Marketing 360: Designing a Social Media Strategy

A social media strategy is essential in a highly-regulated industry such as the life sciences. A smart strategy aligns social media goals with overall business objectives. But where to begin? In this Chemunity post we break down five simple steps to laying out a social media strategy.

Step 1: Establish goals
Establishing goals first helps guide the rest of your social media strategy. Focus on creating concrete goals that are relevant and measurable, such as increasing website traffic by 50%. Avoid goals that focus on vanity metrics such as number of followers.

Example: We will increase the average amount of time spent on our website by ____%

Step 2: Define your target audience
Identify your customer. What is their industry? Location? Company size? Title? What publications do they read? Defining your target audience will help you determine what kind of content to publish.

Example: Our target audience is (title) in the (industry) looking to (desired action).

Step 3: Compare yourself to competitors
Take the time to complete a social media audit on your competitors. Look at their mix of content and post schedule, as well as what influencers they are interacting with.

Example: Compare ownership, branding, content mix, follower engagement and post frequency

Step 4: Determine which social platforms to use
What social media platforms will best reach your target audience? In the life sciences, we found LinkedIn is used by 63% of scientists professionally. Explore your options, and decide how frequently you will post as well.

Example: We will post to the following channels this frequently: X channel / X times a day

Step 5: Decide on the type of content you will be publishing
Think about the type of posts you wish to create and how will you execute. What do you need to learn? Who is responsible?

Follow the 80/20 rule: share interesting or entertaining information 80% of the time, then sell yourself and your services the remaining 20%.

Example: The type of original content that we will create and post is:

Once you’ve established your social media strategy, measure your progress and align your analytics with your goals. Still need help? Get in touch with us today to find out how we can maximize your digital strategy!

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This post is part of Chempetitive Group’s Marketing 360 series. These articles offer a high-level analysis of a very specific science marketing area, delivering a smart overview in just 360 words.