Roche wants employees who use social media to be ‘scouts’ for how the company and its products are perceived online.
The Swiss pharma company today publishes its Social Media Principles, a four-page document of operating procedures for staff, and it gave Digital Pharma an exclusive preview.
One of the standout points is a requirement for its global workforce of more than 80,000 to be on the lookout for “sentiment and critical issues” when they use social media websites in a personal capacity.
“Even if you are not an official online spokesperson, you are one of our most vital assets for monitoring the social media landscape,” the company notes in the guidelines. “If you come across positive or negative remarks about Roche or its products online that you believe are important, consider sharing them by forwarding them to your local communications department.”
The most important example of this is in the case of suspected ‘adverse events’ – an issue often cited within the industry as a reason not to use social media tools.
On this subject Roche says: “When you come across information where somebody mentions side-effects, after having taken one of our drugs, in a credible and identifiable way, you have to immediately forward such information to the global Drug Safety Team for further action.”
Roche social media guidelines
The publication of its social media guidelines sees Roche break new ground in the industry, by becoming the first pharmaceutical company to make its operating procedures publicly available.
The firm acknowledges that blogs, wikis and social networks, like Facebook and LinkedIn, “are changing the way we are communicating, interacting, and doing business – with patients, customers and other stakeholders outside Roche, but also within the Roche network”.
Roche says it recognises the “ubiquity and benefits of social media and welcomes its uses”, adding that the guidelines have been developed to help employees avoid the potential risks associated with social media and use the platforms in a responsible manner.
Outside pharma, a growing number of companies and bodies in other sectors have been publishing similar guidelines for their employees. Multinationals like IBM, Kodak and Intel have set out their positions on social media, and links to these documents - along with 146 other policies - can be found here.
Additionally, in the UK the Department of Health’s policy for micro-blogging website Twitter can be found here and there is UK government advice for civil servants using social media here.
Personal and professional use of social media
Roche’s new rules cover two categories of social media use - personal and professional. The former is for if employees refer to Roche, the latter for if they are actually representing the company as an official spokesperson.
The company cautions: “There is a big difference in speaking ‘on behalf of Roche’ (as an official spokesperson) or speaking ‘about’ Roche, our products or business partners.”
For personal online activities (speaking ‘about’ the company) its rules state:
• Be conscious about mixing your personal and business lives
• You are responsible for your actions
• Follow the Roche Group Code of Conduct
• Mind the global audience
• Be careful if talking about Roche. Only share publicly available information
• Be transparent about your affiliation with Roche and that opinions raised are your own
• Be a “scout” for sentiment and critical issues
For professional online activities (speaking ‘on behalf of’ the company) they say:
• Follow the Roche Group Code of Conduct and Communications Policy
• Follow approval processes for publications and communication
• Mind copyrights and give credit to the owners
• Use special care if talking about Roche products or financial data
• Identify yourself as a representative of Roche
• Monitor your relevant social media channels
• Know and follow our Record Management Practices
Roche’s social media channels
To coincide with the launch of its guidelines, Roche is also detailing the various social media channels its uses in a new section on its corporate website.
Available online at www.roche.com/socialmedia, the pages include links to the company’s various Twitter accounts, the French cancer blog it supports and thebreast cancer community its Genentech subsidiary works with.
Roche also provides a human face for its social media work in the form of head of corporate internet and social media Sabine Kostevc, whose personal Twitteraccount is listed, along with contact details for its global social media team and wider media team.
Despite the majority of pharma companies using social media in one form or another Roche is one of only two firms to detail on its corporate website some of the sites it uses in this way. The other is Pfizer, which recently launched a similar page, while AstraZeneca lists the sites used by its US subsidiary here.
• Roche’s Social Media Principles can be downloaded from the company’s social media page here.
Dominic Tyer is web editor for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and the author of the Digital Pharma blog He can be contacted via email, Twitteror LinkedIn.
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