Pharma Twitter Pioneers Recognized - Pharma Marketing News

10 March 2011 Vol. 10, No. 5

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Pharma Twitter Pioneers Recognized Employees with Personal Twitter Accounts Author: John Mack

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Find resources cited this article online at: http://tinyurl.com/5hgxra This article is part of the MARCH 10, 2011 issue of Pharma Marketing News. For other articles in this issue, see (after March 31, 2011): http://www.news.pharma-mkting.com/PMNissueV105Mar2011archive.htm Published by:

VirSci Corporation PO Box 760 Newtown, PA 18940 [email protected]

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s evidenced by the firstever Twitter chat hosted by a major pharmaceutical company (see "OMG! AstraZeneca Hosts Twitter Chat & World Does NOT End!"; page 3), there is still plenty of work for Pharma Social Media Pioneers to do and new pioneers to be recognized.

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“Social media is a major influence on public perception,” said Mat Wilcox, a crisis communications consultant. “Perception does become reality.”

Last year, I recognized pharma social media pioneers based on their efforts to implement social media marketing campaigns or to champion social media awareness and knowledge within their companies (see "First Pharmaguy Social Media Pioneer Award Given to Janssen's Alex Butler"; http://bit.ly/hQ0sFF). This year, I am looking at pharma employees who have personal Twitter accounts, how they use these accounts, who follows them and whom they follow, and how influential they are. I call these people “Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneers.” This article is an introduction to the first round of members of this group. The Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneer accounts highlighted in this article (see Table 1, page 6) give us a glimpse into the personal lives of employees of the drug industry. More and more pharmaceutical company employees are using Twitter. Many are using personal Twitter accounts and some also are responsible for corporate Twitter accounts. These employees can be influential ambassadors among the public and have an opportunity⎯maybe even a responsibility⎯to help improve the company's reputation. Can Twitter Improve Pharma’s Reputation? The drug industry’s sour reputation among the general public is legendary and much lamented by industry executives. “How come we get so little respect despite all the benefits we bring to society?” they ask. If the drug industry were to have a more human face⎯ie, let consumers see the real people behind the corporate curtain⎯perhaps it could at least have a better chance to improve its image. There have been many efforts to highlight the personal stories of employees on pharmaceutical companies websites and blogs. “JNJ Stories” (@JNJStories) is an example. “Stories are told best by the people who live them,” is the opening statement on the JNJ Stories Web page. “…our employees share their stories… the joys and disappointments they face in bringing new ideas, products and services to the world. These stories from our © 2011 VirSci Corporation (www.virsci.com). All rights reserved. Pharma Marketing News

Page 2 customers and our employees are an inspiration to all of us at Johnson & Johnson, and they’re part of why we come to work every day.”

This is a very laudable effort. It does not, however, permit a two-way dialogue, which is where social media and especially Twitter come into the picture. Twitter allows employees to participate in open discussions with the general public. Following real pharma people on Twitter gives us a better idea about their interests out-side of their jobs. It’s a great way to personalize our view of an otherwise secretive and guarded industry. I doubt that any pharmaceutical company encourages its employees to open Twitter accounts to improve the image of the company. And personal Twitter accounts of pharma employees are not meant to serve the PR needs of their companies. In fact, most of these accounts have specific disclaimers such as: "All tweets are my own and do not necessarily represent my employer's view." "These tweets=Me and not my company" Sanctioned or not, pharma employee Twitter users often post about topics related to their jobs as well as their personal lives. It’s a situation that requires guidelines. Social Media Guidelines for Employees It’s only natural that pharma companies are concerned about employees who use social media for personal reasons and a few have created social media “guidelines” for their employees to follow. In the summer of 2010, for example, Roche issued its Social Media Principles (see http://bit.ly/rochegls), which states that employees must “be conscious about mixing … personal and business lives. “Be aware,” Roche says, “that there is no separation for others between your personal and your business profiles within social media. …Roche respects the free speech rights of all our employees, but you must remember that patients, customers and competitors as well as colleagues may have access to the online content you post.” The best advice for pharma employees using social media for personal communications is to be transparent. Roche’s Principle #6 states: “If you are commenting on any of Roche’s or our competitors’ products or initiatives in a public forum or on a website or personal blog, make sure to fully disclose Continues on page 5… PMN105-01


