Introduction
Social media is a free and powerful advertising tool that, when used to its full advantage, can reach millions of users every month. Social media allows for quick dissemination of information and connection to customers, making it an attractive tool for businesses.
“47% of scientists use social media to follow new discoveries and discuss science.”
With many large life science corporations and journals regularly updating their social media pages, it’s a convenient way to stay up-to-date with new research and industry news. It even allows scientists around the world to connect and collaborate with one another, an essential part of scientific discovery as observed during the Covid-19 pandemic. “The ability to build networks of social media followers has helped foster communication and collaboration between scientists regardless of their geographical location.” A 2015 study found that scientists associated with the AAAS use social media to follow new discoveries and discuss science. Scientists are even using social media as a tool to inspire their research.
Choosing the right social media platform for your business
Here’s an overview of the top social media platforms for companies in the life science sector:
LinkedIn will turn 20 later this year making it the oldest social media platform still in use today. It’s the most widely utilised social media platform for businesses. It ranked the number one social media platform for legitimacy, security and community.
Long-form educational content, is best suited to LinkedIn because users aren’t restricted by post length, they can link to external websites and this is generally what your audience expect to see on this platform.
- 15.5 million users in hospitals and healthcare
- 89% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for lead generation
- Over 120,000 academic institutions have joined LinkedIn
Pivotal Scientific’s opinion: LinkedIn is an excellent platform to share articles, job vacancies, company updates and information about products and services. LinkedIn has integrated newsletters and occasionally gives out free ad credits which can be used to help your posts reach a wider audience.
We encourage all of our clients to be active on both their company and individual LinkedIn profiles by consistently posting and engaging with other accounts within their community.
With the average adult spending 4-6 minutes per day on Twitter, this platform is for fast dissemination of information. Twitter content needs to be eye-catching and straight to the point, especially since tweets are limited to 280 characters. Thought, Twitter has announced that it will be rolling out a long-form text sharing this year.
- 82% of B2B content marketers are active on Twitter
- 79% of Twitter users follow brands
- 25-34 year olds are the most active age group on Twitter worldwide
Pivotal Scientific’s opinion: The content that performs well on Twitter is related to current affairs and trends. 48% of Twitter users visit Twitter for news. Keep Tweets short and to the point for maximum effect.
Mastodon
Fear over Twitter’s stability after Elon Musk took over caused a large influx of users to a social media platform called Mastodon. The main difference between Twitter and Mastadon is that Mastadon is decentralised i.e. there is no one server, company or person running it.
When you sign up to Mastadon, you have to join a server called an “Instance”. Each instance is independently run by the person that created it and they are responsible for deciding its policies, content and moderation. Some instances are general and anyone can join them. Others have a specific topic of focus.
Pivotal Scientific’s opinion: Mastodon is less user-friendly that LinkedIn and Twitter. It can be difficult to navigate and there are very few “Instances” for the life science community. That being said, if Mastodon proves to be a success, being one of the first life science companies on the platform could be an excellent way to grow brand awareness.
Tip: We don’t recommend running more than 2 social media channels unless your company has a dedicated social media team. It’s better to have one great social media account with consistent posts rather than juggling multiple accounts.
The all-important-question: How do I increase engagement?
One thing is true across all social platforms. Posts that spark a conversation or encourage thought perform the best. This is because people are more likely to interact with and spend more time on the post. The more interaction a post receives, the more algorithms will favour it and push it out to a further audience. That’s why you’ll often find that thoughtful posts sharing personal experiences perform well, whereas sales posts often do not.
As a life science company marketing to researchers, clinicians, distributors and decision-makers, you need to understand why your audience is using social media. The content you produce should be tailored to provide something valuable to your audience. If your target audience are lab researchers your content should be informative and educated, they may lose interest in your posts if they are sales driven even if they consume your products. Think about educating your audience on how your products and services will benefit their research or talk about research that other scientists have carried out using your products.
We know that social media isn’t for everyone. That’s why we designed a digital marketing service don’t have the time or passion to invest in building an internet presence. Our Digital Marketing team can help you decide the best social media platform for your company and assist you with a social media strategy. Like all services offered by Pivotal Scientific, our marketing services are customisable and tailored to your individual and business needs.
Contact us to grow your company’s online presence: info@pivotalscientific.com
