Janssen Engages HIV Community on Tumblr: Build It and They Will Come?

A few months ago, I engaged Peter Houston (@Flipping_Pages) in a discussion about whether or not pharma "should" do Tumblr, a social media site that allows users to post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from browsers, phones, via email or wherever (see "Should Pharma Do Tumblr?").

Here's some comments from Houton regarding Tumblr's youthful user base, which I thought was inappropriate for pharma:

Could Pharma Use Tumblr and Survive?

In this 3-minute audio snippet, Peter Houston, founder of Flipping Pages Media Ltd, discusses the pros and cons of Tumblr and whether it is possible for pharma marketers to get involved with Tumblr. Is it too Early? "I'm not suggesting that anyone switch their social media budget to Tumblr today on the strength of Yahoo's involvement," said Houston. "But it's worth keeping an eye on what Yahoo does and how the Tumblr audience responds. If they get the content marketing part of the play right and the user base keeps active, Tumblr might just make it into your social media marketing plan." Other resources: Should Pharma Do Tumblr? - Pharma Marketing Blog post Could Pharma Do Tumblr? - PharmExecBlog

But the youthful user base and "social looseness" of Tumblr is the right demographic for reaching patients of a certain sort -- e.g., those who are HIV-positive. That may be why Janssen Therapeutics, a division of Johnson and Johnson, which markets PREZISTA to treat HIV infection, has created the "Positively Together" Tumblr site. It's an "Online Community For Those Living With HIV."

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Janssen Therapeutics has "partnered with WEGO Health" to contribute to the Positively Together community; see this page contributed by Kamaria Laffrey, a member of The Positively Together Team. According to her LinkedIn profile, Kamaria Laffrey is a HIV/AIDS consultant specializing in teens and college students empowerment and sexual responsibility with a focus on women and young girls.

This may be the FIRST use of Tumblr by a major pharmaceutical company.

There may be many good reasons for pharma to use Tumblr aside form the fact that it is FREE and may be perfect for your demographic (see here). But whatever the advantages, there remains one disadvantage: you must have sufficient resources to handle comments.

Janssen encourages visitors to "Share Your Story." But first, you have to be "18 years or older and a legal resident of the United States." Just check the box to agree -- no one will be the wiser if you are really a "tween" from Taiwan.

You also must accept the "Terms of Submission," which include granting Janssen "a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable right and license to use, host, store, cache, reproduce, publish, display (publicly or otherwise), perform (publicly or otherwise), distribute, transmit, modify, adapt (including, without limitation, in order to conform it to the requirements of any networks, devices, services, or media through which the Services are available), and create derivative works of the Content."

Finally, there are the guidelines for submission:

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Submissions that follow these guidelines "will be posted within 1-5 business days." I haven't test this promise, but hope others will. As soon as they learn about this site, that is! I searched Janssen and WEGO Health and Google for any mention of the site. Nada! Oh well. "Build It and They Shall Come," I suppose.