Life Technologies Social Media Word Cloud made using the RSS Feed and Tagxedo (click to enlarge)

Word or tag clouds are visualizations which help us to understand the meaning of an aggregate of text by correlating the size of the words with their prevalence in it. As the title suggests, the picture shown here describes the concept best. While the depictions are often correlated with blogs, twitter streams, and other social media, their utility extends beyond this area. In this post, we list several ways that life science companies can use word clouds to understand customers’ needs and adapt marketing and communication strategies to meet them.

1. Analyzing Social Media Sentiment. For the life science marketer, comments made by life scientists on social media applications represent an ‘amorphous’ form of market research. Instead of direct questions being asked and answered, researchers give candid opinions about research areas, products, events, or anything else they want to talk about. As an example, check out the word cloud made from the Society for Neuroscience 2010 meeting tweets. From this cloud, you can see that important topics at the meeting were Glenn Close‘s talk, an article about spooky coloured auras (from a non-American author), and that the exhibit hall booths were well represented. The raw data must be aggregated and analyzed, these associations may not be clear just from the word cloud. However, it concisely shows the ‘buzz’ at the meeting without having to read a single tweet. As such, word clouds can be used effectively understand and communicate the sentiment from conferences, tweet streams, forums, blogs, etc.
2. Market Research. Although traditional surveys produce data that is more structured than social media sentiment, we’ve found that word clouds can be used to effectively capture important take home messages in market research. As an example, for our client 89 North we surveyed fluorescence researchers to determine the requirements for the fluorXchange, a web 2.0 resource for scientists. We got excellent answers to our open ended questions, and made a word cloud from all of the text. From the visualization, we confirmed that a major ‘pain’ for these researchers was related to improving the signal to noise in their experiments. As a result, we chose to include a wiki along with a forum which would allow them to upload experimental images and fully discuss signal to noise issues. For another example, see the word cloud from our poll of San Diego Biotechnology Network members we used to plan the 2010 meetings.
3. Social Media Messaging and Voice. Just as external social media sentiment is amorphous, a company’s collection of posted content, from different individuals and departments, can be nebulous. The image for this post is from all of Life Technologies‘ (LIFE) social media over the past ten weeks. It is comprised of 16 Twitter accounts, two Facebook pages, and their YouTube channel, you can see the RSS feed here and even subscribe to email updates. The archive contained about 1,000 items posted from LIFE representatives. Note that ‘cell’ is the most prevalent word, and terms relating to DNA sequencing are also prominent. Does the makeup of this cloud represent the topics that their customers are interested in? Also, notice that there a few ‘feeling’ words, such as thanks, friends, and love, but that most of the words are about science or events. Is this the proper level of engagement that LIFE should be using? Interestingly, the word ‘market’ is prominent, due to the fact that they have tweeted about the ‘market size’ of an area in several instances–are life scientists interested in this topic? Also, from many accounts LIFE is trying to make strides into human health, is that reflected in their social media? From the outside it is difficult to determine whether the content and voice matches their objectives. If your company don’t yet have enough social media data to analyze, consider using other communications such as tech service logs. Note: Our purpose is not to be critical of LIFE, they are doing a fantastic job as one of the most active life science companies in social media. We’d like to start a dialog in this area and we are grateful that they are ‘blazing a trail.’
4. Internal Motivation. Word clouds based on customer needs can help life science marketing, sales, and technical service groups convey a common message in everyday conversations, marketing materials, and can even help with product development. Help your team to understand by being creative: post or distribute ‘customer clouds’ in sales guides, give easy-to-update framed clouds for desks, or post them in hallways. Do ‘company clouds’ match your intended message? If not, make your own to emphasize words which more closely match your desired voice and post or distribute them. With cool tools like Tagxedo, you can make them artistic and in any shape, as we did with the LIFE logo above.

Other tools to create tag clouds are Wordle (many artistic options) and TagCrowd (fewer artistic options, but word removal available). In addition, several Twitter and Blog tools will generate word clouds. We did this analysis for free, but it did require that we archive the information for 10 weeks, as the free tools rarely allow for this. At our Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshop 4 we discuss the paid and free tools, and ways to aggregate raw data from life science social media and analyze it.

If you think that this technology seems too simple, consider that the more complex sentiment analysis software designed for larger brands requires much more data. Try word clouds with the data you have in house, you may be surprised with the insights you will gain and the ability to communicate your message internally and externally.

