Nowadays, social media has become an integral part of any business’s marketing strategy. And for a startup, social media marketing is not only useful but crucial. As a channel, it is a great and cost-effective way of building brand awareness. This is why it's extremely important to know how to develop an effective social media strategy. In today's Entrepreneurship Crash Course article, we will provide you with some tips to help you in building a social media audience and strategy for your startup.
1. Choose Your Platform(s)
If you already have a social media presence or marketing plan, then you might want to skip this step. However, if you're just starting out, it can be important to decide which platform(s) are the right fit for you and your startup. This will depend strongly on the demographic of your target audience. Research what purposes each social media platform fulfills and what type of audience they reach. Accordingly, decide if you will focus your efforts on one of the platforms or more and which.
2. Analyze Your Competition
We would never advise you to try and copy or replicate what any other competitor or business is doing. However, researching your competition, their social media strategies, what works for them, and what doesn't can be a very useful starting point. And if you and your competition share a similar target audience, having an idea of the type of content that works well when used by your competition can be very helpful.
3. Engage Your Audience
One of the best things about using social media as part of your digital marketing is that it creates a space for two-way communication, which can enable businesses to build a relationship with their customers, consequently creating brand awareness and loyalty. Therefore, it's crucial to try as much as possible to create engaging and interactive content. And, it should also go without saying that it is very important to be consistent and prompt when it comes to responding to any type of communication from your audience (be it direct messages, comments, or questions).
4. Measure Your Results
Even if you choose not to invest in some type of social media management tool, most social media platforms used today will provide you with some analytics such as engagement, reach, likes, or views. These analytics can help you keep track of how well your content strategy is working out. It can also help you improve your strategy by giving you information on when to schedule your posts and the type of content that works for you.
5. Cross-Promote Your Social Media Accounts
This might seem like a small or ineffectual tip, but it can actually be very useful especially when/if your account on one social media platform starts gaining more traction than the other(s).
Social media marketing is not a one fits all formula or equation. At the end of the day, your startup’s content strategy will very much depend on your business, target audience, and goals. But, knowing some tips to help build your social media presence can be helpful when marketing your startup.
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