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Thought leadership and innovation for the Pharmaceutical Industry

Twitter, which is currently de rigueur in social media circles, is emerging as one of the most powerful branding and marketing social media tool that has been developed to date.

Twitter, which is currently de rigueur in social media circles, is emerging as one of the most powerful branding and marketing social media tool that has been developed to date. While other industries are already exploiting Twitters powerful marketing reach (to hawk their wares), drug makers have been reluctant to adopt Twitter and most other forms of social media. Industry analysts and company insiders contend that pharmas reluctance to adopt social media can be attributed to the US Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) lack of guidance on its use for promotional purposes. At present, it is anybodys guess when this guidance may be issued, if ever.

Nevertheless, as always, there are a few daring companies willing to boldly go where no pharma company has gone beforein this caseTwitter! These companies include Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), Astra Zeneca, Novartis and Pfizer. According to a post on the Advance Market WoRx blog, BI is leading the way among pharma company Twitterers, with 679 following, 745 followers and 47 tweets. AstraZenecaUS has 136 following, 440 followers and 22 tweets. Pfizer has 351 following, 462 followers and 48 tweets. Novartis has 0 following, 681 followers and 40 tweets (I guess Novartis has a thing against following people).

Unlike its fellow pharma Twitters, BIwhich began using Twitter in November 2008actually uses it as an interactive and conversational microblogging platform (as it was intended). The other pharma company Twitters use it almost exclusively as a one-way PR feed says Ellen Hoenig Carlson at Advance Market WoRx. According to a post on the Pharmafocus website, "Boehringer has incorporated Twitter into its wider communications strategy and is using the site regularly to engage its stakeholders. In addition to posting press releases, BI uses Twitter to recommend web-based information about therapeutic areas and articles that its followers might find interesting or useful. To keep its finger on the pulse of the Twitterverse, BI uses media scanning programs to help monitor online conversations and responds quickly to join in or start up Twitter conversations.

Kudos to Boehringer for recognizing Twitters potential to communicate with patients, physicians and other interested parties. I hope that more pharmaceutical companies begin to use Twitter and other forms of social media to engage and improve communications with their stakeholders.

For more insights into social media and the life sciences industry, please visit www.biojobblog.com