The social media revolution has even spread to the pathologically-cautious pharma market. According to Lisa Flaiz of digital agency Razorfish, several pharma companies are experimenting with branded Facebook pages and YouTube channels.

But don't get too excited; pharma-sponsored patient communities are a long way from being ubiquitous on the internet. The industry still can't quite get its collective head around the removal of the 'learned intermediary' and is definitely not ready to turn the supply of drug information over to the patient community.

Five things you can do today to improve your LinkedIn experience.

Dominating the online professional networking space is LinkedIn, the world's largest network with more than 35 million members worldwide; 9 million of which are in Europe. LinkedIn is basically a database of individual profiles. Users are provided with the tools to manage and maintain their profile, connect to others on the network, share knowledge, expertise and potential opportunities.

"The subject matter of LinkedIn is the individual. While people talk about their companies and products, the main thing that you'll find with the site is people," says Steven Tylock, author of The Linkedin Personal Trainer.

Tylock explains that LinkedIn helps bridge onetoone introductions that may lead to any number of activities and that the real benefit of online networking is the way it extends the networker's reach.

"You would never call 200 people to ask if they know anyone at XYZ company. It just isn't practical," says Tylock. "It is easy to search through that many people on LinkedIn; then you are calling one person to ask them to introduce you to their contact at XYZ company."

LinkedIn's main rival in Europe is Xing, the German networking site, which was formerly known as OpenBC (Open Business Community). Xing has 6.5 million users, but with most of its users in Germany and Austria, it appears to be struggling somewhat against Linkedin's global dominance. The good news for Xing users is that the cashpositive business has a new CEO and he has been tasked to pursue a more aggressive international expansion strategy with a fighting fund of $50 million at his disposal. Watch this space.

For the time being, however, LinkedIn is where it's at for international pharma; the sheer size of the LinkedIn network is staggering. My own limited network shows almost 475000 potential pharmaceutical industry contacts that I am just one or two contacts away from.