Are Pharma Blogs Sinking into the Digital Tar Pits, and What Will Replace Twitter?

July 29, 2009

Michele V. Wagner just assessed the state of the pharma blogosphere, and found that, within the past year, nine pharma companies have started Twitter feeds (where it took a good five years for GSK's, J&J's and Centocor's official blogs to take root and gain traction).  Some companies have a policy of following their followers, others don't. Here's her analysis.  Which begs the question: Are pharma blogs quietly slipping away into oblivion?

"

Michele V. Wagner just assessed the state of the pharma blogosphere, and found that, within the past year, nine pharma companies have started Twitter feeds (where it took a good five years for GSK's, J&J's and Centocor's official blogs to take root and gain traction).  Some companies have a policy of following their followers, others don't. Here's her analysis.  Which begs the question: Are pharma blogs quietly slipping away into oblivion?

Pre-eminent pharma bloggers, including John Mack, Pharmagossip and Ed Silverman, have moved heavily into Twitter, and every publication of every type out there is developing a strategy of some kind.

But I miss  the direct injection of 'personality' that has always attracted me to my favoriate bloggers. The humor can be done, in a way, in microblogs, but much is lost in translation.   (In fact, Twitter is a great leveller, and makes everything one color....although it can also save readers from lengthy and boring rants/diatribes)

Twitter is great for connecting with  experts for professional efforts...I'm just too verbose and short on time to use it personally....but while I struggle to figure all this out, there are signs that the platform itself may already be peaking. 

Here, a March piece from Edelman's Steve Rubel on his blog, Micro Persuasion.

What's next?  The horrifying prospect of Skype video messages?  iPhone apps?  What do you think? If you dare, please leave a comment on our still-extremely-user-unfriendly [yes, we're working on it....] corporate blogging platform's comment field (or email me at [email protected]).

AMS

About the Author

pharmamanufacturing | pharmamanufacturing