Stephanie Baum (Philadelphia, PA) –
Social photo-sharing platform Pinterest has skyrocketed in popularity due to users passionate about topics like fashion and food. But now, “Big Pharma” companies are also beginning to use Pinterest to speak to their audiences.
Bayer Corporation established a presence on Pinterest in recent weeks in a sign that pharmaceutical companies are beginning to warm up to the next generation of social media websites. Its section includes three bulletin boards on sustainability, innovation and the one shown above, which illustrates the breadth of the corporation.
It is also using Pinterest to link back to its pressroom, a way to engage potential consumers on interesting biotechnology topics like stem cells.
It’s using video to convey message, such as when it opened its innovation center in San Francisco to expand its life science collaborations last year.
Included on that board are subsidiaries that stand well apart from Bayer’s pharmaceutical business and gives users who may be new to the brand to see it in a different light. One example is Bayer’s Material Science company Artificial Muscle’s ViviTouch product to intensify mobile gaming.
Truth be told, it’s no more than a dipping of the toes in the water. The image and video pins Bayer made are intended to resonate with people concerned with sustainability and innovation and it’s a good PR move for both since they show what Bayer’s doing in these categories. A picture may speak a thousand words, videos a lot more. There’s nothing controversial here. If anything, there is more about the material science business than anything else.
Novo Nordisk’s move to de-pin its bulletin board could reflect a sense of uncertainty that dominates pharmaceutical companies in the absence of social media guidelines, or just a decision that it Pinterest isn’t right for the company. After all it still has a Facebook presence.
Until now, much of the medical industry presence on Pinterest has been dominated by hospitals.
It will be interesting to see whether more pharmaceutical companies will take their guidance from Novo Nordisk or Bayer.
Stephanie Baum is the Philadelphia Bureau Chief for MedCityNews.com, where this story first appeared.
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