How to Build a Strong Social Media Strategy for Your Startup

Nowadays, social media isn’t just another optional marketing channel for small businesses and startups. It is essential for getting your brand out there and a great way to connect with your audience. In addition, it is far less expensive than other marketing channels. 

But with so many businesses fighting for attention, how can you make sure your social media efforts are effective? In this post, we’re offering 6 tips to help build a strong social media strategy for your startup.

1. Build or Improve Your Profiles

Social media has the power to attract traffic, generate leads, and boost your profit, but it will only work if you do it properly.  

So, before you start working on your strategy, you first need to clarify your mission and the goals you want to achieve. You can even create a social media mission statement where you will articulate why you are on social media, channel by channel, and what you hope to accomplish there for your startup. 

Next, check which social networks meet your needs and build social media pages on each social platform you decide to use, making sure it contains complete business info and proper branding. If you already have social media accounts, see how you can update and improve them. 

2. Use Social Media Analytics Tools

It’s very difficult to plan the best strategy for your startup at the very beginning. The good news is, social media analytics tools help you examine the effect of your strategies and remove the ones that aren’t working. 

They also help understand the behavior and attitudes of your target audience. Social media analytics tools can help in segmenting users by demography and collecting feedback that can be applied to your business strategies. 

Another important benefit of these tools is competitor analysis. They provide an insight into what your competition is doing to help you learn from their mistakes and make better choices. 

3. Develop a Content Strategy

Before you start shooting posts on your social accounts, you need to develop a content strategy. This will give you a clear direction and ensure you don’t get distracted. 

You can start by asking these few questions:

• What type of content would your audience be interested in?
• What is your posting frequency?
• What is your plan to distribute and promote your content?

When it comes to the types of content you can post, you can choose from blog content, infographics, videos, presentations, podcasts, and more. You could also share behind-the-scenes photos to give your audience insight into your office culture and humanize your brand. Don’t forget to share content from other, relevant sources as well. 

4. Always Be Engaging

Engaging with your audience on social media is a great way to create relationships and build a community around your brand. It also gives you an opportunity to understand your audience. 

Start by posting content that your audience will find interesting and will make them want to take action. It could be a video, catchy graphic, product photo, or a poll – anything that encourages your followers to share, comment, like, or tag.

Make sure to respond to all interactions appropriately and answer any questions they might have. If there is a negative comment, respond to it in a positive manner and try to solve the problem. You could also take the conversation further by asking your audience questions and encouraging them to share their opinions. 

By responding to your customers, you are showing that you care and, as a result, they will be more likely to do business with you and share their experience with others. 

5. Work with Influencers

Getting some leverage is crucial for startups, which is why influencer marketing is just what you need. According to statistics, 70% of teenagers trust influencers more than traditional celebrities, and four in ten millennials say their favorite influencer understands them better than their friends. 

Many business owners believe that influencer marketing demands lots of money. Understandably, startups usually don’t have a big marketing budget, so influencer marketing often seems out of reach. The truth is, smaller businesses can collaborate with influencers; all they need to do is adapt the strategies to their budget and needs.

Influencer marketing is more than teaming up with celebs who have millions of followers. It’s about finding someone who has dedicated followers and whose opinion means something. When you engage influencers in your social media strategy, they will make it easier for you to reach a wider audience and become your most effective brand ambassadors. What’s more, recommendations from influencers can help your brand earn the credibility it deserves. 

6. Boost Your Social Media Efforts with Email Marketing

Social media and email are not competing channels; on the contrary – they’re operationally and strategically aligned. Smart business owners often use the power of email marketing to support their social media efforts. Here are a few useful ideas that can help you get started:

• Send a perfectly tailored email campaign to your subscribers and ask them to follow you 
• Embed an email sign-up form on Facebook
• Be sure to put a social follow button (or a ‘retweet this’ tag) in your email campaigns to expand your reach and generate more fans
• Add live social media feed in your emails
• Use social media to retarget your active email subscribers
• Organize social media giveaways to build your email list

Final Thoughts

Social media marketing may sound like a simple thing for startups to do but unfortunately, it is a bit more complicated.  Use these 6 tips to help you get your social media marketing off the ground and supplement them with some of your own planning and research to ensure success.