Do Normal People Follow Pharma on Twitter?

A Tag Cloud AnalysisPhil Baumann

Who Follows Big Pharma?

The following slides are screenshots of tag clouds of followers of selected Big Pharma companies. These are partial screenshots, but they provide some insight about who currently follows Big Pharma (as of January 2010).

Top Ten Words Following Pharma

PharmaceuticalMedicalHealthcareTimeSocialMarketingResearchWebHealth

Amgen

AstraZenecaUS

AstraZeneca

Boehringer

Genentechnews

GSKUS

JNJComm

Novartis

Pfizer

Pfizer_News

Roche_com

Aimless Tweets

• Are Marketers, PR “pros”, Social Media Consultants the best audience for Pharma?

• What value do Pharma Tweets provide the world?

• What value does Pharma get from Twitter?• What purposes should Pharma have with

Twitter (and the rest of the spectrum of all media?)

Pharma’s Twitter Flight Path

• Provide Valuable Content for Patients• Humanize Corporate Communications• Follow and ReTweet the Competition• Establish Authenticity for Future Crises• Cultivate Communities of Life Scientists• Connect All Media Presences Together

Pharma’s Twitter Flight Path

• Provide Customer Service to Prescribers• Provide Customer Service to Pharmacists • Provide Customer Service to Nurses• Provide Employees With Important Updates• Participate in Public Health Efforts• Support Nonprofit Organizations (RT)

Normalize Twitter

Clearly, “normal” people aren’t really following Big Pharma. “Normal” people are patients and life scientists and doctors and nurses and patient advocates. And if they are, it’s unlikely they’re paying much attention.

Big Pharma needs to consider what its purposes are (hint: Twitter’s not a sales tool for large regulated enterprises – accept that: bonus: knowing that won’t get you in trouble with the FDA).

@PhilBaumann

January 2010