How do startups ‘do’ social media?

Sahail Ashraf posted on 26 May 2021

Startups need growth fast. It’s how they work. So it stands to reason that they’d be a good model for all brands to follow. Here’s what we found out.

Startups are big news. More and more arrive every year and more and more make it big quicker than expected. A lot of this has to do with social media marketing. Using social to raise awareness quickly, alongside a successful funding round, can ensure that your startup brand skyrockets in value and influence. However, it’s not just the superstar startups that can benefit from such an approach. All brands can. 

Have a strategy

If you are just starting up, or even if you are reasonably established, a social media strategy is crucial to your success. Having a secure set of business goals and objectives around what ‘social success’ looks like can keep the social media work focused and productive. It’s also worth identifying your target audience in granular detail, so you can identify the right platforms as well as the right content.

As part of your strategic work, start to align your content with the culture in your company. Your audience is interested in your brand because of your culture and approach to the market. So posts and other content that reflects this mood and culture will be useful. If your audience is young make your content young. If it is more professional, reflect this in your content and publish on LinkedIn, which is the ‘go-to’ professional platform.

Essentially, the more structured and planned your social media strategy is, the more likely it will succeed. And that’s how to add more growth potential. 

Have quality content

This is perhaps a little obvious, but your startup success relies upon having high quality content that will resonate with your audience. Before campaigns begin, your brand should be looking at the audience and working out where they are and what kind way of content will work.

Sometimes this is easy. For example, if you are selling to an audience of marketers, create high quality social media content around marketing. However, sometimes it requires looking at your metrics to see which content is resonating over time. Even just a few weeks of looking at metrics should give you a steer on what your audience wants to see. This is how startups use social best, by establishing a quick community through valuable content.

Keep the handle consistent

One of the best ways to start building your startup branding and really get people to recognise who you are and what you do is to be consistent with your handles. On social media, having the same (or as near similar as possible) handle on each of your platforms makes perfect sense.

Don’t forget that audiences experience a lot of noise when they search the Web. If they see your content and marketing multiple times, it will get lost in the fog unless your handles are the same on all of your accounts. This is  a classic mistake that some startups make, and it is essential that your consistency grows from a common recognition factor across all of the platforms you use.

One basket

One temptation that you may have when pulling social media marketing together is to aim for as many different platforms as possible. This is not a good idea, and can actually harm your brand and prevent progress.

Once you know where your audience is, focus on creating and sharing content on that particular platform. Doing your best work on a platform where you know your prospects are congregating makes a lot more sense than blanket bombing every single place available. 

Watch the metrics

There is plenty to keep an eye on during the growth stage of a startup. Bearing that in mind, you will need all the help you can get. Having a good grasp of data and metrics just ensures you cut out the wastage. When you’re creating strategy and content around the stuff that is actually working, you are onto a winner.

Know your reach and your engagement, and know which posts are really resonating with your audience, and you can plan a path ahead that should make it easier for you to get the growth you need.

Startups that do well with social media tend to focus on a few platforms, and work on content that resonates with both their culture and the interests of the audience. With a solid strategy and an eye on metrics, it should be a case of similar levels of growth for your brand.

If you’re in charge of social media marketing, try Locowise for a metrics and data platform that can give your brand the winning edge. We will even give you a whole week for free.