Contributors:
Amol Ghemud Published: August 14, 2018
Summary
In This Article
Share On:
At the struggle stage, startup founders often have to decide whether they seek more money (in the form of investment) or more customers/reach. Startups need investment to function as a company, however, without marketing, customers won’t be able to know their presence or even recommend the business to others.
Social media platforms help the founders and business developers alike to manage this problem effectively by marketing their product offerings over social media. The use of most popular social media platforms enables the startup to reach a wider audience with minimal investment.
Have you made a social media strategy for your business?
Social media platforms for startups usually do not require large sum of money. It is one of the easiest, affordable and most effective online marketing strategies. Startups that are looking to accelerate their growth as quickly as possible need to consider using social media platforms to achieve their goal. Below are some tips on how to initiate a successful social media campaign.
Why Startups need Social Media Platforms
1. Drive targeted traffic
Creating a new page on your site is like taking a really great selfie. You want the world to see it and bask in its brilliance, but you don’t want to beg for attention (or worse, pay for it). That’s why for landing pages, well-placed social media posts can make all the difference.
Even a a single link on Reddit drive over 20,000 visitors in one weekend and links submitted to StumbleUpon can take a page that was consistently earning a handful of visitors a day and increase that number to hundreds. Who wouldn’t want to capitalize on that?
2. Using social media for business boosts your site’s SEO
Search engine crawlers know which pages are consistently earning traffic and which are just floating out there, forgotten and ignored. A killer social media strategy for SEO is the most important part of earning top spots in search engine rankings, but driving traffic to your optimized pages on social media will cause them to climb much faster in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
3. Social media leads to real relationship building.
What makes things like Twitter and Instagram marketing so cool are the interactions people have with their customer base — you can read their tweets and status updates to get insights into their daily lives (and maybe adjust your marketing strategy as a result). What products are they buying and why? Activities on the weekend? What kind of posts do they love to share, and from what websites?
4. Users are receptive to your messages
People view Twitter and Facebook as social networks, not marketing machines. As a result, they’re less likely to see what you post as an advertisement and will be more likely to hear what you have to say. This translates to serious web traffic when you link to your site and posts that market themselves as your friends and followers share what you’ve posted.
5. Social media ads allow targeting and retargeting
One of the reasons social media platforms are important is because of the highly customizable nature of social media ads. Facebook ads, for example, allow you to target users by things like location, education level, industry and even purchase history and the pages they’ve liked.
You also have to the option to install a Facebook pixel on your site and use it to retarget the users who visit you — these people are far more likely to convert into solid leads and sales!
Top Social Media Platforms in the world
Here’s the graph of top 15 social networking sites in the world. As you can see Facebook is leading the pack with a huge margin in front of Youtube. Then there’s another gap of similar size to Instagram on the third place.
Social media platform
Monthly Active Users
Facebook
2,070,000,000
YouTube
1,500,000,000
Instagram
800,000,000
Twitter
330,000,000
Reddit
250,000,000
Pinterest
200,000,000
Vine (In January 2017, The Vine became the Vine Camera)
200,000,000
Ask.fm
160,000,000
Tumblr
115,000,000
Flickr
112,000,000
Google+
111,000,000
LinkedIn
106,000,000
VK
97,000,000
ClassMates
57,000,000
Meetup
32,300,000
Product Market Fit
While product market fit is somewhat of an abstract concept, it essentially means that a significant number of people want your product — enough to make it viable as the center of a profitable business.
Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market. You can always feel product/market fit when it’s happening. Customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it, usage is growing as fast as you can add servers, you’re hiring sales and customer support staff. And…you can always feel when product/market fit isn’t happening.
Customers aren’t quite getting value out of the product, word of mouth isn’t spreading, usage isn’t growing that fast. Most startups fail because product/market fit never happens.
The idea behind this metric is that your product is not just another option in the minds of your customers. It’s a significant, beneficial part of their lives and/or businesses. In other words, your product is filling a tangible market need.
Ryan Deiss evaluates market size and its ability to be monetized when attempting to predict market fit. He uses the following metrics:
To determine if the market is large enough look for:
30,000+ Google searches per month on your top 3 keywords
Active blogs
Facebook pages
Active forums
Email newsletters
Active associations
To determine if the market is monetizable, look for:
Direct competition (They are doing exactly what you want to do. This is a good thing.)
