Startups launching into the digital landscape need to use social media to promote and grow their businesses passionately

Are you monetising your social media efforts?

While the word monetisation is assumed to correspond directly with money, in the world of digital marketing.

The term has more to it than conversions based around currencies. Online startups cannot aggressively advertise, treating platforms as television channels, because a modern e-customer relies on information and connectivity.

This way, monetisation for online businesses revolves around value proposition between brands and customers. 

Any startup not leveraging social media is underestimating its worth. According to a source, the number of users on social networking platforms will increase by 9.57 per cent by 2021.

So the situation begs businesses to optimise their social media marketing to complete their buyer’s journey for any given item that requires an action from users. For example, some online companies want people to purchase a product while others want them to fill out a form to receive a free eBook. 

Let us explore the types of technologies that optimise and monetise social media.

Converse to convert

Consumers can be found on messaging apps more than in physical stores these days, suggested Uber’s Chris Messina when he coined the term conversational commerce.

While this method can be eased by using chatbots, you can still have a human team working on this part of the marketing strategy for a ‘just born’ startup with less in hand.

Throughout the classes in school about sociology, we study that people are social beings and they love to talk, interact and network. Instead of having products thrown at them, they like to gaze through the gallery and perhaps discuss their choices with a salesperson. A similar experience can now be felt online, especially on e-commerce websites.

Video your way to success

If your startup is on social media websites such as Instagram, then video marketing should be a top priority for you in this day and age.

A report projects that by 2022, videos will make up over 80 per cent of all consumer traffic online. Asia’s online video business alone is predicted to reach US$52 billion in the year 2024. These figures are too enticing to ignore. 

There are several ways video is being used by marketers to attract users and perhaps also enable them to click the landing page link.

While you can make native videos for platforms like YouTube or Facebook, you can also create short videos for several other social networking sites. Digital marketers and designers work together to produce all kinds of videos, such as a presentation, interview, product demos, brand story, etc.

Get influencers on stage

You heard that, right! This isn’t about sidelining your business, but a contract of collaboration. Celebrity endorsements have always been a part of campaigns, services or product promotions.

The only difference now is that businesses have an ocean of celebrities to choose from who are not limited to cinema or politics. The question now arises, which platform is best?

A survey suggests that in 2019, 86 per cent of marketers in the United States said they viewed Instagram as a valuable platform for influencer marketing. This, however, doesn’t mean you should leave out other social media websites.

The type of product or campaign you are promoting also impacts your decision about when, where and how to use this marketing technique to accelerate your startup’s growth successfully.

Brand the people

Embrace the idea of personal branding for yourself as an owner or partner in the startup business, and suggest your employees do the same. This way, you are humanising your startup and making it appear more welcoming by putting people at the centre of activities.

A typical example of this exists in the journalism industry in which you see that the editors and writers have social media links attached to their profiles on their author web page.

The trick is not to let your profile be all about the brand, partially it should, but your social media account should also display your personality and preferences. Tell you what, if you are an e-news startup, then the chances are that your potential readers may search for and interact with your writers on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Sell on social 

Although money isn’t the only factor holding up the term monetisation, it is one of them, and it certainly plays a key role.

With the advent of e-wallets, brands could start selling their products and services online, hence giving birth to a new word “social selling”. You can open a shop on Facebook, use Snapcash to make payments, and instabuy via Instagram Shopping.

Social selling kicked off largely because consumers spend most of their time on social media. From kids to adults, everyone spends a good amount of time searching for products and reading the reviews, especially when it comes to eating out.

Millennials considered being the most active buyer’s makeup 54 per cent of those who search social networking channels to search for products.

The targeted advertisements option provides businesses with the ability to focus their marketing on groups of people within the social media website. This boosts the reach of the post and increases the chances of consumers clicking on the call to action button.

Bonus tip: social branding

Although some brands are debranding, it is not actually a very good idea to remove the identification of your company from your services and products. Even if the trend picks up by any chance, which is doubtful, don’t let it swarm your social media.

You need to display your custom visual identity to tell your target market that it’s you on the other side of the computer and not merely a chatbot. 

To brand your startup on social channels, make sure you add your logo onto the profile image section, write about yourself, create an engaging banner. 

If you aren’t branding digitally, have just begun or missing out on something, make sure you have a dedicated team and strategy planned in front of you.

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Image Credit: Jakob Owens

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