When I was 19 years old, I decided to jump into the blogosphere by launching Lemonade Life, a blog that more-or-less has chronicled my life with type 1 diabetes. The name came from the saying, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade” which I thought was fitting because my mission was to live life with a chronic condition with a positive attitude.
There was no way to know back in 2005 that diabetes bloggers would become as well-known and well-respected in the pharmaceutical and medical device community as we have. We had no idea that we would eventually be thought of as “influencers” and “thought leaders.” The notion of being a “thought leader” is still new to me, but it’s becoming more evident each year as we are contacted by companies and consultants to share our thoughts on living with diabetes from a patient’s perspective.
Just as pharmaceutical companies are making leaps and bounds in the online world with Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and conversation listening, they are also making strides in the offline world. In the spring of 2009, we were pleased, but a bit surprised, to find out that Roche Diabetes wanted to bring together a group of thirty diabetes bloggers, podcasters and social network founders to talk about social media and its impact in our lives. Roche paid for our travel to their headquarters in Indianapolis in July 2009, which included flight and hotel, and provided food during the course of our travels.
Their main objective: to learn from us, and to share a bit about what they themselves were doing on the inside.
The meeting was not a sales pitch and very little mention of their products was actually mentioned. In fact, we spent the majority of time controlling the conversation and telling them what we wanted them to know about how to participate in our close-knit online community and what we thought about their marketing techniques.
Fast forward to 2010. With a slight increase to 40 people, this year Roche flew us to Orlando, Florida at the end of June, to coincide with the annual American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions and Children with Diabetes’s international Friends for Life conference. Same rules applied: they paid for the basics, but we could write and say anything we wanted to about what we experienced. No “sneak peeks” at blog posts allowed.
They shared with us what changes they had made to their marketing strategies in response to the criticism they received directly from us. One of those most promising changes we heard: instead of using the standard 104 mg/dl blood sugar reading in advertisement for glucose meters, they incorporated blood sugars that were not within the “target range” to more accurately reflect the blood sugar readings that people with diabetes usually see in their real life. Real life reflected in advertisements? It was a novel idea!
Lisa Huse, the Director of Strategic Initiatives for Roche Diabetes, told us during her brief 20 minute presentation, “I have learned more in the last year of listening to you online than I have in the previous 11 years of working at Roche.”
Roche Diabetes also demonstrated their commitment to being part of the diabetes community by providing an opportunity for us to meet with the American Diabetes Association and the American Association of Diabetes Educators to have open and honest conversation about issues we had with the organizations.
In 2005, we were simply the “patients” – a group of people to be bossed, lectured and judged by our doctors and the medical community. These days, we are helping to build our own health objectives, guiding policy and product development, and creating new goals and ideas for what successful diabetes management should look like. It is a whole new world.
Allison Blass is an Associate in Social Media at WCG. She is also a diabetes advocate and blogger.
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