Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) are still one of the most important corner stones for the marketing machines of pharmaceutical companies. Their network, expertise, reach and authority is what pharma is interested in. We’ve written about KOL stardom in the past and how to attain it. In this post I’d like to take a closer look at the implications social media has on KOL’ism. First off, let me tell you one thing – I am sick of the term “social media”, it’s being used so ubiquitously and so often that it doesn’t mean anything anymore. I mean think about it – the whole internet is social. Show me a site where you can’t “like” or comment stuff. That’s the essence of social media and web 2.0. But that’s another story. Let’s put these linguistic talks aside and get real: social media is here to stay and the day will come when even doctors will embrace it as professionals. The future KOL must understand that. She must be able to interact with social media and interact with strategic peers on a far superior level. Usually, authority has always been a regional phenomenon, only a few enter the “stage of the world”, as the […]