Pharma and Twitter - Patients and Providers but what about Operations?
Written By: Brian Daleiden
Friday, October 30, 2009
I have been keeping an eye on Twitter for a while now. Not that I paint
myself as an expert by any stretch of the imagination and Tweeting is
still more of an activity that I consciously force myself to think about
rather than feeling it is part of my DNA. A little different than, say,
our own Peter Spellman here who I swear needs a third hand just to keep
up with all the ideas that he would like to convey. Can you say
drinking from the fire hose??
Much of the buzz about Tweeting usually centers on its usage for
personal interests. A 24x7 channel for thoughts and ideas that you want
to share. What has been on my mind lately, though, has been the
business communications side of the issue. In that light, any new
bi-directional channel that enables me to listen to what others have to
say and improves my ability to communicate back to them is great.
A recent post
by ePharmaRx
got me thinking more about how this channel is used and viewed by the
Pharmaceutical industry. As ePharmaRx comments, many pharmaceutical
companies have just started to "officially" Tweet in the past year. This
is somewhat understandable given the concerns noted in several places
over the liability issues involved, particularly in the patient care
arena. Certainly, these official channels are somewhat separated from
the individual discussions that pharma employees have already opened via
Twitter.
So what about the operational groups and Twitter? How do the people
leading the charge in manufacturing, supply chain, contract outsourcing
and other functions view and use it? Based on my conversations with
people in these areas, the responses are all over the map. Some are
starting to find it a valuable new channel for "pushed" information from
companies and individuals which they can take note of if interested or
ignore if not. Others are keeping Twitter solely in the personal realm,
for now.
This is an issue that we here at TraceLink are looking at closely. Today
there are such a variety of ways for us to share information about what
we are doing, listen to what others are doing and gain quick, pointed
feedback on key issues. What exactly is the right role in B2B for the
140 character soundbite?
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