Pharmaceutical firms ‘increasing use of Pinterest’

A growing number of pharmaceutical and healthcare companies are turning to social photo sharing website Pinterest as a new communications channel.

PMLiVE's Digital Intelligence Blog reports that companies such as Nov Nordisk, Menarini and GE Healthcare all have presences on the site, which has gained significant popularity since its debut in 2009.

Bayer HealthCare was the first pharmaceutical company to join Pinterest and operates seven pin boards on topics such as sustainability and innovation, as well as sections for business, high-tech materials, and science, education and advocacy.

Meanwhile, Boehringer Ingelheim was identified in the report as the business that has applied "joined-up thinking" most effectively, having set out a corporate policy to deal with any contentious issues that may arise.

These include rules pertaining to the removal of postings that contain unverified medical advice, while it also provides an email contact point for users.

Pinterest won the best social media site accolade at the 2012 Webby Awards and passed 11 million users in January this year, according to figures from comScore.