If you run a start-up in the UK, then you are no doubt aware of the massive strides that have been made over the past couple of years.
Despite the issues related to the coronavirus, UK start-ups have raised more cash investment in three quarters of 2021 than they did throughout 2020.
The total of 2021 is a record year even though the volume of actual deals is lower, which points to a more effective approach taken by the start-up community when it comes to acquiring the levels of investment they need to become a going concern capable of generating good levels of income.
This amounts to £20 billion in funding, and when it comes to investing these sums wisely, it’s important for start-up ventures of all types to maximize their use of social media channels in a way that is forward-thinking, goal-centered, and fit for purpose in 2021.
Ways Your Business Can Use Social Media to Boost Your Start-Up
Regardless of the area of the business ecosystem your start-up operates in, from industries that have their roots firmly planted in e-commerce to those supplying physical goods and services, you’ll need to use social media to further your short, medium, and long-term objectives.
There are many ways you can use your social channels; here are a few well-worn paths to take.
Building Brand Awareness
You’ll want to push your brand to the masses, and frankly, the easiest and most cost-effective way to do this is via social media channels (as opposed to print media or television advertising). We’d strongly recommend you bring in a dedicated team for this purpose or look to outsource this to a proven digital marketing agency. Do not attempt to ‘wing-it’ yourselves, as this will almost certainly prove to be a costly disaster.
Foster a Relationship Between Your Online Following and Your Brand
Make sure to offer real-time communication with your followers as they are effectively customers in the making. Be timely with your responses to queries and look to push promotions in a sustainable fashion. Social media is also a good way to test the waters with any potential product development (if relevant to your niche), and securing feedback can be hugely beneficial when it comes to driving the direction of your brand and values.
Constructing an Effective Advertising Campaign
If you want to get your name out there, you’ll be looking to put together an advertising strategy and may want to put together relevant mediums for doing so. You can take to social media to push your latest video, where we suggest you elect the use of copyright-free music over the more expensive option of licensing existing mainstream music.
Advertising on social media channels is a more purpose-built mode of revenue generation than previous forms that many relied upon, and it’s very affordable. Perhaps the best aspect of running an advertising campaign via social media channels is that you can start small and still see genuine progress; in other words, you won’t feel like you are just throwing money into a void and hoping for the best.
Best of all you can be super targeted in your promotional pushes to maximise areas you feel are most likely to prove successful.
Exposure
Run paid promotions on relevant sites but do not seek to boost your own social channels with paid followers. Be organic with your approach to social media and be prepared to allow these efforts time to sow their seeds.
Getting your name ‘out there’ may be a key part of your overall business strategy and doing this via social media assets is the most sensible, quantifiably effective, way of getting the job done.
Online Marketplace
Social media isn’t just a tool to build an audience and grow your brand; it’s also where you may well end up doing the lion’s share of your business. Indeed the bulk of your revenue could end up pooling in from this resource, so manage the relevant purchasing funnels wisely and effectively (especially when it comes to Google campaigns and other paid means of driving traffic to your sales markets)
Don’t Treat All Social Media as the Same
All social media channels are not the same. They each have a unique space in the market, and over time you’ll soon learn which would be the most likely to offer you a decent chunk of your sales pie. Some networks are better for sales of particular products and services than others, but you may also find that you are securing more of a following on one than the other.
Keep Track of the Data
Perhaps the best thing about running campaigns and sales drives on social media channels is the fact that all manner of data is available in real-time. This makes it very easy to track the relevant metrics and to work out what’s working and what’s not, and if you strategize effectively, you can learn a great deal about your customers and then target them effectively via CRM methods and other tools that will help you convert more successfully.
Read more:
How Using Social Media Correctly Has Helped to Boost British Start-Ups and Entrepreneurs