7 points that startups should keep in mind before kicking off their social media presence

“We don’t have social media presence”, says no brand ever nowadays. We live in an era that if social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter were countries, the former would have been world’s third most populous country, and the latter where more Indians would have had twitter handles.

So, naturally there are already many brands out there that have an established and successful social media presence. For the ones wanting to make their presence felt on the social media bandwagon, but not willing to lose their authentic brand personality in the bargain, here are some pointers.

Choose platforms which host/attract your target audience and align with the start-up’s vision

A start-up’s primary focus, as is true for any business, is pursuing the business goal, relentlessly. All initiatives or activities thereon should flow from that goal. For digital businesses, subscriptions, eyeballs, etc. are all very real business goals and it is in the pursuit of these goals that start-ups should identify their social media/ digital objective. Based on the objective and current platform strength, chose the platform best suited for your brand. You do not always need to have platform strength (Facebook Likes/Twitter Followers) to be able to reach people (look at ProductHunt and Reddit or even email as examples).

A well-defined goal will ensure social media teams stay aligned to the vision. This way, they strategize well and take measurable steps. The initial goal can be anything from getting more leads (emails, phone numbers, etc.), to growing traffic/reach/eyeballs, to increasing subscribers or brand awareness and improving service/customer support. Even after all the brainstorming, if you are unable to define a goal for yourself, have a look at some of the Page call-to-actions from Facebook. These include Buy Now (ecommerce conversions), Sign Up (email Ids) and Watch Video (branding/awareness) & more.

But first things first, do complete all your social/digital media profiles. For the simple reason, if someone searches for you or stumbles upon you, it is really important for them to understand what you do by just browsing your Social Media profiles.

Determine and clearly define and describe your target audience

After defining a goal, the next step is to understand your users. You can sometimes think that a whole country or an entire community of students, small business owners, etc. are your consumers and you may be right. Remember that not everyone is your customer. Understanding your audience is the key to choosing a social media platform and creating content for them. Do not take days in extensive research, but this step is really crucial to your marketing activity. Create a basic persona of your user and ensure that you keep updating this persona based on any new information that you may get.

The most important thing to remember in this phase is to get out of the building and talk to people. The more people you talk to and take insights from, the better you will be able to create a persona of your audience. Filter the information that you don't need. For the best method of doing this, let's move on to the next step.

Data

Data can be information in any form. Look around and you will notice loads of people complaining about so many things. Use this first-hand information to your advantage by ensuring people talk about your industry or your service. Don't ask them questions like 'Do you have any feedback for my sports-social-network app?' Instead, ask them close-ended questions like 'Do you find it challenging to connect with people who play squash?'



It's time for the platform

Now that you've defined your audience and created personas, choose a platform based on the gender, age distribution, and other key information that you have.

Choose the right metric to succeed

Initially, when you start a social media profile, it is extremely difficult to keep a track of everything you do, but the ROI can be incredible. Measure everything you do on Social Media. Understand what's working and what's not and ensure you have benchmarks and targets for every objective/goal of yours. Identifying the right metric for your objective is the key to success.

Be yourself!

Don't be one person on Digital Media and a totally different person when you meet the customer. Be consistent with your communication (online and offline), constantly interact and engage with your audience, and be consistent with your presence on all platforms that you choose.

If you have ever started an avenue to share information with people (blog, Facebook/Twitter, WhatsApp, etc.) keep posting content that is both meaningful and relevant.

Social media doesn’t function in isolation

Remember that Social Media doesn't function/operate as an independent entity. Look at it in a broader perspective and ensure that teams like marketing, PR, business development, HR, etc. understand and use social media for their operations.

At the end of the day if start-ups are aligned to their business goals and the platforms and target audience they are after, while regularly analyzing and monitoring data and acting upon it, they are in effect prepared for a successful Social Media run. Don’t forget it is the place where audiences reside and it is up to each start-up to establish long-term relationships there.

(The article is authored by Rama Krishna Veerapaneni, Managing Director, Whacked Out Media)

(Image: Thinkstock)