How A Twitter KOL List Can Keep Life Sciences Execs Focused

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

There are plenty of articles out there telling us who to follow on Twitter. For example, Twitter In The Life Sciences: The Ultimate ‘Who To Follow’ Checklist, Fast Company’s take on who the most creative people in business follow, Luke Timmerman’s suggestion on who life science pros should follow, 31 Influential Business Leaders To Follow On Twitter, Top Leadership Experts To Follow In 2015, and so on. As a life science executive, you probably would like to follow people in the areas of business, leadership, and of course, life sciences.  But how do you choose which ones are the right ones for you to follow? Unfortunately, only you can make that determination, but here’s my advice — don’t just choose to follow the same people that some “influential” person on Twitter is following, because you may not be seeing the whole picture.

Let me explain.

With most social media outlets, we gain a glimpse — sometimes an in-depth one — into the lives of the people we actively follow. But that friend list or that list of followers only tells part of the story about who or what that person values.  For example, if you look at the 225 people I am currently following on Twitter, you’ll conclude that I’m interested in people related to life sciences, pharma, business, and leadership. Are those 225 people the only ones in the Twittersphere I find valuable? Not necessarily. Think of it this way: just because I don’t follow you, doesn’t mean I am not following you — you follow? Let me explain.

The Value Of Creating A Twitter KOL List

When I joined Twitter in 2010 I decided to create my own list of KOLs (key opinion leaders) because I quickly realized that I could never stay up to date on the abundance of information flooding my feed from all my followers. This KOL list is locked and private, and it gives me a quick snapshot of the tweets from the users I find most valuable. However, I don’t have to be following these people to have them show up on my list. (Just in case you have never explored this handy feature that allows you to organize Twitter users into groups and manage how you look at Tweets, you can learn more about it here).

So, if you’re trying to determine who you should follow by basing your decision on the follower lists of other people, remember, you may not know everyone they find valuable. Ultimately, how you determine who you should follow and who should be on your KOL list is a personal decision. And while I won’t reveal all of the members of my KOL list, I will tell you who a few are and why I chose to make them part of this elite group.

1. Mike Myatt is one of the leadership experts I have always admired, and here’s why. Myatt is not a wet-behind-the-ears twenty-something advisor, but the chairman of N2Growth, a global leadership development consultancy serving board and c-level executives. A best-selling author, he has been recognized by Thinkers50 as a global authority on leadership, and is widely regarded as America’s Top CEO Coach. All great, but this isn’t why I started following him. The reason I became intrigued with Myatt was I saw him post a blog about leadership and telling the reader how long it should take to read. It made me think, sure we are all busy, but who can’t take 4 minutes out of their day to read something about leadership and how to better themselves? While this bit of reverse psychology may have gotten me to stick my foot in the door, his awesome, no-holds-barred approach to writing about leadership and telling you exactly how it is, kept me coming back (e.g., Why The “F” Bomb Shouldn’t Be Dropped, Why Your CEO Just Doesn’t Get It). Myatt is not afraid to take aim at a business sacred cow and pull the trigger, as he did here with Jim Collins book, Good To Great. He is now a regular contributor to Forbes and has had columns with over a million views. If you want to follow what Mike Myatt is working on, follow him at @N2Growth.
2. Matthew Herper is a reporter from Forbes. If you work in the biopharmaceutical industry and aren’t reading his work, then you are missing out. If you could only follow one magazine reporter in our industry, follow Herper. It’s likely this visionary pharma thinker has already covered the topic you’re wondering about with a deep level of detail that only he can provide. Here is a sample of his great insight.
3. Wayne Koberstein is someone LSL has been blessed to have join its team as an executive editor. A past chief editor with Pharmaceutical Executive (1985 - 2003) and BioExecutive International (2002 - 2004), Koberstein has 30 years of industry insight. Don’t let his low number of Twitter followers fool you. Koberstein is a journalist’s journalist. This is why among his mere 377 Twitter followers you will find the likes of industry experts Ron Leuty and Gregg Masters. If you could only choose one industry journalist to follow, Wayne Koberstein is a must.
4. David Sable is a guy I consider to be “bio brilliant.” Sable is 10 years into what he describes as a brief sabbatical as an ob/gyn, running the special situations life sciences fund and teaching entrepreneurship in biotechnology at Columbia University. Sable, also a contributor to Forbes, willingly shares some very diverse insight built on his wealth of life experiences. While much of what he writes about involves biotech, such as these tips on etiquette or this guide on investor relations, he also writes about more cerebral topics, such as the inappropriate use of the term “miscarriage” relative to a lost pregnancy, or my personal favorite, Lessons from Bruce Springsteen and the 1979 Penn Basketball Team.
5. John LaMattina is a veteran pharma executive who worked for Pfizer as the president of global R&D in 2007, where he managed 13,000 scientists and professionals in the United States, Europe, and Asia. We actually interviewed the author of Drug Truths: Dispelling The Myths of R&D and Devalued and Detrusted: Can The Pharmaceutical Industry Restore Its Broken Image? to get his perspective on R&D. LaMattina is another person who doesn’t shy away from sharing his candid opinions (e.g., the need for me-too drugs being crucial for lowering drug costs). Bottom line: John is a real leader with great industry insight and connections.
6. Steven Johnson is author of nine books, including Where Good Ideas Come From (I love this white board animation video). Johnson has 1.4M followers, and he frequently posts some really cool insights. He’d be a good addition to any Twitter KOL list.
7. Peter Loftus is a Wall Street Journal reporter who most frequently writes about the biopharmaceutical industry, but on occasion, will write about a nonpharmaceutical news. While I prefer his industry insights (e.g., the potent weapon wielded by drug plan managers), it takes a high degree of intelligence to transition, and even make interesting, a topic many might find boring — numismatics. But this is a rarity for Loftus. Therefore, if you can follow only one daily newspaper reporter to keep tabs on what is going on in biopharma – pick Pete.

I hope you find this info helpful. Personally, I don’t follow people on Twitter just because they followed me. Similarly, I don’t automatically accept LinkedIn requests to connect if we haven’t met or spoke in person. Consider me old-fashioned, but I like to have people in my social media network that I can have an actual connection with that isn’t strictly electronic.