Pharma Thought Leadership-Ten Twitterers We’re Following

By DJ Edgerton

With apologies to Tigger for the misquote: the wonderful thing about Twitter is that Twitterers are wonderful people.

And that might be one of the top reasons to get onto Twitter: it lets you see that people that might have seemed intimidating or opaquely corporate are really just plain people. We are all just individuals with lives and families and silly mishaps and piquant thoughts – and we all want to get better at what we do and who we are.

This sounds a bit touchy-feely. But the thing is, it’s not. Because truly understanding that will make you pretty spectacular at your job. When you your prospects, your colleagues, your staff, your audience – as PEOPLE, you are a much stronger professional for it.

And now, to help you with that even more, here’s a Top Ten list of pharma-related people we’re following, with a little bit about why. You’ll see that there’s a deliberate balance struck here between individuals and conversation, and headlines. Twitter is a great way to see news as it happens.

@jnjcomm Marc Monseau. A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson, the second largest pharmaceutical company on the planet, he somehow manages to retain humanity and interestingness.

@swoodruff Steve Woodruff. If there’s a social media conference, he’s at it. He gets the geekery of social media, but understands it with a background in pharmaceutical sales training.

@shwen Shwen Gwee. If Steve’s not there, Shwen is. (And even if he is.) He combines technical expertise fluidly with pharma communications.

@skypen Fabio Gratton. His #fdasmproject united the industry, and his Twitter musings are always insightful.

@scotthensley Scott Hensley. Former Wall Street Journal reporter and WSJ Health Blog editor, now at NPR, Scott has many pharma PR in awe of him. Which is a shame, really, because a great guy doesn’t deserve to have to put up with all of the stuttering pitches he must get.

@whydotpharma Silja Chouquet. Owner of whydot GmbH, she is fully engaged in a flurry of pharma conversations – in both English and French.

@mmmnews Headlines from Medical Marketing & Media. James Chase‘s magazine does a nice job of balancing industry coverage with perspectives from informed and intelligent Pharma players.

@wsjhealthblog Now that Scott’s not there, follow this Twitter to see that Jacob Goldstein and Shirley Wang do an excellent job of rounding up the news and pointing you to the top stories. If you had to have only one online source for general news about health and pharmaceuticals, the WSJ Health Blog should be it.

@eyeonfda Headlines from Eye on FDA, a blog emanating from Fleischman-Hillard‘s Washington offices.

@fiercepharma Why “fierce” exactly isn’t clear, but more headlines from the eponymous newsletter.

@jim_edwards Brandweek and BNet’s pharma reporter mixes links to his stories with topical conversation.

@maverickny Sally Church, pharma marketing consultant, clearly pours a lot of effort into keeping pharma-related Twitter conversations going.

Lists are great blog topics (just look at what we’re doing here). And as such, there are other top-pharma-Twitterer lists besides this one. We agree on some of them, but they’re all good resources. Try especially Pharmatweetical, as well as Eye for Pharma’s list for some more ideas.