Familiarize Yourself with Sidewikis, or Pay the Consequences

• Pharma’s next big trend?

AstraZeneca recently became the first pharma company to add a sidewiki to its site, and now Roche has followed suit. The first question you may have is, “What is a sidewiki?” Like almost everything digitaland online, it seems, Google created it. In very simple terms, this add-on creates a bookmark toolbar where users can contribute and read information alongside any Web page. The add-on also creates a “bookmarks” toolbar that is loaded with cool features (more on that in a future posting).

Right now, you should be familiarizing yourself with this feature, for two very important reasons:

1)      If used properly, you can invite conversation and allow consumers to generate discussions on your homepage instead of driving them to other social media sites, where it is more difficult to follow discussions about your brand(s).

2)      If ignored, you may never be aware of discussions that are already taking place on your own website. This means that patients or even competitors could potentially be saying derogatory and untrue things about your products or company while you stand by idly.

The best way to deal with Google’s sidewiki is to become an active participant. However, even if you prefer not to get involved with the discussions that may already be taking place, you must, at the very least, enter some welcoming information. As the owner of a page, you have the ability to enter a welcome message that can be prominently displayed as the first comment. In addition, you can also configure it so that this comment appears on every page of comments, which is very useful for those who want to “jam” the system. By creating a long intro, you’ll essentially be hogging the real estate that is left for commenters, making it more difficult for visitors to view messages and display their own. There are some other, more complicated options that require HTML knowledge should you be ready and willing to render Google’s sidewiki useless, but it will certainly require more time and effort to do so, and it will only be a temporary fix, as features and add-ons like this are constantly being updated.

Now is the time to face your sidewiki head on; you can’t afford not to. Download the add-on, check out AstraZeneca’s strategy, check out how Roche is handling it and make some quick decisions. The FDA will likely take its time coming up with rules and regulations that will affect the use of sidewikis, so, in the meantime, it’s up to you and your company to deal with this issue. Check out the resources below for more information.

Google Sidewiki Panics Brand Managers: Some Use Hacks to Jam the Service

Digital Pharma: Roche Tackles Sidewiki

Contribute with Sidewiki: Create a Webmaster Sidewiki Entry