Social Media
Wrap-up: ALDA 2013 Sales and Marketing Executives Meeting
I was honored to be the headline speaker at the ALDA (Analytical, Life Science and Diagnostics Association) 2013 Sales and Marketing Executives’ meeting in Cambridge, MA on February 26th. With over 60 people in attendance (a record, according to the conference organizers), there was a lively, high quality discussion. In this post, I provide you my take-away points from all the speakers and sessions.
The most difficult question I have been asked
In a recent talk to a group of science marketers, I was faced with a very difficult question. Here is how I answered it.
Current Dynamics in Marketing Science
Results of the 2012 Survey of Science Marketers
Many companies within science-related industries are increasing the sophistication of their digital marketing strategies, and investing in sales and marketing technology to support more effective engagement with their audiences. In our 2012 survey of science marketers, we set out to benchmark the movements toward digital marketing among science marketers, investigating several facets of marketing channels. In this issue of Linus Report, we present the results of our survey of 125 respondents, which provided us with insights about budgets, priorities, investments and challenges that science marketers face.
Who do you need: a Leader or a Lemming?
Viral marketing sounds great on paper—free delivery of your message to a wide number of people. But it’s surprisingly difficult to achieve. Why do some videos, images, or stories go viral?
Mobile Content—Is it for the Life Sciences?
In my last post, I wrote about the problems marketers and communicators run into when they can’t be sure if their audience is consuming content on a 30-inch or 3-inch screen. In this post I want to focus on the 3-inch screen and mobile content, specifically on how much effort life science marketers should spend developing mobile content (of course, because I’m a scientist, the answer is not going to be a simple yes or no but rather, that depends…).
Shaping Effective Web Content—Translating the WebContent 2011 Conference for Life Science Marketers
People are accessing electronic content (email, webpages, etc.) via an increasing variety of platforms and in a number of different contexts. To be effective, marketers need to deliver clear messages and content that fit screen sizes from mobile devices to desktops, and are relevant to customers sitting at their desks as well as on the go. Here we discuss the basics of effective content strategy and introduce an extension to mobile devices in the context of the life sciences industry.
Where Life Science Marketing is Headed: Results from the 2011 Quantitative Study of the Dynamics of Science Marketing
There has never been a time of more rapid change in the scientific industry, signaling the need for more sophisticated marketing practices. How are life science marketers evolving their strategies and tactical mix during these times? We recently conducted a quantitative study of over 100 science marketers in order to understand their priorities and their budget expenditure, as well as their attitudes towards current topics such as demand generation, brand awareness and social media. In this report, we present the results and synthesize our findings.
Sizing Up Social Media: An Investigation of Scientific Community Dynamics on LinkedIn
Social media enables marketers to monitor, instigate, participate in and measure audience engagement. LinkedIn, the professional networking site, hosts an array of scientific discussion Groups, offering tremendous potential for life science marketers to capture engaged audiences. Before developing a strategy, life science marketing professionals need to optimize their audience selection strategy when targeting these Groups as part of a marketing program. By not strategizing the process of audience selection, the outcome could unnecessarily result in the high cost of an un-optimized marketing program. To understand the dynamics of instigating audience engagement on LinkedIn Groups, we studied several scientific Groups of varying sizes on LinkedIn to determine whether size affects the level of group activity. We found that the level of engagement follows an asymptotic regime as the size of Groups gets larger. More interesting, however, is the significantly higher level of Group activity in smaller Groups as compared with larger Groups. This issue of Linus Report discusses the results of our investigation and offers recommendations for how science marketers should prepare to engage with LinkedIn.
List of Social Media Sites Relevant to Science Marketers
This post is an appendix to Linus Report Volume 1, 2011, titled “Social Media in Science Marketing: Fad or Function?” The appendix provides a list of 128 social media websites that are relevant to science marketers. The list, in PDF format, organizes the sites into different categories, provides URLs and relative unique visitor traffic for each site.
The Impending Explosion and Evitable Implosion of Twitter in Science Marketing.
Twitter is gaining rapid popularity among science companies, and with the resulting explosion of information, scientists will most likely become overwhelmed and disengage. Smart companies need to develop a strategy to employ Twitter more effectively. This post offers two recommendations to consider when engaging with Twitter.
Marketing to the World's Most Skeptical Audience
The first book in the business literature focused exclusively on marketing within the scientific industry, Persuading Scientists sets a new standard for managers of any experience level to develop marketing strategies that align with way scientists make purchase decisions.
Buy the book