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Your thoughts on the best strategy for a start-up company to begin their social networking efforts.
(This question was asked during Brent Csutoras' presentation in the Focus Interactive Summit: Capitalizing on Social Media.)
Your thoughts on the best strategy for a start-up company to begin their social networking efforts.
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3 Answers
The Startup needs to be quite clear on their market: what they do, and who they do it for. Once they have those questions answered, their choice of social networking is simple: where are their clients, or potential clients, connecting to each other? If their clients-to-be are in a Facebook group, go there. In an industry forum, go there. Hot for Twitter? You know the answer.
Once you find out where your clients-to-be are connecting, listen to conversations, then start answering questions. If possible, let your tech person, not your sales person, be the point person on your social networking. Get a bit of a reputation as a source of information for the group, and let them come to you.
Actually, I think the first question any start up needs to ask (once it has a business plan, a brand strategy and adequate resources in place, and you know who your target audience is), is whether or not social media is going to justify the investment it requires to make it work properly. The reality is that at the present point in time the ROI for most companies is likely to be higher on more traditional marketing methods and, therefore, the company's time and money might well be better spent in those areas.
At the heart of any social media strategy is content. So the question is how much is the startup willing to invest in content. Ideally a start-up should invest in only one of the many mediums out there or risk spreading too thin. Here is a round up on basis of the medium:
1. Blogging - Takes atleast 3-6 months to become visible. Need a lot of good original content. Linking via comments is ideal.
2. Videos - A lot of investment is required for professional videos. A good amateur video can also create a great viral. High risk - high return
3. Question / Answer forums - Identify key forums to create a presence and also must have knowledge to make it relevant.
4. Ads - Goes along with any strategy - Good for getting initial prospects
All of this goes along with your personal communications on Linked In, Facebook, Twitter etc.
- Rushabh
www.erpnext.com
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