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OMG! AstraZeneca Hosts Twitter Chat & World Does NOT End! (First published by John Mack in Pharma Marketing Blog on 17 February 2011; http://bit.ly/rxsavechat)

Despite dire predictions of "PR failure," the #rxsave Twitter chat (see "AstraZeneca to Host FirstEver Pharma-Sponsored Twitter Chat!"; http://bit.ly/g5mvhy) hosted by @AstraZenecaUS on 16 Februray 2011, was, IMHO, a great success and proof that a pharmaceutical company can indeed host meaningful Twitter chats. Read the transcript of the entire chat here (http://ht.ly/3Y40U). There were a few attempts by two or three "malcontents" to "hijack" the conversation as I warned about in a previous blog post (http://bit.ly/gD6bww). But despite their attempts to ask "the tough questions" about off-label promotion of drugs and Seroquel side effects, everyone completely ignored the hijackers and the conversation continued as if these people were not even there. [Perhaps there should be Twitter chats on these other topics. Although pharma companies are not likely to host such chats, patient advocates can and should do so and invite pharma people to “attend.”] Unfortunately, the way influence is measured in social media such as Twitter, those people who make the most posts⎯even if those posts are irrelevant to the discussion and ignored⎯get the highest ratings. "What the Hashtag," for example, creates a list of "Top Contributors," which is a misnomer because the top two "contributors" (see figure below) are the "malcontents" who contributed nothing of value to the conversation.

The data show that there were 144 other people who actually contributed to the conversation. It's impossible to know how many "lurkers" were listening without contributing. One thing is clear: AstraZenecaUS did not pick up very many new Twitter followers as a result of the chat. Before the chat it had 4,715 followers and afterward it had 4,758 followers. There were signs, however, that AZ met some people and organizations in the chat that they will team up with in the future. So, it's not all about the numbers when you measure the ROI of a Twitter chat! Continues…

© 2011 VirSci Corporation (www.virsci.com). All rights reserved. Pharma Marketing News

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AZ's goal was to get answers to some specific questions such as the following:

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CLICK TO LISTEN:

"What is best way to increase awareness of prescription savings programs?" "[Are there] Any pilot programs to drive adherence among uninsured?" "Are people aware of our healthcare facilities program?" "Top 3 suggestions for reaching eligible patients? Think outside the box..." "[Any] Ideas on reaching caregivers of seniors?" "With health care reform covering millions more, what will demand be for #rxsave" "How do you think #socialmedia channels like #Twitter could help with patient outreach?" "Anybody using text messages with patients?" AZ received some good input and answers to those question, which you can find yourself by reading the transcript. AZ also provide some nuggets of information, such as: •

•

"In 2010 AZ helped more than 545k patients save $947mil on 4.1mil prescrips through these programs" "AZ&Me Rx savings programs saw 7% increase in patients helped in 2010 over 2009. What are advocates seeing?"

Near the end of the one-hour #rxsave chat session, AZ asked "Was this chat of value to you and should pharma do more of them?" To which I answered: "Definitely, pharma shld do more Twitter chats. U proved that it can work despite hijack attempts!" My opinion was shared by several others who participated in the session. AZ had this to say about that: •

"re next tweet chats @soulflsepulcher will we host one? let's see how this goes - and how FDA guidance on social media turns out"

That means more pharma-sponsored Twitter chats may be on the way. I hope, however, that the drug industry doesn’t wait for those FDA guidelines before doing more Twitter chats like #rxsave.


