Social Media & Your Startup: Part I
It can be challenging to know where to start with social media for your company.
Often, founders tell me things like "one of my advisors told me that I need to be doing all video content now" or "I feel like I personally am the face of the business on-line -- is that the way it is supposed to be?"
As a founder or leader, you get to set the objectives and expectations for your startup's social media strategy. I often find that early stage founders expect to have to spend advertising or sponsorship dollars on social media to get their message in front of key audiences. In most cases, at this stage, you simply don't need to -- you can rely on unpaid, "organic" social media posting.
But where to start?
Let's say that a core business goal for your startup is to raise a seed round with a local incubator or angel investors.
First, you will want to clearly define your objectives for beginning social media activity. For the scenario above, your objective might be to build awareness with potential investors.
Second, you will want to deepen your understanding of your defined audience by writing down the answers to the following questions:
- What investment theses do your target investors or funders have?
- What topics are most important to these investors?
- Where do the leaders in these organizations get their information?
- Where do they make professional connections?
Third, now that you have gathered these audience-related insights, you should apply them to the following content planning questions:
- Which social media channels will work best?
- Which messages will be most effective?
- Who is going to create your posts, oversee posting, and respond to comments?
By clearly defining where you need to have a presence, what messages will be most effective, and the bandwidth and skillset of the individual or team who will handle content creation and posting, you will have the right foundation upon which to build out your social media marketing strategy.
In Part 2 of this blog post series, I will address how to frame out your social media marketing strategy and plan.
