to treat patients with serious or life-threatening medical conditions. Genentech has been a member of the Roche Group since 2009.

Republished with the kind permission of www.pharmaphorum.com - follow @pharmaphorum on Twitter for the latest articlesbloomua / Shutterstock.com

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