Presented at CYTO 2014 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA May 19, 2014. Focused on methods used to enhance exposure of shared resource laboratories (or core facilities) by means of increased participation in social media activities.
2. How to get in contact with me
• about.me/ryanduggan (online business card)
• plus.google.com/+RyanDuggan (my ―network of choice‖)
• twitter.com/RynDggn (@RynDggn)
• 773.809.DGGN (sms/voice)
5. CYTO-U Webinar
• For more detailed explanation of the basics
• http://cytou.peachnewmedia.com/store/seminar/seminar.p
hp?seminar=25695
6. Why invest the time and effort?
• Funding landscape has changed
• Quantity
• Project Type
• People use the internet to connect with collaborators
• Search, social, colleagues
• Cytometry is awesome
• Nexus technology
8. • NIH/Federal is only one
component of Research
Dollars (30%)
• Pharmaceutical/Biotech
makes up 55%
• Philanthropy, Institutional
Funds adds 15%
• Most increases in funding
are geared towards clinical
research projects.
• Funding is flat, but costs
are increasing
Compiled by Adam M. Katz http://www.researchamerica.org/uploads/healthdollar12.pdf
Recession Starts
ARRA Funds
9. Justin Chakma, et.al. Asia's Ascent — Global Trends in Biomedical R&D Expenditures. New England Journal of
Medicine, 2014; 370 (1): 3 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1311068
10. • Lowered funding projections for the foreseeable future.
• Diminished SRL usage by traditional userbase, namely
R01 awardees and publicly funded investigators.
• Funding shifts towards clinical researchers.
• Industry partnering with Research Inst. to save money.
• If we want to increase usage in our SRL, we‘ll want to
understand the needs of these groups.
Zzzzz. What does this really mean?
11. Solution
• Diversifying your target userbase will insulate your SRL
from changing funding landscape
• Expand your services to cater to this non-traditional
usersbase.
• Use social media outlets to network with people from
these various groups.
• Build an online presence to demonstrate expertise of the
core facility and yourself.
12. Why invest the time and effort?
• Funding landscape has changed
• Quantity
• Project Type
• People use the internet to connect with collaborators
• Search, social, colleagues
• Cytometry is awesome
• Nexus technology
14. Be Prepared
• Make sure you‘re prepared to work with new contacts
• If we‘re targeting Clinical Researchers and/or Industry
• May like to see GLP documentation
• Talk to Administration about cost recovery for external groups
• Connect with technology transfer group to avoid possible pitfalls.
• When targeting non-traditional departments, have
publications, methods, and protocols ready.
15. Why invest the time and effort?
• Funding landscape has changed
• Quantity
• Project Type
• People use the internet to connect with collaborators
• Search, social, colleagues
• Cytometry is awesome
• Nexus technology
16. Cytometry is Awesome
• Cytometry is a major hub in any biologist‘s toolbox.
• It‘s super cool and engaging for scientists and lay public
alike.
• We should always be ready and willing to share our
thoughts on cytometry.
• LASERS, ‗nuff said.
Cytometry
18. An Evolving Marketing Plan
One-way broadcast of message
Message shaped by consumer’s social network
19. The Three C‘s
• Content Consumers
• Use Social
Media to be
informed
• Content Curators
• Share Social
Media to inform
others.
• Content Creators
• Create content
that can be
shared.
Consumers
Curators
Creators
20. The Natural Order
• To be a good consumer, you need to know where to look.
• To be a good curator, you need to be an efficient
consumer and recognize good content.
• To be a good creator, you need to practice good curation.
21. Start by listening
• Listening is key.
• The internet is a very noisy place that‘s contantly trying to
grab your attention.
• Like a finely tuned cytometer, you need to resolve the
useful information from all the noise.
Useful Information
Noise
Useful
22. Start by listening
• Gate out the noise using various tools so it‘s easy to pick
out the important information.
• E.g. Twitter keyword searches and lists, Google
Alerts, LinkedIn Interest Groups, RSS feeds for key blogs
and journals, news aggregators like Flipboard, and
following key people on any service.
Useful Information
Noise
Useful
23. Single platform that allows you to tap into many networks and display the
information all in one place
Hootsuite
24. Beware the Echo Chamber
Rate of the flow of ideas
Impactofideas
Isolationist
Echo chamber
Diversity in
Social Group
If you measure the rate
of the flow of ideas, you
would see a spectrum
whereby on the low end
you‘d have no flow of
ideas (the isolationist)
and the high end, you‘d
have a situation where
the same ideas get
passed around quickly
creating an echo
chamber. The spot where
new ideas have the most
impact is in the middle
where there is a diversity
in the social network so
that new ideas can be
exchanged freely. Sandy Pentland: ―Social Physics: How good ideas
spread.‖ http://youtu.be/HMBl0ttu-Ow?t=19m51s
25. The Art of Curation
• Once you‘re able to filter out the noise effectively, you‘re ready to start
curating.
• Pick a platform that you‘re comfortable with and learn how to reformat
content for that service.
• Remember our goal is discoverability, so share publicly
Userbase Characteristic Utility
Facebook
1+ Billion Everyone is here,
including Framily.
One stop shop, see family
pics and talk shop
Twitter
560 Million 140 characters, real-
time news
Great for curation of links
Google+
400 Million Search giant does
social
Blog-like posts, hangouts,
communities
LinkedIn
240 Million Social Network for
Professionals
Focused groups, business-
centric networking
26. Cross-posting
• Social networks have their own look and feel for their
content
• Cross-posting is a legitimate time saver and can be used
for some content.
• Most of the time you should format content for the
platform.
• Simultaneously talking to multiple groups of people
27. No. 1 rule to Curation
• Add something to the conversation.
Good Tweet Bad Tweet
28. Second-Tier Social
• Niche platforms, high specialized
• Flow Cytometry Network
• Listserves
• Nings (DIY Social Network)
• Facebook/Google+/LinkedIn Groups/Communities.
• The awesome CYTO app.
• Great for talking with colleagues
• Beware the echo chamber.
29. Feeling Creative? Then Create
• Blogging, Videos, Tutorials, Quick snippits, commentary
on a publication or article, etc…
• You‘ve been consuming good content and you know what
you like.
• You‘ve been curating other people‘s content and you
recognize what types of content is shareable.
• Now it‘s time to create.
30. Blogging
• Easy to do
• Doesn‘t have to be
earth shattering.
• You‘re all expert in
some
technique, assay,
software, hardwar
e, etc…
• Write what you
know.
• You‘re not talking
to flow
jocks, you‘re
talking to flow
users
31. Video
• On average, video is shared 12x more than text*
*http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33513/Visual-Content-Trumps-Text-in-
Driving-Social-Media-Engagement-INFOGRAPHIC.aspx
32. Getting Shared/Liked/+1/RT
• Try not to look like a spammer or bot.
• Fill out your profile with images, text, links, etc…
• Also, don‘t break curation rule #1.
33. Brands and Personalities
• Your Facility
• Longevity in spite of
turnover
• Typically less baggage
• Easy to share the load
• Have a moniker
• Have a logo
• Have an image
• Unified across
platforms.
• You
• Can take your brand with
you.
• Have better control over
the presentation.
• Aids in professional
development.
• For service oriented
businesses, people are
key.
• Show your face
34. Summary
• Use filtering tools to become an efficient listener
• Broaden your interactions to avoid the echo chamber
• Curating can be an effective way of gaining social capital
• Create sharable content so happy end-users do the
marketing for you.
36. S-E-Oh no he didn‘t
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Increase your search ranking on Google
• Search today is based mostly on social interactions
regardless of the keywords.
Search engine ranking is all about social - https://medium.com/p/8b884d71aae5
38. Which Platform?
• Short answer – it doesn‘t matter
• What does matter is getting out there and doing it.
• They all have strengths and weaknesses.
• You‘ll likely use more than one (cross-post).
39. But it takes sooooooo much time.
• Using efficiency tools, you can minimize your discovery
time.
• Liking/+1-ing/RT/Favoriting takes no time at all.
• Curating taking very little time (make sure you actually
read what you‘re sharing).
• Creating takes time (blogging, video)
• Make hay when the sun shines.
40. Frequency of tasks
Task duration frequency when Total
weekly time
(hours)
Consume social
major (twitter, G+,
Purdue)
60
minutes
Daily (morning 10 min.,
afternoon 10 min.,
evening 10 min.)
7
Consume social
minor (LinkedIn,
Research Gate
30
minutes
Bi-weekly morning 1
Read non-journal
articles (Pocket)
20
minutes
Daily Evening 2.3
Google+ Cytometry
Community
15
minutes
Daily All day 1.75
Blogging 5 hours Monthly When I have a chance 1
Video (creation) 5 hours Monthly Hangouts 1
TOTAL 14 hours
per week
Avg. daily hours of T.V.
watching for
U.S. adults = 4.5 hrs
(31.5 hrs/wk)
41. My 6 point strategy - #1
Consume
• Use Hootsuite (open all day long)
• browse for tweets containing keywords – cytometry, flow
cytometry, cell sorting, FACS, -jobs
• See items posted to various LinkedIn Groups (Flow
Cytometry, ABRF, ISAC, etc…)
• Monitor RSS feed of Cytometry and other major journals where
articles have place cytometry in the keyword field
• Google Alerts set up to send news items relating to
cytometry (automatically sent to my email as they hit)
• Monitor cytometry-related keywords in Google+ (check
daily)
42. My 6 point strategy - #2
Curate
• Retweet items of importance to the cytometry community
and add description as necessary.
