how to use social media when launching your business
TRANSCRIPT
How to Use Social Media When Launching
Your Business
The use of social media is now the most effective way when you are launching a business or
new product. The free access to social networks for prospect identification and the ability to
reach a large audience of buyers via content means every marketing or sales leader has to use
these channels as part of a go-to-market strategy. When launching a new product or service,
social media provides a rich media platform that with some planning can make it easy for
people to share around your message.
It doesn’t seem like so long ago that promoting, marketing and launching a product whether
nationally or global required a massive budget and was one of the barriers to entry the
traditional multi-nationals relied upon. But the digital switch by buyers to self-educate on the
social networks has re-written both the sales and marketing rules.
The following approach or any part of it can be used by anyone with the right discipline and
time.
Use Facebook
Action:
Create a Facebook fan page specifically for your brand or product, then share and network
with the Facebook community as it is the largest single social networking site on the web.
Remember it is about engagement and then sharing. To build up your fan and advocacy base
to give you that critical mass to share your stories/messages, why not offer an incentive to
“like” your page, maybe by giving some merchandise or prize.
Suggested Primary Goal:
Create an incentive for people to “like” your page by providing via a free product giveaway
in order to grow your fan base.
Use LinkedIn
Action:
With over 400 million business users, one of your first actions should be to create a company
page, followed by joining interest groups related to what you are selling. Don’t forget to pimp
up your profile with a photo and fill out as much detail in your profile as possible. Learn
about “social selling” and how to use content from your blog (see below) along with other
content to engage connections. You can also search and tag prospects, influencers and
potential partners.
Suggested Primary Goal:
To identify potential buyers and partners for your brand or products.
Website and Blog
Action:
Thanks to Wordpress, Weebly, Medium, Blogger etc it has never been easier or cheaper to
create your own branded web presence and attract potential buyers (with some SEO and
promotional activity). For less than €100 you can have your own domain and less than €500
can give you a fully branded website. Learn to target keywords, read up on SEO and how to
share your website URL’s on sites like Plurk, Scoop.it, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and
Pinterest to name but a few, will start to give you a trickle of traffic to build upon.
Learn to write 1000 plus word blogs with titles like Tips, How to, A guide to or Top 10 so
you can further use social media to attract potential buyers and improve your search engine
results. Try to write a blog weekly but monthly at a minimum. Don’t forget to share and post
your blog articles around the web.
Suggested Primary Goal
To make it easier for potential buyers to engage with you while finding out more about your
business.
Product Reviews by Social Influencers
Action:
If possible, prior to formal launch try to get some external product reviews, even
recommendations. As the trust between buyer and suppliers is at an all time low, peer
recommendations instead of marketing blurb can give your business a much needed injection
of interest. Maybe offer your product free in return for publishable references. Apart from
using LinkedIn there is a whole host of social tools (lots are free) that you can use to identify
social influencers or connectors. Also do not forget journalists and online magazines,
approaching them can be as simple as crafting an introduction letter with an invitation to
review or sample your offerings. Ensure you put a unique slant on your business, what
problem is it solving and why would people be interested in your personal story.
Suggest Primary Goal:
To gather independent and verifiable 3rd party authority as social proof, which you will then
share with potential customers.
Have a Contest
Action:
Who doesn’t love a good ole a contest and they work well on Social media especially in the
B2C space. Using your social media channels, offer up some real goodies (if not your actual
product then something related to it). Keep it simple, you are not trying to snare emails, you
chasing “share ability”
Suggest Primary Goal
Note: Get a fan base engaged before you officially launch your business or product so that
when you do launch you have a fan base that could be ready to buy and spread your message
for you whether that is on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. The combination of your regularly
updated blog, website and your social media community activity can be a powerful platform
for getting in revenue faster.
Try a Quiz
Action:
It is also easy to create and publish a quiz on your website and social channels. Just do a
Google search for “create a quiz”. There are some free and paid options. People like to test
their knowledge and if you can relate or match the quiz to your product even better.
There doesn’t have to be a prize but you could combine it with a contest as above.
Suggested Primary Goal: To engage customers and also create more buzz.
Create Infographics or Video
Action:
The rise in popularity of infographics and video content in social media cannot be ignored.
Sites like Canva, Visualize, Piktochart and Easel.ly make it easy for anyone with some
patience to create stunning graphic stories. You can even create video content online but
there is a higher price to be paid here, if your product is very visual then maybe a 20-30
second video for YouTube or Vimeo maybe a must.
Suggested Primary Goal: To provide some wow media formats that could go ‘viral’.
SlideShare
Action:
You can create a PowerPoint presentation that could not serve as a key note presentation but
would also publish on Slideshare to spread your message while reinforcing your professional
image.
Suggested Primary Goal: Publish on the Slideshare platform to make it easy for people to
These few tips on using social media when launching a business or product are by no mean
exhaustive, what else have you tried? The purpose of the article is that with a limited budget
and the learning of new skills (social selling, social media marketing, creating infographics,
writing blogs, running contests etc) most of us can achieve results beyond our expectations.
Oh yeah, did I mention lots of hard work but no pain no gain.