Social Media Marketing Strategy for Startups

Social media marketing is no longer an option for businesses but a necessary strategy to survive in a competitive business world. The majority of clients in this digital world connect with brands on social media. The need to market products and services on social media is even greater for startups. Many business owners struggle to meet their marketing budget when starting and growing their business. However, startups can utilize the cost-effective marketing platform to their advantage. Here is a guide on how to create a social media marketing strategy for your business.

Determine your goals and objectives

The best place to start when creating any marketing plan is by defining your goals and objectives. You cannot assess the effectiveness of your strategy if you do not have any set goals. It is advisable to work with a social media plan template where you can record all your goals and corresponding strategies for each goal. Determine the type of audience you intend to reach on social media and the type of content that the audience needs. Your list of goals should include increasing brand awareness or visibility, generating new leads, acquiring new customers, and engaging constantly with your current clients.

The ultimate goal of marketing your business on social media is turning your followers or connections into repeat customers. Be realistic when setting your goals and allocating time frames to the goals. The reality is that it will take a while to build a strong online image and presence for your startup. Remember to include statistics or figures to your goals. For instance, determine the number of leads or percentage increase in sales that you want to achieve within a certain period.

Choose the right platforms

The next step is to choose the right platforms and create profiles on each platform. The majority of social media users are on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and You Tube. Create profiles on these platforms that represent your brand image. Do not ignore top search engines like Google. Your connections will search for more information about your business on Google and other search engines. The right platforms vary from one business to another.

Choose the platforms based on your target market. If you are targeting all social media users, popular platforms like Facebook, You Tube, and Twitter are good choices. You can reach millions of users who log into their account every day. Link your accounts where possible such that one post is shared on all platforms. For instance, you can share informative blog posts on all platforms with a single click.

Build a strong online community

The first two steps are easy to do and implement. Many business owners fail at this stage. People log into social media platforms to interact with their connections. Allocate time every day to post new content and respond to comments from your posts. Focus on creating strong relationships with your followers and not just selling products to them. Post content that is relevant and useful to them. Choose interesting topics that will initiate discussions and participate in those discussions.

Be prepared for negative comments and complaints from your followers. Always respond to such clients or potential clients because your followers are observing how you treat your clients. Encourage your followers to share your posts and profile with their followers. You increase your visibility every time one of your followers shares your page with his or her connections. The idea here is turn your followers into brand ambassadors.

Test and refine your strategy

The purpose of starting with measurable and specific goals is to help you test if your strategy is effective or not. One obvious way to determine if your strategy is effective is checking the increase in the number of followers. You can also check the number of comments, likes, shares, or reposts that your posts attract. If your followers find your posts interesting, they will share them with their friends. The ultimate way of measuring the effectiveness is the change in sales.

If you are just generating new leads or prospects that never turn into customers, you need to adjust your strategy. You may be marketing your business to the wrong online audience. Consider adjusting your strategy if the rate of growth in the number of followers is low. You may hire a team to implement your strategy or post on your social media accounts. However, you have a responsibility as the business owner to assess the nature of interactions and results from social media campaigns.

Some posts on social media go viral within hours but this rarely happens to businesses. Have a long-term perspective when developing a social media strategy. Your strategy may seem ineffective at first but it will eventually bear fruits as you test and refine it continually. Most importantly, observe and learn from your top competitors’ strategies.