Technology transfer is a challenge in all but a few locales. New strategies are commonplace. Here’s one from Michigan — a state that I believe will rebound from its historic struggles of recent years.

The $2.4 million Tech Transfer Talent Network includes seven universities and regions with strong research-based technology opportunities or clusters of talent, and in some cases, both. In addition to the University of Michigan (U-M), members are: Wayne State University, Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, Western Michigan University, Grand Valley State University and Oakland University. Each university is also collaborating with its regional economic development organization to promote increased access to mentors and partnering businesses.

The primary goal of the Tech Transfer Talent Network is to increase the supply of seasoned entrepreneurs and innovators who can lend their expertise to university tech transfer offices. These connections will serve as important bridges to launch technology-based startups or license university inventions to established companies. The program will allow other state universities in the network to share and benefit from the tech transfer resources developed at U-M.

U-M, which had 101 licensing agreements and spun out 11 startups in 2011, consistently ranks in the top 10 U.S. universities in tech transfer performance. In the past decade, the Tech Transfer office has helped launch 92 startups from research that originated in faculty labs, and three-quarters of those are located in Michigan.

To enhance its capabilities, U-M has put in place several talent-related initiatives during the past few years. Through the network, U-M will help other universities implement some of these strategies, including:

• The Catalyst database, which identifies and tracks experienced entrepreneurs who are willing to serve as experts, mentors, consultants or even co-founders.

• Mentors-in-Residence, experienced entrepreneurs who work within Tech Transfer for 12- to 18-month rotations, helping to assess new opportunities and mentor new start-up ventures.

• Tech Transfer Fellows, a program that employs graduate students or other qualified personnel to help assess technology and analyze markets for tech transfer opportunities.

• A postdoctoral fellowship program to support graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to encourage them to continue within a newly licensed business or a new startup venture.

Purdue University is no stranger to high level engineering. In fact, it’s kind of known for it. But still, this story on a new wireless "Ghost Pedal" could change the way electric guitar players rock out for years to come. The video tells the story, and hats off to the ingenuity of these forward thinking students in West Lafayette.

Hat tip to Inside INdiana Business on the story.

When blogs and social media really began to take off, there were some who argued that businesses should put their top executive’s face out there and get their CEO blogging about the company. Over time, that’s worked for some folks, and not so much for others. PR Daily offers further analysis on why it remains a challenging communications topic for many:

Mark Schaefer of Schaefer Marketing Solutions and the blog Businesses Grow says most CEOs will never get to that level of ease and comfort. Charismatic executives such as Steve Jobs and Richard Branson are atypical, he says, though that level of authenticity would certainly be an advantage for a CEO.

However, Schaefer says the interviews with the 10 bloggers show that they’re “out of touch with reality” in terms of what CEOs can and can’t say. “It’s naïve to believe that CEOs are going to be as authentic as someone who’s blogging about gadgets,” he says.

A key reason for that difference, he says, is the law. For example, a CEO whom Schaefer knows tweeted about a meeting with shareholders only to find he had broken a Securities and Exchange Commission rule. That CEO ended up paying a fine and having to appease angry investors.

“CEOs are under a tremendous amount of scrutiny,” Schaefer says.

The public isn’t the only constituency to consider, Olson says. Being critical of another company, another CEO, or the business environment in general may go over well in the public eye, but it “may threaten a CEO’s standing with his contemporaries or perhaps be read as disloyalty,” she says.

Likewise, saying doesn’t make up for doing, Olson says. Expressing sympathy for employees who lose benefits doesn’t mean much when a CEO is taking home a big salary or huge bonuses.

“PR can’t fix an inherently and systemically flawed corporate structure,” she says.

Bernstein points out that some points the bloggers make are contradictory. It’s hard to be fearless and authentically human at the same time, he says.

“Even Seal Team Six members feel fear,” Bernstein says. “However, coming across as confident despite any fear is admirable.”
 

Not sure why parents are so irked about what’s on their sons’/daughters’ Facebook pages. They’re just showing potential employers how extroverted and — let’s call it "gregarious" – they can be. The Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting piece on a new study that was actually conducted by the University of Evansville, among others:

Could your Facebook profile be a predictor of job performance?

A new study from Northern Illinois University, the University of Evansville and Auburn University suggests it can.

In an experiment, three "raters"—comprising one university professor and two students—were presented with the Facebook profiles of 56 college students with jobs.

After spending roughly 10 minutes perusing each profile, including photos, wall posts, comments, education and hobbies, the raters answered a series of personality-related questions, such as "Is this person dependable?" and "How emotionally stable is this person?"

Six months later, the researchers matched the ratings against employee evaluations from each of the students’ supervisors. They found a strong correlation between job performance and the Facebook scores for traits such as conscientiousness, agreeability and intellectual curiosity.

Raters generally gave favorable evaluations to students who traveled, had more friends and showed a wide range of hobbies and interests. Partying photos didn’t necessarily count against a student; on the contrary, raters perceived the student as extroverted and friendly, says Don Kluemper, the lead researcher and a professor of management at Northern Illinois University.