To share this post easily, cut and paste: A Picture is Worth 1K Words: Using Word Clouds for Life Science Marketing and Communication http://bit.ly/lifecloud

Just a quick note to let you know that we changed the date for our Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshop 4 webinar, it will now be December 9th from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific time, check out the flier (PDF) or the link to the workshop above for more information. Hope you can make it!

© bmljenny on Flickr

I was recently looking through my contacts for a specific reason and found many opportunities in other areas, and I also learned more about the status of my network on several levels. Our networks are becoming increasingly important for our professional success, present and future, and they are in a sense ‘living’ so we should tend to them regularly to keep them alive and thriving. I thought about the benefits of tending to my network periodically, say quarterly, and here are my suggestions for the process.

1. Make a list of opportunity areas. Start by identifying all of the areas which you’re looking for opportunities or need growth in. For example, it could be prospecting for your own business or for your clients or colleagues. By now, you know it’s all about karma, so try to think of some ways you could help others. Also think about events that are coming up that you might meet someone at, topics you’d like to learn more about, and areas in which you’d like to improve your network.
2. Make a list of contact lists. If you’re like me, your contacts don’t just exist in one application. Think about places like your personal email application, CRM, LinkedIn, email marketing application, and social media contacts. After you do this you’ll realize these lists are likely fragmented and you’ll need to spend time updating information as you go through the lists. Also, you should look into ways of syncing the information–for example, should you export LinkedIn contacts to update your personal email application? Something to think about as you go through your contacts. If you send a electronic holiday cards like we do, now might be a good time to mark people you’d like to send them to.
3. Look through your contacts. Grab a cup of coffee and take at least an hour to look through all of your contacts. You may be tempted to use search features to narrow down the results for pressing opportunities, but resist this temptation and you’ll soon see the benefits. Hopefully, by browsing, you’ll see things you wouldn’t with a targeted search. Note all contacts relevant to your opportunities, and new ideas may also strike you. Be social and reach out to those who have moved, you’ll likely be surprised at the number of updates. You know we’re big fans of face to face contact–why not plan to spend one day a week or month meeting up with a colleague ‘just because’?
4. Spread a little good karma. Colleague/friend Holly Barnes recently shared a link about how connecting people in your network is a great practice. To me, the article explains a quite lengthy process that I’m not sure I’d have time for on a regular basis, but you get the idea that good karma is something you can never give (and get) enough of. Think of colleagues looking for a job, those that have recently moved, etc.
5. Rinse and repeat. Hopefully you’ve found some great opportunities and learned more than you expected. Growing your network will multiply these benefits, so hopefully this realization will result in more regular growing and tending to your network. It might be a good idea to set calendar reminders to help. It’s also a good time to review your network–is it weak in certain areas? If so, target them and set goals to improve your network in a geographic area, topic, expertise level, etc.

In these days of information overload, we tend to rely on searches for everything, and forget that browsing can result in serendipities that are made more powerful by today’s tools and the simple act of building a good quality network. The image for this post is from another colleague/friend Jenny Reiswig who ‘seeks out serendipity’ in her photography by visiting interesting places like Twentynine Palms. Perhaps it is a very loosely connected metaphor (the photos are gorgeous, I couldn’t resist), but do the work and you never know what you might find.
To share this post easily, cut and paste: Getting More Out Of Your Life Science Network http://bit.ly/f9e2HK

Here is our latest collection of links and tips for life science marketing and social media:

1. Science Online 2011 Conference

The fifth annual conference for science bloggers will take place in North Carolina January 13-15th. Science blogging is an exploding area, and learning more about and sponsoring the conference is a great way to reach these increasingly important thought leaders in life science. The conference sold out in 45 minutes, but you can still sponsor and I think it’s a great opportunity to show your support and get exposure for any online campaigns. I’ll be in attendance as well, let me know if you have questions or want any specific information about the conference.

2. Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2010 Meeting had 550+ Tweeters!

I attended SfN this week and made an archive of the tweets. Currently the summary lists 572 people tweeting with the #sfn10 hashtag, and I estimate that 80-90% of these were actually at the conference. With 30,000+ scientists at the conference, this is still only 1-2%, which is a low number, but I was able to find at least one exhibitor at the conference (Jove) who said they got good results from their tweets. Also, I think the number is growing as more life scientists discover it’s a great way to get the buzz of what’s going on. You can even watch what’s going on in real time via applications such as visible tweets (and note that people are still talking about the conference after it’s over!). Tip–if you’re looking for life science researchers to follow, search for conference hashtags (e.g. #sfn10) or check out and follow our Twitter List of SfN 2010 attendees.

