Effective Social Media Strategies For Your Startup

 

Effective Social Media Strategies For Your Startup

 

A startup is a newly established business. They generally offer services that have fresh and innovative ideas and less offered in the market.

 

We hear through the media about startups regularly. For a decade (2008-2018), there has been a dramatic rise in the number of startups from 7000 to 50,000. The graphs of their numbers are increasing drastically each year.

 

You might have come across many startups who gained fame and success in a very short time period but eventually died out of business in a while. Wondering why? It is because they did not plan their marketing (social media marketing to be specific) strategies smartly.

 

The tough part of any commerce is not creating an article, but it is to convince people to buy it from you.

 

Building brand awareness is a critical part of a business blueprint. Social media can aid this nimbly.

 

Social media users are rising steeply all over the globe giving your business line potential to being seen by more people as compared to old-school marketing.

 
Social media users over the globe
 

The above graph prepared from the data obtained from statista.com depicts a steep rise of social media users across the globe in less than 10 years’ time. Many studies from highly authorized surveys have reported this increase.

 

Marketers have various goals that they want to achieve through different media. According to the previous year’s survey, brand awareness is the goal of the majority of social media marketers.

 
Social media for the purpose of brand awareness
 

Trades that have acquired popularity are frequently brought up in conversations. They become big players in decision-making procedures.

 
How do you blossom on social media users’ feeds rather than being just some page they scroll past and ignore?
 

Here are some guidelines.

 

Perform market research

 

Collecting information about the requirements and taste of the consumers is defined as market research.

 

Do ample analysis of your market and the consumers. Remember to do this with reference to social media behaviors.

 

Determine your competitors and learn about top companies in your field. Be updated on their strategies (there is a reason they are ahead).

 

Perform an intensive study on your target audience and learn about their needs and purchasing patterns. For this you can make use of the following factors:

 
● The geographic location of your target market
● Online behavior of the audience
● How much time they spend on the internet
● When there is the highest activity on social media
 

Discover platforms your target audience is using

 

You need to choose a social platform based on your niche along with the target market. It is not at all advisable to be present on all sites.

 

After all, a wise person said, “Jack of all trades, master of none” – meaning someone who tries his hand at everything can never ace in any department.

 

It is a good practice to have a better grasp over posting on a couple of valuable social media sites rather than having a little knowledge about several sites. Multiply over favorable platforms. Because powerful presence on two platforms is recommended over being present moderately on four.

 

Research by Pew Research Centre has made evident that 68% of adults in the United States alone were using Facebook. Among them, 78% of the youngsters of the age group 18-25 years are on Instagram, whereas 45% make use of Twitter.

 

Post on relevant platforms keeping in mind your consumers. For example, if you are a fashion boutique, posting pictures on Instagram would be more efficient over LinkedIn posts. For this purpose, Instagram would be a better choice – giving you more followers, shares, and likes.

 

Facebook is a platform that is used by almost all sorts of people. And so being active on it will be beneficial for all the niches, ranging from restaurants and boutiques to business-consulting firms.

 

Use the same logo and username for every platform

 

The brand name and logo are tools to identify the company. In the same way, profile picture and username on social media is the identity of the page.

 

You wouldn’t want to go over the hassles to type tons of related words in the search bar of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter for the same brand. Similarly, your target audience will not take much effort to keep on searching for you using related keywords.

 

It is a tried and tested method with successful results to use the same name and logo on all your social media profiles. This way, it will be easier to find and follow you.

 

In contrast to this, using dissimilar usernames or profile pictures will confuse the audience and they will give up on the thought of searching and following.

 

Set up a brand message

 

Taglines along with the brand logo are very important for the audience to know the vision and goals of the enterprise.

 

It is a misconception to many business persons that only famous brands can have their taglines.

 

If you’re thinking in the same way, that is not true. Just like McDonald’s tagline: “I’m lovin’ it”, you can have one of your own.

 

To prepare your message, you first of all need to find out what message you want to deliver. Whether you want to tell how great your product is or how your startup is adding value to society.

 

Here the exploration of the target audience will help. Construct your message based on the target audience. And try to communicate with them in a language that they find easier to understand.

 

Posting patterns must be consistent

 

The posting pattern is made up of subcategories like time, message, platform, along with the type of content.

 

Uploading posts at the same time, every week is beneficial. You have done analysis on when your users are most active. So, post the content when your users are active to make it reach them directly.

 

Putting up posts just anytime will do you no good. On the contrary, posting when there is most activity will boost the views on your post.

 

Generate your posting forte. It could be funny memes, polls, sarcasm, puns, questions, and other kinds of interesting stuff.

 

A picture is way more effective than a thousand words. Haven’t you heard this a lot?

 

So choose to create content that is visually appealing, unique and pleasing. Use lesser words. Because the lesser the text, the higher will be the engagement. No one wants to read essays.

 

Look at this tweet from Old Spice and how Taco Bell has an even funnier come back to it.

 
Old Spice
 

This makes it believable that not only pictures but also phrases and puns can be interesting. You just need to stand out and bring something up that will grab attention.

 

Human-centric posts and social engagement

 

Human-centric posts refer to avoiding the use of technical language so that the layman can understand the information that you are providing.

 

Your post should not look like something generated by a bot. Before you upload the post, ask yourself, “Does this sound like it’s made by a bot?”. Well, if not, go ahead and hit the post button right away.

 

You need to build a personal bonding with your followers. They want much more than just promos and links.

 

Make relations rather than followers. Connect with users at a humane level.

 

Don’t be idle on social media. Reply regularly as soon as possible to the comments and messages from followers. Answer their queries. Or take the conversion further by asking interactive questions.

 

Initiating polls, petitions, and challenges will help you go viral. By this method give away incentives or ask people to re-post. This will encourage a sense of proud and value in the viewers.

 

Taco Bell carried out one such petition which went viral.

 
Taco bell
 

It has got tweeted a hell lot of times and has been favorited by more than 2000 people!

 

In case, you get negative feedback do not rush it. Be patient and positively try to rectify the problem. Take the discussion to personal chat.

 

Improvise customer service through social media.

 

Marketing on social media is more complicated than it may seem.

 

Now that you have some tips for planning your strategy, it will be much easier for you to handle it!

 
Author Bio:
 

Anshu is a digital marketing associate at Thrillax Private Limited. Thrillax is one of the new but experienced Digital marketing agencies. She has spent most of her time investigating and drafting social media case-studies and marketing campaigns. She has issued blogs and articles on online marketing, search engine optimization and social media trends and hashtags. In her free time, she likes reading books and listening to sales & marketing podcasts.