Comprendia is dedicated to improving communication in life science and biotechnology, and towards that end we are big proponents of social media. Our Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshop 2: The 4 B’s of First Party Applications interactive webinar will take place July 28th from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Pacific Time. During this four hour workshop, you’ll learn how to build web 2.0 applications including blogs, forums, wikis, and how to generate meaningful content for life scientists. For each strategy or application, you’ll learn the 4 B’s crucial to attracting scientists and achieving a good ROI: the Basics, Benefits, Best Practices, and Biotech Examples. Register here or contact us if you’re interested in a private or customized version of the workshop.

We also offer training for social media applications such as Twitter, WordPress, LinkedIn, and Facebook, check out our Social Media Training and Workshops page for more information. We can also customize the training for your business, contact us for more information.

We’ve put together a list of life science wikis on the SDBN site. It’s a resource for life scientists, and also a great resource for life science companies to consider, and we found a nice example of a company who is using a wiki well. If you’d like to learn more about using a wiki, come to our June 22nd Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshop in San Diego, where we’ll cover the Basics, Benefits, Best Practices, and Biotech examples. Earlybird registration ends Wednesday, don’t be late! We’ll also be offering the workshop virtually and perhaps in your area soon, contact us for more details.

We think it’s great that we can count 33 life science company blogs on our list, and we applaud those companies who are leveraging this flavor of social media. You may know that we are blog aficionados, however, and that we are very…ahem…opinionated as to how corporate blogs should be designed, both strategically and tactically. While I’m hesitant to specifically call out blogs that need improvement, I’ll provide my top five ‘wishes’ for them below to help life science companies succeed.

Use WordPress.org. There are several ways in which you can implement a blog ranging from 3rd party sites (e.g., Wordpress.com, TypePad) which will host the site for you, to software that is installed on your web server (e.g., Wordpress.org). Installing Wordpress.org may take a bit longer at the very beginning, but it offers much more flexibility, and the benefits far outweigh any initial delays (which really should be minimal because the software is constantly becoming easier to install and use). Wordpress.org is more versatile because there is much more control over the interface and functionality of your blog. Wordpress.org installations allow access to hundreds of modules called themes and plugins, giving unlimited interface and branding options. We see several life science companies who’ve produced a blog that looks nothing like their website and has very limited functionality, likely because they’re using 3rd party software with fewer options. As we’ll discuss in the next item, this flexibility allows you to extend the brand of your website. As we explained in an earlier post describing our STIR Social Media system, engaging scientists and maximizing return on investment (ROI) requires creating applications with very specific attributes, so having maximal flexibility is important. (Note: Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org utilize the same software, the only difference is in where it is installed.)

Think carefully about branding. Everything about your blog should meet the high standards you have for your website. This includes all the hard work you’ve put into your main website interface and ensuring that your brand is represented accurately. We would like to see more life science companies remembering the importance of branding, as many of the blogs have little resemblance to their corporate site. As pointed out by social media guru Chris Brogan in his book Trust Agents, a big part of success in social media comes from garnering trust from your audience. Think about it, would you trust a blog from a company which had no resemblance to the branding you’ve come to expect from them? The MO BIO Laboratories blog is perhaps the best example of a well branded, integrated blog.

Choose a unifying content theme. Alleviating customer ‘pains’ is a good strategy for engaging scientists and achieving a good ROI with social media, something we discuss often. Learn about the biggest issues customers have in your product area, and develop a blog theme which addresses it. Stay focused on this theme, so that scientists know where to turn to with a problem. We see some life science companies having difficulties in this area, they blog about diverse topics which may be interesting, but don’t meet customer needs. A great example of a company that does it well is Accelrys–their blog is targeted and seems to fill a niche for scientists who have questions about their informatics products.

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Along the same lines as extending your brand and having a consistent theme, is to rely on the same resources your company has been using for years to engage customers. We strongly believe that life science companies have been using social media-like strategies and tactics for years, by supplying useful newsletters, posters, and online applications. Why not breathe some fresh life into these resources, providing updates and more web-friendly versions of newsletters, application notes, etc. on your blog? Taking a look at what has worked well in the past will also point you towards a unifying theme for your blog.

