10-minute strategy to make your startup’s social media strategy shine
As of April 2021, 4.3 billion people are active on social media according to Statista. You may or may not agree, but, this is why I advise my clients to put out content on all their social media channels when starting out — be it Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or TikTok. The reason being, you always start with a ‘gut feeling’ of knowing where your consumers are — but that’s not validated till you do it yourself, then dig into data.
You should not rely on research that tells you B2B tech brands only do well only on Linkedin, because that would not explain why Atlassian, a B2B collaboration tool has 18.7K followers on Instagram!
Back in the day, we had multi-channel marketing, which was putting out content across our owned media in a manner that appeared consistent. Multi-channel does not work in 2021, because the same customer is present at different touchpoints. Today, we need to have omnichannel, which is a strategically thought-out, multi-touchpoint strategy where the consumer is continuously gaining value.
It’s therefore, no surprise that brands with strong omnichannel customer engagement have an 89 percent customer retention rating, compared to 33 percent for brands with weak omnichannel engagement (Aberdeen Group).
When crafting an omnichannel social media brand experience, here’s two things to keep in mind:
1.Have a voice and tone guideline, along with usage techniques: This is so underrated, but it’s a must when building omnichannel. While every channel has its own set of do’s and don’ts, you need to as a brand stay consistent in how you’re communicating.
A great example of this would be Linkedin, on Linkedin, and on Instagram. Their general tone of voice is upbeat, motivational and inspiring. But, look at the two channels —
Linkedin on Linkedin is all about careers, networking, remote working and more. Their content is 1–3 lines and very relatable to the large audience set they’re catering to.
Linkedin on Instagram is all about stories, real human faces that use Linkedin, behind the scenes and more. Their content falls under campaigns such as #WorldOfWork, #ConversationsForChange and #InItTogether.
One peculiar thing I noticed was that both channels use a lot of ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘we’ — making everything seem personal and empathetic.
2. Content relevance and channel relevance need to be adhered to: Content marketing and repurposing are two tools in every social media marketer’s kit, but that does not mean using the same content over and over, in a manner where it’s very obviously duplicated. We know this already, right? — Yet, we see brands doing this.
A great example of differentiated point of views on social media channels is Hubspot, a CRM platform, on Twitter, and Hubspot on Instagram.
On Twitter, Hubspot is for marketers at B2B and B2C companies. They post about startups, marketing, conversations at the workplace and stats that strike up conversations — you’ll notice they ask questions, use polls, and even ‘finish the sentence’
On Instagram though, Hubspot is about learning marketing, Smarketing and educating the customer about the need of CRM. They do this via reels, posts, carousels and more.
Twitter is conversational, Instagram is educational. Look at their share of traffic from social media channels below.
While I looked at just Instagram and Twitter, their Linkedin and Facebook are actually doing exceptionally well for them!
Now that we’ve seen examples from Linkedin and Hubspot, how do you as a brand marketer really do this for your brand?
Here are 4 tips that’ll ensure your social media is rocking!
- Start by drawing out an expectation map for your brand and consumer
Social + media = it’s about being social, like you would with a friend. As a brand, you are invading into a channel that’s not meant for you, necessarily. Instagram didn’t start off with b2b and b2c companies! It is and will always be a people-first channel.
Social media is about being social, and not just talk about yourself like you’re the most important thing around! No one cares about brands and pages that are just about themselves.
Therefore, if you are a brand, draw up a simple table of expectations so your brand content strategy is aligned with consumer expectations:
Things to include are:
a. What’s the brand vision?
b. Why should people follow us?
c. What is our end goal with social media?
d. What are the kinds of things we want people to say about us?
e. What are the top three takeaways our TG should have when they look at our page?
The list is endless, but the deeper you dive into it, the better your social media content strategy will come out.
At the end of the day, you’re in their domain — social media was not created ‘for’ brands to be on; make it worth your watcher’s time
2. Understand the user base on every channel, and what the channel likes
In 2019, 90.4% of Millennials, 77.5% of Generation X, and 48.2% of Baby Boomers were active social media users. (eMarketer)
Every channel you use as a brand will have a different audience. You may have more 18–30 year olds on Instagram, and 50–75 on Facebook. You need to adjust your content pillar accordingly.
Adjust your content writing style too to the platform — Twitter was always meant to be snappy content (very recently they introduced threads), Instagram was visual-first.
It’s the easiest thing to paste the same content across channels, but does that work in real life- my answer is no. Also, given that the audience may overlap, do you want the same person to see the same post in 3 different places? — most likely not.
3. Next, narrow your content strategy based on the understanding of consumer behaviour on that channel
Get granular. Successful social media is when you’re talking directly to your consumer segment, not at them.
For example, Linkedin is for business and it’s where the C-Suite and E-suite are, but Instagram may be where the interns and managers are — the stakeholders who’ll be using your product.
On Linkedin, people won’t mind reading a document, on Instagram — forget it! Therefore, on Linkedin a carousel for the C/E suite will work, and on Instagram, a reel might work for your content bucket.
Linkedin is your ‘decision makers’ whereas Instagram is your ‘awareness-creators’
The journey for each will be distinctive depending on where they are in the chain of command — shouldn’t your content speak to their current needs and desires?
It absolutely should.
Here’s an example, an intern might not want to read your whitepaper, but a C-suite executive would care about your whitepaper.
See the difference?
Content type -> Audience understanding -> Channel -> Content on channel -> Distribution/marketing
4. Make your social media ‘wantable’
Offers, we love offers. Discounts, oh we love discounts. Freebies, we love freebies!
On social media, these things work. Ask any brand strategist or social media strategist — resourceful, valuable hooks works on social media always.
Therefore, the link in your bio and the link on your headline are super valuable real estate to build brand awareness and capture their attention.
Pro tip: When posting links here, make sure they are UTM tagged, and trackable on Google Analytics to see the ROI of your social media efforts.
Don’t waste this real estate by telling them to go to the homepage. Direct them to something better.
Tell them you’ll be releasing e-books via social media, so follow along. Your prospects won’t just give you a follow, just because, that’s not how social media works. You’ve gotta give, before you take.
Peek at SEMRush’s link in bio on Instagram:
Bonus reminders:
5. Don’t be boring.
I think this is pretty self-explanatory. Look at Chipotle.
6. Get your employees involved
This is so underrated, and people on social media LOVE seeing what’s happening behind-the-scenes. Social media is a team effort, always! Show your employees, show how cool remote working is at your org. Look at #ExpediaCares on instagram or #BeMagenta on Twitter.
Putting it all together
Being omnichannel is hard in 2021, I won’t lie, but it all pays off when the customer experience is a great one! Social media is no longer a one-person job.
It’s therefore rather disheartening to see that only 73% of marketers believe that their efforts through social media marketing have been “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business. (Buffer)
Alas, being social is about being social, and not about your brand — most of us forget that in the whims and fancies of life.
B2B is human-to-human. B2C is human to human.
Once you have a solid vision for each channel, go out and execute — make mistakes, and repeat. There is nothing on the internet that’ll give you all the answers tailored to your brand. Every brand is unique in its own ways, and that’s the Perks of Being a Wallflower.
PS: Want to see more stats about social media in 2021?- Check out this Hubspot article.
Reach out!
If you liked what you read, please do reach out and tell me on My Linkedin and if you want to work together, check out my website and let’s get chatting.
