Social Media and Influencers

Episode #5 of the course Startup marketing for everyone by Jonah Bliss

 

Social media. As much as your grandma might claim she doesn’t “get” Twitter, this is still a very important channel for any growing business. While you might feel obligated to go and sign up on every single social platform you can think of (but please not MySpace), maintaining all those presences would be a tremendous burden on your time.

 

Which Platform’s for You?

While it does behoove you to defensively register your business name on all the major social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, and maaaaaaybe Google Plus,) the value of each of these platforms is going to vary dramatically depending on the nature of your business.

Almost any business is going to want to keep their Facebook and Twitter presences up to date; think of these as ways to offer your customers news and build your community of fans.

Yelp and Google Business are great for companies with physical locations, where users will want to quickly see your address/hours and be able to leave reviews (make sure you respond politely to negative ones!).

Is your product super visual or in some other way beautiful? Then consider Instagram and Pinterest. Or maybe you have all sorts of great video potential—then you should consider Snapchat, Youtube, or even Vimeo.

 

Influencer Outreach

One great thing about social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, is how it lets you interact with your community at large. Thank fans for supporting your product and win detractors back by addressing their concerns.

Even bigger potential lies with those who are passionate about your industry but may not know you exist yet. Say you’ve just created a new video game. Well, anyone who talks about gaming and has a lot of people following/listening is an “influencer” in your space. If they learn about your new product, they might advocate for it to their own audiences and thus help your sales.

But before you reach out to them, make sure you have something valuable you’re offering in return. Don’t just say, “Here’s my new game! Please tell everyone.” You want to offer them something in return. Maybe you’ve created a piece of content that they and their audiences would find interesting. Maybe you want their opinion on how to improve something. Whatever it is, don’t just ask, but give.

 

Social Media Advertising

 

 

Just like searches, social media will only get you so far before you have to spend some money (otherwise, Facebook wouldn’t be worth $300 billion.) All the major platforms offer advertising solutions, which are great not just for growing your audience on their sites but for directing traffic to you and your landing pages.

Facebook ads are valuable for their humongous audience, meaning you can drill down into very specific segments so that you can find those most likely to relate to your business offerings.

LinkedIn advertising is great if you have a B2B product. You can make sure your ad speaks just to CEOs, or just to people who work in a given field. Twitter ads are great for driving clicks, clicks, and more clicks.

Whatever you do, don’t worry your pretty head about advertising on Snapchat—I’m sure they’ll figure out how to make money later.

 

Recommended book

“The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users” by Guy Kawasaki

 

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