Think outside the blog. Some companies who decide they need a blog forget about the the ’social’ component of ’social media.’ Personal bloggers start blogs for the love of their subject matter, and naturally seek out other bloggers, interacting with them by leaving comments on their blogs, etc. This is a major part of the reason blogs do so well with search engines–fellow bloggers link to each other, providing the inbound links that show search engines that a website’s content is highly regarded and worth a high search rank. This may sound like just an algorithm, but experience and common sense points to the conclusion that those who engage with the community are more knowledgeable and trustworthy. We’ve seen many life science company blogs set up as silos–independent of their corporate website, and with few noticeable ties to other blogs, twitter/microblogging, etc. (we may be wrong, correct us below!). An example is the Accelrys blog–no blogroll and a link to a twitter account that is inconsistently updated and mostly non-interactive (sorry, had to throw one criticism in!). Those of us who employ many facets of social media know that a synergistic strategy is crucial to success for many reasons, including achieving more engagement, benefiting from the community, and getting more leads. We want life science companies to be successful with social media, and would love to see you engaging with the community more.

We’ll be talking more in depth about first party social media applications such as blogging at our June 22nd Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshop in San Diego. We’d also be happy to give you training or a free consultation to help you get the most out of social media. Contact us for more information, and be sure to subscribe to this blog so you’ll get tips like these. Also, why not start engaging more by leaving a comment below?

To share this post easily, cut and paste: Five Things We Wish Life Science Company Blogs Would Do http://bit.ly/bRFFEm

It’s hard to believe that just two years ago in June of 2008, I started Comprendia. Colleagues at Stinson Brand Innovation helped me with a logo and branding, and I set up the Comprendia website using the free WordPress platform. Now, in June 2010, we find ourselves as a two year old company with what I consider to be a good reputation and solid experience. Maybe I have too many friends with little kids, but I can’t help but to try to think about what we’ve learned, and what we have yet to learn, from a two year old child’s perspective. Here goes!

Sharing is good. A lot of what we find ourselves doing is providing resources for others, whether they’re scientists in the San Diego Biotechnology Network (SDBN), life science marketing professionals, or any of our network of around 9,000 biotechnology professionals. Are we good people? Sure, but we also see benefits from sharing daily, which gives us a business case to continue. We get new leads, we learn from our peers and our clients, and we get many perks from being connected, such as media access to conferences, etc. In our two years, we’ve definitely learned the benefits from sharing, much as a two year old learns that sharing a toy is the right thing to do.

Learn from your mistakes. I love telling people about the mistakes I made early on, so we can all learn from them. Here is one: I set up a social network for biotech marketers, thinking it would be a great way for us to share experiences and connect. What I didn’t realize in these early days is that many of these free standing networks take a LOT of effort to get going, because they don’t become useful until a minimum number of people join, something called the network effect. So, the group didn’t ever take off, but we did succeed in creating a great group on LinkedIn, where we can take advantage of the fact that so many biotech marketers are already there. We learned from this mistake, and make sure that our clients don’t make them as well. We’ve encapsulated these ideas in our STIR Social Media system to help life science companies create successful campaigns and applications.

You can’t do it all by yourself. We’re lucky to have many great partners who help us to meet our clients’ needs, including Stinson Brand Innovation and WHITECOAT Strategies. We’ve also been very lucky to hire Rebecca Watson-Beattie as Business Development manager, she has brought a wealth of experience and focus to Comprendia. If you’ve met her you know, she’s a great asset and a pleasure to work with. We’ll also be bringing on Julie Mazziotta soon as our WordPress Web and Social Media Manager. Julie’s web, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media experience will help us and our clients to grow. Related to the first point, through our network, we continue to meet exceptional companies and individuals to work with and are very excited about the capabilities we will be able to offer our clients in the months and years to come.

