Start-up is a term heard by all of us, and what is the first thing that pops in our head when we think of a start-up? The struggle involved getting our business off the ground. Investopedia states that "the term "start-up" refers to a company in the first stages of operations. Start-ups are founded by one or more entrepreneurs who want to develop a product or service for which they believe there is demand. These companies generally start with high costs and limited revenue, which is why they look for capital from a variety of sources such as venture capitalists".
How is a start-up related to social media algorithms? Let us discuss this further in the article.
For starters, for a business to get recognised by people, one will have to resort to a social media setup. By the end of 2021, there will be 4.48 billion people actively using social media globally; thus, once a business establishes an account or makes its brand visible on social media platforms, several individuals are bound to come across its products.
Moreover, this is a cost-efficient manner for people beginning a start-up as they don't need big bucks in order to run their business. They just need to be creative and use social media algorithms to their advantage. Social media marketing, besides being cost-friendly, also keeps the users in the loop of the new products or developments that are witnessed in the company. For example, on the 1st of October, Starbucks India's official Instagram account featured their limited-edition reusable cup. This would generally be advertised in the media or on a giant hoarding; however, with the help of social media, more than 200 thousand individuals have gained information on its new product. Social media holds that kind of power over a business, especially a start-up.
As mentioned earlier, social media is an easy, quick method to allow your start-up to gain recognition and grow in prominence. Let us dwell deeper into the advantages of social media algorithms in a start-up.
Advantages Of Social Media Algorithms In A Start-up
· Geo-Target Content
Geo-Target content is to produce content that targets a specific audience of a particular town, city or country. An individual from the western corner of the world could own a start-up and gain more users by making content specific to the easter corner, such that they gain a more extensive user base.
For example, person A from the United States has a start-up called "LPXM" and aims to target the Indian audience. Thus they make content that can relate to the Indian audience, either by writing Hindi subtitles or trying to connect the product to the country's rich heritage and so on.
· Easy Collaborations
Social media algorithms direct you to individuals or pages that align with your previous shares, likes and searches. Thus, it recognises another person in a startup or a budding business owner and is able to allow you to collaborate with them rather easily. Such collaborations are of utmost importance for a start-up as it can help you put your business on the map.
· Customer Visibility
A start-up in the physical sense would not allow you to understand who your target audience is or what their age range is. After all, since it is a start-up, you may find it difficult to target content towards your user’s wants and needs. However, social media algorithms solve this problem for you. Certain platforms, such as Instagram has the wonderful feature of allowing you to view your target audience, their age range as well as their gender. Therefore, allowing you to make relatable content for your specific users.
· Timely Updates On Your Competitors
Granted, you will get to know about your competitors and their updates via hearsay or the business vine, but how sure can you be? A start-up company with a similar base as yours is bound to use social media, hence you will be aware of their updates and their pain points ( a frequent issue in one’s organisation that causes an inconvenience to the customer), giving you an upper-hand.
· Quick Customer Feedback
As a start-up, it is vital to know what your customers think of your business and how you can make it reach the stars. Customers are quick on their fingers in social media and are immediate with their feedback. For example – Cadbury Dairy Milk uploaded a new ad of theirs on their Instagram account, the company revamped an old 90’s ad and modified it to fit today’s times.
It was a huge hit among the mass and how do we know this? Because the people themselves have left comments stating how much they adore the ad. The company would not be able to gauge the user’s reaction by advertising this ad only through television.
Best Social Media Marketing Strategies For A Startup
· Establish SMART Goals
SMART goals refers to goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. One cannot expect to gain ten thousand plus followers one week into the social media field. Establishing goals that are reasonable in nature and are attainable helps keep one motivated into building their company from scratch.
· Selecting The Right Medium
Social media algorithms are helpful; however, you must know which social media can help boost your business in the right direction. Social media algorithms will be of aid in every which way but the right medium aids in targeting the audience. For example, if your start-up is based in India, your medium of choice must be Facebook as India by far has the largest number of users at 310 million. With this number of active users present, it is easy to gain recognition.
· Using More Video Content
A video of around 20 seconds is more than enough to grab a user’s attention. It is far more engaging and fun than a long -drawn caption or a post with too much text. The video creates a sense of visual pleasure that is appealing to users of various demographics.
· Organisation Of Giveaways And Contests
Now, I know what you are thinking, as a start-up I couldn’t possibly have the money to afford to provide freebies to users. This is where the point of easy collaborations comes into play. Once you have established a good camaraderie with another start-up, you could organise a joint event. In addition, your gift does not have to be something of extreme cost, it could be as simple as providing a ten percent discount at a certain coffee shop. Receiving gifts from anyone releases certain amounts of dopamine (feel-good hormone) and impacts our memory centres. To summarise, when a first-time customer receives a goodie, they feel a surge of happiness and associate said happiness with your business and are more likely to share your organisation’s name with their friends, family members and so on.
· Get On The Trends Boat
Upload your content such that it is relevant to the content that is trending at the time. The social media algorithm will sort the user’s feed based on relevancy and since your post is relevant, it will be placed above all else. Ensure to not go overboard with it as it could lead to you business deviating from its goals and merely focusing on the upcoming trends.
Let us take a look at a few start-ups and how they have grown
· CRED
CRED was established in 2018 by Kunal Shah. We have all seen the Rahul Dravid ad, where the “calm” batsmen closes his cool in Bangalore traffic. This ad created a lot of traffic amongst the users as it was quirky, relatable and engaging. Social media algorithms and media allowed people to share it amongst several other individuals, thus leading to a boom in users gaining more interest on what the app’s functions are.
· Urban Company
All of us would have come across an ad from Urban Company at least once on our feed or while we were searching for something on google. Why does this occur? It is because of us and not due to any kind of external force. Social media algorithm picks and chooses the ads it thinks users will be interested in seeing, based on ad quality, the way the ad has been set up by its advertiser (such as which demographics it should target), and the users’ previous interactions with a similar type of ad.
· Unacademy
Let’s Crack It! This is the company’s signature line, founded in 2015, the start-up reached its zenith in the year 2021. With the pandemic and their social media algorithms set to target mainly students, the organisation's valuation rose to $3.44 billion.
Conclusion
Social media algorithms and start-ups go hand in hand. A small step into the social media field can do wonders to one’s start-up without breaking out the big bucks. Employing social media as a member of your start-up marketing strategy can generate huge payoffs that can help you accelerate your business efficiently and immaculately. With the above provided information, take your start-up and build on it day by day. In the upcoming article, we will observe a detailed SWOT analysis of the mentioned start-ups as well as the thriving social media platforms.
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