Social media has become the backbone of digital marketing. Online platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and more have disrupted many industries of today, enabling businesses to increase their reach and revenue. The life sciences industry, like any other, has also reaped the benefits of social platform outreach.
As of now social media is powering major and small businesses by housing more than 3.5 billion people, recorded back in 2019. In addition, the users have been observed to spend at least 3 hours or less on social media every day. Meaning, that you have access to a significant audience, whether scientists, marketers, an average consumer, or other life sciences representatives and more – you will find everyone here. There is a reason this century is called the ‘Digital Era.’
Although social media has become a significant part of entertainment for the millennials and Gen Z, it also plays a crucial role in sharing and spreading necessary knowledge and building communities globally. Contrary to the widespread assumption of science taking a back seat on social media in content consumption and creation, it is false. The reality is that social media has become the fastest way to obtain and share information, and there is a vast amount of audience that is interested in life sciences and many of its disciplines.
One can define social media as the marketing hub of today. When you launch a brand, you cannot miss out on the opportunity to introduce your new venture over the socials where the majority of your online consumers and shoppers reside. The same goes for life sciences companies, be it life sciences consulting firms or life sciences firms developing new products, their existence will be left unacknowledged unless they market themselves on digital media.
These days, it could take one viral video or TikTok for your brand to become an overnight sensation. However, keeping all the facts and figures regarding social media marketing in check, there is still a question that lingers as to how social media is vital for life science marketers?
Social Media’s Importance for Life Sciences Marketers
73% of the marketers find social media marketing to be the most effective for their business, one way or another. More importantly, reports have found that a third of internet users use social media to follow brands, keep up with their new merchandise, their sales, and so on.
Of course, it is of utmost importance that you choose the right platform. Not every social media application will have a target audience. This is why making sure you do your research as a marketer before investing time, resources, and money into social media campaigns is a great deal – it sets the foundation for all the work that comes later.
What Platforms Work Best for Life Sciences Social Media Marketing?
Social media has become more than just an entertainment platform. It is a place to nurture communities, build meaningful relationships and partnerships. This is why you will find communities of enthusiastic scientists, life sciences consultants, biotech engineers, and many more communicating, sharing, and appreciating each other.
The platforms that life sciences markers can tap into are mainly Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. These channels help build an engaging and learned community, including biotech professionals, business people, customers, life sciences researchers, and representatives. Moreover, these platforms, in particular, enable sharing of innovative ideas, developments, resources, and more.
How about we go through each of the platforms in more detail?
LinkedIn: More than Just for Business Promotion
LinkedIn houses more than 660 Million users that are overgrowing. As for businesses, more than 30 Million businesses are representing themselves on this platform. This includes life sciences firms and biotech companies as well. You can expect many concerned individuals on LinkedIn as well that includes researchers, scientists, engineers, and marketers. A survey conducted by Naturejobs can testify to this, as it found that 41% of scientists and engineers use LinkedIn to check if they were approached.
LinkedIn has proven to be the best resource for this task when it comes to generating a lead. Many marketers find LinkedIn to be an excellent place for product and services branding and, more importantly, for reaching out to the targeted audience.
All in all, LinkedIn has great potential to drive traffic or users to your website and any respective landing pages. Also, this platform has also proven to be leading in visitor-to-lead conversions, with a whopping 2.74% conversion rate to its fame.
Twitter: Quick and Fast Marketing
The Twitter ecosystem is fast-paced. It would help if you learned the language and art of effective tweeting and content generation specifically for the crowd that used this platform. Why? An average time spent on LinkedIn per session lasts for 6 minutes, while on Twitter, it only lasts for 4 minutes max. This fact is owing to the short lifetime of tweets that lies between 15 to 20 minutes.
You will find communities belonging to all sorts of niches, having discussions and elaborate debates. Scientists mainly use Twitter for work-related content postings and discussions. With 330 million active users and 134 million daily active users, Twitter has life sciences communities actively generating content. It has become more important for marketers to engage the target audience rather than just posting content for their knowledge and attention.
Facebook: Multi-Purpose Platform
Facebook is mainly used for non-promotional purposes, usually to stay connected with your friends and family. However, Facebook has, in recent times, become a platform for small and big businesses to run their pages and generate sales – 90 million small businesses to be precise.
So, if you have a decent following, you can drive traffic to your website through the right content.
These three social media platforms have proven to be game-changers for the life sciences industry and marketers. If you are wondering how to market your brand properly, then here are some tips that can give you a kickstart.
Social Media Crack: How to Become a Professional at Social Media Marketing
Of course, you wouldn’t become a professional overnight, and like anything, this will also take experience and trials. However, there are basic things you can get a grasp on. Once you are laying down the foundation right, you have stepped the foot in the right direction.
So, what to keep in mind?
- Plan a solid social media strategy backed with competitive and market research.
- Decide on what tools to use for social media, along with timestamps for posts.
- Keep user experience in mind.
- Keep track of your post’s performance and engagement through analytics and tweak along the way.
Build a Strong Social Media Strategy. One of the mistakes that I, as a beginner, made was to dive into social media like a regular user without any strategy or plan in place. I was under the impression that if I post with the right hashtags, it will reach the right audience. That proved to be wrong.
Everything, from the right strategy complementing the company’s objectives, right CTAs, to the right timing, matters gravely. Always remember that content is powerful – when used correctly, it can lead brand awareness and conversions in the right direction.
Make sure:
- Your social media pitches are not blatant sale pitches.
- Make sure you have a point of relevancy with your target audience.
- Have your social calendar sorted with proper timestamps signaling when to post.
- When it comes to life sciences, fact-check your posts and ensure every detail is correct and authentic.
Decide on tools. There are so many tools available for planning and scheduling your social media posts. Moreover, some give you an overview of the type of content to promote and which platform to post it on. These helpful insights from a tool cut off considerable time off your schedule, enabling you to overlook the possibilities and plan quickly.
Among the many tools that are at your disposal, our top suggestions are:
Keep user-experience in mind. Everything and anything that concerns your brand and audience should be curated, keeping user-experience in mind.
Make sure:
- You are posting content that allows users to participate.
- Keep the right balance between videos, images, and textual posts. Keep track of which format is popular with your audience and bank on that. For example, statistics show that 64% of Americans are more likely to buy a product after watching a video.
- Keep mobile compatibility, attention spans, and visuals in consideration for optimal user-experience.
- Get creative and try something that other life sciences competitors haven’t done.
Track your performance and tweak along the way. This is one of the most crucial parts of social media strategy. You need to make sure you have the tools to measure and progress of your live posts. Once you have all the metrics down, you can analyze them and make the necessary changes accordingly to ensure better results.
Lastly,
Enjoy the entire experience. Do adequate research and learn what attracts your audience, from the format, style of images to the tone communicated within the captions – every little detail matters.
