The Power of Social Media
How strong is your social media presence? By ‘strong’ we mean active. By ‘active’ we mean engaging. By ‘engaging’ we mean conversational, helpful and insightful.
Sadly, for too many start-up founders being on social media equates only to being seen, reacting to posts, or sharing others’ various (so called) pearls of wisdom or similar. But do you, as a start-up, have anything meaningful to say? Do you – as a business – have an opinion on something? Do you stand for anything? Do you take sides on anything, or do you prefer the cosy and calm waters of neutrality just in case you may be ruffling the wrong person’s feathers?
Having many followers on social media – or very few, for that matter - does not necessarily imply engagement (or lack thereof) unless you ACT and REACT according to the wishes and suggestions of those with whom you are engaging, i.e., your followers. If you do not serve your followers, if you do not please them and their often-whims, you may find yourself in a world of trouble.
Too many brands – especially the greatest majority of start-ups – use the social channels as yet another marketing channel, or as another marketing push effort. While there is nothing illegal or unethical about this, do not mistake Shopify/Amazon/Facebook Marketplace with social media channels proper. There is a time to sell, and there is a time to listen, just like there is a time to share your brand story with your followers, and prove to them that you mean it.
When you create your brand profile on a social media platform, please do not confound between you – as the individual behind the keyboard – and you, the brand. If you, the founder, scratched an itch last night, please do not tell the world that using your brand handle. It has been known for a very long time that one should never post anything on social media if under the influence, if very angry, frustrated and so on. You, the founder is not you, the brand. Do not ever mistake between the two.
Consider your time and resources carefully. Do not create a profile on all social media platforms available to you UNLESS you have the time to post your content on all of them: brand consistency of message and voice means just that! What is on your website should be reflected, in an adapted form, of course, across all your social channels. For instance, if you post something on LinkedIn today and think that you can post the same thing on Twitter tomorrow, forget about it! You might want to give up posting that message/call to action/whatever altogether! The relevance of it all is in the moment, as in the ‘now’, and what is interesting or insightful right now may lose its impact/appeal only several hours later.
Be frugal with your social media engagement if time is a constraint, or if you have no one to help you do that. Once you start talking to the world, you cannot stop unless you close your account or shut down your business. You are expected as a brand – irrespective of the size of your followership – to be insightful, inspiring, inspirational, funny, serious, ethical etc. Find your tone of voice, test it with a focus group composed of your target audience, and stick with it. You cannot crack jokes for three months and, all of a sudden, you decide to be the voice of doom and gloom.
Most of all, be honest and nice. Social media today is, for many brands, an extension of their customer service department. And, if you did do something wrong, apologise and try to correct that situation. Staying silent or becoming argumentative will not work in your favour.
And, if you are unsure where you stand right now, or if you seek clarity on your path to scale or go-to-market, perhaps you need to consider joining our start-up Business Configurator because, in a world where most investors’ attention span is no longer than three seconds, you do need to stand out, don’t you?
We can offer you clear and tangible solutions to all your issues and more. And, as a plus, we are here for sustainable start-ups. We can help you configure your start-up for both profit and purpose and, after 12 weeks of intensive business coaching, mentoring, dry-pitching, and networking with industry experts, angel investors, venture capitalists and other start-ups in our community, you will see the real difference we bring to your business: we optimise it to be investment-ready.
Join our Configurator to develop your product/service and to be confident about what it can deliver to your customer base. Apply now.