63. Goal setting is a useful exercise
• Find users / customers: Get 100 legitimate
prospects in your email list
• Prepare to raise money: Target 10 firms and
their principals/ analysts/ associates
• Connect with influencers: Get 10 relevant
people following you
• Network with peers: Connect with 10 people
in your field. Establish a relationship
65. Owned
• Research TW & FB hashtags relevant to your
company
• Create and circulate content using the same
hashtags
• Cross post: TW, FB, Tumblr
• Comment on relevant blogs only where you add
to the conversation
– Don’t shill
– Add links to other relevant conversations, not just
your own site
• Follow everyone back, to start
69. • Attend in person events and carry a card with with all your
info on it. Social is not just FB. It’s “network” in all dimensions
• Research all the people who sign up for your list, to follow
you, who comment on your FB page or blog or whatever
– Run them through LinkedIn & find out who they are
– Try Topsy, Little Bird, to see who the influential accounts are similar to
the ones that follow you.
• Follow everyone back, to start
– Use lists to filter noise based on your reseach
• Go interact with the people most like the ones you want to
reach.
– Thank them for the follow. DM/ Email/ Comment l is fine
– Reach out to them, start interacting
Earned
74. Paid
• Use promoted products from Twitter &
Facebook to narrowly target campaigns that
are highly, highly relevant
– Have a clear call to action
– Link back to that site
– Few hundred dollars in media spend
• Critical audience and awareness building tool
• Look for domains in GA and cultivate contacts
at those companies
So what do you need to so, as a startup, to maximize your promotional impact? That’s what this first section is about. Getting ready. Your effort at promotion will be wasted if you don’t cover these basic steps first.
Can you tell what this company does? No one can. It’s the worst website ever.
If you are one of these people you can get away with that website. If not, listen up.
BE SUCCINCT. IF I CAN’T FIGURE IT OUT IN 10 SECONDS I’m moving on
Even Biz & Ev treat their current project sites differently. There’s a short explanation above the fold, larger images, larger text.
There’s a product name and explanation.
I can sign up for this new effort, or see how it works. There’s a clear call to action. Both of these sites pass the 10 second rule. If you don’t have a demo ready, fine. Collect an email address for when you do. More on that later.
Three step explanation. Perfect. Got it.
Here are some even more compelling examples of startups whose purpose and value is totally understandable in the first 10 seconds.
Notice the big, colored buttons with calls to action? Well done.
Not that there’s a trend in big hero photographs on homepages or anything.
Which leads me to the next point: Design matters. It really does. I swear we will get to promoting your startup via social media, but before you invest that effort, you absolutely need to be worthy of promotion.
How much do you think this site makes per year? Surprise surprise: Over a million dollars. How much do you think revenue is increasing YOY?Not a surprise: It’s not really increasing much. This page is optimized for Google search word “foam mattress” It hit its high point in revenue about when you think it did- some years ago It doesn’t inspire the modern bed buyer It’s a commodity business Capture data to follow up with users Have a privacy policy / TOS Include your social media handles
This site inspires the modern bed buyer And their margins on online bed purchases are likewise very different So are you a commodity business?
Look at the role design has played in recent startup success storiesAll these pictures were already on the internet Laying them out in a visually consistent way- applying design- created a whole new audience for the content
Another design success
More hero photographs
I love the design of this startup site Moral of the story: Highlight design. Find a student graphic designer, try out one of the crowdsource design sitesWrite a brief and post it 99Designs, CrowdspringOffer shares if you don’t have money
I am a fan of vowels in web addressesIf I can’t spell it, remember it, if it’s confusing I’m already annoyed So think about your URL
How are we supposed to pronounce this? And what does this product do?
Note: Do not say you are the most powerful anything on the internet. Unless you are provably, demonstrably, Scoble says so most powerful. You are inviting derision.
$100K for the URL later, Mogolus is Livestream. Tell me that is not more memorable, descriptive yet expansive, sayable, spellable, findable, pronounceable- you name it. Biggest marketing expense the company ever had. Startups I have been involved in, this has been a major expense and worth every penny.
The site now uses photos and lets the content speak for itself. Much better.
Likewise, your social media addresses matter. These should not be too hard if you nailed the URL.
This startup is about using three words to describe any set of geo coordinates.
