I’ve been to several major medical meetings recently and Twitter is beginning to see traction.  Slowly but surely Twitter hashtag use among doctors at meetings is growing. The meeting vendors are there, too. I attended AGA/Digestive Disease Week this week and I have been unimpressed with the attempts of vendors to participate in the back channel.  Those trying seem inept at real dialog.

Remember that a meeting’s Twitter feed is a communication channel, not an opportunity for spam.  Go ahead and remind us about your booth but only after contributing in a way that serves everyone in a non-promotional way (one pitch tweet for 10-20 informational tweets).

What works is sharing, not selling.  Take interest in the attendees.  Watch the feed.  Listen.  Re-tweet the interesting stuff.  Share some breaking medical information.  Reach out to attendees in a genuine, respectful way.  And fear is no excuse – because the most memorable dialog will not involve your drug or medical device.

Start there and Twitter will work for not only for you but everyone.