3. fluorXchange launches

At SfN we did a soft launch of a new application for fluorescence researchers called fluorXchange which we developed with 89 North. It’s a web 2.0 application which integrates research publications, a wiki, forum, blog and has community features. We plan to write up more details on how we designed the application soon, for now check it out and let us know what you think!

4. Comprendia’s Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshop 4: Webinar December 9th

We’ve heard from many of you that you need help in three areas with traditional and new media marketing: integrating, measuring, and adapting. In this four hour webinar, we’ll show you how to make the impact of your efforts more than the sum of the parts. We’ll cover metrics, return on investment/relationship (ROI/ROR), engagement, social media monitoring/sentiment analysis, search engine optimization, and inbound marketing. Of course, we’re also always open to your suggestions, feel free to contact us.

The soundbytes tag on Delicious contains all links mentioned, as well as others we think are useful. Sign up for Comprendia blog email updates to get our mix tapes delivered to your inbox.
To share this post easily, cut and paste: Sound Bytes: Links and Tips For Life Science Marketing & Social Media 11/18/2010 http://bit.ly/soundbytes1118

Our first three Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshops concentrated on the components of successful applications and campaigns. Now, you’re ready to make the whole more than the sum of its parts by integrating, measuring, and adapting your strategies and tactics. Concepts covered include metrics, return on investment/relationship (ROI/ROR), engagement, social media monitoring/sentiment analysis, search engine optimization, and inbound marketing. In this four hour webinar, we’ll answer the questions below, as well as any you have in this area. The cost to attend the workshop is $375, or $750 for groups up to 4, and includes a printed workshop booklet for all attendees. Register below and contact us with any questions.

Integrate

• Strategies: How do we integrate our company’s various products and departments to convey a consistent message that meets our goals?
• Tactics: How do we integrate 1st and 3rd party social media?
• How do we fit social media into our current marketing plans?

Measure

• How do we collect the right metrics and information to analyze?
• Which of the ‘mainstream’ social media tools work for life science/biotech?
• How do we integrate these measurements into applications and workflows we’re already using?

Adapt

• How do we interpret data from social media to learn what’s working?
• What types of changes are most likely to result in increased sales?
• How do I convince the management and my department to adapt and continue to support social media initiatives?

In this webinar, we’ll cover the applications that we’ve found most useful, and feel free to suggest any that you would like to learn more about when registering. You’ll come away from the workshop with worksheets and templates which will help you get started quickly to integrate, measure, and adapt your way towards social media success.

Note: our workshops are intended for marketing and business development professionals in life science and biotechnology who do not manage FDA regulated products.

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Here is our latest collection of links and tips for life science marketing and social media:

1. Life Technologies’ New Look

Someone could write a book about the different branding of Life Technologies throughout the years. To me, they were the first company to really bring a distinctive branding to life science products, and I think following them is important to learn about how companies can deal with the challenges of consolidation. Check out how they’re using the Life Technologies brand as an umbrella for the many company brands they represent. One former Invitrogen employee told me that it is reminiscent of IVGN’s early days. What do you think? It is also interesting in light of CEO Greg Lucier’s comments that the company will expand into the medical area in the next year. Will this new branding be used, or will they require more differentiation for this market?

2. The Social Network.

I just saw this movie about the genesis of Facebook and I’m ‘assigning’ it to anyone who is interested in creating social media applications for life scientists. While the movie tends to focus on the negatives of the early days of Facebook, it also shows how this application, which faced considerable competition from the likes of MySpace and Friendster, differentiated itself and eventually won the race. To me, it underlined the importance of usability and understanding what motivates people to participate in social networks.

3. HIV/AIDS New Media Guide.

This is a great resource from AIDS.gov which gives both a basic overview as well as examples of how new media is being used to engage HIV/AIDS patients and advocates. Even if you’re trying to engage a different audience, it’s a great site to look through and bookmark. As with much of new media, the site itself engages as it educates.

4. The Semantic Web is coming….

As we’ve discussed, the changes happening on the web aren’t just about people interacting or even your ability to engage your customers more. The data structure of the web is changing and you need to take notice as it will change e-commerce, likely sooner rather than later. Here is one article to pique your interest.

All links can be found under the soundbytes tag on Delicious, and sign up for Comprendia blog email updates to get our mix tapes delivered to your inbox.