Advances and challenges in label-free technologies for drug discovery

November 2-3, 2009

San Diego, CA

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Cambridge Healthtech Institute

November 2-4, 2009

Boston, MA

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I see enormous potential for life science companies to use social media to engage their customers and grow their business. Sometimes when I talk about it, however, the concepts can come across as being somewhat foreign. Some people wonder how tools like Twitter can help them to grow their business, and are perplexed by the jargon and ’special world’ that social media marketers seem to live in.

However, social media can be seen as an extension of tools life science companies have been using for years, such as newsletters, posters, and guides. Realizing that social media is really a natural progression of these resources helps to better understand how to create new tools and how to fit them in with your traditional marketing strategies and tactics.

Social media is about stepping beyond your product line and offering customers with resources that apply more generally to their daily ‘pains’ or interests, and allowing them to interact with you and other customers in the process. These resources could be blogs, forums, or groups set up with customers in mind, you can see examples on our compilation of life science companies using social media. While many of these companies are just getting started, check out the Promega or the 23andMe blog for good examples.

While these new tools are more interactive, taking advantage of ‘web 2.0′ principles, many of the ideas are similar to educational materials life science companies have been putting out for years. Calbiochem, now EMD Chemicals, has long provided signal transduction pathway diagrams and reviews to help researchers understand complex phenomena such as apoptosis and angiogenesis, and was also famous for its detergent guide (a favorite of mine). Invitrogen/Life Technologies (past & present!) have distributed several different newsletters over the years, one dating back to 1978!

What’s the take home message? Sell social media to your management as an extension of your existing tools with the added benefit that web 2.0 tools will help you broaden your customer base while collecting more metrics, often in real time.

How do you get started? Use existing content and themes to bootstrap a social media program. If you’ve stopped putting this useful material on the web because you’re putting it in newsletters or fancy flash animations, put it back into your web content as it will help customers who are seeking the information you’re providing to find you (and improve search engine optimization or SEO). Social media is a tool to help you engage your customers more, but realize that it is a natural extension of what you’re already doing. Employ those closest to the customer, such as customer service and sales, to help you devise a plan. Integrate social media with your existing marketing plans–you might even say that you should marry the two…

Yes, there will be some adjustments you’ll need to make when thinking about using new media. You’ll need to think about policies and strategies to chart a course for success. Need help? Comprendia is the only company with extensive social media experience specific to life science, let us help you develop a social media charter so you can hit the ground running with the tools you already have in hand.

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On November 14th, Comprendia Founder Mary Canady will be presenting an overview of San Diego Biotechnology at a local symposium geared towards life science postdocs and hosted by UCSD, The Scripps Research Institute, and Burnham Institute. Dr. Canady’s career, first as a local researcher and now as a small business owner working with biotechnology companies, gives her a unique perspective on transitioning from science to business. Check out the website for more information and to register.

A few things have happened over the past weeks that have caused me to reflect on how I ‘ended up’ where I am, in an Outliers sort of way. Also, there are some young scientists who have asked me how I made the transition into marketing, so I thought it might be good to write a post on it. In short, while my current occupation is no accident, I was incredibly fortunate to have mentors and ‘generous strangers’ along the way who guided me to where I am now, and I am very thankful to them.

By sheer dumb luck, I did my first lab rotation at Duke University with Jane Richardson, who was the first to visualize protein structures using so-called ribbon diagrams. She drew the diagrams by hand and they became the standard to help us understand protein structures. The project Dr. Richardson gave me was interesting, as was hanging out in her and her husband David’s lab, complete with comfy couches and crazy protein artwork. I learned about the internet there (1990), using FTP on their VAX to download structures from the protein data bank, and even took pictures of protein structures for a textbook on their Evans & Sutherland computers. In my spare time, I started the department happy hour and sand volleyball league, which last time I checked is still going strong (this will be important later).

In 1994, my Ph.D. work (and desire to move out West) led me to Alex McPherson’s lab at the University of California, he literally ‘wrote the book‘ on crystallizing proteins, and he was a great mentor. Here, I had the great fortune to work out the molecular structure of a plant virus. It wasn’t the sexiest project around, but the structure (to me) was spectacularly beautiful–even the crystals were stunning (luck again) and images of them became part of the marketing materials for crystallography supply company Hampton Research (started by a great entrepreneur Bob Cudney who inspired me). I began to play with great, open source visualization software such as Grasp to communicate the structure.

This love affair with virus structures continued into my postdoc at the Scripps Research Institute, where again I worked on a non-sexy but fascinating and visually interesting virus project. A great colleague, John Tate, and I played around with the then new Linux operating system and great, open source (or inexpensive) software (for a real blast from the past check out the article we wrote). We came up with some great visualizations and animations for showing virus conformational changes (if I could get the animations off of VHS easily, I’d post them…). The visualization at the top was made using Grasp and was on the cover of the Journal of Molecular Biology.

In addition, around this time (1998) I became interested in web design and designed our lab’s website, and learned about creating and manipulating images using a free program called Gimp (which I still use daily). Bench work, and using these tools to communicate my discoveries, were truly a lot of fun for me and I probably stayed in academia a bit too long, but learning the visualization and communication skills helped me in the long run.

After my postdoc I worked at a ‘genomics boom’ startup called GeneFormatics, where I started to learn more about the world of biotech and facets of the industry outside of R&D. In 2002 I joined Invitrogen, and fell in love with marketing. Here, I was lucky enough to lead an early ‘web 2.0′ project called OligoPerfect, which designs custom oligonucleotide primers and is cited in at least 55 peer-reviewed publications. I still remember asking my excellent boss (and still good friend Michael Gonzales) about the basics of marketing, and his support and guidance.

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After this, I worked at EMD Chemicals where, among other things, I helped to improve customers’ understanding of signal transduction through interactive signaling pathway maps and other resources. I made animations of protein kinases bound with inhibitors to help customers understand them. I had a great boss and mentor who I’m still good friends with, Karin Hughes. Later, while working at a small company, I took the lead in organizing a drug discovery conference, and realized the power of bringing scientists together to communicate. In my free time, I learned blogging and the power of WordPress, more great open source software.

If you know me, or have poked around this website, hopefully you’ll see how I’ve arrived ‘here.’ This post could all just be a self-aggrandizing walk down memory lane, but I think there is something to be learned. I’ve arrived at my current role, where I specialize in marketing biotechnology and connecting scientists and technologies, often through web-savvy tools, with the help of many great mentors, colleagues, and software developers I didn’t necessarily know.

I also seized opportunities, even used my hobbies, to eventually arrive at a job that I absolutely love. Arriving at your destination involves determination and following the good luck path and ignoring the bad–I’ve had my share of that as well but try not to let it shape my destiny. So in the words of my ‘Twitter friend’ Sally Church, my advice to you is JFDI, or Just…Do it, continue to seek opportunities that will move you towards your goal, and you’ll get there. Give thanks to those who’ve helped you, you can never have too much good karma. Young scientists like Sean Seaver and Michelle Gill, whom I’ve met on Twitter, will likely find their niche more quickly than I did with today’s tools, and I suggest you follow their lead and take up blogging, microblogging or any tools which help you to learn more from others.

This post is dedicated to Warren DeLano, who made a big impact on the world of protein visualization by developing PyMol, one of the great open source software programs that I’ve relied upon on my journey. I thank him wholeheartedly.

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You are likely in the throes of determining your 2010 marketing plans and budgets. How should you budget for social media? We’ve been asked this a few times and thought we’d give you some guidelines (of course we have ulterior motives because we want you to have a budget for Comprendia’s services, but as long as we’re clear on that ;). Here are some guidelines for budgeting for social media in your life science marketing plans. Social media takes time to cultivate, and there is every indication that customers now expect to be engaged with these tools, so why not get started now? Here are the items we think you should consider adding, increasing, or adjusting in your 2010 budget:

1. Web 2.0 Upgrades. We’ve written about life science companies and social media, and many of you are just getting started in this area. One of the first steps is to move towards a more dynamic, engaging website. What does this mean? Think about websites like Amazon.com and Facebook, which give users a customized experience when they visit your site. Invitrogen now has user ratings for products, similar to Amazon. Don’t think that you have to jump in with both feet, however, and build something too fancy. You can start with simpler things like polls, resources, or news feeds which will help your customers feel engaged. Adding a blog or forum is likely more easy than you think, ask us or your web team about the budget for these types of upgrades.
2. Training. From strategies, to etiquette, to tactics, this should be a significant consideration for your budget. A social media strategy needs the participation of people inside of your company to succeed. For this to happen, everyone needs to be clear on the messaging and guidelines. There are infamous stories of missteps companies have made that have been devastating for them. Training on etiquette and procedure will prevent your campaign from going viral in a bad way. Make sure that you hire trainers who know your life science customers, as there are myriad social media ‘experts’ available who will likely provide general training which is already available in many forms on the internet.
3. Content. A good social media strategy requires producing more content than you may be used to. For example, newsletters that adhere to the tenets of social media aren’t simply lists of new products, but are more rich resources which help customers with their broader needs. More time will need to be budgeted to create this content. By being creative, and assigning someone who will be the social media champion for your organization, you can likely find content that you can repurpose, which may save some time.
4. Redistribution of Existing Budgets. Have you noticed that banner Ads and email blasts just don’t have the impact they used to? You may want to consider turning some print and online advertising into social media campaigns. This budget shift may mean shifting paid-for services such as Ads into additions to headcount to create strategies and content. Of course, outsourcing is a good way to get started.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Other Search-based Advertising. A big part of moving away from ‘broadcast’ advertising is to help people to find you, or pull them in, rather than ‘pushing’ your information to large groups of people who don’t necessarily want it. You’ll need to make changes to your website content to help search engines find you as well as invest (more) in paid search advertising like Google Adwords. As with most other areas of social media, you’ll obtain useful information from these tools, as you’ll be able to see what people are searching for and adjust your product offering accordingly.
6. Outside Consultants. OK, you knew this was coming. While social media will likely ultimately rely upon your existing staff, you’ll need help developing a Social Media Charter™, with training, and with content. Social media likely requires a change in mindset for your organization. Comprendia is the only company that is integrated with the life scientist social media community, and we will use our knowledge and vast network to help you to hit the ground running. If you feel as though you’re a ‘lone voice’ in your organization, trying to get traction for social media, we can help as well, as we have talking points that will help you communicate the importance to your upper management.

How much should you budget for these items? We can help you with a free consultation and also give a short presentation which will help you to ’sell’ social media to your organization, if needed. We have great examples specific to life science and biotechnology that will make social media tangible to your staff and also inspire them to be creative and participate. We also have the resources to successfully implement your plans in 2010, helping you to increasingly engage your customers and provide the resources and products they need.

Want more tips for Biotechnology and Life Science Marketing? Sign up for email updates (feedburner) and you’ll always have the latest information.

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While preparing a ‘Social Media 101′ presentation, I started to think about an analogy for growing a network to planting a seed, and it fit really well. A well cultivated social media network can be like a crop of plants that ‘do the work’ for the farmer. Remember, however, that the success relies on the farmer’s knowledge and hard work. If properly cultivated, however, social media networks can be a very powerful way to engage your customers and worth more than any type of broadcast advertising you can pay for. Personally growing social networks has taught us some things that may help you, so here are our guidelines for success.

1. Know your seed. We all know that plants grow in certain conditions, and this is the first consideration to be made. Choice of the soil, sunlight, and season are all important and based on the type of seed you’re planting. For social networks, you must consider what types people you’d like to help you grow your network. What do they like, need, and how can you reach them? Knowing your ’seed’ means doing market research, which may include interviews/polls and some legwork to understand how your potential participants are currently interacting online. Also, make sure that you’re not growing the same crop as your neighbor–a ‘me too’ network is not likely to have as much success.
2. Plan your crop. Based on the seed, you must come up with an overall plan to grow it. For social networks, this means finding a theme which will resonate with the people you are trying to engage. For example, with the San Diego Biotechnology Network (SDBN), our theme is increasing communication among local scientists. Our members care about the cause, and they get something out of participating (e.g. networking), so they are happy to be a part. You should consider that whatever your personal/business passion or goals are, the theme of your network must be something that will resonate with others. For example, if you sell protein purification products, chances are you’ll have a hard time using them as a theme to motivate (few products have a following like the iPhone). However, you may be able to choose something broader, such as ‘advancing protein purification methods,’ as a theme. Also, make sure that your theme aligns with your objectives–a farmer grows a crop that will help him feed his family, you need to do the same. Otherwise, you’ll find that you don’t have time to maintain it. A good network benefits everyone, and if you make your identity and objectives clear, you have a good chance of succeeding.
3. Find the right plot and soil. Also based on your research of the ’seed’ you must pick a venue for growing your network based on their interests and habits. Are your participants young? Facebook is probably a good bet. Professionals? Use LinkedIn. Also consider that seeds may not germinate if the conditions are unfavorable or they don’t have the energy to break out of their shell. In a similar way, creating a network which requires too much effort to join (e.g., requiring a login) may not work well. Also consider that you must have a significant number of participants before a network is useful (the so-called network effect), so using a venue that already exists has its benefits. We started the SDBN on LinkedIn, but realized that Facebook may be accessible to some of our members, so we also have a page there. Thus, we ‘transplanted’ part of our network there (I could make these analogies all day ;).
4. Fertilize. Like plants, your network participants must be given what they need to grow. Based on your research, this can be content, discussions, or anything else that will engage them and help them to connect with each other. A great book on this is Seth Godin’s Tribes which talks about several groups which have been brought together towards a common interest, or even company/product line (Apple), and how these groups were ‘fed.’ As with the theme of the network, you may need to think outside of your companies’ products in order to engender loyalty. We have a 90/10 rule that we abide by, which follows. If you provide your participants with useful resources not related to your products 90% of the time, they’ll gladly put up with a ‘plug’ for your products 10% of the time (similar to the way we include a call to action at the bottom of many of our blog posts here, but most of the post is designed to help you). Also, your products help your customers, and they will want to hear about them and give feedback to help you improve them as well. We’re all interested in getting better tools, so if you frame your ‘plugs’ correctly, you should be fine.
5. Cultivate. Farmers need to make sure their crops are thriving, and make changes if they are not. In a similar way, you must monitor your network and its growth so that it thrives. If it is not growing, ask members what you can provide to motivate them to participate. Got someone spamming the group? Weed them out. You don’t have to look far to see social networks that have been abandoned because they have not been cultivated and have not grown. If done properly, however, your seedlings will mature and spread their seeds (are you tired of this metaphor yet?).

Want to get started? Contact us for a free consultation, we’ll use our experience and existing life science networks to help you come up with a winning plan, er….crop.

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If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed that I’ve gotten quite a lot of ‘mileage’ out of social media and blogging. I’ve gotten loads of complimentary passes to conferences, pieces published in notable blogs, and even an H1N1 vaccination last week (long story, and thanks to the Mission Valley Medical Clinic).

I was talking to my sister about how bartering is ‘back in vogue’ now that companies have fewer financial resources, and she pointed out this is how some commerce was done in the early days in America–pay your doctor with a dozen eggs. This is a great way to do business in the new ‘outsourced’ economy, but you should remember that maintaining a good reputation is more important than ever, and that bartering should be done carefully so as not to abuse your relationships.

