Roche plans to use the Twitter-based Diabetes Nest social network as a means to interact in real time with diabetes patients, carers and health professionals.

The company’s diabetes care business will sponsor the site, run by agency Ignite Health, which collects, sorts and ranks tweets from diabetes experts.

Roche Diabetes Care will also add a widget with content from the Diabetes Nest to the company’s community web page, Accu-Chek Diabetes Link.

The Diabetes Nest sends the week’s top 10 curated tweets to community members via an e-newsletter.

Rob Muller, Associate Marketing Manager for Roche Diabetes Care, said: “We are very proud to support such a great resource that can help people with diabetes stay up to date with their friends on Twitter, or even help them discover more of the diabetes online community there.”

Fabio Gratton, Chief Experience Officer at Ignite Health, explained the site’s rationale: “Social media have transformed how patients and their caregivers share healthcare information and find support. But the sheer volume of content can be overwhelming.

“So we asked ourselves how we could best help the diabetes community find and engage in the most timely, relevant and important conversations. The result is a simple, intuitive, compelling and ultimately self-sustaining diabetes social media community.”

“The Diabetes Nest highlights many of the most influential voices and topics in the diabetes Twittersphere, helping to raise the collective voice of our community,” commented health blogger Kerri Sparling.

“The Diabetes Nest gives a cumulative snapshot into what real life with diabetes is really like.”

Pfizer has been crowned the leading pharmaceutical company for their presence on Facebook and Twitter, a new study has found.

Cegedim Strategic Data (CSD) found the pharma-giant had the third-most ‘likes’ on Facebook and had more followers on Twitter than industry rivals. Novartis were ranked overall in second with Merck & Co in third position.

Christopher Wooden, Vice President, Promotion Audits for CSD, says the audit highlights how the industry is improving its social media footprint.

The study was conducted worldwide and focused on the top 100 pharmaceutical companies in terms of traditional sales force and marketing channel spending. CSD then identified the top 30 pharma companies for their presence and healthcare-focused activities on Twitter and Facebook.

Behind Pfizer, Novartis was ranked seventeenth for ‘likes’ on Facebook and overall fifth on Twitter for its number of followers. Merck – which came first for the number of pages on Facebook – ranked tenth for the number of ‘likes’ it has received, third for the number of ‘tweets’ it has made on Twitter and fifteenth for its followers.

CSD found that J&J is second for the number of ‘likes’ on Facebook with Roche occupying the same position for its number of followers on Twitter.

“The CSD social media audit shows clearly that most major life science companies are establishing a presence in social media – but coverage, methods and sophistication do vary significantly,” said Christopher Wooden.

“In broad terms we see an attempt by companies to reach out and create a positive, on-going message about their contribution to better health. The ability to target that message and encourage constructive dialogue through social media will bring value to companies developing this new channel.”