Johnson and Johnson’s Aid in the Recovery from Sandy

November 29 marked the one month anniversary of the touchdown of Hurricane Sandy and all her destruction.  As many companies donated their time, effort, and special skills to help the victims of Sandy’s destruction, Johnson and Johnson also increased their company’s corporate social responsibility efforts through aiding the hurting victims of Sandy.

As Johnson and Johnson‘s headquarters and company home reside in New Jersey, over 13,800 employees call New Jersey home.  As New Jersey was claimed by Sandy as the victim of the most destruction in the United States, Johnson and Johnson took a personal interest in coming to their side.

As many people gathered around their family’s tables this Thanksgiving, many Johnson and Johnson employees took their day of thanks to give to the victims that no longer had tables, chairs, or even homes to gather in this Thanksgiving.

Thousands of hygiene kits along with baby products, such as shampoo and wipes, were sent to the victims of Sandy by Johnson and Johnson to combine with their helping hand this November, including Thanksgiving day.

Johnson and Johnson kept consumers and followers updated of their efforts via Facebook statuses, twitter posts, blogs from the experiences of the volunteering employees, as well as links to their websites where more information on the way Johnson and Johnson is giving back to the victims can be read.

Johnson and Johnson has partnered with other organizations, such as Heart to Heart‘s Mobile Medical Unit, to enhance its efforts for the victims and plans to continue its partnerships into the future.

Eli Lilly Uses Social Media to Discuss the Presidential Election

On Nov. 6, 2012, the nation voted our next president. Barrack Obama came out as the winner to serve a second term as president for the next four years. Eli Lilly took the opportunity to blog about what the election will mean for them, public policy, and health care as a whole.

Amy O’Connor, author of the blog post, outlined four things that the election will affect. Each point was complimented by a hyperlink that directed the blog viewer to another site if they wanted more information.

The first point was that Obama’s re-election could speed up negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is an agreement to expand trade relations between the Asia-Pacific region and the United States. The link connected viewers to an article by Channel News Asia further detailing the topic.

The second point dealt with an article from Modern Healthcare about the election adding pressure for the white house to work on the Affordable Health Care Act. Once again, a link was used to connect viewers to the article that would explain more. However, this link was not entirely helpful, because the article in which the link accessed required a subscription. LillyPad had good intentions by supplying the link, but some may not be able to get the full story.

The LillyPad blog post goes on to add information about Obamacare, as well as references another blog, the AARP Blog, which discusses the election’s impact on Medicare, Social Security, and the Affordable Health Care Act.

Using its blog to present the issue of the presidential debate was a good idea for the O’Connor and the LillyPad staff because it is a current issue that affects millions of people. Health care is a highly debated topic and LillyPad successfully addresses it in a way that allows Lilly’s viewers to look ahead to what’s next in health care, instead of dwelling on who won or lost.

 

Johnson and Johnson Promotes New Healthy Project

In a world where nutrition, exercise, and a healthy diet take a back seat to the fast pace world of jobs, kids and extracurricular activities, Johnson & Johnson has created their JNJ Healthy Project to encourage everyone and anyone to take a step in the right direction of nutrition.

Johnson & Johnson’s Healthy Project targets all members of a community through healthy lessons in classrooms, cell-phone activities through technology, and also general healthcare information in the communities.

Johnson & Johnson has joined communities in a partnership where they encourage kids to get moving, exercise and eat healthy through their Healthier Kids program.  The program is designed to target children in communities to help them fight the effects of childhood obesity.

Johnson & Johnson also targets adults of communities to help make communities as a whole have healthier options through their Johnson & Johnson Gateway to a Healthy Community.

Johnson & Johnson has promoted these healthy programs through their twitter by hash tagging “#JNJHealthyProject and by including YouTube promotional videos of people like Chris Jordan giving instructions on ways to lead healthier lives in easier ways.

Johnson & Johnson has also used Facebook statuses to promote their new healthy community efforts while also providing information about the program, giving the names of the credible sources they include in the instruction of their programs, and encouraging people to get involved by asking fans to share their own personal healthy projects.

Getting started on living a healthier life in an easier way is made possible through Johnson & Johnson’s new JNJ Healthy Project, where information is available to the public and communities through their social media, as well as your own input on living a healthy life.

Johnson & Johnson Aims to Reach Consumers’ Wants

Since the 1982 recall of the Johnson & Johnson cyanide-laced Tylenol crisis, Johnson & Johnson has made safety and consumer wants, a bigger focus for their company and reputation.

However, in February 2012, Johnson & Johnson’s baby Tylenol faced its own recall. Since the 1982 crisis, many things were different about this product problem, reason for recall, and the way it was socially handled.