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your affiliation with Roche and that your opinions are personal and not attributable to Roche. (Example: ‘I work for Roche. All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent the position of my employer’).” Who Is Tony Jewell? Obviously, no one knows who on Twitter is an employee of a pharmaceutical company unless that person reveals it or it is discovered via investigation. Nevertheless, there are several people out there who are easy to track down on Twitter. AstraZeneca's Senior Director for External Communications Tony Jewell is a good example. Jewell is the editor of AZ’s Health Connections Blog. Consequently, his name is well-known in the pharma Twitter community. He also posted about AZ’s #rxsave Twitter chat via his @tonyjewell Twitter account, making it that much easier to find him on Twitter. After the event, @tonyjewell posted an answer to a question: “#hcsmeu as for why? It was intended to spread word on #rxsave pgms in new way (along w/blog), something we have trouble getting media on.” Jewell’s personal Twitter account is distinct from the @AstrazenecaUS account, which he uses to send out AZ approved corporate communications. In his Twitter profile, Jewell says he is an “AstraZeneca PR person, though speaking for myself here.” What else does Jewell post about? Here are a few recent, telling posts: • A @nytimes story on Ron Guidry's friendship with Yogi Berra http://ow.ly/42lmR #yankees #mlb • quite true RT @TonyFratto Bob Knight is the most insightful color commentator on college hoops TV. It's not even close. • uh oh RT @Reuters_Health Philadelphia tops list of U.S. most toxic cities http://reut.rs/hHHfcK Jewell is obviously a sports fan (perhaps a NY Yankees fan), reads the New York Times and Reuters Health (among many other publications as well), and is “Philadelphia-ish.” Not all of this, of course, may be of interest to people who just want to discuss the pharmaceutical industry, but this information helps us relate to Jewell the person rather than Jewell the “corporate hack.” Marc Monseau, Director of Corporate Communications at Johnson & Johnson, is also well-known to us pharma Twitter people. He’s always been closely associated with the @JNJComm corporate account. But Marc’s @MDmonseau personal Twitter account may be less widely known. © 2011 VirSci Corporation (www.virsci.com). All rights reserved. Pharma Marketing News

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Which “Marc Monseau” should be included in the Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneer group? A judgement was made in favor of @MDMonseau in order to compare personal accounts rather than corporate accounts. Rob Halper, Director, Video Communications at Johnson & Johnson, is also a special case. His @JNJVideo Twitter account is a corporate account, so it was not included in the group although Rob does tweet “off-topic” on issues of personal interest from time to time via this account. How to Qualify To qualify for inclusion in the Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneer group, a person must be currently employed in a pharmaceutical, biotech, or medical device company, and have a personal Twitter account with over 50 followers. That last qualification is not stringent⎯the goal, after all, is to increase the number of followers of these people. See Table 1, page 6, for the current members of the group and view the most up-to-date list online in this database: http://bit.ly/smpioneerlist I looked for Twitter accounts that used the real name of the person, are used to post personal opinions, and are likely to be used by this person even after he or she leaves the company. Gary Monk, former Marketing Product Manager at Janssen Cilag, currently UK Managing Director at Across Health (a management consultancy and marketing management group), is a good example. His Twitter handle was @GaryMonk while he worked at Janssen and he still uses that account in his new job. See Figure 1, page 8, for a chart showing the number of followers of each Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneer. Pioneer “Klout” There are several measures of Twitter success that go beyond how many followers you have. The “Klout Score,” for example, is a measurement of overall online influence, according to Klout.com/kscore. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure “True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score,” which are defined as follows: “True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on those of your followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages. Amplification Score is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) Continues on page 8…

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Twitter Account

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Followers

Tweets

Following

Klout Score

Peer Index

Company

Role

Profile

@Alex__Butler (Alex Butler)

5714

1214

2628

52

34

Jannsen

Mkting

Social media architect + advocate. work in Healthcare for Janssen (J&J) with digital. Broader interest in history art design

@shwen (Shwen Gwee)

4523

13360

2781

50

43

Vertex

Mkting

Founder: Social Health (sxsh.org), Social Pharmer (SocialPharmer.com), Med 2.0 Blog (Med20.com) //

@durbaniak (Dennis Urbaniak)

2438

2415

2450

41

47

Sanofi Aventis

Mkting

VP U.S. Diabetes at sanofi-aventis, this is a personal profile and not an official sanofiaventis profile

@jimlefevere (Jim LeFevere)

2182

1438

2402

39

45

Roche Diagnostics

Mkting

Digital strategist, Interactive Marketer and Connected Health advocate.

