When you start a business, you must first determine your objectives, your target market, and the products or services that you will provide to this market. After ironing out these details, your next step is to introduce your business to the world. That’s where social media comes in.
As of January 2020,
49% of the world population are social media users. This large user base is good news for businesses, even startups. Basically, social media is a great tool for you to reach your target market and attract others as well.
Here are some best practices that you can use to leverage social media and get your startup off the ground:
Know Your Buyer Persona
A buyer persona is important to any
digital marketing strategy. It is a fictional person that possesses the characteristics of your target market.
When you start your business, you need to create a list of specific buyer personas. This list will help you customize your social media content to make effectively capture your target market’s attention and make them engage with your brand.
For example, an errand service business might have a buyer persona named Aunt Ally. She is middle-aged and has kids that she can’t leave. That’s why she can’t go out to do errands. Aunt Ally also has a full-time job.
With this specific buyer persona, the hypothetical business could consider creating social media content that illustrates what they could do for busy parents who can’t get out of the house and badly need to complete errands outside.
Pick Your Platforms
Building a presence on every social media platform available is time-consuming and expensive. Why spend your time and money to build a presence on platforms that your target market doesn’t use?
Before you start making social media accounts, you first need to consider your buyer personas. On what social media platforms are your potential customers active? Which platforms do they prefer?
You also need to use platforms that fit your brand. For example, if you want to start a creative business such as a stationery store, you might consider using Instagram and Pinterest since they are heavily visual. Even though your target market may be more present on other platforms, these two will still help you
increase the engagement of your startup.
Once you’ve picked your platforms, you need to make sure that you use the same username in all of them. This way, your target market can easily remember and find your brand.
Define SMART Goals
Before you post anything on your social media accounts, you need to define your SMART goals. A SMART goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. These goals will give you direction in building the social media presence of your startup business.
Here’s an example of a SMART goal: “Gain 100 real-person followers on each social media platform 30 days after the brand’s launch.” The goal is specific and measurable because it sets a clear number of followers on each platform. The goal is achievable since it is a fair number, considering the 30-day deadline. The goal is also relevant since it goes what the brand wants: gain valuable followers. Lastly, the goal is time-bound.
Post Relevant Content
The content on your social media platforms must be relevant. The posts must align with the brand’s image and the products or services it offers. By using relevant content, you will build the credibility of your business, which will make you more attractive to your potential customers.
Going back to the errand business example, their social media content must include only ideas and images relevant to them. For instance, they have posted a cute cat photo with a nice motivational message. They could catch people’s attention. But the post doesn’t say anything valuable about their brand, so the attention they gain would expire quickly.
Leverage Hashtags and Social Media Trends
Using hashtags in your social media posts will help you
reach more people. Hashtags can also increase your followers and engagement with your potential customers.
One hashtag that you can use is your business name, the name of your product, or the name of your campaign. Using a personalized hashtag will help people find you easily. But using only your brand’s hashtag isn’t enough. Since you’re a startup, there isn’t that much word about your business to get people to look for or use your brand hashtag.
Thus, you will need to use popular but relevant hashtags in your posts. For example, the errand service business mentioned earlier could use the hashtags “#errandsday” and “#errandsservice” in their posts to reach more people. The hashtags are relevant and have more engagement. They would help the errand business reach more people.
Planning how you will use social media for your startup may take a lot of time and effort, but the payoff is worth the trouble. By using effective social media strategies, you can boost the presence of your brand.
