How Social Media Services Can Benefit Your Start-Up Company

What all the buzz about #hashtags?

With the 2015 #PrayforParis phenomenon, the power of social media to connect like-minded individuals became clear to even the most skeptical of people. It is irrefutable that millions of kindred spirits showed their solidarity for Paris by changing their Facebook profile pictures to the blue, white, and red filter. This worldwide gesture is powerful proof that social media can no longer be denied as an effective marketing channel.

Many established companies are discovering that saturating the target audience's attention with your message is no longer a foolproof path to success. As a result, they are taking their message to social media. Having said this, the rules of social media awareness campaigns differ from those of traditional advertising and should be managed with great care. Social media, if used without careful consideration, can actually backfire and lead to widespread negative perceptions of your brand. Clorox learned this the hard way recently when they inadvertently shared what was perceived by many to be a very controversial tweet. So what can start up companies with limited resources do to take advantage of social media?

Keys to Social Media Success

Establishing thought leadership, publishing targeted content that is highly relevant, increasing visibility, and generating traffic are the keys to social media success. Fledgling businesses, in particular, desperately need a quick and cost-effective way to release the potential of social media. Engaging a company that specializes in social media services can hasten your path to success, especially if the company you engage has a good understanding of your company and your customers’ needs and aspirations.

Thought Leadership

Publishing a blog as a thought leader is crucial to establishing your expertise in a given industry quickly. Not only does it exhibit command of your business space, but it can also be used to generate traffic to your static website if effectively optimized for search engine results. Fresh, original, and relevant content is key to maximizing Google's algorithms. Publishing blogs is the simplest and most direct means of accomplishing this--educating potential customers about their needs in conjunction with your company’s value proposition.

Originally developed as a professional social network, LinkedIn provides a unique platform upon which you can establish your company as a thought leader in the B2B space. Regularly publishing LinkedIn articles or posting blogs to the LinkedIn feed can draw attention to your your brand in a way no print or television ad can. The power of LinkedIn’s social intelligence can also be leveraged to maximize real-time sales intelligence and targeted marketing of your blogs to customers who really want to read about you.

Visibility and Targeted Relevance

It seems like everyone and their Grandma is on Facebook nowadays and word-of-mouth through the Facebook news feed has replaced the proverbial water cooler. There is no better place than Facebook to put a face to your company name and build brand awareness for B2C companies. This approachable platform provides users with an attractive, well-designed introduction to your brand as well as the opportunity to document social proof in the form of likes, shares, and comments. Facebook particularly excels in showcasing the visual aspects of your offering in a less pushy way than traditional advertising.  

Although newer to the social media scene, Instagram, a subsidiary of Facebook, is also proving that a picture is worth a thousand words-or a thousand new customers. This innovative platform is quickly rising as the next social media channel for your business to build brand awareness by creatively making a visual impression on a targeted audience.

Traffic Generation

Twitter, with its short, catchy #hashtags and imagery, serves to drive traffic to your blog, website or to download an app. It is best suited to short statements, public announcements, and comments. It is great for drawing attention to news of interest or announcing a new product release to your target audience through the use of hashtag filtering. It can also be used to keep an eye on your competition, which can be a make-it-or-break-it aspect of marketing for a new company.

The Role of Social Media Services

As a start-up company, scarce resources should be allocated to scale quickly and efficiently. With the many facets involved with a start up, taking the time to focus on marketing yourself on social media can be overwhelming and the results can be difficult, if not impossible, to measure. Engaging an affordable social media services company is one way you can overcome this obstacle. A good partner is capable of customizing the look and feel of your social media campaigns to match that of your company, its founders, and evangelists while freeing up your time to focus on other mission critical activities. A good partner should be specially trained to drive the creation of high-quality thought leadership content, promote it effectively to a targeted audience and provide real-time access to your campaign’s key performance metrics.

Underfunding and anonymity are the bane of start-ups. Don't just be another bright idea that could have been great: Let a social media services partner help you maximize the power of social media to capture your competitive advantage.

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