You can never have too many links
As strategic communicators in the digital age, it is no secret that a social media strategy continues to play a vital role in every communications plan, including for our international healthcare clients here at Consilium. Historically with social media, hashtags were the new #rage to increase engagement and visibility amongst other users on platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter. As both platforms continue to grow and compete with each other and other platforms, they unsurprisingly also continue to evolve in the way they push content to users and to encourage interconnectivity.
Algorithms are the silent beasts behind social platforms that learn user behaviour to better push content that it believes the user will enjoy. In recent times, algorithms have begun to change and favour the tagging of profiles in content over the use of hashtags (in regards to pushing your content to others’ timelines – even if they aren’t connected with or following you.) This change allows individuals to be shown content where profiles/companies they’re following are tagged in. You might think, “Woah this is crazy and goes against everything I’ve ever done for social media in the past five years.” Well, think about it for a moment – when was the last time you actually clicked on a hashtag to look for related posts or how often you check the same hashtag for new related posts?
To take advantage of these algorithmic changes, it is worth considering the following when drafting social posts for yourself, your company, or your clients:
- Can you tag your colleagues/the company’s team members?
- Can you tag any external organisations, including trade bodies, academic institutions and professional bodies, or partners related to the social post?
- Can you tag other external but related people or organisations such as patient groups or members of your Scientific Advisory Board?
To further maximise linking efforts, if there is a post from another profile to share, please do! – this can be seen in the example below:
Further to the example, please see below an announcement from the Consilium LinkedIn page where pages that have been tagged have been highlighted in yellow to maximise its reach and visibility and highlighted in green are additions that could increase visibility:
When should we post from an individual page or from the Company page?
The tale as old as (social media) time, there are many benefits from posting from an individual’s page/profile first then sharing from the company page. Below are a few examples:
- A thought-leadership piece authored by a member of management
- A blog post (which can be posted directly on LinkedIn or shared via the website)
- A vlog featuring the individual
- If the individual will be attending or presenting at an event/conference
- Anything that the individual will be/can be named
By doing this, not only are you linking and connecting your posts to maximise reach, but you get the added benefit of adding the face behind a company and a post; a human connection that (ironically) people seek on social media.
The opposite can also be done; particularly if it is company news, then individuals (such as from the management team, prominent figures in the company or relevant team members) should share the posts from the company page to reach their personal networks and add some added flair and personality if possible. As an example, see below from Consilium’s Partner and Co-Founder, Amber Fennell on LinkedIn and CareTech’s Sustainability Director, Jonathan Freeman:
In both cases, adding additional text while reposting/retweeting is highly recommended – even if it is a short line such as ‘Great news from Consilium/our client!’ or ‘A few thoughts about today’s announcement from @Clinigen from our Partner, @Matthew Cole!’
There are many more creative ways to tag and link profiles together on social media platforms – for some inspiration, make sure you’re following us on both LinkedIn and Twitter!
