2Jul

Optimizing Social Media for your Business

Promoting your start-up and making it go viral is now easier than ever, thanks to the multitude of social media outlets available online. As a start-up, you should use as much of these tools as possible, as they will help your business expand and gain popularity. Yes, your business probably already has a Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+ account. If it doesn’t, you should get on that as soon as possible. However, you may want to consider making your start-up known on more social media platforms. Here are just a few you may want to use:Pinterest

1. Pinterest can help your business expand in many ways. For example, you can collaborate with established pinners who have a large follower database to help your own business grow and expand. You can also pin educational and informative boards that will establish your business as an authority in your field. By using Pinterest, you will educate people on your product and will promote it at the same time.
2. Instagram will work well for you especially if your start-up creates great visual content or products. Instagram lets you post pictures of your business and products. However, Instagram being a social media website, you should balance business photos with fun, uplifting photos. Fun photos do not necessarily have to be photos of cats. You can post things that are still related to your business: for example, if you sell nutritional supplements, you can post pictures of healthy foods to promote the healthy lifestyle.  Remember to follow back the people who follow you on Instagram, as this will let you create strategic business relationships in the future.
3. Foursquare is the largest social media platform when it comes to location-focus. By using Foursquare, you will be able to make your customer base grow without doing much yourself. Let’s assume, for example, that your start-up is a restaurant. When a customer visits you, he can “check-in” using Foursquare. Thus, his or her friends will see the name and location of your business, and are likely to visit you when they are unsure about where to eat.“Check-ins” spread very quickly, increasing your visibility exponentially on Foursquare, and increasing customers.
4. Reddit is an extremely important tool when it comes to building relationships with clients. There are so many tools you can use to connect and communicate with customers. One of the most important Reddit features for start-ups are sub-Reddits, topics that are narrowed down to a specific subject for a specific audience. Sub-Reddits can help you create discussion topics about your product or service and offer customer support. Furthermore, you can add news and events about your start-up to keep your clients up to date.

Remember that your main social media platforms are still Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The websites mentioned above however, will increase the popularity of your business even further. When it comes to social media, more is always better: do not limit yourself. In fact, look around to find other social media websites you can use.