Indirect competition (They are selling to the same market, but don’t sell what you do.)
Affiliate offers (Check Clickbank, Share-A-Sale and Commission Junction for related affiliate offers.)
Advertisers (Where there are well-known advertisers, there is money.)
Gurus (Look for very influential people associated with your market.)
eCommerce Sites (Find sites that are selling products to this market.
How Social Media can help test Product Market Fit
In order to discover whether your product can find it’s market fit, you have to get out there and engage with potential customers. You have to get the ball rolling in order to have any chance at building traction.
Here’s a starter guide to implement product market fit on different social media platforms
1. Define your value proposition.
Your unique value proposition defines your attempt at product/market fit. It’s a statement that displays your company’s unique value to your target consumer. Creating this value proposition for your product and determining the top social media platforms to be on in order to attract and engage the customers.
2. Create your sales funnel.
To have any chance at building traction, you need to turn your website into a high-converting sales funnel. The website should include the following setup:
Primary landing page
2-minute demo video
About page
Pricing and signup page
Contact page
Your basic sales funnel should take visitors through the following process:
Lead Magnet
Tripwire Product
Core Product
Profit Maximizer
Returns Paths
3. Create distribution channels.
The core distribution channel is your website, but think about other intuitive places to get your product in front of your target consumers. Such places can be the new social media platforms coming up, which are garnering customers on a daily basis.
This could also include conferences, camps or other in-person events. You could utilize free-to-distribute digital products in order to get your brand circulating. More is typically better, but only if you can keep messaging consistency and cost-efficiency across all channels.
4. Develop traffic acquisition channels.
You typically need some sort of targeted traffic in order to put your lead magnet into play and begin converting leads.
There are a wide number of channels to pursue here. The best advice on traffic channels comes from Digital Marketer:
Become a master of a single, steady traffic source. Stay focused on that traffic source and, once mastered, add a second and third traffic source.
Traffic acquisition channels include:
Organic SEO traffic
Email marketing
Social media platforms
Paid advertising
Partner cross-promotion
Content marketing
Traffic allows you to measure your conversion funnel and your product/market fit. You can’t test anything out without anyone to test it on.
5. Feedback, Feedback, FEEDBACK!
The final piece of finding your product/market fit is customer feedback.
Here’s the deal. Your customers are very interested in getting a better deal, in having more of their problems solved.
They WILL tell you what they want if you just ask. It’s super simple, and yet so many gloss over this step. Ask your customers what they want. If you have an existing audience pre-product, ask them what they want and then build that!
Bryan Harris has a fantastic, extremely thorough feedback process he uses every time he begins looking into creating a new product. Instead of trying to direct the market, he simply analyzes his audience to see exactly what they are interested in… and he utilizes their direct feedback throughout each step of the development process.
At the end of the day, you can do everything right and still fail to convert if the product/market fit isn’t there.Conclusion
Follow the processes outlined above, but stop there. Find someone who has done this successfully before. Then do WHATEVER you can to get their input.
You’ll see new startups finding success every single year for as long as you live. The opportunities will always be there for those that find their fit.
Watch How Startups Use Social Media to Test Product Market Fit
For Curious Minds
Social media marketing resolves the conflict between seeking investment and acquiring customers by providing a low-cost channel to build an audience and demonstrate traction. It allows you to prove market viability to potential investors without depleting your limited capital. This creates a positive feedback loop where customer growth, seen by companies like EcoWear, attracts funding.
To bridge this gap:
Build an Engaged Community:Prioritize interaction over broadcasting. Ask questions and respond to comments to show people are excited about your product.
Showcase Product Value: Use platforms like Instagram, with its 800,000,000 users, to visually demonstrate how your product solves a problem.
Generate Early Metrics: Track engagement and website clicks to build a data-backed case for investors, proving your business model works.
This approach turns your social presence into a powerful asset for both marketing and fundraising, a dynamic explored further in the complete guide.
A strategic social media presence significantly improves your site’s SEO by creating high-quality social signals and driving direct traffic, which search engines interpret as indicators of authority. When crawlers see a consistent flow of visitors from platforms like Twitter to your optimized pages, it validates your content's value and accelerates your climb in search rankings. This synergy is essential for gaining visibility in a crowded market.
Your social strategy influences SEO in several ways:
Drives Referral Traffic: A single well-placed link on Reddit can generate over 20,000 visitors, signaling to search engines that your page is a valuable resource.
