The San Diego Biotechnology Network is a next generation organization dedicated to helping people connect better than ever before. What makes it different? Well, for starters, members can interact easily both online and face to face, making your connections more powerful and easy to maintain than ever before. You can leverage this group in many ways, and the fact that it has 1000+ members (and growing fast) means that you have a lot of power! Here are 7 ways you can get the most out of the SDBN:
- You can contact anyone else in the LinkedIn group directly through LinkedIn. We’ve been careful to allow only Biotech professionals in the greater San Diego area. Let’s say you want to contact someone at a particular company. To find someone who works there within the group, use the LinkedIn advanced search, fill in the company, and select the SDBN from the ‘Groups’ selection on the right. You can even offer to meet someone you’d like to connect with (either in the group or out) at the next event, or list a specific request to the discussion board (e.g. ‘looking to meet others with Stem Cell startup ideas’).
- Attend the events. There is no substitute for meeting people face to face. Benefits? Grow your network literally overnight. Collect business cards and ask people to connect. There is no better way to find out what is going on in San Diego Biotech. Our April event is a great place to start, Regulus Therapeutics will be our featured company, and will talk about microRNA therapeutics.
- Consider contributing more to group discussions on LinkedIn. See an interesting news item? Post it! Have a question about San Diego Biotech, or Biotech in general? Post it! Just be careful to not be too self-serving, people can be put off.
- Volunteer. Want to meet nearly everyone at an event? Volunteer to work the registration table. There’s no better way to connect and become recognizable to those at the event. We’ll even give you free admission and you’ll be free to mingle after the ‘rush.’
- Tell us how to make it better. We have many ideas to make the SDBN the most engaging and empowering group possible, and input from you helps a lot! Some of the ideas we’ve thought of are charity events, focus groups, more workshops, and entrepreneur/VC challenges. We’re going to send out a poll soon, but why wait? Tell us on our contact form or leave a comment below.
- Visit the SDBN site often to catch up on news, jobs, and events. We’ve created feeds and resources specific to San Diego Biotech:
- News: https://sdbn.org/news
- Jobs: https://sdbn.org/jobs
- Company Directory: https://sdbn.org/directory
- Calendar: https://sdbn.org/calendar
You can also follow us on twitter at @sdbn & @sdbnjobs to get updates as they happen, and communicate with other SDBN members.
- Invite others to join the group! The bigger the SDBN gets, the more we all benefit. Just send them to https://sdbn.org/signup or to the LinkedIn Group at http://tinyurl.com/sdbiotech
In summary, we hope that you continue to explore and find ways to help us make this group as useful as possible. One thing to keep in mind for social media in general, is to behave online as you would in person. Nobody likes a person that spends the whole time talking about themselves in person, and the same goes online. You’ll get a lot more out of the SDBN if you contribute to it–this could be ‘paying it forward’ with introductions for people, leaving helpful posts and comments, or volunteering. In May, we’ll be presenting a workshop on Social Media for Scientists, including tips and pointers for using it for your career, your science, and your company. Also, check out Comprendia’s Biotechnology Marketing 101 Blog and Presentation Series for tips on using the principles of marketing to get an advantage in several different areas. Stay tuned and let us know how we can help!
