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.

Seth Godin is a true thought leader in social media–he understood it years or maybe even a decade before many. Three of his books have literally changed the way I think about marketing and even the course of progress in many areas. Here is a short review of the books, and they’re all good and short reads, I suggest you pick them all up (each is linked to its Amazon page, and I swear I’m getting no kickbacks!).

Permission Marketing. This book was published in 1999 and truly shows that Godin was ahead of the curve, defining new media marketing strategies and tactics before the term ‘social media’ was even recognized. I call this the ‘newsletter book’ because it espouses getting permission to market to customers and uses newsletters as a prime example. In short, create marketing materials such as newsletters which provide value to your customers outside of your products, and they will give you permission to market to them. Need an example from life science? We worked with San Diego-based specialty chemicals and services provider BioBlocks to help them create a newsletter featuring the research behind their products–see an example here. As a result, they’ve increased their reach and actually gotten many compliments on their newsletter, no doubt improving the BioBlocks brand perception. In this book, Seth introduced us to the concept and benefits of engaging our customers rather than broadcasting to them using traditional marketing strategies such as print advertisements.

Meatball Sundae. In this book published in 2007, Godin expertly continues along the path he began with Permission Marketing and explains the new media world to us. He begins with the description of the impact of mass media in the 50′s and 60′s, where television allowed marketers for the first time to reach a broad audience quickly with messages about their product. He contrasts that with media today, where consumers have so many choices–for example, it is no longer a big ‘coup’ to get an article in Time Magazine, as it reaches a much smaller demographic. He points out the many media choices consumers have these days (e.g., cable, internet, youtube, blogs), and the dearth of time and attention they have. Concomitant with this is the continuing loss of the impact of entities which he calls ‘gatekeepers,’ which control the information the public receives (e.g., the editor at Time Magazine). With less control of information flow, there is a more level playing field for companies and individuals who want to get the word out via their own website, blog, YouTube channel, etc. The book describes how to succeed in this ‘new media world,’ and gives plenty of examples. If you have time only to read one of the three books in this post, choose this one. Relevance for biotech and life science? Small companies such as our client Assay Depot can reach more through tools such as blogs. The drug discovery 2.0 blog we developed with them is now the second result in Google searches for ‘drug discovery blog.’

Tribes. This 2008 book is what I consider to be the last piece of Godin’s social media trifecta, a natural progression from the two earlier books. In it, he describes the consequences of shifting media on a personal level–the full title of the book is ‘Tribes. We Need You to Lead Us.’ He describes that the internet has provided unlimited ways for groups of people to connect and affect change. No longer constrained by gatekeepers, a passionate leader can start a movement, finding others who share interests and who often have a natural affinity for the tribe they create together. He gives Barack Obama’s campaign as an example, where supporters were connected and engaged to help him win the presidential election in 2008. Can companies start tribes? Sure they can, look at Apple. Even before the internet, they created a group of loyal fans centered around their products. If you doubt that they are true fanatics, check out the movie MacHeads on Hulu. Tie in to life science companies? Many brands have special meaning to their customers, and they can be considered fans of them. The assurance of a cabinet stocked with Sigma chemicals. The trust placed in their antibody provider for reagents that will work the first time. The pervasive blue Qiagen boxes that appear in almost every shot of a lab shown on TV. As we’ve pointed out with our list of life science companies using social media, they’ve got a long way to go, but they also have a solid foundation to build upon. We think the possibilities for forming life science and biotech tribes is enormous, and have had much luck with the San Diego Biotechnology Network.

Still skeptical, or don’t feel like you have time to read these books? We’d love to give you a social media primer, and we’ll also include an analysis of your company–sign up for a free consultation. We strive to be the ‘tribe leaders’ of social media for biotech and life sciences, we certainly meet the ‘passionate’ qualification and would love to speak with you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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If you’ve been following along with the Biotechnology Marketing 101 blog series, you know that we provide guidance for life science and biotech companies to start and grow. We’re taking this from virtual to IRL (in real life ;) at our October 29th Bootstrapping Biotech event with the San Diego Biotechnology Network. We’ve lined up some excellent speakers who will cover everything from getting funded to strategic and tactical marketing and social media for your company or products. We’ve had a lot of interest so far, even outside of San Diego, and really think that a lot of great, synergistic connections will be made at the event. Even if you don’t work at a small company, we think you’ll be able to learn and meet those who can help you make the most out of your marketing budget. As always, we’re open to feedback as to what you’d like to see–leave a comment here or on the SDBN site.

While vacationing, visiting family in coastal New Jersey (nicer than it sounds), I spent some time on the beach. A plane with a trailing banner flew by, advertising a product I still don’t remember. Ever the marketer, and never being the type who likes to zone out for hours on the beach, I started to think about this flavor of ‘broadcast’ advertising.

The problems are multi-fold: 1. I didn’t have any clue what the product was 2. I had no idea how to follow up to learn more 3. Even if I did have a ‘burning desire’ to find out, I certainly forgot the name of the product by the time I got to the internet (ignore the fact that I had my blackberry and could have looked it up).

What’s interesting is that this company probably paid $1-3K for this promotion (maybe more, as I learned that flying a plane with a banner is quite an art). What did they get in return? I’m sure they don’t even know–hard to determine a return on investment (ROI) on a media has no way of tracking. Instead, I think they should have hired college students to visit 4-5 beaches, and hand out free samples and chat the beachgoers up. Now THAT I would have remembered, and they also would have gotten feedback on peoples’ reactions to the product.

Relevance to life sciences? If you’re like me, you ‘cut your teeth’ on this type of ‘broadcast’ advertising, mostly print Ads (although it would be cool to rent a plane). Even some online banner Ads and e-mail blasts can be forms of broadcast advertising (banner blindness is a well-known phenomenon where users learn to ignore such information). You got used to putting your message ‘out there’ without expecting many metrics and feedback. Now, however, there are myriad ways to promote your products in an engaging manner AND to get metrics that can be used to determine ROI and the next tactical (or even strategic) steps.

Examples? Set up Google Adwords, targeting those who are looking for your product, and learn what people are searching for. Start a blog or forum on your website, forming an interactive community that cares about your products and tells you want their needs are. Make sure your newsletter is about customer needs, and not just a listing of your products. These are just some ideas–by being resourceful, and ruthless about ROI, you’ll surely come up with more.

Should you abandon broadcast advertising? No, it has a place in your tactical marketing plan, reinforcing your brand. But, it is easy to fall into the ‘same old, same old’ and to rely on it too heavily. Contact us for a free consultation to learn how to get started engaging more and broadcasting less.

By now you likely know that I am a big fan of Seth Godin. Seth started talking about the principles of ‘Permission Marketing‘ ten years ago, before the rest of us caught on, and he continues to lead and give us great food for thought. In his book Meatball Sundae, he describes the current marketplace as one where large organizations, or ‘gatekeepers,’ no longer control what we see and do. For example, the ‘big three’ US TV networks can no longer dictate what we watch every night–there are myriad choices on cable TV and the internet. To stand out, your product needs to be remarkable in order to be noticed and remembered in this marketplace.

To me, a good analogy is that great burger that you’re thinking about right now. You remember it because the restaurant took the necessary steps to make it taste better than the average burger, to make it remarkable (your mouth is watering right now, isn’t it?). Perhaps they even took a risk to make you remember it–there’s a local joint that serves a burger with peanut butter and bacon, and it is good and certainly memorable (from what I remember, I’m a vegetarian now ;).

Don’t get me wrong, restaurants and other companies have always tried to make great products that are differentiated. Now, however, it’s not as easy for the bigger companies to retain customers with the same old, same old, simply relying on distribution channels and branding to succeed. In addition, this means that smaller companies can now have a greater reach by using new tools and having remarkable products.

How is this relevant to biotech and the life sciences? I’ve seen a few larger life sciences companies rely on the fact that they have the resources and the distribution channels to reach customers. Why be remarkable? However, even 5 years ago, these companies started to see the effect of the smaller, internet-savvy companies, who could sell research tools directly to scientific customers, eating into their market share.

How have the big life science companies responded? As with other industries, mergers and acquisitions appear to be the current focus, and I have not heard much buzz about a particular product or technology lately (feel free to prove me wrong by leaving a comment below). However, in the biotech/life sciences news category, there is something remarkable: new entrant Xconomy, who consistently provide insightful news focused on the biotech/tech clusters.

To compete in this new marketplace, I would challenge you to consistently ask this single question throughout product development: Is It Remarkable? What qualities does the product have that will make customers remember it and even talk to their colleagues about it? Does it save them loads of time? Give them clearer results? Give them information they couldn’t access before? All are ways to be remarkable in the life sciences.

Of course, as with anything else that will yield great results, it takes more time and creativity, but you’ll find that a remarkable product pays you back many times over, as it becomes something that your company is known, sought out, and remembered for. I was recently at a talk in which the introduction of Topo cloning products, which were truly remarkable, was presented as a major milestone for Invitrogen/Life Technologies, even though this happened more than 10 years ago. For life science companies, being remarkable often requires acquiring unique technologies from small companies or universities, and with the slow economy, the time may be right to get some gems.

Need help determining whether your products are remarkable? With years of life science experience, we can help you determine that, and help you to acquire the new technologies you need to create and position your products in this new, more competitive landscape. Sign up for a free consultation, and start being remarkable!

A friend told me she saw a story on NPR about gaps in coverage of events in Afghanistan because so many news organizations are suffering and can’t afford as many reporters in the different regions. Hopefully, this is just a temporary situation, and changes in the media landscape will eventually mean more coverage, but it made me stop and think about news in the biotech and life science industry. With fewer resources, some news organizations have resorted to simply reprinting press releases rather than adding value by selecting truly newsworthy releases, and/or editorializing to put the information in a broader context. I have watched this firsthand as the San Diego Union Tribune’s biotechnology section has changed significantly over the last year, as changes in personnel have taken place.

The result? A sea of press releases, each told from the company’s perspective, touting their company or new product as the best thing since sliced bread. Who will listen or care? Fewer than you think, as we all are confronted with much too much information these days. Anyone can send a press release these days, and that means that everyone does. Comprendia monitors the web and social media activity for the major life science brands, and has found that these verbatim press releases make up a significant amount of the online ‘news’ from these companies.

What is the solution? If you’ve been reading the Biotechnology Marketing 101 Blog, you likely know what’s coming next, as it’s a common theme (some would say it’s our soapbox ;). Today’s environment requires that you build a community that will care about your news or product launch. A newsletter is a great first step, but let me ask you: how much of your newsletter is simply focused on your company and products? This limits your reach substantially. For example, let’s say you sell columns for protein purification, and your newsletter reflects this very narrow field. Your customers will see you in this small area, stifling your opportunities for growth. Think about the potential to grow by creating a general protein purification blog or newsletter, providing tips and resources that are not always directly related to your products (as we’ve discussed earlier). Besides widening your customer base, you’ll get feedback from customers not only about your core products, but also about upstream and downstream applications, allowing you to move into new product areas. Becoming the resource for a more broad area also helps you to be found by search engines, and your readers may even be so zealous that they pass the information on to colleagues.

The community you build will feel as though they are a part of the product development process, and will truly care about your product launches. While this type of marketing appears to take more time and effort, you’ll find that not only does today’s environment require such an approach, but that it is more beneficial for all involved. In effect, the crowd has spoken and, they want and need this type of interaction from you. Need help? We’d be more than happy to help you get started, sign up for a free consultation.

We’ve talked a lot about customer-facing marketing in the Biotechnology Marketing 101 Blog. As we’ve discussed, it is vital these days to understand who your customer is so that you can build a relationship with them, rather than relying on the old-school methods of broadcast marketing. This relationship will benefit more than just your bottom line–you’ll find that you will get much more feedback from customers who you engage.

The first step to building a relationship with your customer, so that you can meet their needs, is to truly understand who they are and what their daily challenges are. One way is to create a customer ‘persona’ which describes the age range, occupation, education level, and other qualities important for ‘putting yourself in their shoes’ to understand their needs. In addition, most social media strategies should start from the customers’ perspective, so it’s a good way to get started. You may also find that after you start, you’ll realize that more than one persona is needed.

We’ve created a template (.PPT file) to help you define your customer personas. The template will guide you through the process of defining each of your customer types, from their demographics to their daily challenges, including how your products fit. An important part of making the personas ‘come to life’ and easily referred to is assigning each a name such as ‘Suzy Scientist.’ In addition, a picture can be used (sites like this can help).

A fun and useful way to get everyone involved in thinking about your customers is to create custom avatars, or computer-generated graphical representations of them. Yahoo has probably the most relevant avatars, with the most scientific accessories, but you can also have some fun and create a Simpsons or South Park character (and if you want to go all out, you can even create 3D characters in Second Life and even interact with them ;). Some of the sites will let you print out a PDF, or you can simply create a screen capture and put it in the template we’re providing. I suggest creating the personas and avatars as a group so that you can brainstorm and hash out differences. Feedback from departments outside of marketing, such as customer service and sales, is also useful, and you can also conduct or refer to market research that you or others have done.

