Pharma's Twitter KLOUT
Twitter, for all intents and purposes, is arguably the hottest new tool to hit the social media scene since well.....errrrrrr....Facebook (are there really any others?). That said, everyone who is anybody has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon whether or not using Twitter has any positive or negative effects for its users. Nevertheless, insightful social media analysts like Mark Senak, author of the fabulous EyeonFDA blog, frequently attempt to assess the overall effectiveness of social media tools like Twitter on specific industries—in this case, the life sciences industry.
To make sense of the relative effectiveness (influence) of Twitter use by life sciences companies, Mark used a Twitter and Facebook assessment tool known as KLOUT. KLOUT generates a “score” for individual Twitter feeds based on a combination of 35 different variables. The resultant scores fall into a range from 1-100 with a higher score indicating a wider range of influence.
Not surprisingly, Mark’s analysis revealed that Twitter feeds sponsored by Roche (Roche News, 52), Novartis (Novartis, 52) and Pfizer (Pfizer News, 51), three of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies had the most KLOUT. Not far behind were Lilly (Lillypad, 47), Pfizer (PfizerMexico), AstraZeneca (AstraZeneca, 45) and Amgen (Amgen, 44). Other companies that warrant honorable mention include: Genentech (GenentechNews, 40), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMSNews, 40), Johnson & Johnson (JNJStories, 40) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VertexPharma, 39).
Interestingly, many companies sponsor multiple Twitter feeds. For example, Sanofi Aventis AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim and Novartis have five, JNJ has 4 and Roche, Baxter and Amgen have 3. It isn’t clear to me why companies would want to have more than one Twitter feed; doesn’t that dilute corporate messaging? But, then again, what do I know? I am not a marketing or PR guy!
So, what does this all mean? As far as I can tell—not much! The only conclusion that I can draw from all of this is that Twitter, the most recent successful addition to the social media armamentarium, is no longer new but here to stay!
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Tweeting!!!!!!!
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I know this is kind of odd, but I have recently begun to wonder which life sciences companies have layed off the most employees this past year. Well, for those of you out there who were also wondering we don't have to wonder any longer because Ed Silverman over at the Pharmalot blog has conveniently compiled a 
According to a recent analysis conducted by 