Promoting Pharmaceutical Companies’ Reputation through Facebook: the case of Spain

Pablo Medina Aguerreber,Eva Medina,Toni González Pacanowski

doi:10.48132/hdbr.306

Pablo Medina Aguerreber, Eva Medina + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.48132/hdbr.306

Copy DOI

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse how the 100 most reputed pharmaceutical companies in Spain use Facebook for improving their corporate reputation. To do that, on the one hand, we carried out a literature review about corporate communication, health organizations and social media; and on the other hand, we analysed their Facebook corporate profiles by using ten indicators related to corporate communication. This paper concludes that pharmaceutical companies in Spain does not consider Facebook any more like a strategic tool for their corporate communication strategies because only 18 companies manage actively a Facebook corporate profile from their headquarters in Spain.

Highlights

During these last years, most health organizations around the world have had to reinvent their corporate communication strategies in order to better satisfy new stakeholders’ demands
We have focused on the pharmaceutical companies because - unlike hospitals, clinics, health authorities, health insurance companies and patients’ associations, these organizations, since many years ago, invest every year a great amount of money in advertising, public relations and corporate communication initiatives in order to reinforce their corporate reputation
Most health organizations use social media for disseminating corporate information related to their brand

Summary

Introduction

Most health organizations around the world have had to reinvent their corporate communication strategies in order to better satisfy new stakeholders’ demands. Health organizations’ employees as well as patients, media companies and public authorities are increasingly interested in issues related to health education and prevention. They need to better understand why these health organizations’ activities are useful for individuals and society. The financial crisis of traditional media and the increasingly reduced budgets for communication activities in health organizations have led these last ones to focus their corporate communication in social media. This paper aims to analyse how health organizations in Spain use social media for improving their corporate reputation. We analysed the Facebook corporate profile of 100 most reputed pharmaceuticals companies in Spain by using 10 indicators related to corporate communication. We proposed some ideas for improving their online corporate communication strategies

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion