CHI Pep Talk, January 11-15 2010, San Diego

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CHI’s High Content Analysis, January 11-15, San Francisco

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ScienceOnline2010, the fourth annual conference on science and the Web, will be held on January 14-17th, 2010 at Sigma Xi in the Research Triangle Park.

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We often get asked by our life science and biotech clients how to calculate return on investment (ROI) for social media activities. Sometimes we are surprised, because the equation is the same as for any marketing activity, and the metrics are often easier to measure than with traditional tactics. We’ve realized, however, that the question is broader than this, and that life science companies want to see the connection between social media activities and their bottom line. We’ll address both concepts in this blog post, and would like to know your thoughts as well.

Like many other ideas that are perceived as being new, social media can indeed be viewed as a new marketing tool, but we arrived at it as a natural progression, and life science companies are a great example. Thus, some of the guidelines we’ve outlined below will be familiar to you, some will be new, and we hope it helps you understand the process of determining ROI for social media in the life sciences.

Establish a baseline. As with traditional marketing, you need to know where you’re starting in order to make sure your marketing is helping you to reach your goals. Several of the metrics are things you’re already tracking, such as sales, growth, web traffic, and conversion. However, you’ll also need to consider more ‘external’ metrics such as mentions on public forums and the ‘buzz’ you create leading up to a product launch. At this stage, do your best to find the information that exists about your company, products, and brand, and realize that it will be an iterative process as you’ll learn more as you go. Thankfully, the cycle times will be much shorter than with traditional metrics, as both the feedback and the tools to measure them are more facile with social media.

Have clear goals. We think this gets at the true ‘heart’ of the ‘ROI for Social Media’ question. Like traditional marketing, you must define your objectives and develop a plan to meet them, with strategies and tactics. What’s new is that you’ll move away from ‘broadcast’ type marketing and into engagement or relationship marketing. Strategies and tactics will differ, because you’ll need to consider things like customer psychographics more carefully and differently, and some of your goals may appear less tangible. For example, one of your goals may be ‘to engage customers more.’ How do you sell this to the management? It will likely correlate with increased revenue, and is no more less tangible than traditional goals such as increasing the number of leads. Some have the perception that social media is random (e.g., people talking about celebrities on Twitter), and can’t possibly lead to a good ROI. If done properly, it definitely can, and having a good plan will lead the way. We’ve provided an outline of our Social Media Charter™ which will help you get started.

Implement and measure. Like traditional marketing, your plan will be a living document which will guide your activities, so follow it and track your results. Besides the traditional, mostly internal ways to measure, there are many ways to measure external metrics, and you’ll soon discover that you’ll be getting more timely, relevant information than ever before. As with traditional marketing, use the equation: ROI = [(Payback-Investment)/Investment] *100. See the table below for some examples. With social media, you’ll find that engaging your customers more may mean that part of the payback comes back differently, such as efficiencies in customer service. For example, if you implement an online forum to answer customer questions, instead of relying solely on phone and email, less time may be needed as the information will be more readily available (think of it as FAQs on steroids). This information accessibility is especially important for life science companies, with highly technical products and customers with questions who often can’t wait. We’re not suggesting you get rid of customer service, rather get them involved–social media will help you to serve customers better and learn more about their needs at the same time.

Examples of Expense and Payback for Calculating Social Media ROI

Rinse and repeat. The beauty of this process is that you will receive information quickly that can be fed back into not only your marketing campaigns, but into improving your products and serving your customers better. You’ll see that your reach is greatly increased and that you’ll receive more qualified leads, which is especially important for smaller companies. These benefits are all part of integrating social media into your overall plan, and we think that once you start seeing the benefits, the ‘ROI for social media’ calculation will be a no-brainer.

However, if you are still questioning ROI for social media in life sciences and biotech, you may want to see more examples and learn more about how it can be relevant to your particular business. We offer free consultations to help get you started. Also, feel free to leave a comment below so we can discuss and answer our ‘FAQs’ (we practice what we preach ;).

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4th annual Stem Cells World Congress and exhibition, Jan 20-21 2010, San Francisco, California, USA

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We recently did speed networking at a San Diego Biotechnology Network (SDBN) event , and many of the scientists were pleased with the number of connections they made, and asked when we would do it again. This made me stop and think about the importance of face to face (f2f) interactions, and why they are more important than ever these days. The fact that we can connect online now in more ways than ever is powerful, but it makes face to face interactions and events more important in many ways, and we’ve outlined a few below.

