Facebook recently confirmed that it has 750 million users. One new user who has taken on the daunting task of creating a B2B Facebook page is LifeScience Alley, the Minnesota trade association.
As a result, the group now has a presence on each of the Holy Trinity of healthcare social media (indeed any social media) – LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
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“Our overarching goal is to find new ways to more efficiently communicate with members so they know what we are doing, when programs are happening and can give us feedback,” said Frank Jaskulke, director of member services at LifeScience Alley. “We want to be where they are.”
In one month of use roughly 100 people “like” it, according to its Facebook page. It has 2,000 unique users, Jaskulke noted.
Creating compelling content, especially as a trade group, will not be easy and Jaskulke is quite aware of that.
“Followers don’t appear magically and neither does content,” he said. “You have to work at it.”
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To do so, Jaskulke will post information on LifeScience Alley conference and events that are meant to inform and educate, but they are also a way to gauge whether those programs are popular – the “like” button and comments tool on Facebook will help to determine how effective the programs are. Aside from that, Jaskulke also wants to engage the membership by directly asking questions – on Friday, the question was: “In your opinion, what is the greatest challenge to Minnesota’s life science community?”
He also wants Facebook to be a place where the trade group gets to brag about achievements of member organizations. For instance, Jaskulke recently posted a video of medical device company Uroplasty ringing the closing bell on Nasdaq on June 7.
LifeScience Alley came to Facebook last whereas LinkedIn was its first foray into social media. That’s because initially Jaskulke believed LinkedIn was more of a business tool whereas Facebook had more of a personal appeal. He has since changed his mind.
“Now we think it could have relevance on the business side,” he said, noting however that the group is experimenting with Facebook. He hopes it can be a method to reach a younger demographic.
Jaskulke finds the Facebook platform more interactive than LinkedIn. For instance, he can know whether members value a particular program that LifeScience Alley is putting together simply based on the number of “likes.” Also, friends of friends can see LifeScience Alley events, although they can’t comment on them whereas in LinkedIn you can get access to this information only by becoming a member of a group or getting connected.
As for Twitter, the jury is still out.
“We’ve tried Twitter and are not sure what to make of that yet,” he said. “It is great for finding news but we are not a producer of content.”
