COVID has disrupted everything.

It’s made reaching customers more difficult. It’s made companies rethink how to deploy their human and capital resources to rise above the noise and find a smart pathway forward. And it’s made marketing teams more nimble to educate and engage with customers where they’re now spending more time than ever: on social media.

For many life sciences companies targeting HCPs and hospital executives, that social media platform is LinkedIn. Now more than ever, you’ll need to put more effort into being a helpful and understanding partner in a community rather than simply a product or service provider. This means not only spending time educating and entertaining your customers but also engaging with them and helping them have meaningful interactions with their peers.

One of our key jobs is to keep you in the know and on top of your game. That’s why we’re highlighting two new LinkedIn features you should be taking advantage of to build relationships with customers and your company’s visibility, which is crucial right now.

GMM's Recommendations

Live streaming events:

• Reconnect with your customers and community with LinkedIn's recently launched live streaming events platform that combines existing resources such as Pages, Events, and Live.
• With healthcare events and summits being postponed or canceled indefinitely, live streaming events recreate the powerful brand associations that customers are accustomed to. This is a highly effective tool to bring together your target audience in a real-time setting from anywhere in the world.
• Companies can promote events to Page followers and send direct invitations to connections and they also can reach out to target audiences outside of their network with paid targeting and ads.

Impact

• LinkedIn Live broadcasts generate 23x more comments and 6x more reactions per post than native video. With this new integration, all of that related discussion will be hosted on the Events page, helping to create a more all-encompassing event solution. And once your event is over, the video content will be added to the Videos tab on your company page, so you can keep it on hand for future reference.
• You can use clips from the live streaming session to create ads or marketing messages on other platforms, repurposing the content.

LinkedIn polls:

• They're back! LinkedIn has reinstated polls which they removed from LinkedIn groups in 2014. Polls are a great way for your audience to respond to your burning questions quickly and with minimal effort, making engagement more likely.
• LinkedIn polls can be shared with your connections (subject to LinkedIn's algorithm), specific groups, or to any specific people that you're connected to. Polls are being rolled out worldwide gradually so if you don't see the feature yet, you will soon.
• Both you and any recipients of your LinkedIn poll will be able to view real-time results of how many people have responded to your post from the time it’s active until it comes to an end.

Impact

• Listening is one of the most important things a brand can do online. Polls may be the best way to understand the attitudes and behaviors of your audience and peers—and they’re quick and easy to conduct.
• When you give your audience the opportunity to voice their opinion, it strengthens the relationship with the brand as they feel a higher level of satisfaction.
• Use polls to educate your audience and show thought-leadership. For example, use polling to educate your audience about an industry problem or health issue, then link the poll to relevant articles and other awareness campaigns.

If you’re still looking for more ways to attract, sustain, and engage your audience, check out, “Rethinking Sales Drivers in the Coronavirus Era and Beyond”. Stay tuned for future In The Know issues to help you stay on top of industry trends.

Grey Matter Marketing is a full-service, award-winning PR and marketing agency working exclusively with healthcare companies. We leverage brain science to ignite action, change behavior, and create brand loyalty. We deliver the expertise and experience so clients can make better business decisions and see better business results. 

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