June 10, 2013
Starting your own company comes with high risks but, if done correctly, offers high rewards. A great business plan is essential but any business plan that ignores social media is, today, a business plan that is incomplete.
When used wisely, social media can assist start-ups in many ways. You can use LinkedIn to find industry contacts, Facebook to tell the company story or Twitter to promote the brand’s message. All social media platforms can play an essential role in the creation and development of a company, especially start-ups.
Knowing which platform to use and how to use it can be the first barrier faced by start-ups. Jumping on the social media bandwagon and writing the first thing that comes into your head and then posting it into internet space will do nothing. It takes much more than this and many of the successful strategies can be counter intuitive.
Many consider social media to be something to pass the time but actually it is a very powerful business and marketing tool. Fitting a social media strategy into your marketing plan can put you ahead of competitions, help build your unrecognised brand towards potential customers, support offline promotions and, what’s more, all this can be done for free!
It is almost impossible, and unwise, to ignore the fact that any company, however small, has the ability to connect with billions of people through social media. But start-ups run the risk of destroying their credibility by using social media in the wrong way. You should seriously think about what you are trying to put across to the customer before posting anything online.
This three part blog will look at how five start-ups, from recruitment to carpentry, have used social media differently and will offer insights into how and why different start-ups use social media. Keep an eye out for the next installment!
© Matt Hamm “Jump on the social media bandwagon” Photo. Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic
© Kevin Conor Keller “alwaysbecurious EXPLORED!” Photo. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic