Social media growth hacks for start-ups

As a fledgling business you often feel like an episode of The Bachelor: making it through the challenges in hopes of not getting voted off. Constantly seeking ways to avoid eviction.The only way that can be done is through social media as that’s the place where your prospective dates are spending most of their time.

Success stories of various startups like Airbnb, 8tracks, and Tinder prove that having a social media growth strategy is the cornerstone of a strong company launch and using social media effectively can put your company ahead of the game.

As a startup, you only need to have these 7 social media growth hacks right and things will start shining for you.

1. Start building “Strategy” before building social media profiles

Before you ask an intern to create your social media profiles, get the strategy in place. Think of your business goals, define your audience and know what kind of company you want to be on social media. What will be the tone of voice for your brand, will you be an easy going or a no-nonsense brand? You need to know the answers. Be true to the culture of the company while defining these.

Your business goals will define the purpose of your social media accounts. Make sure that the mission of each social channel is clear before you set out to create it.

2. Decide the right social media channel for your audience

You need to talk where your audience is. Your communication will not be effective if it is not happening at the right place. The first step is to identify your TG. Listen to your audience and observe what they’re discussing. Take a note of what interests them and what tends to bore them. Once you have a list, figure out the social channels you need to be present on.

You don’t need to be present on every social channel that exists.

3. Have a kickass social media customer service

Social media is not just a marketing channel, it’s a place where your customers reach out to you. Listen and respond - that should be your dharma.

67% of consumers have used a company's social media site for servicing, compared with 33% for social marketing. This means that your consumers are asking questions and expecting a response on social channels.

If you have a kickass customer service in place then you have the power to leave a disgruntled customer happy and impressed.

4. Invest in creating brand advocates

Amazon.com, Red Bull, The Body Shop, and Google, all built their brands without advertising. Their brand advocates are their marketing department. These companies never spent a dime on advertising. They didn't need to. Their advocates used social media to recommend them to their friends. While 18 percent of people trust brand influencers, 92 percent trust brand advocates.

Use social media to build a web of relationships and create your brand advocates.

5. Have a Social Media Calendar in place

Creating and publishing great content on a timely basis is a lot of work and it can leave you a little overwhelmed, so get organised! Creating a calendar simply means that you make all the necessary information available to all the relevant stakeholders in one place. It takes in all your channels and resources and organizes them in a way that makes it easy to access.

It’s your personal social media dashboard.

6. Analyse your content weekly

Run a weekly audit to keep all your social media ducks in a row. Every channel has its own analytics page which can help you in evaluating your content’s efficacy. Social media isn’t just for broadcasting information. It’s also an opportunity to understand the language patterns and needs of your target audience.

Create a weekly spreadsheet report to keep a track of this information.

7. Make your website social proof

While brands invest so much time and effort into social media integration of their campaigns, many miss out on the most important place to showcase the business’s social savvy—the website. In a study, it was found that 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations before making a buying decision. This statement is enough to tell us why our website needs to ooze social proof. Let me tell you the easiest way to do this. When people tweet nice things about you then just save them as ‘favorites’ and use them for future purposes.

Collect your company’s testimonials via social and sprinkle them on your website.

(The Article is written by Ankita Sinha, She is Social Media Head at Housing.com. Each day she focuses on bringing valuable content on social media marketing)