Social Media and the Medical Device Industry
November 8, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
Social Media - Medical Device Industry
I have a former background in machine-tool, as a controller and later, a partner. A key market was medical device which has continued to grow, 6% annually in the U.S., which manufactures a large percentage of global product.
Despite industry consolidation, approximately 80% of the more than 8,000 U.S. medical device firms employ less than 50 people. What they lack in resources, they can make up in agility and responsiveness to highly specific customer needs and requirements which include R&D partnerships and new market applications for existing products and processes.
Success for the small medical device manufacturer requires continual research, a focus on promotion, internal knowledge sharing and collaborative partnerships. For these reasons, as well as their insistence on getting the biggest (measurable) bang for their media investments, medical device companies can greatly benefit from social media.
Social Networks: The Pre-requisites
September 18, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
Businesses of all sizes and industries, from solo firms to large corporations, are becoming increasingly interested in using social networks, both internally and externally, to build collaborative and conversational communities.
When I talk to owners, managers and executives about their approach and expectations, I often hear answers that combine elements of Web site initiatives and marketing campaigns. But social networks are about sharing and relationship building. A traditional approach will likely fail.
What I usually don’t hear is a deep understanding of why social networks make sense for them and how social networks are related to shifts in control of markets, knowledge, media and technology. Unlike pre-Web 2.0 online marketing, branding, communications and e-commerce, social networks initiatives bear little resemblance to traditional business and marketing models. Although its good to carefully and consciously experiment, a serious social network program requires that deep understanding as well as integrating a clear purpose and message in all content and communications.
I like the holon as a metaphor for an integral social network strategy.
Social Media Integral Strategy
A holon (Greek: holos, “whole”) is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. The word was coined by Arthur Koestler in his book The Ghost in the Machine (1967, p. 48). Wikipedia
Whatever the planning process, a visual will ensure that strategy and execution is anchored to the underlying understanding and purpose. Simple questions should be asked at the outset and periodically, for example:
- Is this good for me?
- ….for us?
- ….for the community?
- ….for a greater good?
Once the purpose is clear, a road-map for short-term experiential learning, and long-term actionable metrics can be developed to direct your social networks to go the right way.
Use visuals to simplify and clarify.
August 26, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
RedShift: Natural influence expansion in the connected world
Most of the popular small business advice is tailored to product companies. That’s because service firms are always more challenging to define and differentiate without creating complexity which then leads to confusion. And that confusion will increase as new small and solo professional service firms are founded by generalists, multiple careerists and encore careerists.
The nimble solo psf’s are uniquely able to create services for evolving markets that emerge from disruption, convergence and shifting demographics. Their challenge is to simply and effectively communicate who they are, where they’re going and how they help their clients.
If I can’t easily explain my content, I step back, formulate a question that I think needs to be answered and then convey that answer in some visual format. I give my right brain the right of way so to speak. I know its a highly effective method for gaining “creative clarity” and I use it extensively and successfully in client work.
Here’s a recent example of mine. To improve my ability to more clearly communicate RedShfit’s benefits to my clients and community, the question I asked myself is: How do RedShift programs create natural influence and why is that good?
By creating the graphic, I let my right brain (mostly) give me the answer.
You don’t need high-end graphics skills to do this; a whiteboard sketch is great. I used CmapTools for the natural influence concept map.
.
Naturally influence the sales call
August 25, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
If you’re in professional services you’re hearing some version of this when you make a sales call: “All this blogging and social networking and having conversations is too much work, too expensive, giving my expertise away for free and just another passing fad. I need to get good leads because I know I can close the business if I have the leads. So I want you to help me with a business development plan so that I meet my business and life goals and objectives.”
In the past, I’d be immediately mentally rehearsing my exit thinking “they’re clueless, don’t waste your time, there’s nothing here.” I’m now practicing a better response by being be present with, open to and curious about these potential clients. My approach is to meet them where they are and drop any attachment to getting their business. I don’t try to persuade them about anything, its futile. And I avoid getting drawn into long, detailed story and history, its meaningless.
What I commit to is understanding how a business owner responds to change out of old habit and then continually reinforces the counter-directing assumptions by endlessly, willfully and forcefully repeating them. “Push” is the modus operandi. But “push back” is no longer mine. That alone can shift the dynamic of the meeting and create an opening for inquiry, deep listening, re-framing and shared understanding. Whether new business results or not, positive fulfillment, often indirectly, unfailingly corresponds with my choice to be naturally influential, even when the sales call seems hopeless.
I may not get a new client, but I’ll definitely gain a new friend.
