Getting Specific with Social Media: Sites for Life Sciences

Karen Hiser

Fuentek has done a lot of talking and blogging lately about how to make social media work for your technology transfer office (TTO). Most of the major social media sites (Twitter^®, LinkedIn^®, Facebook^®) are likely on your regular hit list, but in crafting your social media strategy, it’s also important to make sure you include industry-specific sites.

For example, one of my co-panelists at the recent AUTM Eastern Region meeting, Montserrat Capdevila of Johns Hopkins University, compiled this list of social media resources specific to the life sciences industry:

SciLinks: Mines scientific literature databases to build a network of professional relationships that scientists can join and expand when you sign up.

MyNetResearch: A powerful site for finding collaborators who work specifically in your area of interest.

Labmeeting: Allows scientists to archive, track, and share scientific literature as well as search for papers of interest and upload the PDFs to their accounts for later retrieval.

ResearchScoreCard: Allows scientists to share their research and initiate discussions about it.

Mendeley: Enables scientists to meet, discuss, and keep in contact with scientific peers and also serves as a research tool. Members can find peers who may be sources of information for their work or who can provide a sounding board for ideas.

Ozmosis: Provides a centralized location for reliable information for physicians who are looking to learn from others who have firsthand experience in the field.

Sermo: Offers a forum in which over 65,000 physicians trade clinical insights, information, and seek to raise the level of patient care that they provide.

Epernicus: Connects researchers with real-world scientific networks, enabling them to find work-related resources such as expertise, methods, and materials.

Research Crossroads: Centralizes scientific and medical funding data so that researchers gain recognition for their work and funders make better investments.

Within3: Enables health and life science practitioners to find, connect, and collaborate with other colleagues in the field, in real time.

BioCrowd: Helps bioscience professionals build relationships, exchange ideas, find jobs and identify career opportunities.

Researcher ID: Provides a scholarly research community with a registry to find collaborators, review publication lists, and explore how research is used around the world.

When targeting a specific industry in your social media strategy, rely on your contacts in that industry for insights into online resources that may help you reach a niche audience. Industry-focused groups in LinkedIn and other major social media sites may also help you find these resources.

Have you found useful social media sites specific to other industries? Please leave a comment below to share your insights!

--By Karen Hiser