In 1982, social media existed in the form of newspapers and television.  News didn’t travel as fast in 1982; as Facebook, Twitter and even blogs hadn’t really made their biggest appearance yet.  Also, as news didn’t travel as fast, neither did the option for Johnson & Johnson to spread their social media attempts at crisis management very quickly, especially compared to the 2012 forms of social media.

When February 2012 presented the baby Tylenol recall, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs all played a much bigger factor with how Johnson & Johnson strategized their public relations, dealing with the product defect.

The problem: Johnson & Johnson created a baby Tylenol product where the grape flavored medicine was placed in a bottle with a little hole in the top; just big enough for a syringe with the exact dosage measuring capabilities to be placed inside.  Luckily, this time the problem didn’t lie in the grape flavored medicine specifically, it lied in the design of the bottle and the inconvenience of the syringe being difficult to use or getting completely stuck in the bottle.

The solution: Johnson & Johnson recalled 574,000 bottles of grape infant Tylenol after receiving just 17 complaints from parents about the inconvenient design of the bottle.

The social media strategies: Johnson & Johnson used Facebook and Twitter accompanied with the traditional forms of social media, such as TV and newspapers, to focus their messages on how this Tylenol recall was for the consumers’ comfort in using the product, not on any dangers in the components of the actual medicine.  Johnson & Johnson’s Twitter remained upbeat and gave consumers information on Tylenol as a whole, video tutorials on how to make sure you give your child the correct dosage at all times, and also directed consumers to the Tylenol.com website where they could claim a full refund of the product if they felt they wanted one.  All Johnson & Johnson’s tweets were centered around the consumers comfort and remained positive and informative about the harmless bottle feature.  Facebook posted a similar status where everything was positive, information based and really focused on how the product was harmless and recalled simply to satisfy customer’s desired comfort in using the product.  As newspapers are still used and a common social media aspect used in both the 1982 recall and the 2012 recall, the great thing about the newspapers this time, is they were reflecting the same information Johnson & Johnson was reflecting in their social media posts. Well-known newspapers such as the Huffington Post and New York Times were both posting about the information Johnson & Johnson was passing along and let their readers know that the product was not harmful and that Johnson & Johnson was remaining focused on their consumers’ comfort.

The result: Johnson & Johnson used social media in such a positive way in this recall that it created a stronger brand image for Tylenol and for the company of Johnson & Johnson, as consumers were made aware through every form of social media that Johnson & Johnson was completely focused on consumers’ comfort, happiness and trust in their product. The leaps of progress Johnson & Johnson has made with their Tylenol product image and image as a company since the 1982 recall are great, as Johnson & Johnson continues to be one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.  Their use of social media and public relations with their most recent Tylenol recall have made the recall not a problem, but a solution to the questions any consumers may have had on their product and company.

Johnson & Johnson Promotes “Be Vital” Challenge with Social Media

Johnson and Johnson introduced its Be Vital Challenge in early September and has been promoting the challenge ever since. Student organizations were encouraged to make videos and submit them to the Be Vital Challenge website. The videos would then be posted on a separate tab of the website, which they have done recently after receiving the submissions. The student organization with the most votes for their video will receive a $10,000 donation from J&J.

J&J tweeted about the contest from the company’s official twitter @JNJComm, as well as their twitter which directly targets college students, @JNJUniversity. Those participating in the contest, whether they are voting, bystanders, or candidates for selection are encouraged to promote the contest and their videos with the hashtag #BeVital.

Twitter has become a vital role in the competition because that is how J&J is spreading the word about the voting, as well as a way for candidates to promote their videos to their followers.

(Note the last one is for the Penn State Dance Marathon!!!)

The tweets all have links to the voting website for the challenge, which gives followers direct access to the contest. On top of the major $10,000 challenge, J&J has also set up a smaller challenge that gives people the opportunity to win $100 prize weekly by tweeting. This website also shows recent tweets promoting the challenge.

Although J&J promotes their challenge on Facebook as well, Twitter is the main source of promotion for their small and large scale Be Vital Challenge. Twitter contests are becoming more and more popular and many major companies are utilizing them successfully. J&J has proved that their Be Vital Challenge could spread through the power of social media. This is not only fun and competitive for participants, but it also shows J&J’s contributions and dedication to community projects and universities. Now, 74 organizations have the opportunity to keep the tweets going and get the votes that they need to win the prize!

Blogging: Eli Lilly and Company

While checking out the Facebook page of Eli Lilly and Company, or “LillyPad” on Facebook, I noticed that most of the company’s Facebook links went to the same website… their blog. After looking through pharmaceutical company’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, it was surprising how I somehow missed that they have been updating their blogs. After seeing Lilly’s, I figured there had to be more, and there were. My favorite though, was Lilly’s.

