Social Media use by consumers and professionals in the pharma world is exploding and organizations that have been latent to adoption in the past are joining with progressives to demystify and in some cases, embrace the social web. But how?

A recent presentation from John Mack, Publisher of Pharma Marketing News and the Pharma Marketing Blog offers an excellent overview of the current state of pharma social media use, how social media can work with other Pharma marketing tactics as well as how to overcome common barriers.

Despite uncertainties regarding regulations on social media usage by pharma, many of the big players are still getting into the game.

A recent Pharma Marketing Blog post online drugs without prescription shares some interesting details on Pfizer’s entrance into social media via Facebook. But according to the post, that entrance wasn’t quite graceful:

When I became a Pfizer FB Pfan, Pfizer’s Wall contained a bunch of short “medicine Safety” videos in which patients talked about their medical conditions and medications. I don’t think any mentioned specific products by name.

At first glance, Facebook pages of pharmaceutical companies are just like any other companies’ — sharing links and providing content.

But take a closer look, and you’ll notice that the pages don’t allow commenting or even the “like” Facebook feature.

In a recent AdWeek article, Brian Morrissey discusses the pharma marketing conundrum regarding social media. The article shares how one pharma company is using social media in a limited way:

Despite some regulatory uncertainty regarding how the pharmaceutical industry interacts with the public, there are many standout pharma marketing and social media initiatives from which to learn, Socialmedia.biz blogger JD Lasica offers in a recent post.

Lasica identifies the top 10 social media efforts and patient community micro-sites in the pharmaceutical and health care industry:

1. Johnson & Johnson
2. Glaxo-Smith-Kline
3. Bayer
4. Sanofi-Aventis
5. Novartis
6. AstraZenecaUS
7. Bristol-Myers Squibb
8. Roche
9. Pfizer
10. Boehringer Ingelheim

In a slideshow presentation, “Top 10 Pharma Efforts in Social Media,” Lasica offers details of each social media effort, as well as grades each company on their Twitter activity.

What if there were no rules in pharma marketing? That’s the question Jonathan Richman asks in a recent post on the iMedia Connection Blog. For healthcare digital marketers—like marketers in every field—innovation is often inhibited by themselves, by external forces and by their own interpretation of external forces. Richman says it’s the interpretation of external forces (regulations, guidelines, etc.) that’s the most menacing.

Most of us are aware of our own limitations. At the same time, most of us know the rules and are forced to live under them. However, many times we don’t really know the rules or understand them. Worse still is when we think we know the rules, but really don’t. When this happens, we essentially create a set of “ghost rules” that inhibit our thinking and that of our colleagues.