Increases Brand Mentions: As your content gets shared, your brand name is mentioned across the web, creating social proof that crawlers recognize.
Builds Link Opportunities: An active presence makes your content visible to bloggers and journalists, naturally leading to more inbound links over time.
Understanding how to align your content with your social distribution is key to unlocking this powerful growth engine.
The choice between Instagram and Pinterest depends entirely on your specific marketing goal: community building versus purchase intent.Instagram excels at fostering lifestyle branding and direct engagement, while Pinterest is a powerful visual search engine where users actively plan future purchases. For a new brand, a clear primary objective is vital for success.
Consider these factors when allocating your resources:
User Intent:Instagram users are there to connect and be entertained, making it ideal for building brand loyalty. Pinterest users are actively looking for ideas and products, leading to higher conversion rates for e-commerce.
Content Lifespan: An Instagram post's visibility is fleeting. A Pin on Pinterest can drive traffic for months or even years as it gets discovered and re-pinned.
Audience Demographics: Analyze where your target customers spend their time. While both platforms are visual, their core user bases and behaviors differ significantly.
Choosing the right platform is the first step in a successful campaign, and our full analysis offers deeper insights into making that decision.
Facebook ads and Reddit engagement offer two distinct paths to user feedback, each with unique advantages. Facebook provides unparalleled control through its ad platform, allowing you to target users by demographics, interests, and past purchases. Reddit offers access to highly niche and authentic communities where you can get unfiltered opinions, but it requires a much more delicate, non-promotional approach.
Here is how to weigh your options:
Targeting Precision: With Facebook, you can create hyper-specific audiences, ensuring your message reaches people who fit your exact customer profile. You can even retarget the 20,000 visitors who came to your site.
Feedback Authenticity:Reddit users in subreddits related to your industry will provide candid, direct, and often technically-minded feedback.
Cost and Effort:Facebook ads require a budget but can be automated. Success on Reddit is "free" but demands significant time investment to build credibility.
Determining which approach aligns with your immediate goals is a critical strategic choice explored in greater detail within the article.
Achieving significant traffic from community platforms like Reddit requires a value-first approach, not a promotional one. The key is to become a genuine contributor to a relevant subreddit before ever sharing a link to your own content. Users respond to authenticity and expertise, and your goal should be to solve problems for the community, which in turn builds the trust necessary for them to engage with your material.
To generate this kind of traffic, a startup like SaaSify should:
Identify Niche Subreddits: Find communities where your target audience discusses their pain points (e.g., r/saas, r/smallbusiness).
Provide Genuine Value: Answer questions, offer advice, and share insights for weeks without mentioning your company. Build a reputation as an expert.
Share High-Value Content: When you do post a link, it should be to a genuinely useful resource like a free tool or an in-depth guide.
This method turns a promotional act into a valuable contribution, a strategy that pays dividends far beyond a single traffic spike.
To connect with users in a social-first environment, your marketing messages must prioritize authenticity and value over direct sales. People are on Facebook, with its massive 2,070,000,000 monthly users, to interact with friends and interests, not to be sold to. Effective brands integrate themselves into this experience by adopting a tone and content style that feels native to the platform.
Successful e-commerce brands use these evidence-based tactics:
User-Generated Content (UGC): Feature photos and testimonials from real customers. This social proof is far more persuasive than branded advertising.
Behind-the-Scenes Stories: Show the people and processes behind your product. This humanizes your brand and builds a narrative that customers can connect with.
Educational or Entertaining Content: Create posts that help or entertain your audience without asking for a sale. For EcoWear, this could be a guide to sustainable fashion.
By leading with value, you earn the attention and trust required for your promotional messages to be heard, a concept we examine more closely.
A successful low-budget Facebook campaign focuses on targeted execution and data collection rather than broad reach. The goal is not just to get clicks, but to learn exactly who your most engaged audience is so you can refine your strategy. This initial phase is about smart experimentation and laying the groundwork for scalable growth without wasting precious capital.
Follow this four-step plan:
Define a Niche Audience: Use Facebook Ads Manager to create a highly specific audience based on interests, behaviors, and demographics. Avoid broad targeting.
Create a Compelling Offer: Promote a high-value piece of content, like a free guide or a small discount, in exchange for an email address.
Set a Small Daily Budget: Start with as little as $5-$10 per day to test your ad creative and audience assumptions.
