Promoting patient advocacy through social media strategies

Friday’s lecture came to life as I read the entry on Tony Faustino’s "Social Media ReInvention Blog" about an integrated public relations study. His inspiration was a Wall Street Journal article about Terry Kalley’s strategic campaign to keep a breast cancer drug on the FDA's approved list.

Later this month the FDA will hold a hearing about the drug, where it reportedly will consider only scientific data. Kalley, however, has sided with the Avastin’s manufacturer in wanting the patient's voice to be heard as well. Understandably so, Kalley’s wife has breast cancer, and the drug in question is prescribed to slow the progression of the disease.

Working with AQABA Technologies, Kalley orchestrates a campaign to align support of key legislators and policy makers while building public awareness. Faustino’s breakdown of the tactics and how they are used was a useful explanation of a concept that was unfamiliar to me.

Their first move was to establish a web page as home base for Kalley’s nonprofit organization, Freedom of Access to Medicines. Next they added Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts to direct traffic back to the web page. Tweets from real-time meetings with legislators are coupled with lengthier posts on Facebook, while YouTube videos present scenarios describing, in lay terms, the process of drug access and reimbursement.

Interestingly, Faustino notes that Kalley had, until just recently, left out a key tactic: a blog. He makes an interesting case for this addition by noting how blogs increase search engine optimization thereby moving an entry higher in search results ranking. He also mentions that blogs provide "important long-tail search keywords and phrases.” 

In this particular situation, that niche market approach could bring another level of success to Kalley’s campaign. While the general population easily associates with the topic of breast cancer, there will be a small contingency that are extremely passionate about this particular drug and/or about freedom of choice issues.

I think Kalley is also under utilizing some of his arsenal. Knowing there is a chance the FDA won’t allow patients to testify at the hearing, why not tell their stories on YouTube and then engage the power of Twitter and Facebook to promote them. The Kalleys could begin with a short video telling about their battle with the disease, and then via Twitter, Facebook and the blog, encourage other women to share their story.  He does this in a two-dimensional format on the website and blog, but the video could be another avenue.

It will be interesting to see if his social media strategies pay off.