Biotech, Social Media And Profits: How The World’s Best Is Doing It

How does the world’s most social Biotech investor use social media?

“Anyone with a 1 to 2 percent information edge can significantly increase their profits,” Mark Schoenebaum explained to me, “but social media still has a lot more noise than valuable signal.”

Schoenebaum is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Evercore ISI Health Care Research Team and has been widely recognized in the industry as of the best Biotech analysts – and now he’s captured the social title as well.

Despite my affection for earned titles, I do not think that such recognition can only be bestowed “by the faceless elite.” Schoenebaum’s accomplishments must be viewed as those without such powers view him, as a collection of experiences that shape their opinion of him. In other words, if Schoenebaum were a stock, where would he be trading?

According to Crimson Hexagon’s analysis, Schoenebaum has 63% positive approval rate amongst the people following him. While not entirely scientific, the data does seem to support Schoenebaum as a respected source of Biotech information in the industry (and probably a ‘buy’ according to sentiment data).

But despite Schoenebaum’s use of social media, he still trails far behind his elite social counterparts in other industries. That’s because, according to him, there are so many compliance restrictions that it’s difficult to engage in a real conversation.

He also told me that there are not enough physicians, professors and other Biotech experts that are engaging on public social networks – which means most of the conversations on social are being conducted by people that don’t understand the science well enough. It’s a lot like hosting a scientific event without any scientists.

Yet Schoenebaum still finds value in social media, and outlined today’s benefits and tomorrow’s possibilities of using it to create a valuable information edge. Here’s what he said: