One of the most exciting aspects of our work is developing new ways for our clients to engage their customers. We’ve recently had great success helping our client Emerald BioStructures create a new drug discovery webinar series which has increased their visibility and generated high quality leads. We’d like to share some of the key elements for success we’ve found for life science webinars.

1. Think ‘howto,’ not capabilities. Your company has a lot of know-how that can be shared without exposing proprietary information. Your goal for a webinar series is to position your company as an expert on a topic, and your viewers can either choose to work with you or to DIY the project. Either way, you will have formed a relationship with them as the ‘go to’ company on the topic, and the DIYers might change their minds later. You can start with an existing capabilities presentation, but change it significantly to point out the tips and tricks you used to make projects successful. Think about a presentation that YOU would take time out of your busy day to watch. If you’re having trouble deciding what to cover, look at your web analytics and see what resources are most popular, a tactic we’ve covered earlier.
2. Practice presentation Zen. We’ve all been in life science presentations that are boring, have illegible slides, or go on too long. This simply won’t fly for a webinar, when viewers can easily tune out or leave if the presentation isn’t good. Less is more with regards to slide content, don’t go below font 20 on slides and include only one or two images per slide. Allot 2 minutes for each slide (trust me!), and use the comments section for your personal notes, rather than relying heavily on the text of the slide. Timing is important, we normally do two ‘dress rehearsals’ of webinars beforehand.
3. Use the force. Social media force, that is. Even small companies can get attention for their webinars by building a network on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. and then using it for promotion. It’s a self-serving promotion, which we caution against, but consider that the webinar itself has utility for others, especially if you follow #1 for the theme. Use the SEO (search engine optimization) force too–fill your title with important keywords (the web/Google analytics helps here too). Currently, Emerald’s upcoming webinar is on the first page on Google for the search term ‘GPCR webinar.’
4. Listen before, during, and after. Hopefully you’ve chosen the right topics for your webinar series, and have a good network which has gotten you plenty of signups. When registering, ask what participants would like from the webinar. Solicit questions during the presentation (normally via chat, because microphones will be off for a big group) and answer them at the end. You’ll want someone besides the speaker to do this, as it’s just too much for one person. After the webinar, follow up with questions about how the webinar was perceived–this also gives you an ‘excuse’ to follow up on leads.
5. Record & repurpose. These days many apps allow you to record a webinar directly, and we like GoToWebinar because of this feature (note that it only works on PCs currently, although we saw this recent post for recording GoToMeetings with Macs). You want to get as much mileage out of your webinars as possible, for example sending potential clients to recordings to showcase your expertise. Be sure to collect leads via a simple form to watch the recorded webinars, and follow up with them. During your dress rehearsals, practice recording and converting the files for web use so that there won’t be any surprises (and we sometimes set up 2 computers/methods of recording to be safe).
6. Use the apps we’ve found useful. We’ve tried several paid for and free apps for webinars, here are our favorites (note that we are a PC shop–feel free to leave recommendations for Mac programs below):
   • GoToMeeting/Webinar. This software allows you to host a webinar easily and record it. See this detail about converting recordings to be used elsewhere. Note also that GoToWebinar (15+attendees) does not show your full attendee list to the audience, as we’ve seen some do, and GoToMeeting does as well.

   • Camtasia. It took us awhile to buy this video editing application, because we thought the free ones would fit the bill, but we think it’s worth it. You can also use it to record screencasts with or without Powerpoint.
   • Any Video Converter (free), Expression Encoder (free). There is some coding that comes with the GoToMeeting recordings which sometimes causes problems, and running them through one of these programs seems to fix it. Also, @GlennDCitrix is helpful on this matter if you reply to him on Twitter, and here’s another blog post from him for more GoToMeeting recording tips.
   • Audacity (free). If there are problems with your audio that you can’t fix in other software, try this program. Of course, you may be able to obviate this step by purchasing a high quality headset for the webinar presenter. We suggest one that connects to your computer via USB as sometimes we’ve seen delays with those that connect to the audio part.

A life science webinar series will give your company exposure and generate leads. The tools available these days allow companies of any size to produce them. Of course, you’ll need support from management and you’ll likely want R&D staff to present them or be involved. Everyone will benefit from learning how to communicate your company’s offerings clearly and concisely, and the recordings may also help others at your company understand them better.

Our advice? Just do it!

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Here’s a great video from Imperial College in which several life scientists discuss their interest in social media.

Blogs, Twitter, Wikis and other on-line tools from John Conway on Vimeo.

How can life science companies participate? Join us June 9th for our Social Media for Life Science and Biotechnology Workshop 2: The 4 B’s of First Party Applications and find out!

To share this post easily, cut and paste: How Do Life Scientists Use Social Media? http://bit.ly/iZ35ss

Welcome to the first in our series of Video Bytes, Demos and ‘How To’ Resources for Life Science Marketing & Social Media. You may be familiar with our Sound Bytes which are links and tips along the same theme, we’re adding videos to help show you how you learn how to use online applications to better reach your goals. Our first video is about the recent changes to the LinkedIn interface, and how to contact users who are in your groups.

