RonAmok!

Social Media for Executives
Jun 15, 2009

On October 22, 2008, I was sitting in a popular session at the MarketingProfs Digital Mixer, hosted by the legendary CC Chapman. CC’s topic focused on the corporate use of online video — something I recapped in a cleverly-named post: CC Chapman on Online Video :-)

At the end of the session, a woman asked how a pharmaceutical company like the one she worked for could use online video. She understood how it could be used for business-to-consumer applications. She understood how companies who sold business-to-business could use it. Her question was how to use video in an industry that was regulated by the Food and Drug administration (FDA).

As a New Media Evangelist who helps companies tell their stories online, I run into this question constantly. If it’s not the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry, it’s FINRA for the financial industry, or the FTC for publicly traded companies.

So I went on a quest. My goal was to find a company who works in a regulated industry yet was using New/Social Media successfully. What I found was more than I could have expected.

I found Johnson & Johnson, a 123 year old, $64 billion holding company that had not only been using YouTube successfully, but that it had two blogs, Kilmer House and JNJ BTW, a Twitter account, and was experimenting with a Facebook Group. And as I studied the series of events that transpired to enable this success, I stumbled upon a road map that any company can use to develop its Social Media strategy.

Here I present the results of my research in my latest e-book:

Johnson & Johnson Does New Media

The e-book is licensed under Creative Commons, so please feel free to pass it around!

Filed under: Case Studies
  • Good stuff
  • Good stuff
  • Great work Ron. I had the study forwarded to me by a customer I'm working with here in Australia. So it's definitely making the rounds!
  • Great post, Ron! This is all really helpful information. I thought J&J's use of the YouTube channel was quite compelling (and refreshing that it wasn't just being used to push products).

    Ginger
  • Congratulations on another outstanding study. There is a ton of cross over information here that directly applies to my field, financial services. Your perspectives and insights help open new media possibilities in areas that once seemed off limits.

    Rob
    @shorespeak
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