Pharma Finds its Voice on Twitter

In case you don't have the time to keep track of all the pharma co's joining Twitter recently, we created a chart (current as of Sept. 29, 2009), with every known pharma company currently actively tweeting on Twitter, courtesy of the Intouch Solutions Emerging Media team.

[Side note: Yes, I'd love it if the chart were dynamic and updated itself regularly, but alas, our developers are mega-busy on client projects and other internal endeavors to build something like that for my lowly blog. So yeah - I recognize it could be snazzier - but this is all I got for now...]

And at least it's a snapshot at this moment in time that I hope you find useful for things like:

• Keeping track of who's on Twitter ... and who isn't (top 10 pharmas not on Twitter? Just Abbott, Wyeth, Merck)
• See which corporate presence has been on Twitter the longest (a tie between Boehringer Ingelheim & Novartis) and who tweets the most (not surprisingly, J&J)
• Seeing how the different pharma co's leverage Twitter - As a dialogue (BI & AZ), as a press release vehicle (Novartis; probably all they could get regulatory to agree to), and for branded tweets in the case of Novo Nordisk.
• Making the case, if needed, with your regulatory folks that "everyone else is doin' it." At this point, they practically are, if even at the corporate level.
• Exclaiming "wow we've come a long way" in comparison to even 6 months ago!

Seen by the statistics, many new pharma names have started to participate on Twitter just within the last 6-9 months. The variety of Twitter uses is interesting, and -- for those of us in the business -- surprisingly engaging! If you're interested in a deeper analysis, I recommend this WhyDotPharma post.

If we missed anyone, please let us know. Personally, I've really enjoyed watching this group grow and evolve over the past months. As more pharmas join Twitter and find their own voices, the more we'll all learn.

See you on Twitter! ( www.twitter.com/wendyblackburn or www.twitter.com/intouchsol)

PHARMA CO'S ON TWITTER

Company	Twitter Address	Following	Followers	Updates	Date Joined
Allergan	@Allergan	0	585	0	(Inactive Account)
Amgen	@Amgen	0	1377	55	May 2009
Astellas US	@AstellasUS	142	407	36	July 2009
Astra Zeneca US	@AstraZenecaUS	305	1818	217	Jan. 2009
Bayer	@Bayer	50	237	Request to follow pending	Request to follow pending
Boehringer Ingelheim	@Boehringer	2011	2768	339	Nov. 2008
BoehringerUS	@BoehringerUS	220	457	13	Aug. 2009
GE Healthcare	@GEHealthcare	1122	1153	59	July 2009
Genentech	@Genentechnews	78	1889	35	May 2009
Glaxo GSK US	@GSKUS	90	1569	118	May 2009
Johnson & Johnson	@JNJComm	1121	2203	419	Feb. 2009
Novartis	@Novartis	10	3040	89	Nov. 2008
Novo Nordisk Race With Insulin	@RaceWithInsulin	0	688	168	June 2009
Pfizer	@pfizer_news	829	2383	41	July 2009
Roche	@Roche_com	316	1926	355	Feb. 2009
Sanofi Pasteur	@sanofipasteur	3	472	21	June 2009
Sanofi-Aventis TV	@sanofiaventisTV	511	527	81	May 2009
Sanofi Voices	@sanofiVOICES	112	153	57	May 2009

A special shout-out to Sarah in our Emerging Media dept. who's updated this chart already about a million times, and helped me get it into Blogger too!