Saying ‘No’ can be empowering. Every small business goes through growing pains–what should our focus be, and which projects should we take on? Like a two year old, we are learning that there are choices we can make that will affect our lives. Sometimes this means saying ‘no’ to some project areas and focusing on where we can have the biggest impact. This strategy benefits everyone, as we prosper, and our clients get the best we have to offer. So, while we don’t say ‘no’ quite as much as a terrible two year old, we hope that by continuing to focus on our strengths, that we’ll be able to help companies focus on theirs as well. If you’ve been reading this blog, hopefully you know, but to clarify, we are a full service marketing firm specializing in web-based tools and social media.

What we can do is quite remarkable. We hope that by building Comprendia and the SDBN from the ground up, you can see what is possible, even for a small outfit. In our Bootstrapping Biotech event with the SDBN last year, we talked about all the cheap or free tools which empower small companies, and our dream is that our success can help yours as well. Like a two year old, we can think about what it was like to crawl, and walk, and now how great it is to now be able to run. Running along with others is perhaps the most fun of all, and our dream is that you’ll all realize how much is possible with today’s tools, and leverage them for your benefit.

It’s a big, wonderful world we live in. These past two years have been nothing short of fantastic. We’ve met so many great people, from famous scientists, to amazing entrepreneurs (latest here), to professionals who are making the best of this bad economy. The number of fantastic life science and biotechnology product and application ideas we’ve heard about over these two years leaves us in awe, and like a two year old we’re anxious to explore and see what’s around the next corner. We sincerely hope that, also like a two year old, we’ve been able to soak up a fraction of your collective knowledge and make sense of it in a way that benefits the community.

Like a two year old, we will grow a lot over the next few years, perhaps in ways we cannot imagine right now. We’ll be unveiling some great client projects over the next year, which we think will open up some new doors in life science marketing. Stay tuned!

To share this post easily, cut and paste: Comprendia Turns Two! What We’ve Learned, and Are Still Learning… http://bit.ly/avg7j6

A few months ago we did an analysis of life scientists’ utilization of social media applications, studied the applications ourselves, and published our findings. Based on this study, and our own experience, we’ve developed the STIR Social Media™ system which helps life science companies develop strategies and tactics which will both attract life scientists and maximize their return on investment (ROI). STIR is an acronym for the four attributes which social media applications and campaigns must achieve to succeed: Sticky, Transparent, Intuitive, and Resonating.

In our workshops and on this blog, we’ve pointed out that life science companies have been utilizing strategies and tactics that are similar to those behind social media for decades. Social media is about ‘paying it forward’ and providing resources which go beyond self-promotion, see this blog post for some examples of life science companies who have been doing this for years. Social media involves taking these resources to the next level, and using all the web 2.0 tools available to engage scientists in a two-way conversation rather than broadcasting messages to them. This can be tricky, and based on our studies and experience, we’ve developed the STIR Social Media system to help, its four attributes are described below.

Sticky. Create a site or application which has almost immediate attraction for scientists, providing reasons for them to visit, interact, and return. We’ve all heard about, then visited sites which we never return to again because they’re not sticky. My favorite example of a sticky website for life scientists is BiomedExperts. When you create an account and login, the application allows you to upload your publications, and you’re instantly connected to everyone you’ve ever published with. As such, they’ve circumvented the negative impact of the network effect that plagues many young social networking sites, a brilliant move by the developers of this application.

Transparent. Scientists are skeptical of anything that has the slightest hint of marketing or advertising in it. They love your products, and have lots of brand loyalty, but hate to be be marketed to. An example I like to use is UC Davis Professor Jonathan Eisen’s response to what he calls ‘Stimulus Spam‘ which refers to emails sent by companies eager to help (and profit from) researchers applying for ARRA/stimulus funding. Now, I do think some of the resources that companies provided were useful to scientists, but you can see that they were viewed otherwise by some in the community. As such, social media programs must be handled with complete transparency, as you can imagine campaigns in which the identity of the sponsoring company is not immediately known is a recipe for disaster. I have no examples of life science companies who’ve made this mistake, but read about the 3M social media debacle to help understand why it is so important. Being 100% transparent also means that ties to your products will be much more easily made. A good example in the life sciences is the Accelrys blog, which is completely transparent in its intentions and has great links to their products.

