Comprendia’s mission is to improve communication in the life science industry, and a big part of this is opening up more of a dialog between companies and researchers. We think social media is a perfect venue for discussions, and are co-founding a biweekly life science chat on Twitter. Life scientists and company representatives can openly discuss issues important for advancing research through a better understanding of the challenges faced by each.

Many life science companies have a presence on Twitter, but we see them mostly as being in broadcast mode, simply tweeting about products and promotions and not engaging with scientists. We were approached by one life scientist on twitter who wanted us to connect them with a company as their efforts to engage with them regarding a large equipment purchase had not been fruitful. With an email, we were able to connect them, but the process would have been much easier if the company had been available and responsive on Twitter.

Life scientists have questions directly relating to existing products as well as ideas for new ones. Companies want to hear this information and ask questions about their performance and perception. A Twitter chat will bring the two sides together in an informal and trackable way, accepting discussion topics from all interested. We can also use the chat to help life scientists through the personal challenges many face during their PhD or postdoc, as most of us on the company side have been through similar struggles.

Angela Alexander (@thecancergeek) is one of our favorite life scientists. She’s a postdoc at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, and she had the idea for the chat while we were talking on Twitter about our recent post about life science hashtags. This underlines another benefit to interacting with life scientists–they’re brilliant and creative! She is our co-founder and we’ll both be moderating the chats. She’s already thought of many discussion topics already.

The chat will take place alternating Wednesdays at 4 p.m. PT beginning September 14th, using the hashtag #ls_chat and led by the @ls_chat Twitter account. Following the lead of Andrew Spong’s fantastic post on how to start a tweet chat, we’ve also started a life science chat wiki. To participate, visit the wiki and sign the guestbook and submit and/or vote on discussion topics. Check out the calendar, then log into Twitter at the designated time, follow @ls_chat and the #ls_chat hashtag (a search column in Tweetdeck or Hootsuite works well) and join the discussion. We’ll provide summaries of the discussions afterward. Also, like our Facebook page for announcements and summaries. As always, contact us if you have a question or suggestion, and you can email the ls_chat team directly too.

To share this post easily cut and paste: Introducing The Life Science Twitter Chat: Improving Communication Between Researchers and Companies http://bit.ly/qtEap6

Hashtags are text strings prefixed with a ‘#’ character which are used mostly on Twitter to tag status updates as belonging to an event or discussion. Life scientist Twitter usage varies widely between disciplines, and we can understand why and glean useful information about trends and influencers by analyzing Twitter conversations using the hashtags as a search query. For this post we’ll use the associated Life Science Hashtags Google spreadsheet and our social media monitoring tools to describe and document the different types of life science hashtags. Our goal is to help the community better communicate through increased understanding and standardization of life science hashtags.

Conferences are the most straightforward utilization of hashtags, the organizers are (normally) the arbiters of the correct identifier for tweets (Twitter status updates) from the event. The conference hashtag is normally listed on the conference website, or you can look for them being used in the designated Twitter account (listed on the Google doc, and for a shortcut follow our life science conference Twitter list). You can see on the spreadsheet we’ve done analyses of the tweets that came from some of the recent conferences, the number of updates varies from hundreds to thousands for each event. Using our social media monitoring tools, we calculated the percentage of attendees tweeting and the results can be seen in the chart below.

You can see that the percentage is between 2-16%, and that as expected, the computer savvy life scientists at ISMB (annual meeting of the International Society for Computational Biology) have the highest percentage. We intended to include the numbers for the Science Foo Camp (#scifoo) held recently in San Francisco, but they were such outliers that they would have dwarfed the others, with “405%” of the attendees tweeting. Clearly this is indicative of both the tech savviness and influence of the #scifoo attendees and fans, and it also points out that those who don’t attend conferences often also tweet about it. Unfortunately few tweets are geotagged, so it is difficult for us to ascertain who is actually in attendance at the conference, and the numbers are just meant as a guide.

Life science companies should note that different groups of researchers will have different propensities for certain social media applications. So the statement that scientists don’t use Twitter isn’t entirely true, and we find that many life scientists are in ‘listening mode,’ watching conversations held there. Additionally, the life scientists that are tweeting are becoming strong influencers for many reasons, including the fact that Twitter affects search engine results. Moreover, life scientists who engage in social media indicate that Twitter is the best place to get scientific information. We looked at a few more metrics for the conferences we analyzed, you can see them in the spreadsheet, and feel free to help by adding more data.

Participation in conference tweeting can also be affected by the way that the organizers are ‘friendly’ towards social media, we’ve encouraged them to create an environment amenable to interaction. Do they publish the hashtag clearly on their website? There was confusion at #isscr as to which hashtag to use, which makes both tweeting and tracking difficult, an ‘activation energy barrier’ to participation, if you will. ASM is very involved in social media and helped to encourage attendees to tweet, perhaps causing the percentage of Twitterers there to be higher than with the ASV meeting (microbiologists=virologists, right?).

Life scientists also use hashtags to organize topics and to inspire each other. For example, #madwriting was started by @nparmalee to encourage time for researchers to leave the bench and computer and concentrate on writing, presumably publications and theses. This hashtag is used about 350 times a month and helps scientists to unite over a common task. #scicomm and #scienceblogging document tweets about science communication and blogging, respectively, and were started by science online superstar @BoraZ. The hashtag #greenfieldism was started by @carlzimmer in response to a statement made by Susan Greenfield that use of the the internet leads to autism. This ‘meme,’ or a theme copied and disseminated broadly on the internet, resulted in 1400 tweets, as scientists joked about ridiculous causes for everything from earthquakes to global warming. We see that scientists have a great sense of humor as they interact on Twitter, and have started hashtags such as #drunksci in which they talk about doing science inebriated (hopefully joking, of course that isn’t safe!).

In general, hashtags are also used for chats on Twitter, in which the leader usually designates a set time (normally weekly) for whoever wants to join an active conversation on a topic. We don’t see this as much with the life scientists, and believe a big opportunity exists for further engagement by choosing hashtags to discuss topics important to researchers. Currently we see many life science companies in ‘broadcast’ mode (see our Twitter list), they tend to sprinkle hashtags into their updates to get more exposure, but no concerted effort has been made to standardize them and use them to engage researchers. For example, what is the standard hashtag for stem cells, #stemcell or #stemcells? Which should be chosen to avoid ‘contamination’ with unrelated tweets? The very general hashtags #lifescience and #biotech are used about 800 and 3000 times per month, respectively, with the latter containing more ‘noise’ from non-life scientists (e.g., investors, GMO opponents, etc.).

We will continue to collect and analyze life science tweets and other social media data so we can provide guidance, and we invite you to add terms in the ‘topic’ or ‘chat’ category to the Life Science Hashtags spreadsheet. Starting a chat is a fantastic way to get engagement, why not start one so you can become a channel of information? You’ll also glean information once standardized hashtags are in place, as can be seen with our Social Media Compass™ report on the ASM 2011 conference which was created using the #asm2011 hashtag. We are actively monitoring tweets from all items in the Life Science Hashtags document, feel free to reach out to us with terms you’d like us to track or to discuss a Social Media Compass report. Another great way to get started is to follow relevant hashtags (use a search column) in a Twitter application such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, and use them in updates where appropriate to get more exposure.

Which topics would you like to see discussed on Twitter?

Special thanks to Angela Alexander (@thecancergeek) and Jonathan Gross of BioData for lots of help in generating and maintaining the Life Science Hashtags document.

To share this post, cut and paste: Hashtags: Helping Life Scientists Communicate with Social Media http://bit.ly/qMOBL8

Each day, life scientists share their thoughts on conferences, research tools, and brands on social media. While adoption may be slow on any individual application, most researchers will use the internet to discuss and search for information regarding a topic or event. In addition, the discussions become more important as search engines such as Google rely on this ‘social data’ for content and rankings. We’re doing a ‘soft launch’ of our Social Media Compass™ reports, which provide expert summaries of the content and digital influencers important in understanding life science events and topics. Visit the link above to learn more, and look at the example ASM 2011 Social Media Compass (PDF). Our soft launch allows you to get in on the ground floor and tell us what you’re interested in monitoring, fill out the form on the product page and we’ll get started tracking events, topics, or brands.

A quick post regarding the hashtags and terms people are using to describe Google+, the new social network. We had problems deciding what to call the application in our recent post and decided to do an analysis, as we know that using the proper hashtag or term means more exposure. Using our social media monitoring tools, we did a ‘quick and dirty’ count of both the hashtags (terms prefixed with a “#”, used mostly on Twitter) and the terms used to describe the application. The charts are below, and you can see that #google+ and #googleplus are most popular hashtags, and Google+ and g+ are the terms used most often. Notice also that the volume for the terms is up to 40X that for the corresponding hashtag, and with the latter considered to be used for tips and by those who are more “serious” about a topic.

Our suggestion? Stick with Google+ and #google+ but remember that the “+” is a special character and may be ‘lost in translation’ in cases such as RSS feeds, tags, etc. (e.g., notice that the “+”‘s have been removed from the permalink/URL when WordPress generated it from the title, and I am unable to create tags for this post including a “+”). Ironically, the Google search engine doesn’t seem to recognize the “+” in Google+! Try searching for “google+ life science” and note that your search is modified, with the results representing removal of the “+” (using “google+” fixes this, but how many users will go to this trouble?). Note also that the #googleplus hashtag fairs more highly than #g+ although it is much longer, while the reverse is true with the terms. To me, this signifies that the tech savvy realize the problems when special characters are used. Each image below links to the data summary, representing a 1 day Twitter search using Comprendia’s social media monitoring tools.

To share this post easily cut and paste: What’s the Hashtag for Google+? #google+ #googleplus #gplus #g+ ? http://bit.ly/omY07c

I’ll admit I was skeptical of Google+, the new social network from the search engine giant, because I knew Google had given up their previous attempts with their products Wave and Buzz, which were in a similar vein. However, it soon became apparent that Google+ was different in many ways, from the offerings to the way everyone was talking about it. What promise does it hold for life science? I think that there are many features of Google+ which researchers and companies will find useful, and that it may become very popular. Here are the reasons:

1. Threaded discussions. Social media savvy life scientists really like Friendfeed, which allows for users to comment on posted items in targeted groups, resulting in relevant discussions which can be followed by all in the group. Currently, this is difficult with applications like Twitter. Friendfeed was bought by Facebook 2 years ago, and ever since then, the community has been worried about changes or the disappearance of the application. While Facebook has threaded discussion features, some life scientists dislike aspects of it and have eschewed it for various reasons, some of which are described below. The fact that Google+ has threaded conversations is big for life scientists, as they’ve used specialized mailing lists for decades and forums for years, both which offer this feature.
2. It’s not your grandmother’s social media. I think Google+ was designed for the slightly more technical crowd–to me it seems Google built it based on what their employees would want. Users arrange contacts into ‘circles’ and share items with the circles. However, contacts don’t see the items unless they in turn add the user to their circle. It’s a bit like following on Twitter, with an added filter that each user chooses what to share with whom. It’s a bit more complicated than the ‘binary’ friending in Facebook–you’re either friends with someone or not. I think this concept may be beyond what many Facebook users will want to think about and manage, something that Robert Scoble outlined in a recent post. Now, while we’ve seen several groups of life scientists who aren’t eager to put precious brain power into figuring out social media, we think that the potential value of individuals and organizations sharing targeted information, which they can filter accordingly, could very well lure them to Google+.
3. It’s in the cloud, stupid. I didn’t fully realize it at first, but this presentation pointed out to me the very broad implications of Google+ for web users. Google is likely aiming to move users “into the cloud,” in other words, towards using the company’s applications as a centralized resource for online and computer activities. Think about everything that Google owns: web search, email, documents, locations, calendars etc. Having a social network with easy access to just document sharing is HUGE for life scientists, think of the opportunities to facilitate collaboration! To begin with, Google spreadsheets listing scientists and communicators on Google+ have been circulating. Currently, sharing is not super easy, but you can imagine that Google is planning ahead, starting with a black taskbar that now appears at the top of your browser when you’re logged into any Google product (and a red message notification lures you back into Google+ when you have a message).
4. Hangouts are cool. A useful feature of Google+ is what they’ve termed a ‘hangout’ where you can videoconference with up to 15 people at once. Of course, most of us have used Skype, Google Chat, and screen sharing applications like GoToMeeting (which we at Comprendia love) to facilitate our work communication. Google+ takes this to the next level by making it easy to have multiple people on a video call, check out this recorded health care hangout. We held a hangout this week to discuss uses for Google+ for life scientists and companies to communicate, and some great suggestions came up, including technical support (“show me your gel and tell me what you did”), journal clubs, and focus groups. Making informal discussions more available opens up channels between life scientists and companies. We plan to hold periodic hangouts to discuss the topic and invite life scientists and companies to join, add us on Google+ to be notified.
5. The buzz. As I mentioned, I was skeptical at first, but quickly found that people were talking about Google+ and joining at an incredibly fast rate. I have added many life scientists to my circles and have already started to get to know them better than I could on Twitter or Facebook, since real names are required and photos are easy to access. The fact that we are already using so many Google products means that it has a great chance of succeeding. The name, Google+, ties into another ‘sticky’ aspect of the application for users and businesses alike–users can now “+1″ items on the web (like this blog post, see above) and thus suggest it to colleagues (similar to a Facebook “like”). If you’ve got your business hat on, this is HUGE for tracking your customers’ interests. Google+ is using many of the ideas that made Facebook and Twitter popular, but their pervasive presence and their stellar reputation bode well for their success. I’ve heard several life scientists complain about two of Facebook’s opposing issues: lack of privacy for individuals and inaccessibility of information outside of the application. It seems they can’t win! For now Google seems to have struck a balance that works.

As a business, how should you plan? Currently, Google+ is not accepting business accounts, but you can get a feeling for what it might look like here. It’s exciting (for me) to think about the possibilities of integration with Google Analytics. As with other forms of social media, one of the best ways to get involved is to set up a personal account and test it out. Currently, in my personal account, I have circles for Comprendia and the San Diego Biotechnology Network, and am treating each of these as ‘temporary’ business pages, you may want to do the same. Add people to your circles now, provide good content and hopefully they’ll add you, and you can announce your business page when it launches. Contact us if you’d like an invitation, and as always we’ll share our experiences and advice here, and will include the latest information in our training and workshops.

How do you think Google+ could be used to improve communication between life scientists and the companies that serve them?

To share this post cut and paste: 5 Reasons Why Google+ Could Be a Game Changer for Life Science #googleplus http://bit.ly/ls_gplus

You may have seen our announcement a few months ago here about the web 2.0 application we built with New England Biolabs (NEB). We formally announced it with them today, check out the press release for more information and contact us with any questions. NEB is a fantastic company to work with and we are getting great traction on EpiExperts, please check it out and let us know what you think!

Comprendia was founded in June of 2008, and we’ve had three great years. We’d like to thank our clients and supporters with what we think will be a fun way to give out 50 $15 prizes. We’re also giving an extra $50 to the person who refers the most people to the survey, so you can win up to $65!

Here’s how you can win. We created an uber short survey for both life scientists and those who provide products to them. We’re going to challenge you a little and learn about what you like. There are two ways you can find the survey:

1. Scan the QR code in this blog post, it will link directly to the survey. QR codes appear to be all the rage in marketing these days, but we’re not sure how many of you will go to the trouble to scan. To find a scanner, check out your phone’s app store. Once you start looking for QR codes, you’ll see them everywhere, and you’ll have the app to start scanning.
2. Check in to the Comprendia 3rd Anniversary Jubilee event on Foursquare and the link can be found in the ‘Tips’ (if you live in San Diego, you should be able to find on your phone).

Comprendia branded Moleskine notebooks are one of the prizes we’ll give to the first 50 people who qualify for and finish the survey (the large ruled, click on the image above to see detail). We think they are pretty spiffy, if you’ve never used a Moleskine before, I highly suggest them. They are very high quality and actually ‘make’ you want to write! If you aren’t into writing, we’re also offering $15 Amazon.com gift cards for participants.

We’ll keep track of how many from the scientist and company side take the survey and how they got to the link. Check back at comprendia.com/jubilee to see who’s on top! It will be interesting to see if participants find either option easier, and if there is a difference between the two groups.

Remember that you can win an extra $50–share this post, your Foursquare check in, or put the QR code on your blog and ask people to say they heard it from you. Good luck!

Table last updated: 7/5/2011

Current top referrer: Angela Alexander aka @flutesud

We’ll use the information we collect to help companies serve life scientists better, contact us if you’re interested in hearing about the results.

To share this post easily, cut and paste: Comprendia’s Third Anniversary Jubilee, Win Up To $65! http://comprendia.com/jubilee

Want more tips? Attend our Google Tools Workshop Webinar.

To share this post easily cut and paste: Video Bytes 6.24.11: Monitor Life Science Topics on the Web In Real Time Using Google Alerts http://bit.ly/kIqfXr

We’ve announced our Google Tools workshop webinar July 7th, and Workshop 2 is now available as a recording. Check out our workshops and training page for other offerings.

Comprendia’s analysis of the top life science company Twitter accounts was recognized by Affymetrix in this press release. We congratulate them on their success with social media and hope that our analyses and expertise will continue to facilitate increased communication between biotech companies and the researchers they serve. As part of Comprendia’s 3rd anniversary celebrations this month, we will be announcing more products, services, and awards shortly towards our goal of encouraging increased transparency and collaboration the life sciences.
To share this post easily cut and paste: Comprendia Life Science Social Media Report Recognized by Affymetrix http://bit.ly/kCeaIi