Social media moves a mile a minute. That’s why it’s essential to actively stop, review, and incorporate new tactics and best practices to ensure your business-to-business (B2B) social media campaigns are performing well. If you have big budgets, paid advertisements and endorsements can offer a significant boost, but these strategies aren’t feasible for many smaller science firms. Keeping up with the latest industry trends, creating interactive content, and producing eye-catching images, are just a few easy ways to kick your social media strategy up a notch without breaking the bank.

Don’t Leave Imagery to the Imagination

According to Social Media Today, people remember visual information six times better than the information they have read or heard. This means graphics are an absolute must when creating B2B social media campaigns. While many websites offer science-specific photos for a pretty penny, there are free alternatives with images that are just as appealing. Canva, a graphic design website, offers a free version that comes with hundreds of stock photos and design elements to create aesthetically appealing imagery for your social feeds. Including stock imagery, Canva makes it easy to design images tailored to the sciences, including data charts, infographics, and educational illustrations. 

According to HubSpot, 54% of consumers are interested in seeing more video content from the businesses they support. Producing video content was historically very expensive. However, resources such as Storyblocks provide stock video content for free or at a low cost. Including video in your social media campaigns is more likely to grab your audience’s attention and may play a part in effectively maximizing your campaign’s ROI. 

Keeping Up with Science Trends

It’s a commitment for sure, but staying up-to-date with the latest science trends will allow you to be part of the conversation in real-time. Planning and creating a list or calendar of upcoming events, significant dates, and science holidays will help you deliver science social media content that resonates with your audience –– so you’re not just talking at them. With these trending topics, relevant hashtags should be used to extend exposure and reach others who may be searching for that specific topic.

According to digital marketing guru Neal Schaeffer, timely and themed content performs well and often creates a community for people who share common interests. Niche science holidays such as Pi Day often gain significant traction. When followers share the themed content throughout their network of friends and colleagues, this creates greater visibility and reach. If selling products, consider planning sales and discounts related to these specific events by using relevant discount codes for a limited time. 

Start a Social Conversation

Integrating interactive components to engage with your audience is another crafty way of maximizing your campaigns. Many platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter, offer the option to create polls so you can tap into your audience and ask them questions directly. This approach can benefit your brand in numerous ways, from starting new conversations to using the data to curate your future content. For example, if your campaign centers around a new product launch, quiz your audience on the history and the science behind your new technology. Get them excited for what comes next as your new solution is rolled out. 

Similar to polls, another way to spark conversation on your social channel is by asking questions in your posts. People love talking about themselves, so why not let them while you gather information that could benefit your brand? Asking questions regarding preferred science marketing content, outlets, and product feedback will help you tailor what you create to be more relevant and meaningful to your audience. Asking for feedback on your services or products can also be useful when it comes to giving your specific audience what they are looking for. 

Remember, when looking for ways to maximize your science marketing through social media, bigger price tags do not always guarantee better outcomes. Incorporating these three simple, creative, and scrappy tactics will not only add more engaging social media content to your feeds––they will also add value to your broader campaign.