A business page on social media? Create a clear and effective strategy.

Define a clear tone-of-voice

If ten people tell the same story, you will most likely get ten different versions. This is also how it works when creating social media posts. To create unity in your posts, it is necessary to formulate a tone-of-voice in advance. Especially if multiple content creators are involved in the business page. The tone of voice is not what you say, but how you say it. Drawing up a clear tone-of-voice offers several advantages, such as:

• It gives your brand a personality.
• It differentiates your brand from the competition.
• It inspires trust among your target audience.
• It creates consistency in your messages.

A tone-of-voice consists of several aspects, for example:

• Does the language use have to be very formal? We advise not to be too formal. This fits better with the standards on social media.
• The use of technical terms. Should the content be understandable for everyone or only for medical specialists? Are the messages serious and businesslike or is there also room for humor? 
• Using emojis. Emojis are used to enhance a piece of text in a fun way.

A tone-of-voice can differ per channel. For example, a company page on LinkedIn often radiates a formal, corporate identity. The tone-of-voice on this channel is usually business-like and serious. This is in contrast to Instagram, where communication is often more light-hearted.

Design a recognizable visual style

Billions of people post a message on social media every day. This flood of content makes it increasingly difficult for companies to be visible. In order to stand out and create recognition, it is a good idea for a company to develop a visual style. There are several parts on which you can base a visual style.

Image use

The use of images is very important on social media. Messages with text only score significantly less. They are seen less and receive fewer likes and reactions. With the right images you can create a brand experience that matches your company. Provide a professional look by taking photos with a good camera. Of course you can also use (free) stock photos. With stock photos you run the risk that other organizations use the same material. Each social media platform has different image size specifications, so pay attention to this when creating social media posts.

Colors

Many companies have a house style with one or a few colors that are reflected in all communications. By adding color elements, such as accents or filters to social media posts, you make the visuals match the house style. At Medical Digitals, for example, the color purple is part of the corporate identity. All our LinkedIn posts therefore contain a purple filter. the messages are therefore more recognizable for our followers.

Figure 1: Medical Digitals’ LinkedIn post.

Logo

Make sure your logo is always visible when you post a message. This is the element that is recognizable for your target audience. Your followers will see at a glance that the content comes from you. A logo can be visualized in several ways. Many companies set their logo as a profile picture. This way the logo is always visible when a message is posted. The logo can also be added to visuals. For example in the left or right corner (see figure 1).

Text

Often the visual element of a social media post is the first element followers watch. Some people even skip the text of posts when scrolling through their news feed. You can therefore choose to also add text in the image. For example, Novartis has designed a visual style where there is room for text in the visual. This increases the chance that the posts’ message will come across well to the target audience.

Figure 2: Novartis LinkedIn post.

To ensure consistency, always use the same font. Most companies have a standard font that is reflected in all communications.

Create content themes and ensure consistency

A content theme is the umbrella name for social media posts that fall within a specific theme. The development of different content themes ensures variety, consistency and recognisability in the content. In addition, it provides a framework for creating social media messages. Examples of content themes are:

• History of the organization.
• Information about products or projects.
• Stories behind employees.
• Atmospheric impressions on the work floor.
• Breaking in with news and current topics.

Social media is no science. It’s not that you will find the formula one day and suddenly see a lot of results. You will only see results if you post content on a consistent and regular basis. Set goals about how often you post content and how you will connect the target audience to your channel. Creating a content calendar is a very popular way to organize which content you will post in a certain period of time.

Stay in control with a social media protocol

What makes social media unique compared to other channels is the interactivity. As a company, you are not only the sender of information. Followers have the option to respond to messages or ask questions. In some cases, this is a reason for Life Sciences & Health companies to not use social media. Because what to do with difficult questions? And possible reports of side effects? We understand that there is initially uncertainty about this. At Medical Digitals, we have experience in drawing up, implementing and optimizing social media strategies for pharmaceutical companies that do take the step towards social media. An important success factor within such a strategy is a clear, extensive and well-deployed protocol. A social media protocol describes how to act in certain situations. It guarantees that everything in these situations will go according to the agreed rules. For example, a social media protocol within the pharmaceutical sector relates to how to respond to a pharmacist’s social media channels. How should a community manager report a side effect, for example?

In short: a social media protocol virtually removes all uncertainty when using social media. Everything is drawn up in advance, so that a community manager is not faced with any surprises. Do you want to know more about the social media protocol and what it can mean for your company? Do not hesitate to contact us.

Instantly generate a large reach with advertising

It takes a long time for an organization to build a community with many followers. That is why we advise to promote messages on social media consistently. Advertising is a way to reach a large part of your target group in the short term. In addition to a large reach, advertising ensures faster growth of the business page. Medical Digitals uses a technique that makes it possible to target even more specifically than the regular options on, for example, Twitter or LinkedIn. We call this technique hypertargeting.

Hypertargeting

Many healthcare professionals are active on Twitter. They like to use this channel to obtain information within their own field. They often follow Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) within their industry to keep up to date with new developments. Medical Digitals uses a technique by which we map out which KOLs, companies and news media are followed by a HCP on Twitter. With this method it is possible to determine with great certainty to which profession this person belongs. The technique is separate from the segmentation possibilities that social media channels themselves offer. We explain this with an example within oncology:

• One person follows FDA Oncology, Society of Surgical Oncology and Oncology Advance; three news sites about oncology;
• This person follows two pharmaceutical companies active in the field of oncology;
• This person also follows Gordon Freeman and Paolo Ascierto; two prominent oncologists;
• Finally, this person follows other people with a similar area of ​​interest.

On the basis of this data, we conclude that this person is not only interested in oncology, but is most likely active in this sector. In this way, Medical Digitals creates lists of relevant persons that we manually integrate within the “advertising interface” of Twitter or LinkedIn. This way we reach very specific HCP target groups on the channels where they are active.

Medical Digitals has extensive experience in setting up business pages for organizations in the Life Sciences & Health sector. Do you have questions about this blog or do you need help setting up or optimizing a business page on social media? Don’t hesitate to contact us!