Social media in the life sciences space continues to be a debated topic. Companies want to engage on social but are risk adverse, and for good reason. Recent publications around social media regulations have only complicated the issue for many companies. In an effort to remain socially in-tune, but still remain compliant, many companies are engaging in social listening.
Why You Listen
Social listening allows life sciences companies to identify and assess what is being said about them, a disease, or a particular product. Social listening is allowing companies to understand sentiment, monitor conversations, adjust messaging, and contribute to product development. But with all those benefits, many companies are not using social listening to engage. Again, because of risk, conversations rarely evolve.
But there are now ways to extend social listening beyond information gathering and into real conversations. You can now use social listening to trigger conversations off social platforms, and through compliance approved channels.
How You Can Converse
Let’s look at an example. You want to better identify, engage with, and nurture your key opinion leaders. You can now evaluate a KOLs Digital Body Language on social platforms to deliver the right communications, to the right KOL, at the right time. You can understand what motivates the KOL and how that KOL defines quality engagement. You can nurture your relationships and be proactive in your communications. 
Using social monitoring tools like Attentively Social Behavior Sparkplugyou can segment and score KOLs based on social influence. You can target KOLs with a strong presence on specific social networks. You can listen for opportunities to add-value by creating watch lists around terms associated with products, diseases, and events. For example, when an HCP mentions a specific disease or side-effect a relevant, pre-approved, compliant communication containing content from an associated KOL could be sent.
The Profiling Potential
These tools also allow companies to develop a more comprehensive Universal Profile of the KOL. By defining a list you can run a social match against the list and collect demographic data as well as pull social bios. The Universal Profile you build is defined by the individual through their Digital Body Language and in their own words. Even better, this information capture and universal profile creation is pulled back into your marketing automation systems. 
Lastly, you can leverage this social listening across multiple channels. Depending on the audience, and HIPPA regulations, you can trigger response communications across more than just emails. You can extend the opportunity for engagement across digital ads and other social channels.
By utilizing available social tools and focusing on what your audience is saying you can now engage in a conversation that is effective, relevant, and compliant.
How are you extending your social listening initiatives?