7 Social Media tips I wish Start-ups would listen to

Start-ups keep making the same mistake. And the mistake is, they’re launching on social media too late.?

Please stop, it’s hurting your early growth.?

Last week I ran a session for start-ups. Less than 10% of them had a dedicated social media strategy and most were sharing the responsibility of managing their social media channels between team members.?

Translation: their message was not getting through.?

So, if I was about to launch a start-up on socials tomorrow, here’s how I would do it??

1.?????Know WHO you’re talking to???

Your WHO is the first question you need to answer. And that is the WHO for social. This will define your messaging, your tone and even your platform.?

Understand your online target audience, and then speak directly to them. For every post you make, ask yourself:?

Q. Am I talking directly to my target audience, and;?

Q. Is this a message they want to hear.?

If you answer NO to either of those question, then edit until your answer is YES.

2.?????Choose your channel???

Not all social media platforms are created equal, and they don’t need to be for you to succeed. Choose the channel your audience is active on and learn how it works.

Don’t fall into the trap of launching on every channel only to post the same content across them all.?

1. Choose your channel
2. Learn how it works and
3. Perfect its unique way of storytelling.?

The rest can come later. Social media success isn’t a race.?

3.?Don’t get lost in the details???

Your audience is exposed to tens of thousands of posts each day.?

You need to make your content work for you. It needs to be recognisable (branded and consistent) and your message obvious (have core content pillars).?

Establish your brand's personality, use consistent colours, and create content that adds value to your audience's life. Share some knowledge with engaging video tutorials and Q&A sessions with your experts. Your audience will respond. ?

And please remember, you don’t need to get your whole message out there to make an impact. Use social media to build interest, create awareness and pique curiosity. They can head to your webpage or fill out your contact form if they want to find out the nitty gritty.

I see too many start-ups try to put everything on social. But that’s not what your audience wants.?

4.?Be relevant???

If you’ve taken my advice and focused in a primary channel, you’ll start to see trends form. Trends don’t need to be dances, sunset photos, or quick quips to get cut through. You will see similarities in the ways people communicate their message on each platform and start to recognise the features people respond to.

When it comes to social, even small accounts can get huge reach. It all comes down to talking to your audience in a way they want to hear.

5.?????Timing matters??

This comes back to you understanding how your audience consumes media. Take note of the times and days you’re posting and see what (and when) people see it.

All platforms will have some form of built in analytics. Make this your best friend.?

??For anyone at the Macquarie University Incubator , reach out to me for help with this.?

6.?????Get talking!??

Let me ask you, if you’re at BBQ and there’s a guy who is just talking about himself do you:

a) Want to be around him all day OR/

b) Want to get out of there ASAP?

If you're looking to build meaningful connections with your audience, stop just talking AT them.?

Make sure you’re engaging with your audience, responding to comments, interacting with their content and showing them they are appreciated. That’s how you build super fans and trust me when I say, a healthy community makes the difference between succeeding and becoming a “could have been”.

7.?????Boost Your Game with Ads??

Finally, when you’re starting out, you’re not going to have a big following. Use ads to get your message out there and start doing it early. Ads offer a great opportunity to do A/B testing to learn what you audience responds to and what they don’t. You can then use these learnings in your organic content (and vice versa).?

These seven tips will give you a great start on social media and give your startup, no matter the goal, a great chance to succeed. Keep things in perspective and focus on your core message, delivering what your audience wants, Don’t get distracted by vanity metrics like follower count.?

So pull the team together today and make a plan to make your social media channels work for you.

If you missed registering for my social media for start-ups masterclass in October, send me a DM to be added to the waitlist.?

Ben leads the Social team at?Macquarie University. Before this, he founded digital consultancy,?Frankie's Lab, partnering with signature Australian lifestyle brands to deliver meaningful digital communication strategies.?

He specialises in helping professionals realise new & unique ways to utilise platform features.