The Personal Touch. At all of our SDBN events, I make a point of verbally inviting everyone I meet to connect with me on LinkedIn. Yes, this benefits me, but it also helps younger scientists feel less shy about reaching out to me online. Seeing that I’m a real person, who wants to help them, is important, and is much more successful than inviting someone I’ve never met via email. The fact that we all get so many electronic messages a day has made us understandably suspicious. Think about it, probably 99.99% of human interaction, over history, has been f2f, and we’re ‘wired’ for it (ironic pun intended ;).

Serendipity. As noted recently by Xconomy’s Luke Timmerman, attending biotech events sets you up for ‘concentrated serendipity,’ since running into highly relevant professionals, whether you know them or not, is very likely. Even though travel budgets are tight, and so much can be done online (the recent ScienceOnline2010 conference even had a presence on Second Life), make an effort to go to conferences and networking events. Being in San Diego, we’ve learned the benefits of attending most of the local conferences even if they aren’t exactly in our area.

Word of Mouth. You likely know I’m a big Twitter fan, and often go to ‘Tweetups,’ or informal get-togethers with people I interact with online. These meetings are great because you get to know people IRL (in real life), which is often much different than through the internet. What I’m always struck with, however, is how almost every time I get some advice that I follow almost immediately. For example, at the last Tweetup, I learned about Google Maps for the BlackBerry (completely awesome, you should be using it–I’ll tell you in person next time I see you ;). Now, we all get all sorts of advice from friends through email, etc. during the day, but hearing it verbally really trumps most electronic forms of communication. Whatever message you’re looking to get across, there is nothing more powerful than word of mouth, it is thought to be thousands of times more effective than other methods.

Chemistry. At Comprendia we love skype and GotoMeeting, they allow us to present information to anyone, anywhere, and they do offer some of the elements of f2f interactions. During a recent GotoMeeting session, however, I told a joke and I have no idea how it went over, as I couldn’t hear laughing. If you know me, you know I like to use humor as an ice breaker. If you’re not f2f, however, the ice may never be ‘broken’ and it is hard to tell whether you’ve got good chemistry. Now, it’s not always paramount for a client-vendor relationship to have good chemistry, but if you’re going to partner with a company, it is very important. Being f2f is the best way to determine whether you understand each other and will be able to work together in the long term.

My point? Get out there and meet each other! Through our experience with the SDBN, we frequently see the wonderful benefits of f2f interactions. Everyone from more senior professionals, who might not have extensive online networks, to those who are more junior and may live in the ‘IM’ world too much, can benefit from more f2f interactions.

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Association for Lab Automation 2010 conference, Palm Springs, California, January 24-27.

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Yes, I have a very large social media soap box, which I climb upon often to preach. One of the reasons I’m so passionate about talking about it is that it has many benefits that we reap daily. Also, unless you participate in it, it is difficult to understand why it is so powerful. Blogging is one activity that has clear benefits for a business, and we’ve outlined some of the most important ones below.

Opportunity. Comprendia realized this benefit almost immediately after setting up our blog in June 2008. I was invited to blog for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) at the meeting soon afterward, and was also asked in 2009. From these great opportunities for exposure, to regularly receiving complimentary conference admittance, to having a good reason to talk to everyone from prospective clients to famous scientists, we’ve reaped many rewards from our blog.

Website SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I recently talked to someone at a biotech company who was puzzled by the fact that content on their blog was ranked higher in web searches than the their website pages. Why does this happen? Search engines love blogs and tend towards ranking their posts higher than other content. Now, while getting traffic to your website is only part of the equation, continually creating fresh content for your blog and monitoring what posts gain the most traffic help you to understand your customers better.

Education. What’s new in your field, and what are your customers (and competitors) up to? Blogging is a great way to pull your head out of the daily grind and think about these topics, which are obviously very important for your business. We learn a lot not only in researching for our posts, but also in the feedback we receive after we post, and in participating in the blogging community for our field.

Enjoyment. I’ll admit it, I’m addicted to blogging. It allows me to express myself, begin interesting discussions, and learn what is important to others. The scientist in me likes the possibility of analyzing the information, the marketer in me likes finding the ‘perfect’ image for each post. Am I part of a strange new ‘blogging breed?’ No, if you’ve been following this blog, you know that I’m a strong believer that we’ve been moving towards social media naturally for many years. Some have postulated that traits that make people good bloggers are nothing new.

In summary? Try it, you’ll not only like it, but you and your business will benefit from it. You may even be able to add a few items to this list. Also, software such as WordPress makes it easier than ever, check out our guide to get started.

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