@bradatpharma (Brad Pendergraph)

1717

5092

452

44

23

Novartis

Mkting

I work for a Novartis Pharmaceuticals here in East Hanover, NJ. I'm not an official spokesperson, just an employee trying to help.

@cadelarge (Craig DeLarge)

1413

3970

940

44

33

Novo Nordisk

Mkting

Communications Strategist, New Media Intrapreneur, Design Manager, WiseWorking Coach, Mac & Mini Cooper fan, NAMI Member, Strategy Storyist

@skoko (Sabine Kostevc)

1148

2050

576

51

38

Roche

Social Media

Pixel queen, Head of Internet & Social Media at Roche HQ.

@lenstarnes (Len Starnes)

1053

760

752

40

26

Bayer

Mkting

Intrigued about digital healthcare, extreme mountain biker, London's first ever jogger, street farmer, addicted to capsaicinoids.

@brainygirlnyc (Zarya Rubin)

827

3809

390

48

23

UCB

Medical

Ex-neurologist, opera singer, oenophile, polyglot, wordsmith, marketing maven, Harvardian with a creative soul seeking insight and awe in Manhattan!

@JohnPugh (John Pugh)

811

914

823

37

26

Boehringer Ingelheim

Corp Commun

One time music journalist, talent scout & DJ now in healthcare running social media for a global pharma co.

@RayKerins (Ray Kerins)

675

78

576

10

8

Pfizer

Corp Commun

Loving husband, father, coach, sports player, student and PR guy

Table 1. Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneers. The data in this table is current as of 5 March 2011. Continues on next page…


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Twitter Account

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Followers

Tweets

Following

Klout Score

Peer Index

@xpetit (Xavier Petit)

582

1096

473

28

@MDMonseau (Marc Monseau)

558

284

222

@luka_valas (Luka Valas)

476

4332

@dawidge (Da Widge)

428

@mfp24 (Michele Moore Polz)

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Company

Role

Profile

14

Shire

Mkting

NA

32

23

Johnson & Johnson

Corp Commun

NA

514

48

46

StratPharma

3454

449

45

33

Pfizer

Commun

Geek in pharma communicator's clothing. I work for Pfizer. The views in my tweets are my own.

343

1464

546

17

27

Sanofi Aventis

Brand PR

head of patient solutions, diabetes Sanofiaventis This is a personal profile

@stefpo (Stéphane Potdevin)

340

391

468

24

34

Sanofi Aventis

Mkting

Senior Manager Projects New Medias. Pharmaceutical Industry. Interest for Social Media and uses.

@CherylAnnBorne (Cheryl Ann Borne)

321

728

239

37

13

Novo Nordisk

Mkting

Innovate or die. eMarketing Strategist, Creative Guru...

@tonyjewell (Tony Jewell)

304

803

645

41

31

AstraZeneca

Corp Commun

AstraZeneca PR person, though speaking for myself here.

@DanBax76 (Dan Baxter)

297

2157

406

46

38

BMS

Sales (Virology Hospital Specialist)

Technophile, spurs fan, dad, Photographer and Pharma employee (HIV). If gadgets, football and health related news are your thang then you're in the right place.

@fision (Kai Giat)

287

1247

59

38

12

GSK

Mkting

Digital marketing dude, lover not a fighter, gadget, car, watch obsessed. Views are all mine and not those of my employer!

@MsMSimons (Mallory Simons)

232

706

125

10

6

Stryker

Mkting

Specialize in delivering back pain and other medical-related news for all

@lkolodjeski (Laura Y. Kolodjeski)

142

118

161

16

6

Sanofi Aventis

Brand PR

Community Management & Digital Strategy Stewardship | US Diabetes Business Unit | sanofi-aventis

@Lschedler (Lindsey Schedler)

57

45

200

10

0

Sanofi Aventis

Corp Commun

Manager, U.S. Communications at sanofiaventis. This is a personal account, but I still follow the industry whether I am at work or not! :)

Superstar dad, perfect husband, smartass, and more!

