Pharma Bloggers Gotta Get Tweeting on Twitter!

I recently discovered Twitter -- a free social networking and micro-blogging service -- and admit that "I'm All a Twitter About Twitter."

Twitter ... allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (e.g. on a cell phone), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application. For SMS, four gateway numbers are currently available: short codes for the USA, Canada, and India, as well as a UK number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email.

Wikipedia

You can see my recent "tweets" in the Twitter blog widget in the right hand column. Here are some recent gems:

• Today's publication day for Pharma Marketing News -- see preview here: http://tinyurl.com/3ysvt3 less than a minute ago
• Got some pushback on my Lunesta ROI analysis -- we just don't have the real numbers I'm told! Does anybody have the numbers? about 17 hours ago
• @saranne03 "If Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty." -- Ben Franklin. Could be applied to how FDA relates to drug industry. about 17 hours ago
• My Twitter pals agree. FDA is not keeping up with the times! But I must say that FDA can learn a lot more from Ben Franklin than H. Ford! about 20 hours ago
• FDA's Woodcock: "We must learn from Henry Ford" Wha! Let's see, wasn't Ford ANTI-REGULATORY? So last century any way!

Posting my tweets in this blog and over at Pharma Marketing Blog is an easy way to let my readers know what I am thinking about right now. You can also visit my Twitter page at twitter.com/pharmaguy. From there you can also see the tweets of my Twitter "pals," who are people I have chosen to be on that list. Currently, there are 26 people that I "follow" and there are 19 people following me. NO bloggers from the Pharma Blogosphere^TM, however, is a fellow tweeter.

Anthony Bianciella, VP of Marketing at MTI, who turned me on to Twitter, asked if I find it more valuable than standard blogging or more as an equal "partner" that enhances what you do?

My answer was this:

"Twitter can never replace my blog. But I'm finding it good for networking, getting leads on stories, passing along opportunities to people that follow me, promoting what I am doing, and keeping a record of my thoughts, which is important as you get older! I think it's cool that I can feed all my tweets to a widget on my blogs and web site as well as post the RSS feed to a special forum I set up: "Mack and His Twitter Pals!", which is already driving a lot of traffic to the forums site!

Viral Social Marketing at Its Best!
Eventually, Twitter will offer ad space just like ads found on Google search pages. The ads will be served based on keywords found in tweets. For example, imagine I posted this:

"Plan to call my doctor today about Zetia, Should I stop taking it?"

Lo and behold, when that person visits his/her Twitter page the next time, there's an ad for Zetia -- or better yet, Crestor! Not only on that page, but on the pages of that person's list of people!

You can only imagine what the limits for such viral social marketing are!

Join me at http://twitter.com/pharmaguy.