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I recently discovered Twitter-a free social networking and micro-blogging service-and admit that "I'm All a Twitter Over Twitter."

Twitter allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via the Web, short message service (e.g. cell phone text messaging), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.

Here are some of my recent tweets:

• Got some pushback on my Lunesta ROI analysis -- we just don't have the real numbers I'm told! Does anybody have the numbers?
• My Twitter pals agree. FDA is not keeping up with the times! But I must say that FDA can learn a lot more from Ben Franklin than H. Ford!
• FDA's Woodcock: "We must learn from Henry Ford" Wha! Let's see, wasn't Ford ANTI-REGULATORY? So last century any way!

Tweets can be displayed on Web sites and blogs using Twitter's widget. I've done this on Pharma Marketing Blog-it's an easy way to let my readers know what I am thinking about during the day.

You can also visit my Twitter page at twitter.com/pharmaguy. From there you can see the tweets of my Twitter "pals," who are people I have chosen to follow. Currently, there are 30 people that I "follow" and 21 people who are following me.

Twitter can never replace my blog. But I'm finding it good for networking, getting leads on stories, passing along opportunities to people that follow me, promoting what I am doing, and keeping a record of my thoughts, which is important as you get older!

I think it's cool that I can post my Twitter page's RSS feed, which include my pal's tweets as well as mine, to a special forum I set up: "Mack and His Twitter Pals!", which is already driving a lot of traffic to the forums site! My pals also benefit by getting their tweets published on a highly visible site.

Eventually, I will have to be more selective in the pals that I include in my group because people often post trivial, and non-pharma comments like "Are Pixy sticks good booth candy?" Who knows? Who cares? Viral Social Marketing at Its Best!

Eventually, Twitter will offer ad space just like Google does on search pages. The ads could be targeted based on keywords found in tweets. For example, imagine I posted this:

"Plan to call my doctor today about Zetia, Should I stop taking it?"

Lo and behold, when that person visits his/her Twitter page the next time, there's an ad for Zetia -- or better yet, Crestor! Not only on that page, but on the pages of that person's list of pals!

You can only imagine what the limits for such viral social marketing are!

Join me at http://twitter.com/pharmaguy.

IMHO,

John Mack, Publisher and Editor
johnmack@virsci.com.com