Do you regularly post content for your company online? Are you not sure how writing for the web is different to writing for print? Or how to make an immediate impact on your readers? To learn how to create the most powerful copy for blogs, email marketing and social media, I spoke to Mark Brownlow,…
If I told you that my company “uses its capability in proprietary logic-based machine learning and chemoinformatics (INDDEx™), based on the patented SV-ILP method (Patent number 8126823), to undertake drug discovery programmes for its clients,” would you have a clue what I was talking about – at least before reading that sentence three times? Quite…
This week, LinkedIn announced that it is discontinuing its products and services tab at short notice, effective April 14. Instead, you will have to use Showcase Pages to promote your products. What does this practically mean – and what do you have to do in preparation? Let’s walk you through it. What’s the difference between…
When social media works for your company or organisation, it can be very, very good. When it’s bad – it horrid. Last week Twitter played host to two spectacular train-wrecks. First, here in the UK, we had a government minister tweet a poster explaining that taxes were being reduced on bingo and beer, “to help…
Have Pharma marketers got it all wrong? Instead of trudging uneasily into the world of social media, should they be going back to the future – to email marketing? I’m asking because, according to reports, one of the presentations that generated most excitement at the Eye for Pharma conference in Barcelona this week concerned the…
Do you have a social media strategy, policy, or a content schedule in a file on your desktop, unopened for the past 6 months? Or perhaps you’re slightly more old-fashioned, and they’re in a draw by your desk, gathering dust? If so, you’re not alone. Companies everywhere do all the necessary groundwork for a terrific…
Last month, Diana Mekota, a young American job
seeker tried to connect on LinkedIn with Kelly Blazek, head of the Cleveland
Job Bank. The response from Blazek has now gone viral.
She attacked Mekota, “a total stranger who has
nothing to offer me”, of trying to access her LinkedIn connections, decried “the
sense of entitlement in your generation,” and said that she enjoyed turning
down her request on LinkedIn, as well as her request to join the job bank.
“I suggest you join the other job bank in town,”
she wrote. “Oh wait – there isn’t one.
“You’re welcome for your humility lesson for the
year.”
Inevitably, the one who received the humility
lesson was Blazek herself, as Mekota posted the entire message online, and
Blazek was practically forced into hiding.
Why does some content go viral – while other, possibly equally good content, languishes unnoticed?
For content marketers trying to get their brands known (and loved) on social media, understanding this process is the holy grail. Unfortunately, while it is usually easy to explain in hindsight why some material was wildly successful, it is quite hard to design it with virality guaranteed.
In his new book Contagious: How to Build Word of Mouth in the Digital Age, Jonah Berger, associate professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, nevertheless tries to provide a framework. Ideas which get shared a lot, he claims, contain one or more of the following:
1. Social currency. The product / idea makes people feel that they have special insider knowledge and are ‘cool’.
2. Triggers. There is something in people’s everyday routine or environment that consistently reminds them of your product. (For example, KitKat is now associated with coffee breaks.)
Why do companies start a social media programme? In many cases, it is because they are very aware that their competitors are already doing it, and that they risk falling behind.
And yet, nine times out of 10, they never pay serious attention to what their competitors are actually doing online, beyond the fact that they’re there and are building up a following.
It’s a major mistake, because analysing your competitors’ social media activity can give you enormous insight into what you should be doing yourself. If you’re a little ruthless (which you must be in business!), you can also snatch some of their success.
So how exactly does a competitor analysis help you? Let us count the ways.
1. Understand the opportunities. Before you even launch your social media programme, you need to make sure that there is room for what you have to offer online.
Have you noticed that social media is becoming a lot more visual? Platforms that focus on visuals such as Instagram and Pinterest are becoming far more popular, and on the main platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, the chances of your content getting seen goes up if it contains strong images. Google+, too, displays pictures beautifully as do, of course, Tablets.
So how can Pharma take advantage of this trend – which is really becoming crucial for social media success?
1. Banners. Many of the main platforms allow you to adjust the way your own pages look, starting at the top with banners which can be customised. Make sure that the first thing your visitors see is a powerful image, which conveys what your brand is all about.
Here’s how Shire Pharmaceuticals has done it on LinkedIn:
