As a startup, you don’t have to be everywhere to make an impact through social media.
A few years ago, a very popular business mentor and social media coach shared that someone commented to her, “I see you everywhere!” I compared her success with mine at the time and decided that I, too, had to be everywhere to make an impact and grow my copywriting business.
Thus began my crazy-making bout of social media clamoring. What a wreck! I felt like I was doing everything — and nothing at all.
Over the years, I learned how to do this in a way that works without taking over my life, making me exhausted, and with barely enough time to do the work I love.
The day-to day keys for success are organization, online tools (many of which weren’t even around back then), and some outside help.
But by far the best strategy for social media success – as you are starting out — is to choose which planet you want to dominate.
If you want to make a difference, get your content to stick, and be noticed by your best audience; choose one social media site and start networking there.
“If you’re everywhere, you’re nowhere.”
Maybe seven or eight years ago, when social media sites were new and early adopters were just beginning to see the opportunities for marketing their businesses and growing professional relationships, it was a good idea to try to “be everywhere.”
As you start to build your business, you also might be tempted to open every social media site you’ve ever heard of and begin creating profiles, but you’ll do better is you discriminate a bit.
Why would I tell a startup to scale back on trying to be everywhere? Because you get more traction by focusing your efforts. And because new companies can’t afford to go big — everywhere. You can, however, “go big” if you choose one planet to dominate.
Over the years, the more social media sites that spring up, the more people began choosing sites within which to interact, even sorting themselves very naturally into groups within each social media site, while neglecting others. The possible exception is Facebook, which has over 1.3 Billion users and is growing into new global markets every day. Facebook is responsible for bringing the Internet to people all over the world, so don’t count out Facebook, whether your business is B2B or B2C.
Today, instead of “being everywhere” and because social media sites continue to grow in numbers of users, the smart startups are making more efficient use of their resources.
In spite of all the social media experts telling you otherwise, and unless you have a large marketing budget or plenty of time to spend, choose a platform or two and commit to building some good relationships there.
How a startup of successfully commits to a social media platform:
- Join groups.
- Make sure your bio is complete.
- Follow lists or hashtags within each platform.
- Leave comments and/or connect with other users.
- Research SaaS tools that make using that platform more efficient or sticky, and make it a habit to use these tools every day.
- Schedule posts to automatically populate on your page or timeline, and check in once or twice daily to respond to any comments on your posts.
- Send direct messages to other users when appropriate.
Think of each social media site as its own planet.
…especially if your business is new and you haven’t forayed into any social media sites yet. Do not move on until you have a solid footing on the sites where your target market is most likely to be talking. Leave no stone unturned as you search for your crowd on those sites. Only after you feel comfortable there should you move on to the next one. That’s how you conquer social media as a startup with precious time and resources…
You may find that you don’t even need to be anywhere else but Linked In and Twitter, for example, or Facebook and Yelp. (Yes, I consider Yelp a social site. People log on just to read reviews of people like them.) What a revelation! If your startup business is growing due to your socializing on just one or two social media websites, more power to you!
Ten years ago my web developer sent me an email asking me to join her network on Linked In. I’ll never forget her exact words: “Not sure if this will take off, but if it doesn’t we’ll just put a flag in it and call it ours.”
I just checked; she’s still there.
If you’re new and you want to conquer pertinent social media planets, that’s how you do it. Need a hand getting content on your planet of choice? Give us a call.
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