Wow two months since the last Sound Bytes! We’ve updated our look from 80’s mix tape to ’00’s iPod, here’s our most recent playlist of links and tips for life science marketing and social media:
- EMD Millipore: How do you like them apples?
This week at our San Diego Biotechnology Network event my good friend and colleague Steve Edenson from EMD Millipore sponsored, and he showed me their brochure for Lead Discovery services, the tagline is ‘at the core of your discovery’ and they’re a nice light green with apples subtly featured. Here’s the twist: it’s apple scented! Perhaps it’s a gimmick, but it makes it memorable and you could even argue that it could help with branding or even send a subliminal message. EMD Millipore also recently announced their new branding (PDF) after Merck KgaA aquired Millipore last July. I’m not sure how the marketing team came up with the apple scent, but it shows creativity–how could you distinguish your marketing materials? I’ve heard great ideas from outside our industry, perhaps ask your printers, vendors or consultants for ideas, or have a brainstorming session on a Friday afternoon with your team. I also like to keep an open mind when visiting other events such as home shows, etc., or even sorting through junk mail.
- Twitter gives developers the bird.
In our Twitter workshop last week (available on demand soon!) we emphasized that you should cautiously rely on the posting and analysis tools outside of Twitter, because they can be here today and gone tomorrow. Instead, you should start talking to your IT team now about creating archiving and analysis tools for Twitter and other social media. Why? Well, we got a good example this week, as Twitter told outside developers to stop making applications which they claim are confusing end users. These ‘confusing’ applications are in many cases more intuitive and useful than the Twitter web and search tools, which is why they are so popular. Big name apps such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck will likely stay, but this move is a harbinger towards more control for them and less functionality for end users, unless Twitter beefs up its development of tools. How does this affect the life science marketer? Twapper Keeper is (or was, depending on when you read this) a fantastic tool to see the content and users centered around an event or keyword, and Twitter is forcing them to shutter their most useful features March 20th. Get your archives while you can, and get those conversations started with your IT group (there is an open source version of Twapper Keeper they may be able to install for you)!
- HootSuite launches more analytics
If you use HootSuite for posting to and managing your Twitter accounts, check out their announcement about now providing more analytics. You can now get more information about your facebook page and Google analytics, and it may help you ‘close the loop’ from social media to sales so that you can measure return on investment (ROI) better. HootSuite is a big competitor for TweetDeck, this may make them ‘owl that’ in the battle for leadership.
- Google tweaks its search engine.
In an announcement in late February, Google announced some changes that should benefit the life science marketer. They’re cracking down on so-called ‘scraping’ sites which reuse content on an automated site in which the goal is more visitors and Ad revenue. You may have noticed these sites when searching for information about your brand or products. Hopefully, this will happen less often, and you may want to check your company’s PageRank or search results in general to see if your ranking has improved at all. I’d expect modest, if any, change, and you should also discuss these changes with your IT/search engine optimization group to make sure they are taking the changes into account.
The soundbytes tag on Delicious contains all links mentioned, as well as others we think are useful. Sign up for Comprendia blog email updates to get our playlists delivered to your inbox.
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