In a conversation I had with Putman Media’s Erin Hallstrom a couple weeks ago, she talked about the Influential Women in Manufacturing program she runs, a business podcast she puts together and hosts (Food for Thought), a personal podcast, a book she’s writing, plus all her daily SEO and digital duties, etc.   How can you do all these things, I asked?   “I’m training to be a lockdown Olympian, doing all these things,” she said, both proudly and with a bit of incredulousness. When her sister got married in July, she was maid of honor, and for the two days she was taking off, her boss made her promise not to check in. “I wrote a blogpost about how anxious I was for being off for two days,” she said.   Erin, you’re not alone. A new Harvard Business School study says that we are working longer hours with more emails and meetings than ever before. Not surprised, I take it. Okay, let’s de ...

One of my favorite SIPA member features continues to be MedLearn Media's Compliance Question of the Week. There are weekly questions in six categories: Cardiology, Laboratory, Pharmacy, Radiology, Respiratory and General. So this does take some upkeep. There's also a search function—"Looking for an answer?"—a Compliance Question Archive, and a simple SIGN UP button.

We've talked a lot here about the importance of building communities within your audience. I was just reading a press release from the National Fastpitch (Softball) Coaches Association announcing the fourth straight year they're doing their Power of One membership drive. The campaign has resulted in more than 450 new members.

Remember, for those of a certain age, the commercials where the person holding the chocolate and the person holding the peanut butter collide and a new, magical concoction was created.

One of my favorite SIPA member features is MedLearn Media's Compliance Question of the Week. "Get answers to tough questions relevant to your specialty." They have six categories, each including a question: Cardiology, Laboratory, Pharmacy, Radiology, Respiratory and General. So this does take some upkeep.

Jim Fowler, who started Jigsaw in 2004 and sold it to Salesforce in 2010 for $175 million, once told us that what creates value in a company is an active and engaged user base. "Once you have that, you can leverage it in ways you can't even think of at the beginning," said Fowler, now CEO of Owler, a crowd-sourced information platform.