From small beginnings…
It’s hard to believe that Social Elements turns six this month. A lot has changed in that time – both in the social media marketing world and in my own life.
Back in 2017, I was getting to grips with running my new social media marketing business and taking on my first few clients. I’d just retrained as a social media consultant – having spent more than a decade working in drug and diagnostic development in the pharmaceutical industry. I loved my job in pharma but, when I had children, the long hours weren’t compatible with family life. So, it was time for a change.
Initially, I worked on my own, offering mainly organic social media marketing for my first few clients. This was, of course, long before the rise of short-form video, TikTok and before paid advertising took off in a big way on the platforms.
Social media marketing has changed out of all recognition since then and my business has also changed. Social Elements is now a fully fledged agency, with a 17-strong team of associates serving a wide variety of clients in the life sciences sector.
With a multi-skilled team, we’re able to offer the full range of marketing services – from social media strategy development to training, SEO, graphic design, content marketing and more.
A growing team
We often work with SMEs at the pre-commercialisation stage as they seek investment to scale. It’s particularly rewarding to support these businesses to build their profile during this important stage in their growth.
Many of our clients initially approach us for help with their social media strategy. This work often expands to other areas, as in the case of a scientific engineering firm we’ve worked with this year. Our client has been so impressed with the results of our strategic work that we’re now helping with website development, design, copywriting and training. This has drawn on the skills of several members of our team – highlighting the value of employing an agency for this type of work.
Supporting employee advocacy
We support many of our clients with LinkedIn marketing. Employee advocacy is an increasingly important part of this work. This is a term used a lot by marketers these days. In a nutshell, employee advocacy is all about empowering employees to spread the word about their company by:
- sharing high-quality content from the company on social media
- providing insights on working for the business
- publishing thought leadership pieces on LinkedIn.
Typically, employees have networks ten times the size of company networks. According to LinkedIn’s own research, the click-through rate (CTR) on a piece of content is twice as high when shared by an employee versus content shared by the company itself.
What’s more, companies with a successful employee advocacy programme are 58% more likely to attract and 20% more likely to retain top talent, as we’ve discussed previously on our blog.
Our team helps clients build an employee advocacy programme – selecting the right people to act as ambassadors and equipping them with the necessary skills to become brand advocates. We support employees with their LinkedIn activity which, in turn, helps the company reach more people and builds trust in their services or products. Learn more about our employee advocacy services.
Finding the right path through industry regulation
In the past 12 months, we’ve also helped clients develop their own social media policies. This is now essential for companies in the life sciences sector following new industry guidelines on social media use from the PMCPA (Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority), the IFPMA (International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations) and EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations).
Social media marketing can be a minefield for companies operating in the life sciences sector. There are many grey areas in the guidelines which are open to interpretation. We can advise clients on the guidelines and the related ABPI Code of Practice – which governs the promotion of medicines in the UK.
Alongside this work, we’re also supporting clients with social media training – from introductory sessions for beginners right through to LinkedIn masterclasses. Our training is all bespoke. We tailor the training precisely to meet the needs of our clients and their employees – assessing their skills and gaps in their knowledge to achieve the best results.
This year, we’ve delivered training for several life sciences clients but we’ve also provided training outside our traditional niche areas.
Back in the summer, we ran two training sessions for the British Property Federation – a membership body which represents the real-estate sector. This included a one-day masterclass on X/Twitter and LinkedIn for the communications team and a shorter social media training session for the wider workforce.
Building strong partnerships
This year has also seen the launch of our new partnerships scheme involving other businesses working in the life sciences industries. Through this scheme, our clients can access a network of trusted suppliers who offer complementary services to our own in areas such as animation, video production and PR. So, if you have expertise in these areas and you’d be interested in partnering with us, please get in touch.
Watch this space…
Looking ahead, a key focus will be developing marketing strategies for our clients and also reviewing existing strategies. With digital marketing evolving at such a rapid pace, it’s vital to revisit and update your strategy regularly.
We’ll also be launching a Google Ads service for clients. Google Ads are a great way for businesses to build their visibility further. But pay-per-click advertising is notoriously complex and also costly if you don’t set the ads up in the right way. So, we’ll be providing a managed service in this area – further expanding our digital marketing offering to clients in the life sciences sector and beyond. Keep an eye on our social media feed and website for further details.
For Social Elements, 2023 has been a year of development and refinement of our services. Looking back over the past few years, it’s encouraging to see how far we’ve come from small beginnings. There are lots of exciting developments on the horizon for 2024 and we can’t wait to get started.
Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and New Year!
