Using Social Networks for your Startup
There are more Social Networks then some companies are comfortable using. At this point the top ones are Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google +, and Tumblr. You might have your company using all of these services and for the most part you would be right to have one. The question is how do you really utilize all of these social outlets?
Let’s first establish why you’re using social networks and how it applies to your customer base/growth by answering these questions:
- What message do you want to share?
- How are you currently interacting with your followers/ fans?
- What assets are you sharing?
- How are you using your followers to shape and develop your business?
After you’ve answered these questions we can start developing a social strategy. The best way for me to go through these questions is to display social campaigns and talk about a project I’m currently working on. Throughout the next weeks I will be addressing each one of these questions and sharing with you examples/best practices.
Pitching Your Startup
If you’re involved in a startup there is going to come a point and time where you have to pitch your idea. It could be to your friend, future colleague, investor, or journalist. It’s important to remember that when you’re pitching your idea there has to be a flow. Pitching is like telling a story there is a beginning, middle, and end.
The way I always look at it is to cover these points: “This is what I want to do (problem you’re going to solve), this is how I’m going to do it, this will be the end result when it is done. If you can get those 3 points down you’ll make an impact on whoever you’re pitching.
When you pitch your startup avoid buzz words. If your speaking with an investor, journalist, or someone in the startup scene you can assume that they understand what you’re talking about. But it becomes distracting when you start saying “I won’t go into the weeds on this one”, “I won’t light a fire if there isn’t any wood”, and “it’s a b2b c2c mobile based 3rd party application with cloud computing.” This kind of lingo happens all the time. The person you’re pitching will begin drifting away from your idea and become completely unfocused. This leaves the viewer confused and disconnected from your service.
Keep your pitch simple and to the point.