The elevator riff
July 23, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
In Neil Young’s video conversation with Charlie Rose he talked about his song writing process and how sometimes he gets little melodies, or hooks, rolling around in his head, like “little reminders”. Curiously, I often use “getting hooked” as a metaphor for repeatedly getting caught up in unwanted experiences.
Conversely, the music hook is a sound, or phrase that grabs a listener and sticks with them as a positive experience. That’s a result all marketers desire. And we’re all marketers. 
So I see the hook as a creative metaphor for the traditional pitch, or “elevator pitch“, a term that’s always turned me off because most sound to me as artificial and uninspiring as a resume’ or powerpoint presentation. On the other hand, I understand the importance of getting a point across quickly, like in 30 seconds. I’ve just never figured out how to effectively do that for myself or for my clients to naturally influence the audience.
The next time I develop personal and business micro-stories (can’t bear to call them pitches) I’ll do so from the perspective of my inner songwriter.
DA DOO RON RON….
Technorati Tags:
career transition, creative process, marketing , metaphor q, natural influence, Neil Young, personal brand, RedShift Professional Services, solo professional service firm
Four Prerequisites to Content and Search Optimization: D.I.C.E.
January 31, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
In my previous post I described the major content optimization work that I’d recently done on my web and landing pages, using a concept map as a guide.
Before moving on, I wanted to answer the question: what content is worth optimizing? I came up with D.I.C.E.:
Distinctive - Content that supports a marketing strategy that positions for uniqueness in the industry and differentiation from the competition.
Integral - Content that evolves and increases in value through links, core elements, overlapping themes and descriptions, and a shared purpose.
Credible - Content that backs up, supports and is aligned with the desired, and implicitly promised, user experience.
Educational - Content that reflects a generosity of spirit and authentic desire to share learning.
It helped to make a mindmap first. 
(click the graphic to enlarge)
Interestingly, a friend commented today that she saw me moving away from my coaching and soft skills work, and more into strategy and technical, with all this “optimization stuff”. I responded that clients will need a great of deal of facilitation, coaching, project alignment, talent recruitment and leadership support when they undertake large scale content and search optimization initiatives; its a natural fit with my differentiation strategy. Its also a good example of how professional services firms can evolve and be poised and ready to catch the next wave of unmet client needs resulting from rapid change.
Technorati Tags:
content, marketing , optimization, SEO/SEM, solo professional service firm
Niche philosophy and slash career
January 12, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
I had lunch with an old friend last week who for decades has been both a successful therapist and abstract painter. He’s one of my few lifelong entrepreneurial friends with “little to none” technical or new media experience or interest, although he does have a web site for each business. In fact, I’ve often joked with my brilliant and talented friend that he’s the only Neo-Luddite I know who always gives me great insight and ideas about building a professional practice; advice that has nothing to do with the Web or technology.
So I was surprised when he told me that he knew he had a problem because in the last month he’s received no new calls from people who found him on the Web. He told me that until recently, he not only has consistently gotten inquiries but has had a number of people travel from the west for his services. When the calls recently stopped, he checked Google for his name and certain keywords, and saw that he did not come up at all until the second page. He previously came up on the top of page one. It was a big “aha” for him. It was a bucket of cold water for me, seeing how ahead of me he was, however unwittingly, in terms of getting business from SEO. More on that in my next post.
Later, my conversation with my friend made me think again about niche marketing principles, generalists and the recent buzz about “slash careers”, which I think is a cool idea, but interpreted so widely that it adds to the confusion about “to niche or not to niche”. But I do feel strongly that the convergences and intersections in our increasingly multi-dimensional lives, are big factors in how we design our service models and how we design and develop our personal/professional brands. Unlike some of the bloggers and authors on the this subject, I don’t think any model is more right, wrong, better or worse than any other. They’re just different, and a good starting point to think about what an integral, unique solo practice looks like.
I see myself as a generalist with a number of programs that share some core elements, for a number of different markets. My work draws upon my personal activities (like rowing, and being around kids as much as possible) but I don’t make money from my outside interests.
I see my therapist/artist friend as an example of a true slash career (and potential global microbrand). Both careers are businesses with separate markets. They draw upon and benefit each other, through him.
One of the authors, using herself as an example, describes her slash career as author/journalist/speaker/blogger/columinist. I see that differently from my friend - its words, largely the same topic and for the same large audience. I don’t have a name for it but it looks more like this to me - concentric.
Other career-coach bloggers, when posting about the dangers of slash careers, lump in, for example, plumber/fisherman. But that feels more like career/hobby. But its a fine line, and like most career advice in the conceptual economy, there’s no one clear-cut answer. So I suggest play with it and bring in the right brain by drawing it. You may be planting the seeds for your global microbrand.
Technorati Tags:
generalist, marketing , slash career