3 Social Media Strategies That No Startup Should Attempt

Social media is essential for startups to get their voice out there, build their following, and create buzz around their product.

Creating a startup is hard work, and when the social media strategies that are supposed to support and elevate a startup begin to fail, the startup is likely to fail too.

We always hear about the startups that make it big, but in reality as many as 9 out of 10 startups don’t make it.

Having a killer social media strategy is just one of many things that will help that lucky 10% succeed.

Even though luck and just having the right idea at exactly the right time can play a huge part in a startup’s success, you can help hedge your bets by at least avoiding some of the mistakes that other failed startups have made.

Here are the three most popular — and misguided — social media strategies that end up killing startups.

1. The “Biting Off More Than You Can Chew” Approach

It usually starts with the best intentions. You’re super excited to get your startup going and get people excited, so you dive headlong into marketing.

This plan seems like a good idea, but too often startups will put too many of their resources into marketing before they really know what they’re doing and it ends up being a waste of time and money.

Remember that your time and energy is worth money, so even if you aren’t spending a ton of money on social media marketing but you’re spending way too much time on it with no reward, you need to figure out something else.

How to tell if you’re making this mistake:

You won’t ask for help (but you desperately need to) - As a business owner it probably feels like you need to be an expert in everything. But really you only need to become an expert in finding the right people to help you. You can’t do it all yourself, so consult a marketing expert before you put a ton of time and money into a strategy.

You’re spending money but aren’t making any back - Being in the red for awhile is to be expected when you start a business. However, pouring money into marketing when you’re not totally sure what you’re doing can be a huge risk. You must do your research and know what you’re investing in. Don’t just put all of your money into one marketing campaign, either. Do a bunch of little tests to figure out what your audience responds to. If you make a huge investment in a marketing strategy without that kind of knowledge informing it, you’re probably betting more than you can afford to lose.

You’ve lost sight of what your brand is all about - In order for marketing to work you have to really know your brand inside and out. What are your goals? What are your main core values and how does your content reflect them to people? If you don’t have your message figured out, all of the time you spend on social media is going to get you nowhere.

2. The Strategy That Worked For Them, So It Must Work For Me, Right? (Wrong)

Social media strategies are not one size fits all.

There are way too many variables involved to assume that the strategy that worked for another business is going to work for yours.

You have a unique brand with it’s own unique message. Your audience is going to be specific to you, and the techniques that work on one audience won’t work on every one.

In order to cater to the right audience, you need to know who you’re talking to first.

Analytic tools will help you get to know who’s already following you and what you like. Plus you’ll be able to see where you might be falling short on reaching your target audience. Keep those metrics in your back pocket and let them inform your decisions.

How to tell if you’re making this mistake:

You’re stuck on this one idea and unwilling to change - Even if a strategy you picked up from someone else kinda works for you, you aren’t doing the best you could be if you still aren’t trying other things. Test other strategies on a small scale and keep track of how they do. You could be wasting time on one strategy when another slightly different route could get you much better results.

You’re ignoring the warning signs that it isn’t working - Being in denial about how well you’re doing isn’t going to help anything. It may feel like you’re failing if you admit that your plan isn’t working, but really the true failure would be to waste time, money, and energy on something that isn’t going to play out.

You get discouraged when you compare your social media presence to others - It’s hard not to compare yourself to others and measure your startup’s success by another’s standards. The truth is, some businesses just get lucky. Their product came out at the perfect time. But if you find yourself discouraged by the rate of your success, trying some new tactics and marketing for the customer, not just for yourself, could help you realize that you were just using the wrong strategy.

3. The “Wait, I Was Supposed To Have a Plan For This?” Approach

Maybe the worst of all social media strategies is the one that just flat out isn’t there.

This one is pretty straight forward. You need to have a plan in order to track and build your success over time.

You might get lucky with a couple of social media posts taking off, but if you want long-term, sustained success you have to set goals and make a road map that will get you there.

How to tell if you’re making this mistake:

You’re all over the place - There’s no consistency in the type of content you put out, when you post it, and which social media platform you post it to. The few followers you do manage to pick up are going to have a really hard time keeping up with you and figuring out what message you’re trying to send.

You aren’t putting yourself in your audience’s shoes - If you want to build up a large online following, you (1) have to know your audience and (2) know how and where to find them. Are you trying to reach younger millennials who use apps like Snapchat, Tumblr, and Vine. Then make the content they’d like to see. Are you going for a more traditional audience? Then make content that proves your authority and trustworthiness and share it on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin.

You’re reading this article and it’s slowly dawning on you that you should put more thought into this marketing thing - Enough said.

Tips for a social media strategy that actually works

We’ve alluded to the kinds of things you should be doing to succeed at social media marketing, but here are the tips summarized:

Know your brand and your audience - Without this knowledge, your efforts are probably going to be a waste of time. Also, remember that your brand and your audience can change over time.

As technology changes and new social media platforms come out, old ones will be obsolete. If you don’t keep up with your audience’s needs and wants they could just move on.

The big takeaway here: Be mindful of your audience, use metrics to learn more about them, be thoughtful about your brand and how your brand message is being communicated, and be willing to change and grow with the times. If you have a solid understanding of your brand’s identity and your audience demographic, keeping up will be a lot easier.

Be consistent and post smart - Knowing your audience will help you determine what types of media and what social platforms they like the most. Creating content is hard enough, don’t make it harder for yourself by also creating content for platforms or audiences that don’t care.

Find your people, post at the right times of day, tag and label everything, and focus more on creating quality content that will get people talking instead of feeling like you need a huge quantity of posts.

Be honest with yourself and ask for help when you need it - There’s no way you can do it all on your own. You have to be pretty humble and courageous to ask for help sometimes, but when you do and you let the right people assist you, you’ll see a huge improvement.

Conclusion

The startup world is fast-paced, exciting, and offers so much potential for success.

Unfortunately, the no-rules (or at least, make-your-own-rules) kind of mentality surrounding startups that draws people into starting their own business can also set people up to waste a lot of time and money if they don’t know what they’re doing.

But! If you’re willing to take the time to do your research and learn from others – their successes AND their failures – you have every possibility of succeeding.

What social media strategies have you seen crash and burn before?