Table 1. Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneers (continued from previous page)


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and is on a scale of 1 to 100. Network score indicates how influential your engage audience is and is also on a scale from 1 to 100. The Klout score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets.” You can find anyone's Klout score by typing http://klout.com/[twitter name]. To find Pharmaguy’s Klout, for example, type http://klout.com/pharmaguy. Jewell RT’s and has conversations with many people via Twitter. No wonder his “Klout” rating is a respectable 41 and Klout says “Tony Jewell is effectively

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using social media to influence [his] network across a variety of topics.” His Klout rating, BTW, spiked after the #rxchat. Klout scores seem to swing up and down over a short timespan. @brainygirlnyc (Zarya Rubin, who works for UCB as CNS Medical Science Liaison), for example, had a Klout score of 42 when it was measured on March 6, 2011. A day or so before it was 55 and a day or so later it was 48! Continues…

Figure 1. Chart Showing the Number of Twitter Followers of Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneers. Data is accurate as of March 7, 2011.


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Four Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneers have a PeerIndex of over 40: • • • •

@shwen (Shwen Gwee) @jimlefevere (Jim LeFevere) @luka_valas (Luka Valas) @durbaniak (Dennis Urbaniak)

Luka Valas, Corporate Counsel at Stratpharma AG, stands out in this group. He only has 514 or so followers, but has the second highest PeerIndex of 46. His Klout score is not too shabby either: 48. Valas tweets mostly in the Slovenian language, but recently tweeted in English: “Serena was hospitalized for two days during initial clot scare http://yhoo.it/ezznR9 Pulmonary embolism is b.a.d.” Valas frequently tweets about tennis.

Figure 2. Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneer Followers vs. Following. In any case, Rubin has one of the highest Klout scores of the group and Klout says she is an “explorer who actively engages in the social web, constantly trying out new ways to interact and network. She's exploring the ecosystem and making it work for her. Her level of activity and engagement shows that she ‘gets it’." Klout predicts her score will increase. Who Do Pioneers Follow? We always praise those pharma people who follow a lot of other people on Twitter. It indicates they are listening to many points of view. To expand your own network on Twitter, you might consider following some of the same people these Pioneers follow. In Figure 2, above, the number of each Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneer’s followers is plotted against the number of people followed by the pioneer. Generally, the Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneers who have the most followers also follow the most people. Two of these pioneers⎯@jimlefevere and @durbaniak (“B” in Figure 2)⎯are actually following more people than they themselves follow! PeerIndex Another measure of a person’s “social capital” on Twitter is PeerIndex, which measures “authority, audience and activity” to come up with a number between 0 and 100. A PeerIndex of 40+ indicates you are in the top 10% of the Twitter community; a value of 90+ indicates you are in the top 0.1%.


More Twitter Pioneers Sought Please respond to the “Use of Twitter by Pharma Company Employees” survey (http://svy.mk/hnvtoV) to indicate which Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneers you follow and to provide your opinions about the use of Twitter by the drug industry and by employees of the industry. The survey asks for your answers to the following questions: • What’s the best way to rate Pharmaguy Twitter Pioneers? • Should more pharma companies host their own Twitter CHATS such as the #rxsave chat hosted by Astrazeneca? • Should every pharma company have Twitter/Social Media GUIDELINES (rules) for their employees to follow? • Should pharma employees ALWAYS reveal their employment status in their Twitter profiles, even if they do not tweet about their companies or products? There must be many other ways to measure the "influence" of Twitter pioneers than was discussed in this article. I hope to pay closer attention to what these people are saying on Twitter and give each of them my own unique "Pharmaguy Influence" rating, the parameters of which are yet to be determined. Any suggestions would be welcome. Pharma Marketing News

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