Intuitive. During our study of social media applications for life scientists, we were curious as to why BiomedExperts had so many more users than Scilink, when in essence they have the same premise, in other words connecting scientists via their publications. We surmised that part of it may be that the BiomedExperts interface is much more easy to navigate, or intuitive. Scilink appears to be gone now, so comparisons can no longer be made. This intuitiveness quality speaks to the way we have all been accustomed to the increased functionality of websites. We gravitate towards what is easy, gives us what we want, and what we understand quickly. Related to these expectations, intuitiveness also means that users need to know what’s expected of them in a given interface. For example, users come to LinkedIn to network and find business, and Facebook to share information and socialize, so any activities you plan for either application should match with these expectations. The Invitrogen Everydaycloning Facebook page is a good example of an intuitive application, as the content is useful, light, and social, and encourages fans to engage.

Resonating. Develop a theme that resonates with life scientists; one they can relate to and participate easily in. There are myriad places for scientists to spend time online, and your website or application must resonate with them in order for them to remember it and return. Sigma’s Wherebiobegins campaign is a good example of a resonating theme. They’ve asked scientists “where did your BIO begin?”, and have gotten great engagement on Facebook and other applications from them in the form of videos and comments.

The four STIR Social Media system attributes work together to define social media campaigns and applications that both attract scientists and achieve a favorable ROI. I’m not brave enough to call out those that don’t meet all four requirements, but you can check out our list of life science companies using social media and judge for yourself.

Want to learn how to become a STIR Social Media expert so that you can develop winning campaigns for your company? Attend our ‘on demand’ Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshop 1 webinar, a three hour workshop which will explain these concepts in more detail, and give you worksheets which will help you to jump start social media at your company. Additionally, we’re offering a series of workshops, with the second being held in San Diego June 22nd. We’ll be offering it as an interactive webinar and on demand as well soon. Sign up for email updates so you’ll always be on top of the developments.

To share this post easily, cut and paste: Attracting Life Scientists and Maximizing ROI: Comprendia’s STIR Social Media System http://bit.ly/cQUchT

Our first Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshop went over well, with IRL (in real life) and virtual sessions full of marketing and business development professionals eager to learn how to attract scientists and improve their return on investment with social media. When polled anonymously, 100% of attendees indicated that they would suggest the workshop to colleagues, and we continue to incorporate your feedback to make the workshops even better. In the first workshop we covered Comprendia’s STIR Social Media™ system which defines the four qualities needed for a successful campaign: Sticky, Transparent, Intuitive, and Resonating.

We discussed in detail how social media is a natural extension of the activities life science companies have been engaged in for years, and that, as with all marketing, strategies must come before tactics. If you missed the IRL and virtual events, don’t despair, you can still order it on demand through the Comprendia website, and we highly suggest it before you attend the second workshop. The Workshop 1 webinar is roughly 3 hours long, and we’ll give you a ‘day pass’ in which you can watch it any time that day, and we’ll send you the printed presentation as a booklet beforehand.

Our second workshop will focus on first party social media, or applications and strategies which are integrated into company websites:

• Web 2.0
• Blogs
• Forums
• Wikis
• Content Generation

We’ll focus on the 4 B’s which will help you create successful first party applications and campaigns, which are the Basics, Benefits, Best Practices, and Biotech Examples. As in the first workshop, we’ll focus on the questions that really matter to you, including strategies that work with scientists, metrics, return on investment, and implementation. We know that seeing real examples helps you to think about applying the ideas your business, so we’ll spend plenty of time on this as well. We’ll have wifi so you can bring your computer, ask lots of questions, and head back to the office ready to get started. Sign up!

Who Should Attend: Business Development and Marketing professionals who provide products or services in a non-regulated environment and are interested in using social media to increase sales, leads, or visibility. Examples: companies who sell research-only products or services to scientists or small to mid-size biotechnology companies that need more visibility. Contact us if you have questions. Completion of Social Media and Life Science Workshop 1 is recommended but not required (details on ordering the Workshop 1 webinar will be given during registration).