Lilly’s blog, titled “LillyPad,” in suit with their Facebook and Twitter accounts, is broken down into three sections: Life@Lilly, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Public Policy. LillyPad updates their blog with new posts every few days and runs their Twitter feed along the side. LillyPad is also connected to Facebook with the opportunity to “Like” the company. There is a blogroll on the side connecting to other blogs that LillyPad follows, which seem to include health care, environmental, international, and drug blogs. LillyPad even has posts that involve a “Guest Blog” where a guest writer from another company writes a post for the Lilly blog. Each of these aspects offered on the website make the blog extremely accessible and worthwhile for viewers.

LillyPad’s most recent article, “LinkPad: In honor of our employees.” The article delves into what the employees at Lilly are doing to improve communities throughout the country, starting with Lilly’s Global Day of Service which occurs annually and nearly 8,000 Lilly employees get involved. This year’s Global Day of Service was Thursday, Oct. 11, where Lilly employees worked in Indianapolis to work on waterways. So not only did Lilly take the opportunity to reach press about this through a news release, the company talked about it in its blog, in the article written by Amy O’Connor.

However, any viewer or follower of Lilly might know about the Global Day of Service, so O’Connor took one step further with the blog to say not only does Lilly do that, but they do a lot of other things too using links to a variety of things such as the Lilly President and CEO, John Lechleiter writing a guest blog for Forbes about global competition. O’Connor’s blog focuses on how Lilly is improving the community.

LillyPad shows how companies are actively using the internet to provide as much information as possible to its’ readers. They are not only using Facebook and Twitter or the standard press release as outlets, they are using blogs, which offer a variety of perspectives, maybe leaving the reader with some new insights. There is a also a lot of room in a blog to share more information on a more personal level than just the company website.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Progress From All Angles

As many people across America flash pink shirts, ribbons, and signs in support of breast cancer awareness month this October,  the pink reminds us not only to show our support for those fighting and affected by the disease, but also the progress that has been made toward the fight.  Supporters tweet about their fashionable pink support for breast cancer awareness month by hash-tagging “#breastcancerawareness” after their tweets of their personal examples of support.

In an article earlier this October, Margaret Hamburg, M.D., stated that four distinct types of breast cancer have now been identified.  This information has led to a recent breakthrough in the scientific understanding of breast cancer, such as understanding why one specific medication will show progress in defeating one form of breast cancer but not another. These findings are due majorly to a federal project called the Cancer Genome Atlas, where new findings of treatments for breast cancer are becoming a more likely possibility.

Supporters are not the only ones that are publicizing their support through tweets on twitter, as the FDA has also joined twitter through tweeting their own support of breast cancer awareness month.

Outside of the Cancer Genome Atlas, much more work by the government, scholars and researchers, and pharmaceutical and patient groups help aid in the support that continues to grow through the very pink month of October.  Each of these groups are working toward making breast cancer a curable disease at most and a very treatable disease at least.

Pharmaceutical groups have flashed their support and most recent discoveries about breast cancer, not only through tweets, but also on their Facebook pages and company websites, this month.

In the last two years, FDA has approved three drugs to the 16 previously approved treatments for late-stage breast cancer and approved two new, very innovative and professional, tools for screening and detecting breast cancer in its earliest stages.  These new tools have allowed discovering breast cancer in its earliest and most treatable stages to prevent the deaths of many people who discover breast cancer too late.

A new three-dimensional X-ray device is among the new tools to aid doctors in finding the earliest stages of breast cancer possible to then allow the patients the option for the most effective form of early stage treatment.  Also, the first ultrasound device that can be used together with standard mammography has been approved to check dense, harder to check, breasts for early signs of cancer.

Not only do pink shirt-ed supporters and pharmaceuticals aid support for the cure of breast cancer, but patients are a key component to the cure as well.  By participating in research, patients allow doctors to carefully and specifically analyze their disease, which is the backbone for making specific advancements in breast cancer cures. By volunteering to be evaluated for research, patients also allow doctors to assess what levels of risk patients are willing to endure to gain access to potentially beneficial drugs.

During the past two decades, many progress has been made, not only in the month of October, but all year round, in the fight for the cure of breast cancer.  So supporters, keep wearing that pink, doctors keep researching, patients keep volunteering for research, pharmaceuticals keep developing new beneficial drugs, and fighters keep fighting; all for the cure.

Top Pharmaceutical Companies Honored by Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies List

On September 18th, WorkingMother.com came out with its Best 100 Companies list to honor companies that “recognize the immense power of healthy working moms.” Working Mother picks companies that find innovative ways to promote wellness for working mothers such as through fitness amenities, health plans and benefits, and programs including stress reduction programs. Many companies in the pharmaceutical industry were honored as a Working Mother’s Best 100 company including Abbott, Astrazeneca, Bayer Health Care, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Pfizer.

