10 Social Media Tips for Startups

According to The Social Habit, 42 percent of consumers making a complaint via social media will expect a response within the hour.


This demand for instant attention has led to most business Twitter feeds pushing out "sorry about that" and "please Direct Me your details so I can resolve the issue" tweets almost every minute.

 
To help, we've compiled a list of useful tips to help your startup avoid these common pitfalls while also offering general tips on gaining followers and building brand awareness...

1. Assess your social media channels

 

 

 

Before beginning a social media campaign or reshuffle, it’s vital that you gather all current metrics of your social media channel in order to measure growth, and determine what works and more importantly, what doesn't (and could harm your brand). 


Key metrics worth taking down are followers/likes, clicks on links, mentions/shares, impressions and profile visits.


A weekly and monthly log of changes in these channels is the best way to monitor changes.

2. Respond as quick as possible to negative comments

 

 

 

Understandably, with small teams it's difficult to respond to each comment or tweet as soon as they come in. However, for negative comments the faster the response, the less likely they are to be annoyed (obviously).


Acknowledging the negative comment within an hour is the best was to quickly defuse a potentially brand damaging situation.

3. Don't just promote your own products or services

 

 

 

Your followers don't just want to see shameless promotion, they want interesting discussion, retweets and an insight into 'office life'.


Posting a messages like 'Happy Friday' or asking a topical question could generate much more social attention than a plug for a product. 

4. Use emojis

 

 

 

No one likes to feel like they're talking to a robot.


Social media marketers should show emotion in every tweet, whether it's excitement for a new product or a sincere apology for a glitch in service. 


Emojis are a great way of doing that, although without stating the obvious, don't over do it!

5. Use Hashtag when necessary

 

 

 

As we know, hashtags can open up your tweets to a variety of different groups, people and further social promotion. But 'irresponsible' hash-tagging or hash-tagging every word - is not going to win you any fans; and probably won't make your content to be discovered by the right audience anyway. 

6. Create a social media calendar

 

 

 

 

By creating a calendar of scheduled social posts, you'll be able to figure out which times of day provide the biggest return on your measured key metrics. What's more, a calendar should stop over-posting and posting the same content too many times.  

7. Know when to post

 

As we know, you'll be able to determine the best times to post by using a social media calendar and measuring that against your key metrics. But it's also worth noting that for most business profiles, tweeting or posting on the hour will result in being hidden among the thousands of others that tweet on the hour every hour. 


So opting to tweet at off peak times (for example, 6.03pm or 10.35am) could mean your post miss the rush and will be more visible to your audience. 

8. Direct unhappy customers away from your social page

 

Without being heartless, you don't want your corporate Facebook or Twitter page full of threads trying to resolve issues. To make sure this doesn't happen, startups can create a dedicated social page designed to to deal with customer issues and 'gently' direct them to this page to discuss the issue further. 

9. Create a house style

 

Finding a 'voice' that represents your startup's social presence is a great way of creating the perception of a reliable brand. 


Publishing chatty informal tweets twinned with corporate lingo is confusing and won't result in a loyal following. 


Instead create a best practice guide if there is multiple people tweeting from your accounts so all posts fit the overall message you're promoting.

10. Use paid advertising

 

Most social media channels will offer a paid advertising platform for businesses wanting to grow social reach. You should test the waters first, running small campaigns to see if this is something that will work for your brand and make sure they are specifically targeted for your target audience. 


This could get the ball rolling, but might not be a long term solution for some brands wanting to grow in popularity.


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