There’s no question that having a presence on social media is imperative for any company, whether B2B or B2C. Social media offers so many opportunities to target specific audiences, from investors to doctors and patients to potential strategic partners. Here are a few ways healthcare and life sciences companies can enhance their social experiences.
1. Stay on Message
Keeping your posts related to your company and industry is key. Your followers aren’t going to be interested in you straying from your content. Even if you attract new followers by talking about topics that are not relevant, when you try to get back on message, those new followers will feel disenchanted and likely leave. By staying on message, you can be sure that whatever audience you grow is authentic and likely to stick around.
If you’re an oncology company, talk about your own work and the cancer industry. Work in mental health? Stay there. Not only is it more relevant to you and your prospective followers, but that’s where your expertise is, and where you can provide the most valuable and original content.
2. Post Consistently and Thoughtfully
Social media platforms support pages with a steady cadence of content, so be sure to post consistently. Additionally, posting frequently ensures that you stay top of mind among your followers. While there is definitely a point where it’s too much (please don’t post five times a day), having posts once to twice daily is optimal, with one to three times per week being the minimum.
And what you post is even more important. In addition to posting about your own clinical trials, case studies or products, you have an opportunity to elevate your voice as a thought leader. Follow the news most relevant to your business and share your thoughts, questions and ideas tied to those news stories and trends.
All of the social media platforms provide more exposure to visual posts, whether with images or videos. Even if the platforms didn’t give an extra push to strong, visual content, viewers are naturally drawn to images and videos. Trying to read through walls of text can be overbearing and seeing a video or image in your feed immediately breaks up the monotony and attracts the eye. Think of posts that jump out to you on your personal social media pages when drawing up your company’s posts.
In healthcare, it can often be difficult to find imagery that is suitable for social audiences, and even if you find some, you’ll burn through them quickly if you’re posting consistently. Get creative with producing visuals. Whether it’s an infographic telling the story of one of your products, headshots from your team, or even testimonial videos from clients, there is always something to show your followers. Many articles you link to will auto-populate with an image, in which case there’s no need to add your own.
4. Focus Your Efforts on Platforms Where Your Audience Lives
If you’re trying to target everybody, you’re likely targeting nobody. In order to find any kind of valuable traction, you need to establish who your audience is, and cater your approach around what they want. Are you trying to reach patients? Doctors? Investors? Potential partners? Reporters? Do you want them in a specific geographic location? How old is your target audience? These are all critical questions to answer before you even begin posting so that you can determine the best content, the best platforms, and the best habits for you to adopt to get them hooked on your content.
5. Think Outside the Box
With so many different businesses and campaigns desperately trying to grab the attention of your audience, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. Instead of doing exactly what competitors are doing, try thinking of your own creative tactics to attract followers.
There are nearly an infinite number of tools provided on social media. From photo galleries and basic text posts, all the way to live broadcasting and operating polls, there has never been more you can do on each platform. And these platforms are only getting more sophisticated. Don’t be afraid to experiment with all of the tools available to you. Collaborate with larger partners on live streams to gain exposure, produce your own videos or run promotions and contests. Don’t rule any idea out.
6. Don’t be afraid to put money behind your page
The days of growing a business page solely through organic exposure are over. Even if there weren’t thousands upon thousands of businesses clamoring for the attention of social audiences, social media platforms have already begun to limit the amount of organic exposure that businesses can gain. This is all in a push to promote advertising, and if you want attention on their platforms, you need to play by their rules.
On top of that, spending money on fresh and high-quality content will help your pages retain visitors that are drawn in from the ads. While the old appeal of social media was a free platform for exposure, that’s an impossible dream at this point. Whether it’s promoting your page for a likes campaign or investing money into fresh content, a successful social media page has money behind it. But don’t get scared – a small budget can go a long way on social platforms.
Intrigued and have more questions? Contact us here and we’ll be happy to brainstorm with you or answer any questions you may have.