Social Media for Start Ups

Webinar : 11th August 2011

Agenda :1. Fundamentals of Social Media2. Practical Approach to Social

Media3. Case Studies of successful Social

Media Strategies4. Challenges of Social Media5. Q&A sessions

@bexdeep

Lets not start with the history of Social Media or Internet.

History creates an illusion that there is a trend in what is happening and that future can be

predicted on basis of it. - Unknown

Neither should a startup try to emulate success stories of big brands.

Big brands put much more effort/money in their social media than that is visible.

Also, lets not discuss about the opportunity provided by Social Media.

The internet is already crowded with too many justification over Social Media’s Potential.

Instead, lets try to understand Social Media as it is, with out any reference.

What does Social Media Look Like?

People which is the core of Social Media.

Connection which makes a network between

people.

Context/Content which is the reason behind the

existence of the Network.

Dynamics which governs the flow

of content in

the network.Attributes of

Social Media

People

Demographics Gender Age Group

Profession Entrepreneurs, designers, engineers, marketers etc.

InterestArts, Business, Music,

Communication, relationships etc.

Connection (One Sided or Mutual Relationship)

Friends

Followers

Group members

Subscribers

Content and Context

• Blog post Microcontent (written content)• Infotainment (creative image, photography,

infographics, visualization)• Videos (animation, promotion, activisim,

youtubing)• Research papers (casestudy, whitepaper,

presentation)• Application (viral application)• Podcasting (online radio Jockey)

Dynamics

• This is the core of what makes your social media strategy successful.

• Every startup needs spent time understanding the dynamics of different networks and what works and what doesn’t.

Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Youtube, LinkedIn, Quora, Slideshare, Flickr etc

That is all you need to Know.

• People• Connection• Context/Content• Dynamics

Getting your Feet Wet.

Sketching out the Strategy.

• You need to choose your context/content.• You need to start building community around

your content.– Facebook Community– Twitter Community– Youtube Community– SlideShare Community– Your own Micro Forum– More importantly, you Emailer Subscribers.

That looks like a long list. How long will it take to build a good community.

Months or even years !!!

Social Media is not like planning wedding, its more of long term plan of sustainable Marriage.

- Gary Vaynerchuk

Choosing your content/context ?

How do you choose content?

Know your expertise.

Find the best way to demonstrate that expertise.

Research on usual trend in your industry and its pain

points.

Syndicate you content to all your social networks.

Building Community Strategy

• Listening to influencers in your network and engaging in conversation with them.

• Lead Generation Strategy to gain Emailer list from interested candidate.

Creating Good Twitter Followers

Listening to relevant

keywords

Responding to any related

content being shared

through reply or retweet

Following genuine

twitter users

Sharing interesting

news/ information

Promoting your twitter ID

in all the content and

channels.

Creating Good Facebook Fans

Creating a Good Landing Page

for you Facebook Page.

Promoting your fan page in your

websites.

Giving incentives for people to like the

page,

like free ebook or subscription to

service/product.

Future Purpose :

Faceboook Ads platform and

Contest

Building Community Strategy

• Listening to influencers in your network and engaging in conversation with them.

• Lead Generation Strategy to gain Emailer list from interested candidate.

Lead Generation Mechanism for

Start-ups.

• Email Campaign is still the core of distributing promotional Materials.

• Hence you need to build a strong emailer List

Lead Generation Mechanism

• You need to research well on what is required by your target client and build a useful content related to it.

• You need to distribute these content based on email registration process.– Good and Genuine Content will always attract targeted

audience.

Case Studies on HubSpot

Case Studies on 6wunderkinder

Case Studies on 37signals

Case Studies on socialbakers

Case Studies on simplify360

Case Studies on MailChimp

Case Studies on SmashingMagazine

Creating and Curating Content. (Blog! Blog! Blog!)

• Consistency is very important in Social Media.• Blog is the first step towards web presence and needs to be

planned out thoughtfully.

Blog regularly

about your industries

pain points and you genuine

interest in solving them. Spark

Conversation with

Blog Post.

Make your blog post sharable through integration of social plug-in.

Release weekly or biweekly newsletters sending popular blog

posts.

Engage in Twitter,

Quora and project

your thought

leadership.

Some Strategy :

Finally!!! What are communities worth?

More than you can imagine.

Attributes of Community

Audience : People who are interested on what you have

to say but not necessarily your customers. They will

help you leverage your content to right people.

Users : Who are your free product users or people who regularly

engage in conversation.

Customers : Your real customers who pay for your product or service

and needs special support.

Managing Communication Channels

• Regularly Update your channels and upgrade them.

• Engage with audience and spark discussion.

Keep your channels alive !!!

Challenges

Getting the initial traction in community

growth.

Maintaining good flow of conversation and interest among the community base.

Driving them to your website.

Overcoming Challenges

• Searching for some help from the network or other community forums to generate interest.

• Engaging with high quality comment on forums and discussion sites.

• Promotion through Ads:– Google Ad words– Facebook Ads

Beyond Social Media

• Search Engine Optimization• Offline Engagement and Promotion

Q&A

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