Social Media for Startups

Amrita Chandra | Communitech Workshop | September 2013

My story starts in a tiny gallery in Toronto…

What we will cover today1:05-1:15 Some Inspiration1:15-1:35 Exercise 1: Content Planning 1:35-1:45 Avoiding the Social Media Wall of Shame1:45-2:15 Exercise 2: Social Media for Your Startup2:15-2:30 Q&A

Cloud Backup company Asigra uses social media to champion backup heroes

In less than 2 years, Buffer’s blog reached 700,000 readers per month

BRIKA’s visual content makes Pinterest a great channel for showing what’s popular

Pressly got their content in front of >100,000 readers through guest blogging

Manning Canning shares recipes of mouth-watering preserves, Tweets locations of upcoming farmer’s market stalls

LookBookHQ uses their product to create LookBooks on newsworthy topics. They have built relationships with leading content marketers (their target audience) who have in turn featured LookBookHQ in their own content. LookBookHQ has gone from launch to landing major enterprise clients in <1 yr.

Don’t have a product in market yet? Start building an audience through your blog & outreach to others in your industry

What do they have in common?

They know who they are (and what they stand for)They know their target customer wellThey work with what they haveThey show some personalityThey engage on and outside their own platformsThey have something valuable to shareThey help their customers be amazing

What situation(s) are moving her towards switching to your product?What current habits are holding her back from switching to your product?

What anxieties does she have about your product?

What about your product is attracting her?

Four Forces Framework developed by: Bob Moesta, The ReWired Group

Curr

ent

Sit

uati

on

New

Pro

du

ct

Your startup makes a wristband that tracks a person’s physical activity. It’s targeted at affluent men & women 30-50 who are trying to get back into shape.

Instructions:

Pair up with a neighbour and come up:

• A list of 3 goals your customer is trying to achieve

• A list of 3 types of content (any format) that can help your target customer achieve their goals

Image credit: Flickr Creative Commons\User\DieselDemon

Be prepared for negative feedback.

Hint:Don’t call your customers trash.

Oops! You might want to rethink that auto-Tweet

Zzzzz….

What kind of customers do you want to focus on?

Doesn’t know this kind of product

exists

Knows this category exists,

not actively looking

Actively looking for something like

this

Is currently using a similar product

Your customers’ goals Your content Format & channelYour area of expertise

Startup marketingHow to create

awareness on a small budget

PR on a shoestring

Slideshare presentation

Infographic shared through Twitter &

Google+

So… how do you know if all this social media activity is working????

How many are interacting with

it?

Seeing

Interacting

Converting

What is their perception of you?

Cisco’s measurement grid is great but may be overkill for startups; Choose the handful of metrics that really matter for you

If you only remember 3 things from today:

Know what you stand for (& show some personality!)

Know your customer really well (listen, watch, talk)

Find the intersection of 1+ 2 to create & disseminate content that will help you build relationships with your “tribe”

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Thank youfor Open Q&A

Amrita Chandra | @amritachandra