Social media creates kinship between companies and customers, and kinship equals purchase intent.

Social media marketing is definitely the piece of cake every company is looking to have. Millions of content pieces are published every day and they fight for your attention constantly. But where to start with when your company is 14 days old, with little budget and so many social media channels to invest in?

Generally, start-ups struggle to find the right social media networks, invest the right amount of money and time and gain the necessary traction via social media marketing.

In this post, I am going to discuss

• Differences between social media for start-ups and corporates.
• How to tackle major challenges with Facebook marketing for small businesses/start-ups.

The game of social media: Startup vs Corporate

Some of the major challenges that you as a founder of a start-up will connect to are

– Your social media channels are absolutely new and you don’t know where to begin with.

– You don’t understand the relevance of specific networks and how they have a leverage over others for your business.

– You don’t have the money and(or) skill to invest in social media advertising.

– There is no brand name associated with your company which gives people absolutely no reason to follow you.

A step-by-step approach to use Facebook for your start-up

In this section, I am going to walk you through every aspect of Facebook marketing for your start-up.

The approach to each social network will include

• Which type of start-ups can Facebook significantly help?
• What are the major challenges that entrepreneurs face with a Facebook?
• How to solve each challenge and take your business to the moon with?

Excited? Let’s get started!

 Facebook Marketing for Small Businesses/Start-ups

When it comes to social media, most businesses (especially small businesses) think of Facebook.

“With Facebook’s  forever changing algorithm to show (or hide) posts in your follower’s news feed, there is definitely some struggle involved in getting the desired visibility”

1. Which type of startups can Facebook help?

– If you are a B2C startup where your customers use Facebook as their most preferred social network, then Facebook is the place for you. Examples include e-commerce sites, general products relating to lifestyle etc.

– When you are a B2B startup, Facebook is not going to bring you any new clients. This is because of the simple fact that Facebook is casual, very few of your clients might actually “hang out” on Facebook and even if they see a post relating to your business, the purchase intent will also be low as buying your software is an important business decision for them.

Does that mean you should not have an FB page? Some startups do that but I would recommend having an FB presence as, without it, your start-up might be perceived as a dead company.

2.  What are the major challenges your start-up will face on Facebook?

Before we begin this discussion, I would like to tell you something about the Facebook EdgeRank Algorithm which affects your post’s visibility in a drastic sense.

Ever wondered why your Facebook post reach is going down even when you are publishing great content?

The answer is the Facebook EdgeRank Algorithm. Facebook only shows customized content to people even when they have liked your page.

To explain you in one line, if people have not interacted with your posts before, Facebook won’t show them in your followers news feed again.

This is because of the fact that millions of FB pages are fighting for your attention and Mark Zuckerberg wants to make sure that people only see content which they care about (and also that FB needs to make money by encouraging companies to invest in ads to increase reach)

So the major challenges your start-up might face may include:

1. Declining post reach because of the edgerank algorithm. Don’t get surprised if only 5% of the followers see your post.

2. Confusion in understanding which type of content/posts work best for you and at what time.

3.  Breaking down every challenge in Facebook marketing

– Declining post reach: In other words, you can say that this problem can be solved if more people interact with your posts. Here is how to do it:

• Show what is happening inside the company and tag your employees: Promoting transparency and openness always sends out a positive message and helps people connect with your company at a psychological level
• Rather than self-promotion, focus on inviting people and hear them out: This will give people a chance to tell what they think of your company. Here is an example of one of our clients and how they invite interactions at an organic level

• Post at non-peak times: If everyone is trying to publish at the same time (say 6 pm), how about posting at a non-peak time? That way the competition that you face for your post to stand out will be much less. You can check the peak and non-peak time in your Facebook Insights. More of this is explained in the analytics section.
• Use more of pictures and videos than status updates: Various studies have shown that pictures and video posts are given a higher weight-age than status updates and links.

– Which type of content performs best on Facebook?

Multiple studies and experiments have shown that the following type of posts performs best on Facebook:

• Picture and video posts perform better than any other posts.
• Pictures conveying a positive message rather than a bad news are more interacted with.
• Pictures optimized for viewing in FB news feed perform better. The optimum resolution should be 940 px* 788 px.

Conclusion

Knowing when, how and what to do with Facebook marketing is of paramount importance to every start-up. The right content strategy and approach can save you a lot of time, money and worry.

How are you using Facebook for your start-up? I’d love to know.