Scott Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, a non-profit organization that promotes youth entrepreneurship as a solution to unemployment and underemployment. The YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs grow businesses.
Every day, social media plays a bigger (and more expensive) role in the way brands find and court new customers. From ever-evolving social advertising opportunities, like video ads on LinkedIn, to the rise of social advertising by politicians in a contentious election year, one thing is clear: Businesses have more paid ways to crack the social code than ever before. The question is, who's paying for what -- and is it really working?
Small businesses are on board already, to varying degrees. I asked a panel of successful young entrepreneurs to share one paid aspect of their social media strategy that has actually worked. Here's the advice they'd offer other entrepreneurs who want to succeed doing the same.
1. Look Into LinkedIn Pro Accounts
It is not good enough to just reach out to senior people with nothing of value to offer. Since my company works a lot with media, I offer to interview their senior executives to give them more personal brand exposure. My success rate with LinkedIn Pro is three times higher, compared to the direct route.
- Lawrence Watkins, Great Black Speakers
2. Promoted Tweets and Bitly Links
We also added Bitly links to our tweets, so we could measure how many people were going to Google Play. We could then analyze how many clicks we received and which countries were clicking our links to the most. Definitely worth the investment.
3. Giveaways Pay for Themselves
Make sure you integrate the contest into a Facebook tab or other format that will allow you to capture user data, so you can turn them from a prize winner to a customer.
- Aron Schoenfeld, Do It In Person LLC
4. Recruit Social Media Brand Ambassadors
Once you've found your new social media brand ambassadors, personalize their approach to your campaign. This is a more entrepreneurial form of paid social media and a more personalized approach that will yield big-time results.
5. Pay Influencers With Products
We are careful with paid promotions, using them only to expand beyond our existing network. For example, when we launched our new summer colors, we ran a "share" campaign where we selected a winner to receive the set, based on sharing a very compelling photo.
- Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches
6. Buy Your Facebook Fans
Facebook ads allow you to target those friends and family of those who already Like your company. This builds a nice following, if you have the budget, as well. Buying Likes and fans allows you to grow your brand, but also, with the right Facebook post strategy, allows you to get consumer engagement.
- Pablo Palatnik, ShadesDaddy.com
7. Pay for Pitch Press Releases
- Lauren Perkins, Perks Consulting
8. Sponsored Stories Pay Off
Before, Facebook users were able to connect with businesses as fans, through Likes. However, with their new open graph technology, users can now connect with a brand's product through actions; for example, it no longer simply shows that Abby Ross "Likes" Lululemon, but also that Abby Ross "wants to buy" the new racerback Lululemon tank top. In Facebook's ecosystem, these are considered "stories" that users can create and push out to their friends. These stories can become even more powerful when you pay through Facebook media. Lululemon can pay for my 800 Facebook friends to see that story, and even re-target me when that racerback tank top goes on sale.