As a Participant You Will Receive:

1. Printed workshop materials
2. A highly interactive presentation session from Mary Canady, customized to your needs and using real examples from life science and biotechnology
3. Worksheets designed to help you get social media launched at your company
4. Hands-on, online training and feedback from Comprendia during the session
5. Free follow-on session with Comprendia
1. Review of workshop ‘homework’
2. Guidance for next steps

This is our second in a series of Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshops. Sign up for updates to our blog and you’ll be the first to hear about our workshops and training. Contact us if you’re interested in having these workshops customized for your company.

Check out our Workshops and Training page to see when this workshop is offered next.

I have blogged at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) convention for three years now (see posts here), and I am always very grateful that they give me a pass in exchange for blogging. It’s a great experience for me all around–learning, meeting, and getting exposure for Comprendia and the San Diego Biotechnology Network. You may have heard that this year the media, including me, were shut out from the keynote sessions featuring Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Al Gore. I was incredibly disappointed as two of these are big heroes of mine (I’ll let you guess which ones). Two of my friends/colleagues gave feedback: Christiane Truelove and Mike Spear. I recently wrote an open letter to life science conferences with suggestions for improving them, and wanted to give an update and some examples specific to the BIO 2010 convention and how it could be improved.
Improve website information. It is very difficult to find information on the BIO 2010 website. For example, I was interested in finding all of the attendees from San Diego at the conference, and this was near impossible. Instead, I had to look up or go to individual breakout sessions to find them. There are super sessions, breakout sessions, business development presentations, and partnering, and with an estimated 13,000 in attendance, I’m sure I only met with a fraction of the San Diego companies in attendance. BIO sets up a great interface for partnering and searching, but this is an additional cost, and what happens to it after the conference? I suggest opening that up in an interface that is available year round to facilitate more interaction and to help the media give more intelligent coverage of the industry.
Choose keynote speakers who ‘get it.’ We don’t really know why the media were excluded from the keynotes, but some speculated that the speakers give ‘canned’ presentations at each event, and don’t want reporters making this information public. Others commented that the Bush/Clinton appearance was more of a ‘Mutt and Jeff’ show than a serious discussion about biotechnology (I heard Bush made up a new word which I’m sorry to have missed). Regardless of the reason, isn’t one of the major objectives of BIO to get the word out to the public that important people care about biotech, and have messages for the outside world? Having keynote speakers who do not allow media coverage would seem to only have the benefit of attracting BIO attendees. In the future, I suggest inviting speakers who are not only famous, but who can be the advocates we need.
Take good care of the exhibitors. There is no doubt that the choice of non-media friendly keynote speakers affected the coverage of the conference, and don’t forget that the exhibitors pay dearly to be at BIO. This event is their big chance to get news out, whether they’re a biotechnology company or cluster. Anecdotally, I heard that ‘the big media names were not at BIO this year,’ which is a bad sign. As part of the media, I got a flurry (maybe 50?) emails from exhibitors and followed up on very few of them. Also, of the projected 13,000 who attended BIO this year, how many spent a lot of time in the exhibit hall? I’m betting only a small fraction, as several exhibitors commented that the meeting was slow. By most accounts, BIO is becoming more about the partnering meetings than the exhibit hall, but will this be sustainable? Related to this is the comment about making the website more interactive and opening up the partnering interface to all. More access to information helps everyone.
Leverage the media. Related to this last point, if indeed the professional journalists are becoming less interested in BIO, help bloggers like myself to cover the event more fully. I suggest you employ a team of bloggers who start six months before the conference, planning in depth coverage of different aspects. Think about it, you’ve now got some control of media coverage, the opportunity is golden, and will give the BIO site search engine fodder for many months after the conference is over.
Ride the social media wave. It must be said that BIO appears to want to ‘turn on’ social media shortly before the convention so that it can be leveraged only when needed. For example, a flurry of meetup invitations were sent about a week before the convention–these groups need to be cultivated year round. The efforts they’ve undertaken are great, but they’re just scratching the surface. The image on the right of this post is the word cloud of the BIO2010 twitter stream. Check out the twitter hashtag search, we counted around 50 people tweeting about BIO 2010, or 0.4% of the estimated 13,000 attendees. Imagine the power of enlisting just 5%, or roughly 10 times that amount. The BIO coverage would be fantastic, allowing those who couldn’t attend, or even those like me who were busy the whole time and did not even see a small fraction of the conference. Think it will result in less people attending? That thinking is so outdated. I can guarantee you that even this minuscule coverage made more people think about the convention than before, when perhaps more official, ’sterile’ coverage was the norm. BIO will continue to own all of the official recordings of the meetings, and if anything, they’ll sell more copies due to piqued interest (although I would argue that the entire conference should be ustreamed live).
Help us help you. Yes, the media was very frustrated with BIO 2010. I think it was partly personal, as we were treated like outsiders, but realize that all of our careers depend upon heavily the success of biotechnology. If BIO is not taking every opportunity to communicate biotechnology to the public during this convention, can we count on them to be an effective ambassador year round? We are very eager to help BIO with its objectives, because we care about the cause and also our livelihoods. I hope that this blog post is seen as a constructive effort to visualize how we can all work together to make biotechnology as an industry as successful as it can be to heal, fuel, and feed the world.
To share this post easily, cut and paste: Constructively Deconstructing the #BIO2010 Convention http://bit.ly/dBMjw7