How do you leverage your skills to garner resources from others? For me, the blogging angle has worked well, mostly because I have some credibility and a large network, I like to write, and there is a real need for good content. In short, the key is to find someone that values and needs your skills and knows you, knows of you, or knows how to find out about you. Social media to the rescue…a strong online presence and network certainly helps! Also, nothing gives you a ‘channel’ and platform for your efforts more than starting a blog, check out our post on WordPress for more information.

The new ‘barter economy‘ is part of a larger trend in which companies collaborate more, covered well in the book What Would Google Do. Google, in building their business, realized that companies that collaborate get more done with less. You might even decide that giving away some of your services for free might benefit you in the long run, a theory that the book Free describes (and you can get Free for free here). The idea is that by providing your services free, and getting your work ‘out there,’ you’ll benefit so much from the exposure (and perhaps karma/future business from the receiving company) that it will be worth the initial expense.

Although bartering is a great way to get the things you need on a tight budget, you should remember that you must be willing to deliver the goods, service, or karma and make sure that your bartering partner is happy with the results. Always keep in contact with, and even reach out to, those you want to partner with. Not delivering on bartered goods or services can be just as bad as failing to provide paid for items, even if there is no contractual obligation. Having a reputation of ‘never giving, always receiving’ can be a black mark that you will not soon be able to erase, especially in today’s uber connected business world.

Take home message? Be creative and realize you may be able to get things you need from others by proposing that you barter. Take advantage of the new ways to connect and communicate and realize that they mean that your reputation is more important than ever.

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After reading a thoughtful post from Sally Church about personally reaching out to business partners during the holidays, I thought it might be a good time to give some pointers on the subject. While sending holiday cards or gifts is an excellent way to stay on the ‘radar’ of clients, potential clients, and partners, you should also carefully consider the message and the way it is delivered. Here are some tips for small companies or departments based on our experiences:

1. Compose your list. First determine how many cards and/or gifts you will send. Look through your accounting software, LinkedIn connections, your CRM, ask your team to look through their contacts, and also think about the message you’d like to send. If you want to send a ‘thank you for your business’ card, choose only clients/customers, or segment your customers, partners and potential leads into different lists. Also, you may want to send cards to everyone, and gifts only to a select few–might as well tag them all accordingly at this time.
2. Choose your cards. There are myriad companies who will customize cards for you, but you really should order them soon and be cognizant that cards that arrive past Dec. 15th (roughly) are in danger of being forgotten. You can also consider sending e-cards, a more expeditious option which sends an ‘earth friendly’ message about your company. In my opinion, it is best to steer clear of religion–even Christmas trees can be offensive to some people. This is certainly up to you, just a recommendation, and sending ‘Peace on Earth’ or New Year cards is always a good option. Cards that match your branding or using your company font will help to subtly reinforce your company identity, but don’t overdo it as they may appear too much like marketing materials. A photo of your team is easy to include and adds a personal touch. You can also hire someone to design cards for you, but this takes a bit more planning–mark your calendar for October of next year if you want to plan for this.
3. Customize your cards. In my opinion, it is acceptable to send cards with a printed message and it looks professional. You should use this opportunity to send genuine well wishes, not to promote a product or talk business. All businesses are made up of people, this is a good time to take a step back and remember that, and be thankful for the opportunity to work together. For more personalization, pass the cards around your office for signatures from your team members. This also helps the team to think about the greater ‘environment’ that your company operates in.
4. Choose gifts. You may want to send gifts to some clients or partners. Surpisingly, this may take less planning than cards, as they come straight from the company and the cards are not normally hand signed. Harry and David is a favorite of mine, or you may want to choose a local source which will be more representative of your company. Your clients and partners may even start look forward to receiving your gifts year after year if they are unique enough.
5. Deliver. If using mail, this is a no brainer, just remember the Dec. 15th ‘rule.’ Also, if you have local clients/partners, hand delivery of gifts can be a nice touch, and a way to connect with people face to face before the holiday break.

In summary, holiday cards should be considered a ‘no business allowed’ way to engage your clients and partners and truly thank them. They are a reflection of your company, and if done well they can be considered one of your yearly ‘assets.’

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