Social media should be a fundamental part of every biopharma organization’s marketing strategy. Below are some tips that your company can use to ensure that you are utilizing this marketing channel effectively.
Utilize the Right Channels
Some organizations feel that they must have a presence across every social media channel in order to garner the maximum level of exposure. This can be detrimental, though, especially if you do not have a dedicated social media marketing department as a lot of time is spent creating and optimizing content specifically for those platforms. Instead, stick to the platforms where your target audience spends most of their time. In a biopharma context, this is typically LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. If your brand is active on other social media channels, then it may be worth auditing its performance to see if spending your time and resources on it is the correct decision if you are receiving low levels of engagement.
Humanize Your Brand
Putting faces to your brand can help convey emotion to your audience instead of being seen by your target audience as a faceless organization. One way this can be done is through your corporate imagery. Below are some examples of big pharma companies using human faces in their LinkedIn cover photos to help add additional depth to their branding.
Another method to help humanize your brand is by showcasing your employees in your social media content. This can be quotes, stories, or interviews with employees spanning all departments of your organization. For example, Lonza has an ongoing series where different employees speak about their role in the organization, such as the one below with the Head of Regulatory Affairs for their Small Molecules department:
This form of employee advocacy can help your brand resonate on a more emotional level with your target audience, as well as be beneficial for your overall image as an organization to work for if you are looking for new hires.
Use Visuals
Using images and videos in tandem with your social posts allows you to grab the audience’s attention. If you are sharing an article from your website, an accompanying image summarizing the content or with a similar call to action can prove much more beneficial than just standalone text, as demonstrated with this example from AstraZeneca:
Video can be utilized to tell stories or showcase other aspects of your company to social media users. In the last couple of years, there has been an increased shift towards short-form videos where the content is easy to digest and consumers feel like they are making less of an investment with their time if it is less than a minute long.
Repurpose Other Content
Content repurposing is reformatting your content for your particular social media channels as well as enabling the content to be evergreen for your ongoing marketing efforts. One way this can be achieved is by repurposing webinars by shortening them to the main points or by each individual topic section, allowing you to have greater additional, informative content that can be shared across your social media channels. The same can apply to workshops or presentations given by members of your organization.
Content repurposing doesn’t just have to be reserved for videos. Workshops can be created into their own individual articles on your website to aid with your SEO strategy, or infographics can be created to enhance your visual presence on social media.