Challenge
The race to develop life-saving COVID-19 vaccines sparked a firestorm of digital chatter on social media. From misinformation to conspiracy theories, pharma companies faced an unprecedented blitz of harmful content from bad actor groups. Meanwhile, as consumers sought answers about these remarkable scientific achievements, vaccine manufacturers had to create safe, compliant online communities to address their questions and concerns.
One U.S. biotechnology company knows firsthand what it takes to produce a vaccine at scale. Agility and speed are core to its work on immunizations for serious global infectious diseases and most recently its COVID-19 vaccine. However, as global authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine unfolded, the company also had to defend against an “infodemic” of misinformation happening online, all while maintaining the safety and compliance of its online communities.
What started as a manageable social media presence quickly ramped as the company’s COVID-19 vaccine set to roll out. Initially, between internal teams and agency partners, the company handled sporadic consumer engagements about clinical trials using traditional social listening tools. However, as the vaccine prepared to produce a huge number of doses per month, the company quickly realized that it needed a formal risk intelligence solution.
Solution
The biotech company engaged Resolver to monitor and manage the anticipated digital chatter set to overwhelm its communications, social media and compliance teams. They needed help to categorize and prioritize the level of risk and anticipate the severity of social media commentary as it skyrocketed. Resolver deployed its Pharma Compliance solution, quickly scaling to meet the growing demands placed on the company’s owned social media pages, 24/7/365. This included Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn pages across multiple languages and geographies.
Within weeks of partnering with Resolver, the volume of digital chatter on the biotech company’s social media pages rose sharply. The nonstop news cycle about COVID-19 vaccines coupled with a tidal wave of misinformation showed no signs of slowing, but the company and Resolver were ready. Embedded within the company’s pharmacovigilance team, Resolver provided best practices in addition to rapid response, recording, reporting and the escalation of harmful content.
This fast, actionable risk intelligence gave the biotech company and its teams 24/7/365 peace of mind and protection from reputational damage, as well as best-in-class adverse event detection with zero misses. As the pandemic progressed, the harmful nature of this digital chatter intensified. Resolver responded by employing its Threat Defense solution to keep pace with the harmful content and identify security and manufacturing risks as vaccine production began.
Outcome
Over the course of six months, Resolver reviewed more than 250,000 comments across the biotech company’s social media presence. That was a 500% growth in digital chatter volume from the start of the relationship — and before a single shot had been given outside of clinical trials. More than 10,741 items were categorized as misinformation, 295 comments hidden or removed and another 640 identified as potential adverse events on Twitter alone.
The company gained a trusted reporting system to grow alongside distribution of its COVID-19 vaccine. In parallel, Resolver continues to provide fast, actionable risk intelligence solutions across 11 languages. High demand for the company’s COVID-19 vaccine continues to generate record volumes of comments on its social media pages. However, with Resolver in place, its teams are able to identify, categorize and report adverse events and escalate harmful content, including selfish promotion, inappropriate content, misinformation and security threats in real time.
Resolver’s 24/7/365 monitoring, moderation and adverse event detection affords the biotech company ongoing reassurance that social media safety and compliance are always treated as a priority. This peace of mind also means the company can successfully (and securely) scale into new regions with the proper social media auditing solutions in place.
