At Compass we believe it is important to ensure that our client’s product and/or disease category is accurately and appropriately represented throughout the online space, not just on the brand.com site. Influencing how others represent brand information requires a new type of approach, most easily defined as Online Public Relations and Advocate Management.

Whether it is because our client has just recently launched, a larger competitor has unfairly shaped the market perception, or the product/disease is simply too niche to receive appropriate attention, Compass can help.

Compass will assess the online landscape for our clients and identify who the online influencers are — the websites, discussion boards and blogs that discuss health topics relevant to the client product. Compass will then identify what information we would like each influencer to incorporate or change on their site in order to better represent the client.

Compass will contact each individual web property with a proposal for how they can improve the quality and accuracy of their site with the customized brand/disease information we provide — called "Site in a Box". Compass will collaborate with the publishers to provide support and references for the editorial review process and ensure appropriate links, etc are implemented.

In the case of blogs and discussion boards, Compass will collaborate with patient advocates and/or KOLs contracted to represent the brand. The advocates and KOLs will post messages on the blogs and boards representing their belief and experience with the product/disease, fully disclosing their relationship to the pharmaceutical company.

Throughout the program Compass will track the postings, the traffic to the brand website and level of viral activity generated by the postings.

KOL Blog

While traditional blogs (in which any visitor can post a comment on the website for all to view) are challenging in our regulated environment, it is possible to present a dialogue among your category experts — or patient advocates — in the blog format.

At Compass we develop "one-way" blogs that enable a brand to publish an authentic dialogue among thought leaders for peers and patients to follow. The blogs do not allow other visitors to post, so there is complete editorial control.

The blog format allows a brand to address and represent itself in topics related to treatment advances, disease knowledge or patient management as well as position the company as an active supporter of the therapeutic category.

In developing the blog site, Compass works with the thoughtleaders to develop topic areas and create position statements and/or articles so that a series of postings are developed and approved prior to launch. Compass then publishes the postings on a regular basis, presenting in time-delay the dialogue created by the authors.

Followers of the blog are notified (via eMail or SMS) whenever a new posting is published, ensuring an ongoing relationship with the thought leaders and the brand.