We currently live in the time of startups. According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity (KIEA), there are 20 million non-employer businesses out there, with even more launching every day. With access to a wide range of free marketing tools, creative entrepreneurs are promoting their own companies without the help of professional marketers. But if you’re new to the social media marketing game, how do you use sites like blogs, Facebook or Twitter to your business’s advantage?
Create a Website
In order to efficiently promote your startup online, you need to fabricate a professional website for your business. There are tons of free web hosting sites available, including GoDaddy and Wix. If you’re a newbie at HTML and coding, hire an expert web developer to gorgeously layout your site. Make sure to include an “About Us” section, along with a page describing your services or products, a blog component and links to all of your social media sites. Having a web page makes it easier for potential consumers to find your numerous web presences in one social hub.
Regular High Quality Content
In today’s world, more customers trust the opinions of user generated content than other types of reviews about a company. User generated content is social content created and shared by users of an online network. To adequately create buzz about your brand, it is critical to feed consumers engaging and educational blog articles that they will want to share, tweet, or “like.” Aim to post about two to three articles on your blog per week to keep audiences regularly engaged and coming back for more.
Sweepstakes, Contests and Giveaways
People love freebies. To get more, you’re going to have to give a little. To generate interest about your startup, offer sweepstakes, contests or giveaways and promote them via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest. Not only will this give potential customers the opportunity to tryout your product or service for free, it will also encourage them to interact with your brand.
The Power of a Social Hub
Why user individual social media sites when you can unify all of them in one place? Social hubs make it easy for startups to aggregate all of their social media feed into one spot, allowing customers to find their multiple social networking accounts quickly and easily. This not only gives your startup complete control over all feed, it also helps you to keep track of SEO rankings, who’s talking about your company and widens your network.
Using social media is a great way to effectively promote your startup. Used the correct way, you can find targeted market groups easily and bring them right to your front door.