These pharmaceutical companies jumped on this as an opportunity to show their care of working mothers by sharing the companies’ honored mentions on the internet. Abbott, Bayer HealthCare, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Lilly all issued press releases on the date the list came out sharing how they ranked on the “Best 100 List” and what they did to get there.

Other companies turned to social media. Projecting their success on Facebook were the pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. Both companies included links in their posts. AstraZeneca connected its viewers to its website to share more about what they do for working mothers, while Johnson & Johnson connected its viewers to the Working Mothers website.

Johnson and Johnson also shared its accomplishment on Twitter. Bristol-Myers Squibb and Bayer HealthCare also shared tweets with the hashtag #WM100Best. Bayer HealthCare linked their website to their tweet leading followers to explore exactly how Working Mothers benefit at their company. J&J and Bristol-Myers Squibb express how honored they were to receive the title.

So, now consider these social media platforms didn’t exist and companies such as these couldn’t share their messages and achievements in 140 characters or add links to make the wealth of information endless; would people even know about the Working Mothers 100 Best Companies?  And, if they did, would they know which companies received the honor? Both the Working Mothers organization and the pharmaceutical companies used public relations strategies such as press releases and social media to share their message, even if it was only in 140 characters.

Pfizer’s Fight Againt Blinding Trachoma

While being the nationally recognized, leading pharmaceutical company, Pfizer has many press releases that deal with legal issues and new drug advancements.  However, lately many of their releases have focused on getting the community around them involved, inviting them to join them in listening to conferences and making them feel included in their newest news and advancements.

Pfizer’s website has a list of its latest press releases and links to the ones the community wishes to read, in effort to keep the community involved and informed.  Pfizer has also reached out to the community by regularly tweeting about their advancements, new drugs and current social responsibility efforts.

Recently, Pfizer has partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the fight against blinding trachoma, which mainly affects poverty-stricken areas and women more than man.  Pfizer has had a long-standing goal of providing exceptional financial and informational support to “Neglected Tropical Diseases” (NTDs), in which they mention on their twitter website through hashtags relating to the corresponding tweets.

Through Pfizer’s partnership with WHO, they have kept the community involved through their website, press releases and tweets to keep them informed that their focus is to help end the suffering and the cycle of poverty caused by blinding trachoma. Trachoma is treatable and preventable with full implementation of the WHO and Pfizer has partnered with them to help offer their support in all aspects WHO needs (i.e. financially, informationally, socially).

Not only has Pfizer’s’ efforts proven to be helpful in the fight against blinding trachoma, the WHO and the people involved, it has also shed a positive light on their company and given the viewing public access to all the information they need to see how their corporate social responsibility efforts are serious and also making a great impact on community’s lives.

Johnson and Johnson Focuses on Families

(Photo from http://www.facebook.com/jnj)

Within the pharmaceutical industry, its easy to tell that companies care about community health. Perhaps the most well known for its health efforts in schools and families is the  company Johnson & Johnson. From J&J’s extensive list of community efforts and affiliations with different programs to their family-targeted social media platforms.

J&J’s Facebook cover page is an ocean scene with a close-up of a father and son and the short inspirational caption: “From our 2011 Annual Report, Matt, a type 1 diabetic, wants to show his young son that diabetes doesn’t have to hold you back.”

Scrolling down on the Facebook page, J&J posts links and statuses all about families, focusing specifically on children’s health. Links include “Let’s Make September Infant Survival Month,” and “Family Fitness Shopping Tips,” to encourage families to create healthy grocery shopping lists to support family health. As if those links aren’t attractive enough to parents, J&J targets moms and dads specifically as they begin some statuses “Hey moms and dads…” and “Johnson & Johnson knows its one of the parenthood’s greatest challenges: getting children to eat healthy. September just happens to be fruits and veggies month…” Adding some links with YouTube clips also makes the page more interactive!

Facebook isn’t the only outlet J&J expresses its regard for families health. Their Twitter feed, @JNJComm, tweeted today about school nurses being key to preventing childhood obesity along with a link to help raise awareness for the social issue. @JNJComm also addresses September being fruits and veggies month and links followers to websites about healthy eating.

J&J focuses on families extremely using Facebook and Twitter, and they seem to be doing it more than some of the other pharmaceutical companies. On Twitter, Merck and Pfizer use there social media outlets to release information such as company news and drug development. They take a different approach to the use of their social media outlets that doesn’t connect to families the way that J&J does.

J&J’s approach to the use of social media is right on target. They’re talking to the families and the families are listening. Moms and dads can go to their pages and get a lot of information simply in a short amount of time. And, if they want to explore anything a little further, the resources are there. And, even with all of the focus on families, J&J still makes sure to post about important events in the industry or advancements within their industry.