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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nFueled by the legendary\nstories of startups from humble beginnings, solitary entrepreneurs are\nportrayed against a backdrop of dimly-lit garages, working on their inventions\nto unleash to the world. In reality successful entrepreneurs rarely operate\nthis way. Innovations require the knowledge and focus of their creators but\ntranslating them into viable businesses requires an entire team of people with\ncomplementary skills and functions. Interacting with people whether within or\nbeyond the team – aka networking – is essential at nearly every step of the\nbusiness building process. Some would even claim that your network <\/em>will ultimately determine your net worth<\/em>. Online platforms, connectivity, and mobile tech have\nextended what used to be face-to-face interactions to remarkable levels.\nRegardless of industry or niche social networking has changed from being\noptional to now being mandatory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At nearly 7.5 billion\npeople living on our planet as of this writing,[1]<\/sup><\/a>\nhumans have never been more connected. More than half of the global population\nuse the internet and approximately 3.2 billion people are currently on social\nmedia.[2]<\/sup><\/a>[3]<\/sup><\/a>\nThis trend will continue and will continue to transform how we live and conduct\nbusiness at a pace never before witnessed. This global connectivity has created\nunprecedented opportunities by linking people and resources beyond physical or\neconomic barriers. For entrepreneurs in the healthcare space this translates to\nnew, evolving paradigms for funding, team-building, licensing, prototyping, and\nconducting clinical trials. What\u2019s even more incredible is the dramatic\nreduction in cost to gain this massive degree of connectivity. Even\nsolopreneurs can now have a global presence at minimal or no cost through\nsocial networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So how can medical entrepreneurs\nand startups use social networks? Platforms of social media titans such as\nFacebook, LinkedIn, Twitter can be leveraged for engagement, recruitment, and\nmarketing. The greatest values of these large networks are the sheer number of\nusers, targeted search capabilities, and sharing, all contributing to the\nnetwork effect.[4]<\/sup><\/a>\nFinding people with common interests or associates are intrinsically built into\nthese platforms and through active engagement, your network organically grows.\nPaid advertisements provide a rapid way to connect with even more people; this\nprovides a cost-effective way to target marketing if your company reaches that\nstage. Less popular platforms such as Google+ and Reddit, when used creatively,\noffers tremendous opportunities to find like-minded people in potentially\nsynergistic niches. Beyond the default engine of Google, Twitter Search[5]<\/sup><\/a>\nis simple but powerful in finding trends in any industry or topic and to\nconnect with active users in their respective fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social media platforms also\nallow for direct engagement with patients with specific diseases or conditions.\nThis is an invaluable source for patient recruitment in clinical studies or to\nfind evangelists for specific health causes such as Michael J. Fox and\nParkinson\u2019s disease[6]<\/sup><\/a>.\nCreative entrepreneurs can explore potential new clinical indications or\nrepurposing of technologies developed for entirely different applications,\ngenerating new leads or ideas formed at the intersection of diverse\ndisciplines. Social engagements can reveal key problems through unbridled\nopinions and discussions of other healthcare professionals or patients which\nmay lead to opportunities for developing solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Industry specific networks\nsuch as Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE) should also be leveraged to\nmake connections that can ultimately lead to partnerships and expanded\nopportunities. Crowdsourcing platforms have further expanded social networks,\nchanging how we raise awareness of causes, raise funds for projects, and how we\nconduct research. The explosive growth of big data analysis, machine learning\n(artificial intelligence), decentralization of data networks through\nblockchains, are rapidly changing our models of value creation and monetization\nto create new ecosystems. All of these transformative technologies require and\nare accelerated by social networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Never before in history\nhave entrepreneurs have had the ability to connect with other people on a\nglobal scale. Social networks expand our basic human need to communicate and in\ndoing so, creates new ways to innovate. It is indeed a wonderful time to be an\nentrepreneur, especially for those in healthcare. [1]<\/sup><\/a> https:\/\/www.census.gov\/popclock\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n [2]<\/sup><\/a>\nhttp:\/\/www.itu.int\/en\/ITU-D\/Statistics\/Documents\/statistics\/2018\/Individuals_Internet_2000-2016%20Jan2018.xls<\/p>\n\n\n\n [3]<\/sup><\/a>\nhttps:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/617136\/digital-population-worldwide\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n [4]<\/sup><\/a>\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Metcalfe%27s_law<\/p>\n\n\n\n [5]<\/sup><\/a> https:\/\/twitter.com\/search-home<\/p>\n\n\n\n [6]<\/sup><\/a> https:\/\/www.michaeljfox.org\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Daniel Lee Fueled by the legendary stories of startups from humble beginnings, solitary entrepreneurs are portrayed against a backdrop of dimly-lit garages, working on their inventions to unleash to the world. In reality successful entrepreneurs rarely operate this way. Innovations require the knowledge and focus of their creators but translating them into viable businesses… Read more »<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sopenet.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sopenet.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sopenet.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sopenet.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sopenet.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1596"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sopenet.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1615,"href":"https:\/\/sopenet.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1596\/revisions\/1615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sopenet.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sopenet.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sopenet.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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