PRWeek just posted a story about our client Sermo’s deal with Pfizer, and how it might impact the model for the social network business. Author Marc Longpre also has some interesting thoughts around the revenue models – echoing our blog post earlier this week about niche social networking sites and their strong potential for bringing new value to the online community phenomenon.
We are extremely excited about an announcement today from our client Sermo, a networking community site for medical doctors. Their relationship with Pfizer Inc. indicates the continued evolution of real business value coming out of the social networking and Web 2.0 phenomenon. Sermo and Pfizer have partnered to bring new value and better results to the interaction between medical doctors and drug companies. In doing so, we all stand to benefit. The potential positive outcomes are revolutionary and we applaud Pfizer for forging the path for other drug companies and the healthcare industry as a whole.
We all know that social networking is changing the way people communicate. This simple proposition is now on the radar of many businesses – how can we harness such information, how do we monetize it and how can it help us to become a better business? Many still don’t “get it” and too many still dismiss its potential to truly change business. (As even Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff indicated in his comment to our October 9 post). As today’s Sermo news indicates, the powerful impact of the transparent and efficient exchange of knowledge – doctors on Sermo openly discuss issues, trends, treatments and more – can be applied to real issues.
Sharing such information on Sermo, physicians have access to the most topical medical data available – enabling them to make better fact-based decisions, faster – in a way never before made possible. Ultimately, patients will benefit from the positive impact of such important collaboration.
Read more on the partnership at The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Financial Times, Bloomberg.com and Sermo.
