{"id":6204,"date":"2013-05-01T18:12:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T18:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pharma-mkting.com\/why-pharma-execs-fear-followers-on\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T01:17:28","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:17:28","slug":"why-pharma-execs-fear-followers-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/why-pharma-execs-fear-followers-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Pharma Execs Fear to Follow on Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

There are no Big Pharma CEOs that I know of who actively and directly engage with their stakeholders — investors, physicians, patients — using social media such as Twitter. There are probably many reasons for this. For one thing, they hire entire PR departments to be their “spokespeople.”<\/p>\n

But I have suggested that future pharmaceutical C-suite executives will have to have experience “carrying the digital bag” (see here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Alexandra Fulford (aka @pharmaguapa on Twitter), in an interview today (here<\/a>), suggested that pharma execs could greatly benefit from having — and using — a personal Twitter account.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>However, even when executives do open Twitter accounts, they often “protect their tweets”; i.e., allow only “confirmed followers access to their Tweets and complete profiles. Such is the case with Alex Gorsky, the CEO of JNJ. His Twitter account is @AlexGorskyCEO (see screen shot on left; click on it for an enlarged view).<\/p>\n

I’ve requested access to the @AlexGorskyCEO account, but have not yet been granted that privilege.<\/p>\n

Why is Mr. Gorsky “protecting” his Twitter account from people like me? Obviously, I can learn a lot about Mr. Gorsky if I were able to follow his tweets and see who he follows and who follows him. Does he have something to hide? Why, then, does he bother to have a Twitter account at all? Does Mr. Gorsky follow me or anyone else? Has he tweeted?<\/p>\n

It’s hard to tell because I cannot see his account.<\/p>\n

Fulford rebuffed the oft-heard excuse for why many pharma execs do not use Twitter in her discussion with m: it’s simply the “fear of following” and what they may hear from followers. The following is the relevant snippet of that discussion. You can listen to the entire discussion here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nlisten to \u2018Pharmaguapa on Twitter Followers & AEs\u2019 on Audioboo<\/a><\/div>\n

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There are no Big Pharma CEOs that I know of who actively and directly engage with their stakeholders — investors, physicians, patients — using social media such as Twitter. There are probably many reasons for this. 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