Thoughts On Startups: Content and Clients

Content is evolving from static statements into conversations more and more everyday. Presenting content to represent a brand has become more complicated as a result. As a consequence, both existing firm’s and startups needs to recruit people with defined skill sets in the social media ecosystem. As a compliment, or better, within the same person’s toolkit, should be experience with data analysis and information visualization. The profession of data scientist fits all of the relevant criteria, social media experience, statistical background, the ability to apply rigorous methodologies, knowledge of information technology infrastructures, and a developed analytical business acumen. Finding all of these qualities in one employee is difficult, but their numbers are increasing. In the absence of one person that fits all these criteria, a small team should be put in place that fills in the points on this list.

Why is social media important and included on this wish list for the modern organization? Established firms rarely generate direct profits from using social technology and startups often hemorrhage cash while pushing it into the bottomless maw of SoMe companies. The importance comes from how consumers of their products or services have changed. We invent new technology and then we adapt to put it to its most optimum use. This rarely happens directly and is almost always too gradual to notice. As consumers, we have slowly rejected traditional marketing behavior and have come to expect a relationship with the companies we engage with. Instead of the company holding all of the data on its customers and using it to leverage relationships with them, generating profit — the modern organization enjoys a relationship with its customer where just as much data is shared with them about the company as the customer shares with them. It has ceased to be about knowledge of the customer and has come to be about trust between the company and the consumer. A new startup or an established firm that does not future-proof their hiring practices to include the data scientist’s repertoire make the mistake of pushing the old model of communication with their clients onto a digital medium. This is always transparent when seen by the customer in their news feeds or streams. Among the back-and-forth conversations happening across their preferred social platform comes the old model company, screaming about gift cards and discounts and their expertise, screaming into a void because the 21st century consumer has moved on in the blink of an eye.

The modern client expects to be included in a group, to be shown empathy or emotion from the firm, and to have some degree of control over their experience with the organization. By establishing a presence on the large social media platforms and through creating their own collaborative two-way environment for communication a new start-up and the legacy brand company are now on a level playing field. Their goal is to help their clients or their customers meet one another and establish relationships. Their goal is to create an in-group around their brand. Content marketing, as it is sometimes called, is engineered to reach out. to existing clients and to expose new clients to the firm’s services or products. Traditional marketing materials and techniques do not work in this way. To market a brand with original content an organization must break down the silos that traditional marketing places their client base in. New customers and existing customers all receive the same treatment, have the ability to cultivate the same relationship. There is no longer space for new customer discount rates or preferable treatment for the legacy client.

The data scientist or the data team at a startup need to perform their analysis in different ways, not placing as much relevance on the length of a customer’s relationship with the firm and increasing their focus on the amount of time spent ingesting the media their firm has produced and how that media is shared, if at all, with a client’s personal social network.

References

Conti A, Thursby M, and Rothaermel F T (2013) Show me the right stuff: Signals for high-tech startups. Journal of Economics + Management Strategy. (22, 2) pp. 341–364.

Davila A, Foster G, Jia N (2010) Building sustainable high-growth startup companies: Management systems as an accelerator. California Management Review. (52, 3) pp. 79–105

Midler C and Silberzahn P (2008) Managing robust development process for high-tech startups through multi-project learning: The case of two European start-ups. International Journal of Project Management (26) pp. 479–486.