If you’ve been following this blog or the San Diego Biotechnology Network, you know I’ve obtained complimentary passes for myself and others to blog at life science conferences. I am incredibly grateful to those who have obliged, but I always want more. We’ve all noticed that IRL (in real life) conferences are suffering due to the economy. It is sad to see that several of them are not leveraging the new media model fully to improve their situation. Those of us who live and breathe social media realize that you need to ‘let go’ in order to grow in this new era, something Seth Godin explains expertly in his book Meatball Sundae (which I’ve reviewed along with two other of his great books). Below, find my suggestions to help life science conferences not only adjust, but thrive in this new economy.

Use social media to engage year round. I normally see a flurry of activity from the social media champions of a conference a few months before the event. While this is a great start, the smart conference organizers are engaging scientists all year round. As I’ve covered earlier, social media works best when it’s a sustained effort. You’ll gain a lot, from getting feedback from scientists, to getting more ‘tweet cred’ and followers in the process.

Employ a team of bloggers. I talked with a major life science company who actually canceled a press conference at a recent meeting because there wasn’t enough media there. Do you know how many scientists are dying for the chance to cover your conference? Even if the media coverage suffers due to the economy, a few free passes will go a long way in getting the word out about the conference. You may need to become more involved in structuring the guidelines, etc., but in some ways, you’ll have more control, as those who receive a free pass will feel obligated to cover as much as possible. Give all bloggers press passes as well, so they can access computers and other items necessary for covering the meeting. Want to see great information about bloggers and journalism? See famous science blogger Bora Zivcovik’s excellent blog posts on the subject.

Make your website as informational and interactive as possible. There are three life science conferences I’ve been to in the past year in which the full schedule was not available online before the event. I really don’t know why this happens–how can an attendee plan properly, let alone a blogger? Leading to, and during the conference, your website can be a nexus for scientists to learn about the event. Also, your search engine rankings will likely benefit greatly as well as you add more content to it and get more visitors.

Post all social media policies well in advance. I’ve encountered a few ‘SURPRISE!’ announcements while covering a conference as a blogger, for example the big ‘no tweeting allowed’ signs at one conference last year. The AACR meeting’s social media policies are a great start, and you can see from the twitter stream that when attendees feel encouraged and confident, that more coverage results. In addition, scientists presenting at the conference will feel more comfortable, knowing that such policies exist.

Offer free, good quality WiFi. I talked with Bora Zivcovik about the Science Online conference he holds every year to discuss innovations in online science communication. In 2010, for WiFi support they actually hired the company that handled WiFi for the superbowl. Now, this group likely used a lot of bandwidth due to their nature, but you should consider that WiFi is an important part of getting your conference covered, along with access to power sources.

Live stream video from the conference. In the ‘world’ of social media, live video streaming of conferences is the norm. Mostly, companies use the Ustream service, which is free to users, and I’m sure there are many options. Benefits? Your conference is now viewable and ’shareable’ globally. You’ll be able to save and reuse the content as you need, a powerful way to get content for your website for the entire year. Worried about people not attending? Face to face networking is still of utmost importance, and many wouldn’t trade that for virtual attendance–my view is that your attendance will remain the same. Indeed, I’ve heard that views of live streamed conferences can be 5-10 times the IRL attendance. Think that will help you to attract sponsors and speakers? Definitely!

Flip cams in the exhibit hall. Know how easy it would be to give some scientists flip cams, and task them to upload videos to your YouTube channel? Dead easy. Exhibitors, attendees, those not attending will love it, as one of the most important parts of a conference is the ‘buzz’ on the exhibit hall floor. Also, I’ve found that blogging a conference is hard work–videos of those who want to spread the word about their products are easy and speak volumes. Think of it as those disposable cameras they distribute at weddings (but be sure to get the proper clearance before distributing videos).

Open, open, open. Conferences run the gamut from very academic (e.g., ASCB, AACR), to those run as a business (e.g., Cambridge Healthtech Institute). Regardless of a conference’s position on this spectrum, benefits can be made from choosing to open up access rather than restricting it. Academic conferences have at their heart goals to further scientific progress–what better way than to encourage dissemination of information? Those worrying about being ’scooped’ are naive and should realize that unethical behavior, be it word of mouth or information shared online, is a possibility at any conference, and the latter is more easily tracked and punishable. Conferences run as businesses can also benefit from opening up access. There are myriad benefits to speakers and sponsors from providing more access. Smaller fees can be imposed for ‘virtual’ attendance, and likely with a very minimal expense for software and broadcasting.

In conclusion, with every decision you make about your conference, choose the more ‘open’ option. One upcoming conference is restricting all media from their plenary talks. My prediction? It will completely backfire, as nothing motivates a twitterer, etc., more than a restriction, and there will be a large amount of negative attention that will result. Controlling access to information is no longer a business model, but the good news is that there is plenty of progress for life science conferences, and money, to be made with the new model. Try opening up your next conference–what do you have to lose?

To share this post easily, cut and paste An Open Letter to Life Science Conference Organizers http://bit.ly/ajyEzH

We had a great kickoff to our Social Media For Life Science and Biotechnology Workshops, with 11 local marketers attending this Tuesday (see photos, and more details). We had a great discussion with the group and we’re ready to ‘go virtual’ with the same workshop as an interactive webinar. Learn about our proprietary STIR Social Media™ system designed to attract life scientists and lead to a favorable return on investment (ROI) for your social media campaigns.

We think the content is perfect for web delivery via GoToMeeting, as we’ll give web examples that you can easily access during the workshop, and you’ll be able to ask questions as well. For this interactive webinar, we’re also offering the option for you to allow up to 4 people to attend for a special rate (see below). You’ll receive printed copies of the presentation before the event for all attendees, as well as a free follow up consultation.

In this 4 hour hands-on workshop we’ll answer these questions, giving real examples and materials to help you jump start social media campaigns for your company:

• Which applications and themes work with scientists or biotech professionals?
• How do I integrate social media with existing marketing strategies and tactics?
• What is the return on investment (ROI) for social media, and how do I maximize it?
• How do I get buy-in from the management and motivate my team to participate?

Who Should Attend: Business Development and Marketing professionals who provide products or services in a non-regulated environment and are interested in using social media to increase sales, leads, or visibility. Examples: companies who sell research-only products or services to scientists or small to mid-size biotechnology companies that need more visibility. Contact us if you have questions.