• Any items that come through Google alerts or twitter can
be repackaged and reshared on Google+
• Sprinkle in non-cytometry, science/technology related
items to interact with a larger crowd (avoiding the echo
chamber).
• I also hang out with the consumer electronics / technology geek
crowd.
43. My 6 point strategy - #3
Interact with other people‘s content
• +1/Like/Favorite people‘s content when appropriate
• Gain new followers and connections, build your
base, avoid the echo chamber.
• Offer help/suggestions/useful links to distress signals.
Nearly every time I find someone’s lonely post hanging in
the ether and like it, I almost immediately gain a follower.
Friendraising before Fundraising
44. My 6 point strategy - #4
Create good content.
• Blogger (ucflow.blogspot.com)
• YouTube (youtube.com/TheRynDggn)
• Google+ Cytometry Community
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45. My 6 point strategy - #5
Exploit efficiency tools
• You cannot possibly find/read everything, so don‘t try.
• Hootsuite – cuts down on the # of sites I need to visit and
filters the content.
• Pocket – one click browser plug-in that stores articles and
web pages to be read later
• IFTTT Recipes – Favorite something in Twitter, linked
content get sent to Pocket.
• Schedule content. Write a bunch when you have time and
schedule them to go out slowly. Gives the appearance
you‘re always online.
46. My 6 point strategy - #6
Social networks start at home
• You can use social networks to interact with your current
user base.
• Prioritize any comments/posts made by your users
• You can set up Twitter searches based on location or create a
custom list of your users.
• Share your content with them directly instead of putting it
out there and assuming they‘re following it.
• Don‘t forget the old school social networking – lab
meetings, works-in-progress, Thesis Defense.
• Setup filters/alerts to find and congratulate them on a
publication and thank them for the acknowledgment.
47. Challenge
• If you‘ve not already implemented a Social Media strategy
for your core facility, Start TODAY.
• If you‘re currently using these tools professionally, make a
pledge to interact daily (+1, Like, RT, Blog, etc…)
49. Facebook?
• Focused on paid distribution in order to reach the news
feed of end users.
• So, even if I request to follow you, there‘s a good chance
I‘ll see very little of your content.
• Doesn‘t happen on Twitter. You see all tweets for those
whom you follow in your timeline.
• You can control this on Google+ using circles.
Notas del editor
When I took over in 2006, I grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote down a vision.It was pretty simple in terms of the mission.The general point was this idea that We (the core facility) can do anything related to flow better than anyone.The “anyone” referred to the handful of labs that wanted their own analyzers and sorters (Accuri was just coming to market). It also referred to any PI who wanted to use some other technology to do these things (microscopy, western, elisa, whatever). It also referred to my local geographical area, and finally to the world.So, me stating that we can do these things better than anyone was essentially stating that, “Sure you can get your own cytometer, but we can do it for you better.” “Sure, you can do this using microscopy, but we can do it better.” “Sure, you can farm it out to some other core or reference lab, but we can do it better.”I genuinely believed that we can do it better, I just needed a way to prove this to everyone.And so, I gave myself 3 goals, so to speak, to try and convince people to use my facility.First of all, I needed to demonstrate our expertise (both internally and industry-wide). Lots of ways to do this. Create posters the show some of the data acquired in the facility (either by ourselves or our high-end users). Present posters at meetings. Go to talks on campus and engage with the user by trying to understand their research needs.Secondly, I felt we had to become the leader. Both in terms of technology and services offered, but in facility management, customer service, adoption of new techniques, administrative utilities, training. Essentially going above and beyond in every facet of core facility life. You know one of the companies I admire greatly in their leadership and service Disney. And the way they explain their leadership efforts goes like this. Everyone raise you hand as high as you can, now raise it bit higher. That essentially sums things up for me. In all things, we strive to go a little bit further than anyone expects. This will result in a greater ROI than pretty much anything else you do.The third thing is what we’re talking about today. And that’s sharing the information. Sharing stuff online, at the time was still relatively new. Twitter officially launched in July 2006, but didn’t really gain any adoption until 2008. Facebook didn’t open up to the public until September 2006, MySpace was sort of the only game in town from 2003 – 2007 but outside of the music industry, MySpace wasn’t used for social marketing (social networking yes, but not marketing for businesses), and Blogging, in general didn’t really become a thing until Google bought Blogger in 2002. YouTube came on the scene in 2005, but it wasn’t really well adopted until Google purchased them in 2006. So, we can safely say that 2006/2007 was really when this entire idea of social networking took hold. At the time, I was getting a bit frustrated writing the same email over and over again to my users explaining concepts, services we offers, other general tips and tricks, etc… So, in Sept of 2007, I launched our facility blog and began documenting and sharing some of the stuff we were doing in the lab. You can clearly see, that I started (and continue) on this venture not because of some altruistic ideal, but out of laziness. I also rebranded the flow cytometry facility as UCFlow. And one of the very first post was explaining this new service we had been playing around with that would allow us to remote desktop into our satellite facilities and help users on the instruments more easily (it used a combination of AOL IM and Logmein. September 2007 - http://ucflow.blogspot.com/2007/09/want-flow-lab-to-look-over-your.htmlOver the years, sharing strategies have changed, and platforms have changed, but the overall focus is still the same. Demonstrate Expertise, Be the Leader, Share the info. The good news is that it’s a lot easier to become a part of the discussion today. The tools are way more sophisticated and result in the ability to do a ton more online with less investment of our most precious asset, our time.So, now, hopefully you’ll have a better understanding of etiology of this journey I’ve had with social media and why I think, everyone should be participating in some capacity. It’s never too late too start, and it’s certainly never too late to re-start your social marketing efforts.
