Startup Socials: How to Create a Social Media Campaign to Skyrocket Your Small Business

Small business marketing has taken a tricky turn in a digitalized world. With more competition than ever before, the fight to remain visible in a sea of content takes real dedication.

In a recent startup study, a whopping 72% of surveyed marketers revealed that social content creation was their primary source of success in 2022. Whether you opt for Instagram ads or TikTok videos, it could be time to turn to your social channels to increase brand engagement.

Want to learn how to create a startup social campaign that will skyrocket your small business? From jumping on trends to taking advantage of templates, your successful content strategy is just around the corner.

As a startup or small business, you should take any opportunity to raise brand awareness. The more your demographics see your name pop up on their Twitter feed or appear on their TikTok For You page, the higher the chance you have of driving potential leads to your site.

90% of marketers believe that social media aids brand exposure, while another 87% argue that it plays a pivotal role in boosting site traffic. If you want to see your startup status climb, it’s time to add a social campaign to your marketing strategy.

While posting on social media may seem simple, much thought goes into some of the most viral social media campaigns. Intelligent marketers must be equipped with an actional business plan and know their target audience inside and out if they want to see high levels of engagement. If you’re ready to boost your business and see those sales soar, here’s how to perfect your startup social campaign.

Creating a successful social campaign starts with your audience. You need to know what your demographic is looking for to create targeted content.

Did you know that a whopping 63% of social media consumers will bounce from a piece of content if it fails to speak to their values? Digital natives crave personalization and will actively hunt for it during an online search. 

“Consumers don’t just want personalization. They demand it. With store and product loyalty more elusive, getting it right matters,” claim experts at McKinsey. “Roughly 75% of consumers tried a new shopping behavior in the last 18 months, and more than 80% of those intend to continue with new behaviors.”

Therefore, auditing your demographic’s behavior is a great way to ensure your content addresses trending behaviors and sends the right message. 

The key here is social listening. Jump into consumer-led conversations and look at the content trends and formats going viral amongst your target audience.

It’s essential to plan your campaign before you jump into creating content. An effective social strategy must be consistent, measurable, and adaptable across various social platforms.

According to the Tuts+ YouTube tutorial on creating the perfect business plan, a successful strategy structure must contain an overview of your business goals, how you will reach them, and, most importantly, the time frame for achievement.

So, where do we start with our social campaign plan? A great way to kick off the planning stage is to engage in some market research; as we mentioned above, gathering knowledge about your industry and its consumers will inform the rest of your business plan.

Secondly, it’s time to consider your campaign outline, brand values, and your budget. For a solid social campaign, you’ll need to allocate spending on social pop-ups, content collaborations, and even a site domain name if you want to keep your branding consistent across platforms.

Finally, it’s time to set your actionable goals. Are you looking to increase your channel following or your site conversions? Make sure you choose measurable goals that you can keep referring to throughout the campaign. 

Now we’ve got the planning out of the way, it’s time to start creating your content. The critical thing to remember is that your content strategy should differ for each platform.

For example, a TikTok algorithm will favor a video format, while Twitter may favor a text-based piece of content. Staying on top of channel feeds and using the social posts with the most engagement as inspiration is a great place to start.

If you’re new to the content creation game, we’re here to help. Envato Elements is full of creative templates that are easy to edit and experiment with when producing social content.

Adding Envato Elements to your social strategy, from video to graphic templates, is a great way to ensure your content looks professional – even as a beginner.

As a startup, you must stay ahead of the content curve. Most social media trends rush in and out of the limelight in less than a week. To increase your small business’s chance of virality, you must jump onto these trends before they even arrive.

Content trends for 2022 ranged from eco-branding to fighting for a social cause. As Gen Z and Millennials push for a more sustainable future, turning your content away from product promotion and toward striving for social change is a great way to start a conversation among your audience.

Another social media trend that has followed us into 2023 is video content. Did you know that a whopping 85% of marketers claim that video content has become their most effective social strategy tactic?

Off the back of TikTok’s viral success, more small businesses than ever before are turning to video content in the race to increase brand exposure. TikTok is quickly becoming a hub for organic product promotion and a shot at small business virality as more brands jump onto the popular social platform to embrace 15-second humorous trends.

While your visual content may be the main attraction, a well-oiled content strategy also includes an optimized caption.

Your caption copy should be short, snappy, and full of searchable keywords. In the same way as a site copywriting strategy, captions containing high-volume keywords are more likely to appear in a social search. 

Whether you take time to optimize your social SEO or hire a copywriting agency to do the job, it’s a step you should prioritize when creating a small business social strategy.

Better still, many social platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, favor hashtags too. When posting a topical piece of content, add a trending hashtag to your caption to increase the chance of appearing when users engage with a viral topic or trend.

From staying on top of social trends to constructing the perfect business plan for you, the startup social journey is not a walk in the park. However, for small businesses who want to boost their site engagement and brand awareness, prioritizing your social channels could be the perfect solution.