In this #ChalkChat, Jim Mittler, PhD, Medical Director at Palio, discusses how social networks can improve and sustain positive health behaviors and health outcomes.

#ChalkChat is a weekly video series that brings you insights on branding, marketing and multichannel integration within the pharmaceutical industry. Follow us at #ChalkChat. Follow up with Jim at jmittler@palio.com or @jim_mittler.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

By Lori Goodale, Corporate Relations Director, Palio

As seen in our previous post, we’ve been talking about the best practices that will make your presence on social-media platforms top-notch. It’s our belief that if you do a few things really well, you’ll succeed onany platform. Here’s the second half of our top 10!

5. Measure. How are you doing? You won’t know if you haven’t been counting. Figure out what metrics matter, which ones you can measure with reasonable effort, how often you’ll track them – and then DO IT. Free and inexpensive services abound. Even newer platforms like Pinterest already have services like PinPuff, and Pinerly.

4. Converse. Social media is about you listening and then responding to what people are saying, and it’s about you speaking and then responding to people’s reactions. When you think of social media as a “platform” in the old-school sense – simply as a place for you to lecture – that’s when you set yourself up for failure.

3. Be transparent. Who’s behind your posts? Raise the curtain and let people know a little about the people they’re hearing from. But don’t rely entirely on one person to embody your brand’s social presence.

2. Adapt. Facebook is going to evolve (and people are going to complain about it). The service you use to access Twitter will be replaced by a different one. And the platforms that you’re worrying about now are probably not going to be around in five years. Instead of freaking out about this, just acknowledge and appreciate that you’ll have to roll with it!

1. Prepare for the worst. The site will go down. Someone will post something stupid. Your campaign will launch five minutes after the biggest news of the year breaks. Murphy’s Law is a law for a reason. Have you got a Plan B?

We think that if you get those ten right, you won’t really need to worry about the rest. Good luck! But want to see some examples of where it’s really being done right? Check these out:

1. Facebook All-Star: Actor George Takei has created a second act for himself decades after his original TV fame, with his humor and messages of equality.


2. LinkedIn All-Star: Philips. The company facilitates an Innovations in Healthcare discussion group on the site with 58,000 members and vibrant conversation.


3. Twitter All-Star: Newark NJ mayor Cory Booker. The man has shoveled snowy sidewalks, facilitated proclamations, and faced up to critics, all one Tweet at a time. His million followers watch a politician engage with the people every day in 140 characters.


4. Pinterest All-Star: General Electric! The huge corporation isn’t who you’d expect to see on a social network known for recipes, pictures of fashion and homes, quotes and funny memes, but GE gets it. They’ve got their own boards of memes, homes, quotes and recipes – alongside ones promoting their campaigns and providing fascinating facts.

In this episode of #ChalkChat, Gina Figler, junior copywriter at Palio, shares 4 ideas for finding creative inspiration.

#ChalkChat is a weekly video series that brings you insights on branding, marketing and multichannel integration within the pharmaceutical industry. Follow us at #ChalkChat. Follow up with Gina at gina.figler@palio.com.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

By Kevin Coffey, Account Director, Palio, @kevinwcoffey

With more than 163 million users in the U.S. – the majority of them in marketers’ favored 18-35 demographic – Facebook is the gorilla in the mass marketing room. And, when they make changes – as they did earlier in the year – everyone notices.

Facebook’s launch of Timeline for brands didn’t just change the world of marketers – it changed the fundamental way that consumers experience brands on the social media behemoth. In a webcam eye-tracking study for Mashable by EyeTrackShop, researchers found that participants spent less time eyeballing Wall posts and ads — and more time looking at the cover photo on brands’ timelines.

Researchers recorded eye movements of participants as they were shown brand profiles before and after being converted to timeline. Results suggest our perception of brands on Facebook has changed:

Ads get a boost. Ads on Facebook Timeline are less visible than ads on Facebook Brand Pages. While 30 percent to 40 percent of study participants looked at ads on brand Timeline pages, 80 percent looked at them on Brand Pages. In both cases, ads placed higher up on the page fared better than those below them.

Cover photos rule. Cover photos are the new Facebook Wall, as far as attention goes. On average, viewers looked at them first and for the longest amount of time. On the brand Timelines, viewers nearly always looked at the cover photo first and spent more time viewing it than Timeline content.

The Timeline takes a back seat. Viewers see Timeline content last. In every case, viewers looked at either the left or right column of Timeline content last — after ads, navigation buttons and brand logos.

Previously minor or invisible information is now front and center. Facebook moved the Like count, events and apps to prime territory. It now gets more attention than when it was listed in very small type on the right-hand side of the page.

