When launching a new venture as an entrepreneur, it’s probably safe to say that establishing a prominent brand name on social channels either hasn’t crossed your mind yet or way low on the priority list. However, considering the fact that more than 70% of marketers believe social media is highly effective for marketing a business – it’s imperative that entrepreneurs get their startup on the radar through social media at the first possible opportunity.
Social media isn’t just important for an established business today – startups in particular stand to gain a lot of ground if they leverage the available channels correctly. Are you tapping into the power of social media to increase the chances of success for your startup?
Find your target audience
There’s three key ways you can use social media to quickly find your ideal audience:
1. Search your friends list
Write down all the characteristics of people who would want to buy your product or service: your customer persona, so to speak. This can include anything from age and income level to education level, job or occupation, gender, hobbies, family status, etc.
Now that you have written down some characteristics, quickly search through the friends lists on all your active accounts, be it Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn, for instance. There’s a good chance some of your friends already meet the target audience criteria!
2. Check out your Facebook groups
Assuming you have a product that caters towards teenagers or young men and women, then find a Facebook group where teens and young people hang out. There are so many Facebook groups in existence today – at some point, you’re likely to find a group that meets your target audience criteria.
Once you find a group which checks off some of the criteria (if not all), look for:
- The type of posts which generate the most interaction – e.g. videos and personal pictures, posts that are posted as questions, inspirational quotes, etc.
- How people are communicating with each other, the words they are using to do so and their general tone of voice
- Any talk or mention at all of the problem you’re currently trying to address with your product/service
3. Research competitors
Check out your competitors’ Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook pages. Are any of your friends which you narrowed down as “possible target audience members” following their pages? Take note if they are. Now browse through your competitors’ followers, checking out profiles at random. Just like you carried out Facebook group research, look for how these people communicate, the kind of posts which are getting the most clicks or interaction rates, and how people are talking about the problems they are facing.
If you already have a fairly good idea of your target audience, it’ll be easier to talk to them when winning their trust. You can even sell them directly through your posts.
This is just one major way you can leverage social media to ensure that your startup takes off in a major way. Renting a co-shared workspace is another way to collaborate with like-minded people who might help you during the startup stages.
