Social media and compliant pharmaceutical industry promotion: The ASCO 2010 Twitter experience

Abstract

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are beginning to establish a significant corporate social media presence, but the extent to which tools such as Twitter are being utilized to discuss and disseminate newly available scientific data remains poorly understood. This study analyzed over 3400 tweets generated by attendees at a major global scientific conference in order to better understand the actual extent and nature of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry discourse via Twitter. The pharmaceutical industry and its support service providers were the largest segment of ASCO Twitter oncology community users, but unlike physicians, predominantly utilized this medium for promotional dialogue as opposed to clinical news or clinical management discussion. The total number of pharmaceutical companies that utilized Twitter on site as an adjunct to other public relations channels was small. This first-in-kind analysis uncovers key best practices for compliant pharmaceutical and biotechnology social media utilization that can enhance the overall attendee experience at major academic and clinical meetings.