What can you expect when using social media? It’s not what you think.
My name is Suzanne McDonald from Angles & Insights Marketing Consultancy, and today we’re going to talk about how you can use social media to prove out your concept or your business idea before you invest a lot of money into it.
Before you jump into social media and expect all kinds of friends and followers, know that it takes a lot of effort. Best practice is to really figure out what type of following you actually are going to get. There are ways you can do that on social media. For example, you could use Facebook ads. You could actually just set up a Facebook ad without spending any money and look at the demographics.
Personas and Target Audience
We’re going to get more into personas and target audiences in a little bit, but first, you really want to see if there is an audience out there that is actually going to gain traction with your idea?
Another tool that you can use is to build a landing page. There are some online, easy to use cloud-based tools that you can use, such as Leadpages or Unbounce, that make it much more affordable. They’re fairly simple, they’re pretty easy to put together. For a landing page, you want a very small amount of content.
What can startups do with social media right at the very beginning, even before they launch? Prove your concept – make sure that your idea is actually good and that someone wants it.
Second, you want to make sure that your conversion path is easy. You want to grab those email addresses; you want to make sure that you have good bait because there’s so much noise out there. If you don’t have a good offer, you’re really not going to get any traction, and you want those email addresses so you can share good quality content in the future.
About Suzanne McDonald
Former Boston Globe journalist and CEO of Angles & Insights marketing consultancy, Suzanne is an omnivore of all things new media & client success. She’s pioneered award-winning courses at area universities and digital marketing campaigns, including “Best Viral Video Award” for #Ticknado.
Suzanne also founded and curates Newport Interactive Marketers networking-learning community, providing marketing insights to SEOs, social, PR & content pros and to brands and nonprofits big and small.
Suzanne holds a master’s in Mass Communications and Journalism from University of South Carolina and engineered a BA into a journalism program at Framingham State University, magna cum laude.
She has 15 years’ experience at daily newspapers, 6 at The Boston Globe, until she took a voluntary buyout to launch Designated Editor in 2008. In 2015, Suzanne launched Angles & Insights to better reflect her expanded abilities to meet clients’ needs beyond SEO, social & content.
Suzanne has a rare ability to solve clients’ root problems with technology that removes guesswork and makes employees’ lives better. Current Angles & Insights projects harness technology – like CRM, marketing performance, and Analytics – to drive not just clicks and engagement but sales and brand loyalty.