Show your face. Cover photos with faces attract the most attention. Study participants spent more time on Good Morning America and “The Muppets” pages, which have cover photos with faces, whereas the Dallas Cowboys and Pepsi do not.

Taken as a whole, the changes mean brands on Facebook have an improved visual platform for communicating with fans and customers – if they know how to leverage it.  Whether it’s sharing brand history through video or adding more photos, visual communication can deliver powerful messages to fans and followers.

What are you doing to attract eyeballs to your brand?

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

This episode of #ChalkChat features “Acronym Soup” with Paul Harrington, Palio’s SVP Creative Director, who shares 5 key guidelines to keep in mind when creating your next advertising campaign.

#ChalkChat is a weekly video series that brings you insights on branding, marketing and multichannel integration within the pharmaceutical industry. Follow us at #ChalkChat. Follow up with Paul pharrington@palio.com.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

In this episode of #ChalkChat, Neall Currie, VP, Creative Director at Palio, shares insights into how using shared context can make communications more effective.

#ChalkChat is a weekly video series that brings you insights on branding, marketing and multichannel integration within the pharmaceutical industry. Follow us at #ChalkChat. Follow up with Neall @neallcurrie.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

by Taegan Grice, Interactive Designer at Palio, @tmgrice

Don’t look now but… are QR codes getting useful and cool again?

The much-hyped and often-misused technology, QR codes have been something of a darling among online and mobile marketers. And why not — at their best, QR codes are a vehicle to instantly act on interest, deliver on a value proposition and marry the sometimes-estranged worlds of print, online, mobile and POP marketing.

Everyone’s getting on board: QR codes and other mobile action codes, including Microsoft Tags and 2D barcodes, grew 617 percent from January to December 2011 in the Top 100 U.S. magazines, according to a study by Nellymoser, a mobile marketing and technology company. Advertisers drove the majority of QR and action code growth. From January to December, the percent of ad pages containing a code jumped from 3.6 percent to 8.36 percent.

In that same study, more than half of all QR codes and Microsoft Tags led to a video (54%), which usually was a product demo, behind the scenes look or an entertaining clip. Data capture and list building for opt-in communications, usually with a sweepstakes, were also very popular with 30 percent of action codes leading to this type of engagement. Social media sharing, where action codes enable Facebook, Twitter and email sharing, represented 23 percent of mobile engagements. E-commerce was also popular with 19 percent of mobile engagements leading to an online-store for instant product purchases, brick-and-mortar store locators and/or coupons.

The challenge? There’s just so much bad QR-code work out there. From uninspired drop-ins in big national campaigns to well-intentioned but off-the-mark use in small community newspaper ads, seemingly everyone wants to jump on board the QR-code train, but doesn’t quite know how to make it stand out (Lookin’ at you, Facebook, with your silly roof-mounted QR code). However, a handful of new campaigns give savvy mobile and digital marketers reason for hope.

There was a Korean retailer’s 3-D sunlight-activated QR code, which was scannable only at lunch, when the shadows lined up. Gimmicky, you say? It also boosted lunchtime sales by 25 percent. And, although it’s almost a year old, we’re still fans of how eBay handled its first retail storefront: As a series of QR-code-enabled windows.

Now, we have this Guinness QR code on a beer glass. The twist: It’s activated by the product—you pour a Guinness into the glass, and the beer’s black color fills out the code. Like your beer on the lighter side? Then you won’t be able to see the code. Scan the code with your smartphone, and it “tweets about your pint, updates your Facebook status, checks you in via Foursquare, downloads coupons and promotions, invites your friends to join you, and even launches exclusive Guinness content.” As the animated Guinness ads say: Brilliant!

So what will you do to break the mold with QR codes in 2012? At least go out and grab a Guinness!

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

In this weeks #ChalkChat, Elissa Nadworny, Palio’s Video Production Specialist, shares tips for filming video with a smart phone or flip camera.

#ChalkChat is a weekly video series that brings you insights on branding, marketing and multichannel integration within the pharmaceutical industry. Follow us at #ChalkChat. Follow up with Elissa Nadworny @elissanadworny.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

In this week’s #ChalkChat, Joe Arcuri, Palio’s Director of Multichannel Services, discusses 5 ways info-graphics can extend online brand reach.

#ChalkChat is a weekly video series that brings you insights on branding, marketing and multichannel integration within the pharmaceutical industry. Follow us at #ChalkChat. Follow up with Joe Arcuri @joearcuri.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

In this week’s #ChalkChat Saul Morse, Palio’s Vice President for Multichannel Integration, offers 4 tips on building a native app vs. responsive website.

#ChalkChat is a weekly video series that brings you insights on branding, marketing and multichannel integration within the pharmaceutical industry. Follow us at #ChalkChat. Follow up with Saul Morse @SaulMorse or saul.morse@palio.com.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.