Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Presenting Marketing Concepts for Tech Transfer Professionals at the AUTM Eastern Region Meeting

Karen Hiser and I had the pleasure of presenting Tech Transfer Marketing Concepts and Marketing Social Media Strategies at the AUTM Eastern Region Meeting in Atlanta on June 8th. Both of our sessions were well attended and were extremely interactive, with the participants posing pertinent questions and sharing their personal experiences and challenges.
 

The Marketing Concepts session included:
  • Overview of the Fuentek screening methodology for technology commercialization decisions
  • Best practices and guidelines for marketing intellectual property (check out our many blog posts on this topic)
  • Details on implementing an iterative process for marketing a technology portfolio
  • Print and digital media tools for marketing technologies (check out these samples of such tools)
  • Effective communication techniques with researchers and with prospective licensees (more on these topics to come)
The most enjoyable aspect of this conference was the interactions that both Karen and I had with participants throughout the conference on the challenges and opportunities facing higher education Technology Transfer Offices in 2010 and beyond.

Is your Technology Transfer Office facing challenges securing licensing agreements for your patent portfolio?

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Guidelines for Your TTO Blog, Microblog, and Other Social Media Tools

In my last posts, I discussed the value of social media tools such as blogs, with some extra discussion of microblogging, as an effective means of communication for Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). Now I offer the following guidelines to position your organization to capitalize on the use of these two and other social media tools.
  • Plan. Establish a plan that links the use of blogs, microblogging, and other social media tools to specific goals, objectives, and challenges within your organization. Establish metrics (hard and soft) to monitor the effectiveness of your use of these tools and their impact on your goals.
  • Connect. Proactively expand and enhance your professional network on an ongoing basis. Tools like LinkedIn, Plaxo and even Facebook can assist you in identifying the right person at the right place at the right time that may be your next licensee or business partner. These tools are a natural extension of the relationships that you are continuously cultivating via professional associations and your internal interactions.
  • Integrate. Become an active (rather than a casual) participant and establish accountability for doing so. “Institutionalize” your use of these tools, so that daily disruptions do not cause you to constantly put off these tools until “tomorrow.” Establish a schedule each day when you or a member of your staff is tending to the care and feeding of your social media platforms.
  • Listen. Social media is extremely dynamic, with new trends, technologies, and applications emerging monthly. Observe the emergence of these new trends, capitalizing on new sources of information and professional relationships. And remember to listen to what others are blogging about that provide insights on new trends in technology commercialization and licensing of intellectual property.
  • Engage. Identify opportunities for you and your organization to deliver value to your subscribers. You should continually seek opportunities to maximize the value they return to your organization.
As you plan to leverage social media tools, think beyond the written word and your traditional communication methods. When feasible, take a multi-media approach, incorporating pictures, audio and video to represent your technology portfolio beyond a static Web site.

Social media tools are clearly not a fad and will continue to evolve and improve as a key communications vehicle for organizations across the globe. If you have not already embraced these tools, I encourage you to dig in and begin your planning process.

Are there any best practices that you can share from using social media tools to support your Technology Transfer Office?