Install the Facebook Pixel: This is non-negotiable. The pixel gathers data on site visitors, allowing you to build retargeting audiences and measure conversions accurately.
This methodical approach ensures every dollar spent generates not just traffic, but actionable insights to fuel your next marketing moves.
The Facebook pixel is a snippet of code that acts as a powerful analytics tool, connecting user actions on your website to your Facebook ad campaigns. Implementing it is essential for retargeting, as it allows you to show specific ads to people who have already demonstrated interest in your brand by visiting your site. This group is far more likely to convert than a cold audience.
To turn visitors into leads, follow these steps:
Pixel Installation: Create your pixel in Facebook Events Manager and add its base code to the header of your website. Most website builders have a simple integration for this.
Event Tracking: Set up standard events to track key actions, such as 'ViewContent', 'AddToCart', and 'Purchase'. This helps you segment your audience.
Create a Custom Audience: In Ads Manager, build an audience of people who visited your site in the last 30-90 days but did not convert.
Launch a Retargeting Ad: Show this specific audience a compelling ad with a clear call to action.
Mastering this process is fundamental for maximizing your return on ad spend, a technique we cover in much more detail.
Relying solely on a single platform like Facebook, despite its 2.07 billion users, creates significant long-term risk for any startup. Algorithm changes can decimate your reach overnight, ad costs can rise unpredictably, and your account could even be suspended without warning. This dependency makes your business vulnerable to factors entirely outside your control, a situation that smart founders actively work to avoid.
To mitigate these risks and build a more resilient business, you should:
Diversify Your Channels: Once you have traction on one platform, begin testing others. Explore platforms like YouTube or Reddit to see where else your audience engages.
Build an Owned Audience: The most critical step is to convert your social media followers into email subscribers. An email list is an asset you own and control completely.
Focus on SEO: Invest in content that ranks in search engines to create a sustainable, long-term source of traffic.
Building a multi-channel strategy is the best defense against platform risk, ensuring your startup's growth is sustainable for the future.
Social media is evolving from a broadcast megaphone into a vital feedback loop for savvy startups. Instead of just pushing marketing messages, companies are using these platforms as a two-way communication tool for co-creating products and delivering instant customer support. This shift transforms social media from a cost center into a strategic asset that drives innovation and builds deep customer loyalty.
In the near future, you should expect social media's role to expand through:
Direct Product Feedback: Use polls on Twitter (with its 330,000,000 users) or Q&As on Instagram to source ideas for new features directly from your most engaged users.
Proactive Customer Service: Monitor brand mentions to identify and resolve customer issues in public, demonstrating responsiveness.
Community-Led Innovation: Create private groups for your power users, as SaaSify might do, to get their input on your product roadmap.
Integrating social media this deeply into your operations will be a key differentiator for the next generation of successful companies.
The most common mistake is treating social media as a one-way advertising channel instead of a two-way conversation platform. When every post is a direct call to "buy now," you train your audience to ignore you because you provide no genuine value outside of a transaction. This approach breaks the trust necessary for building a loyal community that advocates for your brand.
To pivot from selling to serving, you should adopt this content framework:
The 80/20 Rule:Dedicate 80% of your content to providing value, such as helpful tips, entertaining stories, or industry insights. The remaining 20% can be promotional.
Engage Proactively: Ask your audience questions, respond to every comment, and feature user-generated content to make them feel appreciated.
Show, Don't Just Tell: Instead of saying your product is great, show a customer from a company like EcoWear having a great experience with it.
This relationship-first strategy creates a foundation of trust that makes your audience more receptive when you do present an offer.
The fear of missing out often leads startups to create profiles on every platform, resulting in a weak and inconsistent presence everywhere. The solution is to focus your energy where your target customers are most active and engaged. A targeted approach on one or two key channels will always outperform a scattered effort across five or six.
To identify your core platforms, follow this process:
Analyze Competitors: See where your successful competitors are most active. Which platforms drive the most engagement for them?
Survey Your Ideal Customers: Directly ask your early adopters which social media platforms they use daily and trust for recommendations.
Test and Measure: Run small, low-budget campaigns on two to three promising platforms, such as Facebook and Pinterest. Use data on traffic and conversions to decide where to invest more heavily.
Focusing your resources allows you to master a platform and build a strong community, which is far more valuable than being a minor presence everywhere.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
Growth Strategy and Planning
