7 Killer Tools To Growth Hack Your Startup’s Social Media Presence
For many startups having a strong social media presence might be a priority in the beginning. You might think that managing your social media presence and channels is one of the easier tasks when it comes to growth hacking your startup. The odd Facebook post here and a tweet now and then should be enough right?
Wrong!
Most startups operate on a very tight budget so even finding the time to post on social media can become a struggle. Most startups will make the mistake of just using social media to sell or post news of their latest offers etc. This can be quite boring for social media users.
Social media is all about engagement. If it’s done right it can level the playing field between startups and established businesses who operate on a much larger budget. Social media should be treated as your first line of attack as it will quite often be the way potential customers first learn of your business. It’s your chance to let them know who you are, what you do and also to make a great and lasting first impression.
Finding the right content or even creating your own can take time but it’s important that you do this. For startups it’s a chance to gain followers and engagement because for unknown brands or businesses this is the biggest social media challenge.
“If you build it they will come” but only if they like what you build! In a sea of quality content it’s hard to stand out and find time to escape from more urgent business matters. Time is a huge factor in social media engagement and not just finding time but also finding the right time! When you post on social media makes a big difference and different channels have different ‘Best Times’ to post. Many of these tools can help you post at the best time but also schedule your posts so that you don’t even have to be online at the time. Here’s a list of my favourite tools to help you manage your social media presence. I use my iPhone to manage while on the go usually so I should mention that these are all available as iOS apps, android apps and also as desktop versions.
1- Hootsuite
Hootsuite is my go to app for managing my social media channels. It’s free to use for up three channels. You can create an account and I find it best for posting to Facebook, Facebook pages, Twitter and LinkedIn. You can curate your content in the app and post right away or schedule it for the optimal time. You can choose to post to multiple channels at the same time or vary your posting time between channels. You can also share an article direct from safari or many other news feeds like feedly or flipboard. Used the provided headline, change to your own, add some hashtags and away you go.
2- Buffer
Buffer is quite similar to Hootsuite however it has an advantage as it allows you to post to a LinkedIn or Google+ company profile. You can schedule and add up to four channels for free and post right away, at a suggested time or pick your own customised time. You can post to your startup’s Facebook page, Twitter account, Google+ company page and LinkedIn company page. I find this particularly useful as the LinkedIn mobile app does not allow you to post to a business page which I find really annoying.
3- Crowdfire
Crowdfire is a useful tool for Twitter and Instagram. It’s best features come into action when you start to gain followers. You can sent an automatic private message to each new follower and this can be used to share links to other social media channels of to your website. This practice might not appeal to many as it’s quite impersonal but it’s not Crowdfire’s only useful feature. You can also see who doesn’t follow you back or who has unfollowed you and this can be useful when you need to trim down your account, especially on Twitter.
4- Feedly
Feedly is a great tool for sourcing great content. You can set up your account and customise your news feed so that only your chosen blogs, websites and news channels show up. You can categorise your news feed into different feeds and browse each feed separately or all at once. Each day your feed will refresh itself with all the latest relevant stories and these can be shared directly from the app using individual social media links or to multiple channels using the likes of Hootsuite or Buffer.
5- IFTTT
IFTTT stands for ‘If This, Then That’. It works by allowing you to set up relationships called ‘recipies’ between your social media accounts and other accounts like google drive, feedly and many more. You could set up a relationship between Instagram and Tumblr so that any image you post on Instagram will also post to Tumblr. It’s an excellent tool that can save you a lot of time and the amount of channels you can use and recipies you can set up are seemingly endless.
6- Twitshot
Twitshot is an excellent tool for Twitter. It allows you to post an article and headline but will also provide an image from that article. You can crop the image so that it appears as the optimal size in your Twitter feed. You can also search for another article related to the tweet and use that instead. You can choose to post right away or to schedule your tweet.
7- Repost
Repost is a great tool for Instagram. It’s a very simple yet effective tool of sharing photos on Instagram without creating your own content. It’s pretty much an instagram version of a retweet. You find a photo you like that’s related to the message you want to send to your Instagram followers and just repost it. The app will give credit to the original poster and also allow you to copy and paste the original image caption including any hashtags used.
Using these tools will help you find time to engage in other important aspects of your startup’s rise to the top. They will also help you gain followers, tell your story, find like mined people, engage your audience and monitor success. I hope you find them as useful as I have and that they give you time to grow your business and social media presence.
I’m happy to help with any questions and I hope you enjoyed reading this post.