The findings show that Facebook could be used as a reliable job-screening tool, he says, especially since candidates would have a hard time "faking" their personalities in front of their friends.

The legality of using social-media sites to screen job applicants is murky, as employers could open themselves up to discrimination lawsuits based on race, gender and religion.

The largest city in the United States has the highest volume of social media jobs. No surprise that New York is atop both lists (based on 2010 population figures and a recent report from OnwardSearch, an Internet marketing staffing company that used job postings as its basis for comparison).

Size isn’t always a determing factor when one views the rest of the list. The top 10 social media hot spots for jobs included the following (with their 2010 population ranks in parentheses):

• 2. San Jose (10th in population)
• 3. San Francisco (13th)
• 5. Boston (23rd)
• 6. Washington, D.C. (25th)
• 7. Baltimore (22nd)
• 9. Seattle (24th)

Rounding out the social media top 10: Los Angeles, 4; Chicago, 8; and Philadelphia, 10. Each are among the top five in population.

Go the opposite route and the largest cities not showing up on the social media top 20 are San Antonio (7th in population), Jacksonville (11th) and Indianapolis (12th). Making the biggest jumps (low population, top 20 in jobs) are Atlanta, Minneapolis and Miami.

What does all this prove? Not sure. There may have been a disconnect between city population totals and metro area job postings. Nevertheless, social media is here to stay (and the jobs are widespread).

The following is an excerpt from the ExactTarget blog, in which Kyle Lacy relays analysis about why consumers in the United Kingdom have ended their online relationships with some businesses. Perhaps it can help you objectively think about how you engage your customers — or potential customers — online.

I can remember that fateful day in the Spring of 1998. Mrs. Cash’s sixth grade class had been released for the day and kids were scurrying across the schoolyard. Everyone except for me. I was shocked and petrified reading the heart shaped note from Sally, my sixth grade girlfriend.

Dear Kyle, We are breaking up. -Sally

It couldn’t be! Sally and I were going to be married. I had given her all the signals. I had showered her with compliments (messaging) and constant hugs (email). How could this have happened?

Like my sixth grade self, brands are experiencing break-ups from consumers who they “thought” they understood. Each time the consumer signs up to receive an email, Likes the brand on Facebook, or follows on Twitter, it signals the start of a beautiful relationship. The consumer is interested and “might” want a relationship.

The consumer has certain expectations and those expectations should be met with enthusiasm. They should be understood. Sally had been interested in me. I noticed and then smothered her.

As many of you know, ExactTarget is a global company with offices all over the world. We pride ourselves in our ability to understand the thought-process of the consumer. We wanted to get a better understanding of what consumers in the UK think of instances where they engaged with a company but later terminated the relationship.

What caused the consumers to lose interest? Here are a portion of the findings:

• 46% have unsubscribed from email because they felt bombarded with messaging
• 36% have unliked a brand on Facebook because they felt bombarded
• 26% have unfollowed a brand on Twitter because they became disinterested in the content
• 23% unfollow because they feel bombarded
• 34% of active users in the UK follow a brand on Twitter

Many relationships end at some point. For the most part, consumers’ reasons for leaving a relationship is based around a brands inability to deliver on expectations. The brand did not honor permissions and bombarded the consumer with messaging.

One this is certain: the consumer-brand relationship will continue to grow and develop in the years to come. As a marketer, it’s your job to make that relationship work with clear expectations and personalized content.

According to most frequent flyers I know, Southwest is the only major airline that "gets it right." Seems air travel isn’t the only concept the company understands, as it receives kudos for its social media efforts from Ragan. Here’s an excerpt, but I’d recommend you read the entire piece to see if your company can benefit from Southwest’s approach: 

On social media, behave like regular people.

Too often, brands appear stiff on social media sites. Not the case with Southwest—its tweets and status updates are brimming with personality. To that end, Moffat stresses the importance of being real on social media.

"You should sound like you’re talking to a person," she says.

One way Southwest manages to sound human is by tapping its employees to be voices for the airlines. After Southwest redesigned its blog about a year ago, it recruited employees to tell stories on the blog. The social media team chose 30 people-flight attendants, pilots, mechanics and more-armed them with Flip cams, and let the authors use their voices to tell stories.

Southwest also lets employees create local Facebook pages to connect with their communities. The company trains employees interested in managing a local site and allows them to be creative in their approach. It does check in on them to help determine which strategies work.

Moffat says it’s important for companies to foster the unique qualities of their employees when tapping their voices. The approach has paid off for Southwest. "Customers embrace our quirkiness," she says.

Understand that transparency isn’t just a buzzword.

If there’s a situation that Southwest feels its audience should know about, the company will "send out a statement and post it on Twitter and Facebook so people know we’re handling it," Moffat says. "It’s better to be proactive than reactive."

She adds that Southwest strives to respond to as many customers as possible via social media, especially when a customer has a problem or question.