Didn’t you just hear that story I told you? Of course you need to do this!
I’m going to go through these premlimary slides quickly, so we have time at the end to do some demos. If you want to hear me deliver these slides in more detail, I’ll refer you to the CYTO-University webinar from last month.
We’re now functioning at 2001 funding levels.
It’s not just government that’s having problems. Industry was hit hard by the recession and have not been able to invest in r&d much. Philanthropy, which was thought to possibly supplement the lost funding from the government hasn’t really done so. Philanthropic giving hasn’t necessary dropped, but it’s steady growth and small percentage aren’t helping the situation either.
Although there is some significant increases in R&D funding as a function of GDP globally (especially in Asia), it’s only a fraction of worldwide $’s.If your funding is tight, use social media to drive users to your SRLIf your funding is plentiful, use social media to drive users to your SRLWhy? Because you can do it better than anyone.
Don’t be a one trick pony.If you’re use to simply having a warehouse of cytometers that you’ve trained users to run their own stuff, you might find that’s not an appealing prospect for a clinical researcher who has no grad students and limited training in benchwork.
Previously, the way in which an SRL was recognized was through publications and meeting presentations. Now, you can market your lab using social media so that you’re discoverable. When a funded investigator goes looking for flow cytometry services, you want to be the best, most professional looking option. I receive countless emails from people all over the world asking me questions or for help. Of course many of them don’t translate into billable services, but some of them do.
Marketing strategies tend to change every 20 years. We’ve gone from the era of door-door salesmen, to pitchmen, to personalities (characters, sports stars, etc..) and even trusted spokespersons (celebrities – Matt Damon water.org). All of these involve the company attempting to sculpt and shape a specific message or brand that can be broadcast to consumers. In today’s environment we’ve made a shift towards the consumers who are in the marketing chair. They are the ones shaping the message by what they share. Good and bad. Many companies (core facilities) have made the evolution to a broadcasting style of marketing.E-mail blastsWeb site infoPosted flyers in the halls These types of marketing strategies are ineffective once consumers (users) become aware.When a brand or company develops share-able content, people are unaware they’re being sold something.
If you want a dual purpose social network, Facebook and Google+ are best. They both allow you to keep a personal and professional presence online.
These are useful for gaining social capital amongst your peers.
I’m not talking online to fellow SRL technical directors primarily. You’re never going to become one of my users. I’m focusing on the end-user here, therefore, the information can be basic.
Your profile page and image is your brand.
University of Chicago Flow Cytometry Core Facility = UCFlowThe image conveys
Key ingredient for discoverability is social sharing.
Even now, while I’m giving this webinar, I have tweets going out highlight some of the key points.
Consume demo – show hootsuite and highlight the filtered twitter columns. Show how this allows you to find new people to follow- make new connections. Keep up to date with LinkedIn/Instagram or social that you may not want to make a special visit to each day. Time investment here – 10 minutes 2-3x per day. Also see my general twitter list that has a mix of other types of news and stories.Google+ Search – find interesting info to share, discover new contactsGoogle Keyword Alerts – news related items that are easy to share on twitter – lots of press release type stuff.Google+ Cytometry Community – interactions daily, +1, share and comment regularlyListserve – monitor Purdue Cytometry list – difficult to share info from, but a good pulse on the community.Creating tools – blogger, youtube, google+, instagram, twitter.