Sign up for Comprendia blog email updates to get our demos and how to videos delivered to your inbox, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

To share this post easily cut and paste: Video Bytes: Demos and ‘How To’ Resources for Life Science Marketing & Social Media 3/27/2011 http://bit.ly/vidbytes0327

Last weekend I attended the ScienceOnline 2011 conference in North Carolina and it was amazing. 250 Bloggers, authors, educators, and journalists, all with a passion for online science, getting together ‘unconference‘ style to discuss the status and the future of communication in this medium. While I had a fantastically fun time, I was there to help understand how to bridge life science companies and bloggers. My interview with Science in the Triangle and the slideshare presentation (with audio) from the session are both below and describe our goals and progress at the conference.

Brian Krueger from LabSpaces and Kristy Meyer from Sigma helped with planning and surveys we did in preparation for our Sunday session, and they led a related session on Saturday (their summaries of the Saturday session are linked to their names). Tricia Kenny from Life Technologies also helped with planning but was unable to attend. We had a small crowd, likely due to the fact that we were opposite a popular session about science blog networks. I was told by several bloggers and blog network managers that they really wanted to come and have a lot of interest in hearing the outcome, so I’m very optimistic about making these partnerships work. Feel free to watch/listen to the presentation and discussion below, and here is my summary:

1. Life science bloggers and companies have little communication outside of the researcher/supplier relationship. This may be due in part to ’1.0′ communications between the two, which invariably are focused on products.
2. Life science companies want to do more social media/web 2.0 advertising and want to control the content. However, it’s likely that they have not sufficiently budgeted staff resources to create the additional content. They are interested in supporting blogs and web 2.0 sites, but it will likely need to be done very carefully from both sides to prevent another PepsiGate (which was fresh in the minds of participants at the conference).
3. Several ideas for companies and bloggers working together were proposed:
   1. Career resources/alternative careers. Companies could help bridge the gap by helping researchers understand what different departments and individuals do at a company. Both C&EN and LabSpaces provide this now, but companies could step in and provide benefits for each. Moreover, hiring young scientists to write content for a corporate blog would also be a great way to introduce them to life science company culture and for the companies to get the content they need. A theme of our session was that if the companies give something back to the scientists, more bridges will be made. If you’ve been following this blog, we think that life science companies have been doing this for years through content-rich resources, and think that the transition to ’2.0′ should be straightforward.
   2. Separate areas. A completely separate section of a blog managed by a company. Life science companies thought that an ‘ask an expert’ forum managed by the company was particularly attractive, with more than 50% indicating they’d be interested. When we talked with one blogger during the session, she was very positive overall with the idea, but was uncomfortable when it seemed as though the company’s materials would be ‘mixed in’ with hers. I attended most of the sessions surrounding science blogging, and a theme was that blogs are different because they’re very personal.
   3. Underwriting. Similar to the support of our local PBS station by Life Technologies, and the business model of Xconomy, companies could show support without affecting the content of the publication. Another idea is to clearly designate posts similar to Xconomy’s ‘Xconomists’ section, which is clearly labeled as an editorial area, and likely self-promotional in some ways.

Another very interesting aspect of the conference is that groups were there that I hadn’t thought about, e.g., authors of ‘science non-fiction’ such as Carl Zimmer. These participants are naturally attracted to the conference as writers, and I’m sure they got a lot out of attending the conference personally. In addition, many of the other attendees are also influencers of their customers, namely scientists, and so the conference was also good for them from a business perspective.

My point? We’re forging new trails here and need to be creative in thinking about these new relationships–think outside the box, as trite as it may sound. It may not be easy, but the companies and blogs that succeed in this new genre will not only benefit by getting started now, but may also gain increased notoriety and positive PR, similar to the attention companies like Comcast and Zappos have achieved by blazing trails in customer service utilizing Twitter. Check out the presentation with full audio from our session below, or skip to the ‘Next Steps’ section at the end if you’re ready to get involved.

Note: We showed some of the results from our survey of life science companies at the session, and will publish the full results soon.

Next Steps. We’re ready to start formalizing discussions between bloggers, companies, and writers. Without further ado, here’s a form you can fill out to get started. If you’re not the form type, drop me a line, or call me, I’m easy to find. As always, feel free to leave your thoughts below on the subject, our session at ScienceOnline was just the beginning!

Let’s get this partnership started! (Patent is pending on that tagline, you know how marketers are ;)

To share this post easily, cut and paste: Can Bloggers and Life Science Companies Form Partnerships? Our Session at ScienceOnline 2011 #scio11 http://bit.ly/scibizblogs

We’re very pleased to announce a strategic partnership with WHITECOAT Strategies, a Washington, DC-based public relations firm specializing in the use of new media and online video for clients with innovative science, are announcing their recently formed strategic partnership. The alliance will bring integrated video, social media, and strategic PR to life science companies for the first time, allowing them to communicate important scientific concepts more effectively. Please see the full release for more information, and we’d love to hear what you think!