The Best Way to Use Social Media Marketing to Establish Your Startup

Nice guest post by marketing and communication expert Isabella Rossellini, with some great advice on how to use social media to establish your startup. 

Startups all over the world are always looking out for innovative ways to grow, but the most significant bid for any startup is keeping the cost as low as possible. Social media marketing (especially Facebook) is one such way. With growing user bases, social media marketing provides startups with opportunities, not only to launch efficiently but also to get established in the market.

What exactly social media marketing implies to?

According to the definition, social media marketing implies the use of social media websites and platforms for the promotion of a service, product or brand. For many social media firms, such marketing practices are a significant contributor to their profit share. It has two main subsets.

Use of mobile phones (promotional SMS, calls): with nearly half the world’s population owning mobile phones, companies find it ideal to promote their brands via mobile phones.

Use of social networking websites: It allows individuals/ business organizations to interact and build relationships and trust. Facebook is one such social network platform that provides their clients with a huge customer base.

With well over 2.07 billion users, i.e., 25% of world’s population, Facebook is an ideal platform for startups to get launched and establish themselves as a brand. Moreover, almost 77% of US citizens use it. Due to this Facebook is an ideal advertising place for startups. Here are important things to keep in mind while launching and establishing your startup by using Facebook:

Facebook groups: It is the stepping stone in entering the social media marketing. However, since 2014, there has been a drop in individual reach of posts fed to Facebook pages.The reasons attributed to this decline are:

Increase in volume of content

Due to the newsfeed algorithm that keeps posts from friends higher as opposed that from the pages.

There are many suggestions to overcome this problem, but the most promising one came from a simple analysis. Those pages whose reach is due to sharing did not see such decline as it comes under the algorithm. So, it is highly essential for the startups to join groups that match their target audience, they must regularly keep creating the content and follow the rules.

Content Creation must be unique: Sharing the posts to all the relevant groups is not enough to create traffic to social channels. The best way to come under the user’s notice is by using your content which creatively informs them about your company/ startup. Curating the content is essential because it is the first impression of your firm. The content must be appealing, unique and original.

Content topics must be diversified: The most reliable way for curating the content, along with value, is to diversify the content types. Using different kinds of content (e.g., text, video, images, interactive posters, gif’s) not only keeps the audience interested but also, psychologically, implies that the startup is inclusive of all. Some efficient ways to do so are:

-Release original podcasts
-Start a series of videos
-Write blogs
-Post live videos to answer questions from the audience
-Infographics: Infographics are the most effective tool. It makes the content more engaging, and viewers find it valuable.

Extend your team inclusion to influential social media users: Those influencers increase reach and increase follower count. They can be anyone who is more active on social media and has relevant content to your startup.

Many of these steps/ hacks come at low rates. In this way, it helps startups be less wary of debts. Debt relief organizations provide its clients with a variety of solutions to debt related problems. Apart from those hacks mentioned above, following is a list of proven advertising offers one can use to attract more customer base.

Coupons and sweepstakes: Those are the most lucrative deals and are, more often than not, effective in achieving the goal. The three major types include a coupon from a video ad, coupon from short copy ad, and sweepstakes for sharing.

Checklists and swipe files: The offer under this category should be something that allows scopes to influence their business or lives in some way.

Quizzes and surveys: Quizzes and surveys are a sort of curiosity-driven hook that engages the users and leaves them wanting more and more.

Creating videos that lead them to product sales page: Since videos are the most effective form of advertisements, leading the users to product sales pages is more efficiently done via video.

Conclusion

The tricks, steps, and hacks mentioned above have proved themselves and have helped many startups realize their true potential many times. There are days to come when this will be a significant factor for advertisement, and that is why it becomes essential not only for startups but also for the brands to direct their force of advertisement and marketing towards social media marketing.

Edited and prepared by Amy Murphy, Journalism student from DCU.

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