Tried and Tested Approach
In the competitive free market, it may seem like there is no room for the little guy. Startups appear to always get the short end of the stick. Do not fret, there is hope on the horizon!
Successful startup ventures such as Airbnb, Dropbox, and Tinder demonstrate that a well-orchestrated social media strategy is the foundation for success. Social media serves a plethora of purposes, including; marketing, advertising, recruiting, global exposure, and receiving feedback.
Goals and Objectives
However, before diving head first, determine your business goals and objectives, and what you want out of social media. The key is to figure out the target audience and establish your company’s demeanor on social platforms.
Do you want to brand your company with a professional tone or a laidback, humor-infused style? A company oriented towards businesses such as Dropbox mandates a professional approach, while Tinder utilizes a more playful tone.
Your feeds should be tailored towards your audience. Whatever you decide, it is important to have uniformity across all of your social media profiles; consistency is crucial.
The Choice is Yours
The next step is choosing the right social networks for your business. Sure, Facebook has over one billion users, but if your potential customers don’t make up a significant portion of that user base, it is a waste of time and resources to invest too heavily into that particular platform.
The average age of your target audience should be the primary determinant factor in planning your social media portfolio. For example, according to Pew Research the average age of a LinkedIn user is 45 years old, whereas, Pinterest is 30 years, and Instagram skews extremely young at 22 years of age.
Moreover, startups that offer B2B services should focus their strategy on approaching business insiders on LinkenIn. Likewise, marketing firms should model their social media policy around Promoted Tweets and Facebook Ads.
A Human Touch
The importance of the human component can’t be stressed enough. Let your audience get to know the people behind your product or service; what motivated you to establish your startup, and why do you have a passion for your niche.
This is also the ideal opportunity to discover social media influencers and recruit them to become brand ambassadors. In turn, these ambassadors will provide your startup with global exposure. As such, you too could establish a global brand.
Furthermore, you could leverage these influencers by mentioning their names or websites in your posts, tagging followers whenever possible, and emailing them stating that you’ve mentioned them in your work. The favor will surely be returned and your brand will grow exponentially.
Sharing is Caring
Remember to provide valuable and shareable content. Establishing a strong brand and reputation is the cornerstone of any startup; create useful content that your audience will share.
Upkeep your brand image with every piece of content you post. It might be tempting to engage in clickbait tactics, however, this may reflect poorly on company culture.
Images tend to capture attention more than blog posts; post accordingly. For example, articles with images receive 94 percent more visits and tweets with images are viewed twice as often as text posts.
Setting the Trend
Make a concerted effort to share opinions on trending subjects to gain exposure. This is best done by quickly gathering some background information about trending topics before making that post.
Completing a quick Google search, or by examining tweets related to a trending hashtag is the best method to master this skill. Follow these steps to quickly become a pro:
- Do background research on the topic.
- Try to be funny and clever.
- Quick and accurate information are important.
- Repeat this process at least three times a day for different trending topics.
Be Chatty
That’s not all! Twitter Chat is an effective tool for branding your startup. Contribute to the trending Twitter Chat of your interest.
You will have the chance to meet and engage with an interested audience to promote your business. How can you benefit for this? There are many ways!
- Meet groups of people with similar interests or needs for your product/service.
- Build a relationship and make connections with your audience.
- Increase your engagement rate through participation.
A Good Value
Social media campaigns are becoming ever-popular in today’s age of decreasing organic reach. Various contests are being used to increase recognition and reach of organizations.
However, to take advantage of this tactic, you must incentivize your audience to participate in campaigns by offering value. To determine if your strategies are achieving the desired outcome, you must engage in some social listening.
It is the process of digital monitoring of online conversations to understand what potential customers are saying about your brand. Use analytical tools (Google Trends, Facebook Analytics, and Twitter Analytics) to monitor your brand.
Go Above and Beyond
In business, a phrase to always keep in mind is, “Go above the call of duty.” What this means is to think outside of the box and try to do something that your competitors don’t pay attention to or simply overlook.
As such, grow your social media presence in order to brand and expand the reach of your business. Social media branding lets you take a unique approach and gain an advantage over business competitors. Do you know what that means? – Don’t hesitate to make your opinions heard!