How can a persona/avatar be used? Everywhere from product development to marketing tactics. While developing products, the persona will help R&D to remember customer needs when developing products–how will Suzy Scientist use the product and will it meet her needs? Market drivers may also be gleaned during the process as you begin to look at the different groups represented. Also, tactics may change based on your results. For example, if most of your customers are younger, perhaps they are not relying at all on the tried and true print journals, using online sources instead. Also, the personas can help define the messaging of marketing materials by making sure they speak to the challenges or ‘pain’ and how your products will help. The whole organization can benefit and feel involved in the process when can talk in the ‘same language’ about the customers’ personas and think more about their needs.

Need help getting started? We know your customers both personally and as a whole and can guide you through the process. Contact us for a free consultation.

Most of the posts here are related to science or biotechnology in some way. We’ll take a bit of a detour here to discuss how songs can be used to understand social media. For someone like me, who thinks about it a lot, it’s easy to see the similarities. I hope you’ll start to see that ‘everything old is new’ and that social media is a natural progression of our culture, involving many of the same ideals and etiquette we are familiar with. Each song title is linked to a version you can play on blip.fm, enjoy!

1. The End by The Beatles

This song sums up social media (SM) very well–the famous line from it is “And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make.” As we’ve discussed earlier, it’s all about paying it forward. You need to enter into SM with the goal of giving back first. Only then will you begin to see that others will gladly return the favor. Unlike the song, however, sometimes I feel as though I may get back more than I put in, if that’s possible! The Beatles taught us a lot about life and it’s not surprising their songs ring true for SM.

2. With a Little Help from My Friends by the Beatles

SM is all about using the power of the community, also known as crowdsourcing. Have a question? Send it ‘out there’ and you’ll be amazed at how quickly it can be answered. Wondering what your colleagues in a particular area think about a topic? Poll them–places like FriendFeed science groups are a good place to start. You’ll also start to identify experts in certain areas, or ‘channels‘, who will help you to understand the wealth of information we are all trying to sort through these days.

3. Respect by Aretha Franklin

Now that everyone can easily self-publish, how do you know who and what information to trust? It’s all about an author’s ability to garner R-E-S-P-E-C-T. To achieve this, you must consistently provide valuable and credible information to your peers, and be careful not to abuse relationships or be a bad citizen. Sound hard? On the bright side, respect can be contagious–if you receive it from your inner circle, it will be evident to others. Don’t be afraid to put a little flair on your blog to show your standing in the community. People appreciate cues to help them learn who to respect. In the words of Aretha, it’s a way to “find out what it means to me.”

4. What Have You Done for Me Lately by Janet Jackson

This goes along with getting a little help from your friends. Let’s say you have a press release you’d like to promote. Who will help you by using their precious ‘social media capital’ to promote it? Likely the people you most recently have helped promote THEIR news, blog, etc. Social media moves fast, and if you haven’t ‘paid it forward’ to me recently, I’m not as likely to notice you need help. What have you done for me lately? It may sound selfish, but our professional circles are getting larger and it’s easy to forget those who we don’t hear from or about recently. Stay visible and help others–something we covered in our recent ‘Connect, Don’t Collect’ post.

5. Easy by Barenaked Ladies

The more influential a person is in SM, the busier they are maintaining their networks, staying on top of the latest news and tools, etc. Most are more than willing to help out others, in the spirit of SM, but you should realize you’ll get the best results if you make it easy for them. A few months back someone I didn’t know kept messaging me on twitter to ‘link with them on LinkedIn.’ This would have entailed: 1. Looking up the person’s name on twitter 2. Searching for the person on LinkedIn 3. Inviting them to connect. All for someone I don’t know. Long story short, we didn’t connect until they made it easy for me by sending me the invitation which I simply had to click on to accept. Make it easy for people to help you. Use short, ‘friendly’ URLs for your news. Send LinkedIn requests with a short note explaining who you are and why someone should help you.

Now that you’ve seen the parallels between songs and social media, maybe you’ll start seeing them too in other places–tell us where you’ve ‘seen’ them below!