Today we live in a digital world where social media has become an important part of every startup’s long term strategy. Social media sites help us to stay connected with our clients and allow us to form long term relationships with them. These sites allow us to access new opportunities and meet new people. Social media for startups? Its possible now.
According to a study by Stamford, 81% of consumers go online before heading out to the store, up by 20% since last year and spend an average of 79 days gathering before making a major purchase.
If you compare social media marketing with traditional marketing, then it is pretty obvious that social media marketing comes at the top. Even a start-upon a limited budget can easily use social media to market its products/services. Also, social media provides you a platform to reach your target audience (both current and future).
So, if you want to know more about social media and you are willing to use it for your startup operations, then you should consider reading this guide.
Steps for using social media for any startup
Create a reputation
If you want to rule the industry, then it is very important to build a solid reputation of your business. Social media can give you a platform which will help you to build a solid reputation of your business. You can start by posting content regarding your products/services on various social sites like Facebook, Instagram etc. Just make sure that your content is aligned with your business goals. Also you can interact with your fans in the comments section. This helps you to stay connected with your audience.
Attract new clients
No business can survive with a limited number of clients. To attract new clients, you will have to use a mixture of social sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. On these sites you can post a variety of important things such as your startup story, how is your product/service different from your competitors? etc. You can also post interesting infographics and conduct a problem-solving session to attract more clients.
Build relationships with like minded professionals
In this digital world, relationships are a key to survival. It is very important to stay connected with professionals who produce a similar kind of content like yours. This inspires and motivates you to write more of such content. You also get a chance to learn a lot of things from people who have similar stories like your own. You can join LinkedIn and Blog Tribs to connect with like minded people.
Marketing efforts
For expanding your business, you need to have a proper marketing strategy. For that, you will require proper use of various social sites. It is important to understand which social site will be best for business. For example, Naukri.com will only use LinkedIn to post job offers as LinkedIn is a business/professional site. It will be stupid to use Facebook or Instagram for the same purpose. Also, you can combine advertising and public relations with social media to increase your business.
Pull more traffic towards your website/blog
Ultimately we all want more and more viewers on our website/blog. But how’s that possible? Keyword research is required to understand what your market is searching for. Once you have those keywords, you have to prepare content according to those keywords only. For example, if the keyword is coworking then it will be suitable for you to post content on website/blog related to coworking only. If your content has a great quality, then more viewers will be directed towards your website/blog.
Your money and time matters
You can’t waste your time and money by creating one of the tactics. It is important to have a clear social media plan. Also, you need to be 100% sure on why you require the use of social media for your business activities. The earlier you understand it, better it will be for your business.
Appropriate tools
Your whole strategy can fail if you use inappropriate tools for your business. Each social media tool has it pros & cons and it’s totally upto you to decide which tool is suitable for you. Examples of social media tools are Trello, Evernote, Canva, Relay etc.
Starting a social media plan from scratch can be a tough task but with the help of this guide, you will be able to create an effective social media plan for your business.