As a Participant You Will Receive:

1. Printed workshop materials
2. A highly interactive presentation session from Mary Canady, customized to your needs and using real examples from life science and biotechnology
3. Worksheets designed to help you get social media launched at your company
4. Hands-on, online training and feedback from Comprendia during the session
5. Free follow-on session with Comprendia
   1. Review of workshop ‘homework’
   2. Guidance for next steps

Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshop, Part 1: Get Started With Industry-Specific Strategies and Tools
Date: Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Time: 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Pacific Time
Location: GoToMeeting Webinar, check computer requirements. You can phone in for audio if you don’t have a microphone.
Cost: Individual: $350, Groups of 2-4: $700 (for larger groups we suggest you schedule a customized training, contact us for more information)
Registration ends: April 15th
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This is the third post in our Life Science Marketing Plan series, where we will describe the second half of the components. In the last post, we described the first half of the components, which are the Executive Summary, Situational Analysis, Sales History and Forecast, and Market Research. While this sounds like a weighty list already, it represents only the first half. Here, we describe the second half of the components, which will round out your plan and give you the perspective you need to define your life science marketing strategy and tactics.

Competitive Analysis. This is my favorite part of the marketing plan, finding out what the competition is up to! You likely have some ideas, as you should be following them all year, but this is a good time to take a hard look at them. You likely know who your competitors are, but keep an open mind and ear during your market research, do some internet research to see if any newcomers have emerged, and talk to others in your company, especially those who are customer-facing such as sales or customer service. As with other areas we’ve discussed, this exercise can be simple or elaborate, and the amount of complexity normally scales with the size of your company. Regardless of the scale, I always include a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to put the competition in perspective. Basically, this involves an analysis of the situation from both internal (Strengths and Weaknesses) and external (Opportunities and Threats) perspectives. In addition, it is also useful to make a table which lists each of your competitors in rows, with two columns for each indicating their products’ strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of this table is to determine what advantage your products have compared to your competition, if any. As with the rest of the marketing plan, which we describe as a journey, this part can be a bit of a soul searching exercise, as you may find that your products are poorly positioned. Better to find this out now and to develop an action plan involving focusing more time on product development, rather than miss your competitive edge and miss revenue targets.

Strategy. At this point in your ‘journey,’ you’ll have learned a lot about your customers, the competitive landscape, and the challenges you face in reaching your goals. It is here that you need to define your position and messaging, as these items will guide the strategy you will employ. Your position is a description of the unique benefit that your products provide, and the messaging is how you communicate it. For example, your position may be to provide ‘the fastest protein chromatography method for membrane proteins.’ This statement must be based on reality, not just hopes and dreams, as it will be apparent to everyone, most notably the customer, if you are not being honest with yourself. As you know, being market driven means identifying these issues and bringing them to everyone’s attention sooner rather than later, so that products that are positioned well can be developed. In this case, your strategy will involve more time in product development rather than advertising. If your positioning is on target, your messaging will focus on the benefits that your product’s positioning will provide to your customers, and will speak to what you know is important to them, or their ‘pain.’ Because you’ve spent time getting to know your customers in the market research area, you’ll know this. Following the example earlier, your messaging could focus on the benefits of publishing faster. You’ll also want to include a broad overview of your tactical plan in this section, backed by your strategy. For example, if your overall strategy is to reach out to more protein purification researchers through the internet, then your tactical plan will be focused on improving your website and online advertising.

Tactical Plan. This is where you outline your advertising activities by date and predicted expense. An excel spreadsheet works well, with months as columns and tactics as rows. Include advertisements, conferences, and note when product launches or other major events will occur. Of course, coinciding product launches with conferences and relevant articles in editorial calendars will help you to maximize your resources, as is a marketing mix which will expose customers to your message multiple times in a short period of time. In order to estimate the expenses, you’ll want to start at least a month before contacting media account managers to get their media kits and perhaps hear from them as to what’s new with their publication (see our 2010 planning guide for help). Your tactical plan is very important, as it will determine many of your deadlines throughout the year, so consider it very carefully.

A well written marketing plan serves many purposes, from giving you the necessary perspective on your products to communicating your strategy to others in your company. In the last post of this series, we’ll talk more about the big picture for the life science marketing plan, implementing it as well as changes you’ll need to plan for today’s new media. Check out the whole series here and sign up for updates so you don’t miss anything!

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