Be part of the social pharma conversation!
Join eyeforpharma blogger Eileen O'Brien, director of search and innovation at Siren Interactive, for weekly Tweetchats about pharma marketing and social media
Are you intimidated by the blank Twitter box asking, "What's happening"?
Do you think Twitter is all about people describing what they ate for breakfast?
If so, a Tweetchat might be right for you.
What's a Tweetchat?
Tweetchats are conversations, held at a pre-arranged time on Twitter.
Typically, Tweetchats are around a specific area of interest.
There are currently Tweetchats on topics ranging from personal branding to real estate to small business technology to dogs.
Every Wednesday, I moderate a conversation about pharma marketing and social media that you can listen to-or you can join in the discussion.
To access this Tweetchat, use the hashtag #SocPharm.
What's a Hashtag?
A hashtag consists of the # symbol before a keyword.
Hashtags identify the conversation topic.
They help Tweeters quickly find content on a specific subject.
For example, #FDAsm was the hashtag used for tweeting about the FDA social media hearings.
#SocPharm is a hashtag used for topics related to pharma marketing and social media.
It's also what you follow in order to see the Tweetchat discussion I moderate.
How do I Join a Tweetchat?
It's easy and fun to join a Tweetchat because you are being asked your opinion about a subject that interests you.
To listen to a Tweetchat, you don't even need a Twitter account, but it's more fun if you do have an account and participate.
You can listen to the conversation on pharma marketing and social media by going to Twitter.com and typing in #SocPharm in the search box.
If you continue to hit refresh, you'll be able to see the ongoing conversation.
If you have a Twitter account and use a tool like Tweetdeck, you can set up a separate search column for #SocPharm that allows you to easily follow along.
Another great option is the website http://tweetchat.com where you enter your Twitter name and the hashtag you want to follow.
It shows you the Tweetchat and also automatically adds the hashtag at the end of your tweets.
What's the #SocPharm Tweetchat?
Every Wednesday from 8 to 9 pm EST, pharma marketers get together virtually on Twitter to talk.
The topics range from news that happened during the week, such as the sanofi-aventis Facebook issue, or larger issues, such as using mobile applications for patient adherence programs.
The moderator starts off asking for everyone to introduce themselves and then raises a topic for discussion.
Everyone chimes in on the topic and the conversation starts going back and forth.
About every 15 minutes the moderator presents a new topic.
Each month there is a guest moderator from a pharmaceutical company.
What's great is that not only do we have industry people talking, we also occasionally get patients, doctors, and nurses joining in.
For European marketers, there is Health Care Social Media Europe (#HCSMEU), which is at a more convenient time: every Friday at 1pm CET.
Tweetchats are a great way to connect to people who have similar interests, learn about new things, and find people to follow on Twitter.
I invite you to join our invigorating conversations.
Eileen O'Brien is director of search and innovation at Siren Interactive. She blogs at Sirensong.