When building up startups, entrepreneurs often don’t know exactly when and in what order to do certain things. When do you look for outside investment, when do you branch out, and when do you kick up your social media strategy? Depending on the niche you’re in, some of these questions can appear easier or more challenging. One of them is almost always a constant, however, and it’s that the sooner you start working on your social media presence and online marketing, the better. The reason for that is simple – owning popular and growing social media accounts can accelerate your business’ growth exceptionally fast, regardless of its development stage. Here are some of the key reasons why that’s the case.
1. Social Media Lets You Reach Audiences Impossible to Reach in Any Other Way
Marketing strategies develop and change so quickly nowadays that many things that used to be marketing staples just a decade or more ago are now either obsolete or much less effective. Even on social media, strategies that used to work much better than they do now, as newer social media marketing methods have become more prominent.
What is still true, however, is that simply having an extensive and stable social media presence is as crucial now as it was 10 years ago. Or, rather, it’s even more crucial as people use individual businesses’ websites less and less, preferring to focus on their social media accounts instead.
This has led to certain innovative strategies in recent years. For example, instead of building up their online presence from the ground up, many businesses today prefer to just buy a social media account that was created and pre-established months prior.
For example, a startup can buy an Instagram account in the same or an adjacent niche that already has a pre-established audience of several thousand, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of followers. The startup can then continue to grow the account simultaneously and promote its business on it.
There are right and wrong ways to do this, of course, as you can quickly and easily alienate that audience if you don’t work with it well enough. However, if you go about it right, you can accelerate your growth exponentially. One of the ways to do it is to buy views on TikTok. This can get you up and running fast.
2. Collaborations with Other Online Businesses, Marketing Specialists, and Influencers
Social media isn’t just a great way to find customers; it’s also a great place to find partners and collaborators. It gives you the ability to impress the right people or contact those you’re interested in working with directly, especially once you’ve managed to establish a bit of a brand presence for yourself.
Another common strategy, for instance, is to hire influencers to promote your brand for you. This can either be done instead of your own promotional efforts or alongside them to maximize your growth as much as possible.
3. Don’t Just Reach Broad Audiences, Reach Specific Audiences
The other beauty of social media is that it gives you a wider reach and better aim. Instead of blindly tossing your advertising net and hoping to catch something, you can use personalized ads and messages for people in specific target groups and niches.
In fact, you can often be so pinpoint accurate with your messaging that your brand becomes exceptionally popular in some niches but still unheard of in others.
4. Social Media Is a Fantastic Tool for Marketing Research
The above point is possible thanks to the amazing marketing tools and strategies social media enables. Instead of asking for consumer feedback through email, phone, or street surveys, marketing specialists can not gather all the feedback and data they want through social media and other adjacent online channels.
This makes your marketing efforts much easier and infinitely more effective, further promoting your startup’s growth.
5. You Can’t Grow Your Brand If You Haven’t Established It Well Enough First
Accelerating your brand’s growth is one thing, but maintaining and building upon that initial acceleration is a whole other matter. With enough investment, any brand can be pushed in front of people’s eyes and make some headlines. However, having a solid social media network drives those eyes and keeps them there so that acceleration becomes consistent growth.
While businesses used to rely on their websites and newsletters for that (and those aren’t 100% obsolete yet), today, social media presence is the best way to keep people’s attention and interest in the long term.
Image Credit: Photo by Rami Al-zayat; Unsplash
Noah Nguyen is a multi-talented developer who brings a unique perspective to his craft. Initially a creative writing professor, he turned to Dev work for the ability to work remotely. He now lives in Seattle, spending time hiking and drinking craft beer with his fiancee.