Ditto on Twitter. Look at their updates- they’re newbies!
Ditto on Facebook.
Ditto on google+, which they kind of need to get better at fast.
So now you look good. Are you ready to promote? No. Two more points.
Fancy may just have got a big round, but I would not recommend this form. I would get an email. Twitter and Facebook are cool, but not addressable.
Boom. This is the join/ get updates/ get started/ get info form right here.
If someone wants to contact you, let them give you an email address
Even these guys had an email signup on their page. Put the addresses in a google doc or gmail or salesforce starter edition or write them on notecards or whatever, but get them!
CRMs aren’t just for sales people. There are many to choose from and the right one for you will come down to your needs.SHOUTOUT: NimbleEffectively track communications across your social sphere. Interactions on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are logged automatically.Email contacts can be input easily.Know when to follow-up with who.
And let them email you!
Thank you Branch. I can email you.
Thank you Fiksu. I can chat, email, call- which is what Coke, Zynga, & more probably want to do.
OpenDNS. So professional. Complete data, totally transparent.
SHOUTOUT: ToutAppUnderstand who read what when you email them.Great for teams.Solid Outlook integration (if you’re into that sort of thing.)Did they click the link you sent? No? Then you should have sent a better link.
SHOUTOUT: BananaTagSimilar functionality toToutApp.Particularly good with Google Apps or GmailCheap!
BLAKE TO TALK
Ok so Parse rocks, just to get that out there, so not surprising Facebook just bought itBut note: Ilya is a human being with a handle Parse is a company with a handleYou should probably keep your personal 4square checkins and your company presence separate Remember what3words?
So you have your handles and your analytics and everything ready to goWho has time?
This is what a typical white collar worker schedule looks like
Your hopefully looks more like this Add a 15 minute block to it, once a week, three times a weekPhysically schedule it, asana it, JIRA it, whatever you need to doMake consistent time for social participation and promotion
Here’s a startup CEO that does this wellRob Bailey from DatasiftHe promotes his company from time to time but is also just an interesting social citizen
Recruiting is a great reason to keep personal and business separate. People know you who don’t know your company, or want to. Jobs are always interesting
David Ulevitch, Ceo of the aforementioned OpenDNSBlogs consistently. Sometimes about industry matter
Sometimes about his personal soundtrack, or just loving his work
BLAKE TO TALK
OK admit it: You are reading this chart right now and not even listening to me Cuddling & church = gentle sexSmoking & piercings = rough sexWhat a surprise. But still, compelling content
I love this blog. It has data, big data, infographics, relevanceIt has interesting contentTwitterers break up faster
And are more likely to masturbate today. This is awesome content.
Shifting gears so we can all focus again. Gnip. Great content. So shareable, so engrossing with the visualizations and interviews
Simply Measured. Always timely and topical. THEY have content that is READY TO PROMOTE!
URL shortening services like Bitly provide analytics behind every distributed link.Use it to home in on the content that’s most compelling to your audience.
It’s best to start with an objective
Pick one of these. Which one do you need to tackle first? Up to you. But pick one. Setting an arbitrary goal is a useful exercise. 10 influencers, 100. 1 investor, 100. Pick a number and see if you can actually work to achieve it.
BLAKE TO TALK
The Twitter Analytics dashboard was once limited only to accounts that advertised.It’s now available to all Twitter accounts.Use the analytics dashboard to track the efficacy of Tweets.To better reach and grow your intended audience, identify the characteristics of Tweets with high levels of engagement (faves, RTs, replies) and use them as the blueprint for your Tweeting strategy.
BLAKE TO TALK
Use Topsy to identify individuals who participate in conversations relevant to your initiatives.These are the people that your brand should engage with.
Topsy can identifying the influencers around specific topics.These are the people that your brand should follow.
BLAKE TO TALK
Once you know the audiences you want to reach and the content you want to reach them with, it comes down to timing. DON’T GET CAUGHT BY SURPRISE!The strategic marketer is ready for whatever comes his or her way.
SHOUTOUT: Recorded Future This tool uses a temporal analytics engine to predict notable events and occurrences surrounding your specified query.It’s free. You only need a Twitter account to signup. Marketers can use it to keep track of upcoming events in their vertical or market. Use Recorded Future to determine the best times to run your campaigns, the best geographies in which to run them and the best demographics to target with them.