We’ve been tracking the social media practices of brands across the health and healthy lifestyles continuum – what they’re trying to achieve, the tools they’re using, the messaging and conversations taking place and how well we think they’re delivering.

Johnson & Johnson’s JNJ BTW is a blog authored by six J&J employees. The blog is about J&J, what they’re doing, how they’re doing it and why, along with news about the industry The authors state that while they may not always be able to talk about issues that fall under regulatory or legal constraints, we’re going to do what we can to talk openly, directly and to the best of our knowledge.

Here’s what I like about JNJ BTW:

• It’s written by individuals. Companies don’t blog, people do. And they do here.
• It’s not a marketing campaign. Beyond promoting the company and its products, the blog is a sincere attempt to make a real connection with, and engage, external audiences.
• Reflects J&J’s values. It’s (human) voice is consistent with what you’d expect from this company.
• Let’s you see underneath the hood. Content gives readers an idea of what’s going on inside the company, along with the issues they’re thinking and acting upon.
• Open for comments. There aren’t a lot, but they do encourage two-way communication.
• Open to flaws. This was the initial promise from the authors, and they’ve delivered on this.

What they can be doing better:
• Posting on a more regular schedule. While the blog is updated often, the authors should be posting more regularly. It’s hard to gain traction, and possible that readers will stop visiting altogether, when they aren’t sure when new content is being posted.
• Compelling more J&J employee involvement. There are more than 120,000 people around the globe who work for J&J and their operating companies. At a minimum, employees should be contributing their comments to these posts.
• More eye candy. There’s not much here to visually capture the reader’s attention, as most posts are simply text treatments.

Visit JNJBTW, and let me know what you think. I’m interested in hearing and sharing your comments.

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