In November 2013, the Australian Self
Medication Industry (ASMI) became the
first healthcare industry body to release
social media guidelines (the Guidelines).
ASMI is the peak industry body for the
Australian self-care industry, representing
consumer healthcare products including
over the counter and complementary
medicines.
The Guidelines apply to non-prescription
medicines and aim to provide practical
guidance as to how social media can be
used in this sector, while still ensuring
compliance with professional, ethical and
regulatory obligations. ASMI worked with
Weber Shandwick, a communication
agency, to develop the guidelines.
Social media is already a vital communica-
tions channel in commerce and the
healthcare industry is no exception.
Filomena Maiese, ASMI Marketing and
Business Development Director
emphasised this point, stating that "80 per
cent of people [go] online first for health
information". In an increasingly `instant'
world, organisations which do not provide
instant information run the risk of falling
behind as the nature and speed at which
organisations and consumers interact
evolve.
Despite this, the industry has been quite
cautious in embracing social media sites
such as Facebook and Twitter, as the
healthcare space in Australia is so highly
regulated, leading to much uncertainty
about what is and is not acceptable social
media content. The intention of the
Guidelines is to provide ASMI members in
particular more certainty, "increasing their
confidence in connecting brands and
health information with social media
audiences in a compliant and responsible
manner."
The Guidelines are intended as a broad
guide only, and are not intended to
replace or alter an organisation's
obligations under any relevant code of
conduct, regulation or legislation. Rather,
the purpose of the Guidelines is to assist
organisations to meet their existing obli-
gations.
The Guidelines provide a necessarily
broad definition of social media, in order
to capture new forms of social media that
have not yet been contemplated.
Social media is characterised as a subset
of digital media. It is also defined as any
online channel that can provide a 2-way
interaction between two parties.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn
are clear examples, but this also extends
to user review sites, blogs, forums and
message boards. Social media is further
characterised as an eco-system of owned,
earned and paid media.
Owned media includes "any online profile,
channel or forum where the organisation
can exhibit some level of control over its
content", such as a Facebook page or
Twitter profile. This is contrasted with
earned media, such as Twitter public
replies, individual Facebook accounts or
articles on mainstream news websites,
where there is no direct control or
influence by the organisation. Paid media
is "any piece of media (comments, photos,
advertisements) that has been sponsored
and or paid for by the organisation", such
as Facebook ads or sponsored Tweets.
Owned media and paid media are treated
as advertising.
The Guidelines go on to list some of the
issues which may arise for an organisation
in operating social media, including false or
misleading claims, copyright infringement,
defamation, breaches of confidentiality and
breaches of privacy, however these issues
are not dealt with in detail. The
Guidelines also remind organisations that
additional obligations apply where
therapeutic goods are concerned, such as
advertising requirements specific to
therapeutic goods, and adverse events.
An important point to note is that these
issues can apply whether the organisation
is the author of the content or not.
While managing owned content is
somewhat easier as the organisation has
control over what is published, the
Guidelines provide that any comment or
post made by a user on such owned
content (i.e. a post on an organisation's
Facebook page) is also the organisation's
responsibility, and "any comment in breach
of any requirement should be removed
within a reasonable time" of the
organisation becoming aware of it. ASMI
suggests that a reasonable time frame is
24 hours for large companies and one
week for Small to Medium Enterprises.
The obligations in relation to owned
media also apply to paid media.
The Guidelines acknowledge that
organisations have no control over
content in earned media and that
monitoring of such social media is not
mandatory, however it is becoming
increasingly common practice to do so. If,
via monitoring of content in earned
media, the organisation (or any agency
monitoring on behalf of the organisation)
becomes aware of content in breach of
any legal requirements, the Guidelines
provide that the organisation should take
all reasonable steps to correct that
material, noting that the organisation will
itself be unable to take down any earned
media content as it is not controlled
indirectly or directly by the organisation.
If the organisation or agency becomes
aware of an adverse event, the
organisation or agency must report such
adverse event as soon as they are made
aware of it.
The Guidelines also provide that it is up
to the organisation to keep up to date
with new forms of social media and to
ensure that "campaigns and consumer
engagement is ethical and executed to
best practice". Further, if an organisation
publishes a link to a third party or owned
media site, the organisation must also
monitor the site that has been linked to
(including assessing the compliance of that
linked site to the relevant codes and
legislation). This could be quite onerous.
It is therefore an important consideration
if an organisation is contemplating placing
links to other parties' social media sites.
The Guidelines do however indicate that
the organisation could get around this
obligation by notifying the consumer (by
way of pop up alert, for example) that
they are leaving the company controlled
site.
The Guidelines are in a way quite narrow
in scope. The main focus is on what is
social media, and how social media can
be categorised, and are limited to non-
prescription medicines. The
recommendations are quite broad and
provide little in the way of real life
examples to assist organisations.
However, while the Guidelines are in
some ways quite limited, ASMI is the first
industry body to publish any guidelines in
this space. Acknowledging the pervasive
nature of social media is an important first
step and it is likely only time before other
industry bodies begin releasing their own
social media policies and guidelines that
will have a broader application across the
industry.
11
Australian Self Medication Industry Social
(ASMI) Media Guidelines
Bernard O'Shea, Frances Drummond, Norton Rose Fulbright Australia
ITMA Spring
Conference
LONDON
19-21 March 2014