Introduction

The whole marketing landscape has changed with the introduction of Social Media. New avenues were opened for marketers that before did not exist or were too complicated. Now we have an easy to use and powerful tool at our finger tips that can share a piece of content all over the world in seconds .Startups are identified as companies who challenge the status-quo, are agile, innovative and are very flexible to adapt to latest trends and methodologies. They are eager to differentiate from large enterprises. The explosion of social media phenomenon is as mind boggling at that and the pace at which it is growing is maddening the global companies and startups have recognized social media marketing as potential marketing platform utilized with them with innovation to power their advertising campaign with social media.

One of the biggest advantages of social media is that most of the features can be leveraged at a zero cost and can help marketing, sales, customer support, recruitment, research and other areas of business if executed well. let's discusses about social media marketing and its importance for emerging startups.

Over the past few years, it is observed that an interesting transformation has occurred in the business world where startup companies are utilizing its maximum sources to be derived in social  media platforms with less budget and efforts compared to traditional marketing. Social media for startups has become good marketing opportunity and increasing more priority day by day. In fact, platforms like Facebook and Twitter have become integral parts of content distribution, lead generation and brand awareness with customer acquisition strategies for businesses. The below suggested points will make more sense to the startup companies, integrating in the below way will help startups for a quick beneficial Social media presence is a best way to gain maximum exposure for any startup if one put proper efforts to make a strong presence on the firm in the market. and to attract more clients and customers resulting to good growth of the startup firm.

Importance

1. Marketing with a limited budget.

As a startup it’s important to balance your budget, where your resources are naturally limited. And acquisition of consumers is your high priority with minimum costs.Where social media made it possible for small scale startups to reach millions of global consumers with just a click of a button.

2. Easy to access target audience.

Social media made it possible to segment the customer base and to provide more personalized solution. It provides a platform to address and respond to customers. It helps you to understand more about your target group, as the consumer is free to give realistic opinions.Which can be utilized for development at later stages.

3. Easy to find new customers.

 Different social media channels give you an opportunity to spread your messages just about anywhere in the world. In the process of marketing your brand, you’ll join tons of Twitter chats, communicate via various Facebook groups and share significant images on Instagram that will reach customers you didn’t know existed via just using relevant hashtags.

 4. Choose a correct platform.

Agreed– Facebook has 2.19 billion monthly active users (as on 1st quarter of , 2018). But we can’t have the whole universe as our target audience. They need to clearly defining their target audience, once that is done, you need to identify the platforms on which your target audience is active. Remember. Being present on the most popular platform does not make sense if your target audience is not active there.

5. To increase market share

Social media actually enable you to understand what your audience needs. It’s about providing them with the right information and solution to their problems. 

 6. Easy to share information

Sharing information and updates for your business can be made in a much simpler and an easier way. It is an effective tool to engage your audience, keep them updated and exited. This can also stimulate new customers. To know about your business which can make u popular in matter of days or even hours, which is a huge benefit to startups with limited budget and focuses on acquire customers as soon as possible.

7. Provides you with insights to outdo your competition

Social media provides an overview of your success strategy you can analyze content and statistics in real time, and optimize your content on the go. Track leads and sales and generate new ones based on what you’re getting as a result. You also get insight into what your competitors are doing and what’s working for them. Not only can you learn a lot from your mistakes, but from theirs as well, and improve your brand as you go.

Some facts about social media

• For context, as of April 2018, total worldwide population is 7.6 billion
• The internet has 4.2 billion users
• There are 3.03 billion active social media users
• On average, people have 5.54 social media accounts
• 91% of retail brands use 2 or more social media channels
• 81% of all small and medium businesses use some kind of social platform
• Internet users have an average of 7.6 social media accounts
• Social media users grew by 121 million between Q2 2017 and Q3 2017.
• That works out at a new social media user every 15 seconds.
• Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp handle 60 billion messages a day

Social media business statistics

• Social networks earned an estimated $8.3 billion from advertising in 2015
• $40bn was spent on social network advertising in 2016
• 38% of organizations plan to spend more than 20% of their total advertising budgets on social media channels in 2015, up from 13% a year ago
• Only 20 Fortune 500 companies actually engage with their customers on Facebook, while 83% have a presence on Twitter
• People aged 55-64 are more than twice as likely to engage with branded content than those 28 or younger
• 96% of the people that discuss brands online do not follow those brands’ owned profiles
• 78 percent of people who complain to a brand via Twitter expect a response within an hour

Source:-https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/96-amazing-social-media-statistics-and-facts/

Conclusion

Whether it’s an individual, a startup, small business or a large corporation, An online presence constituents is a baseline requirement and will take time and expertise. The successful startups should and seems to be flexible enough to shift with changes in the technology and adopt the internet and social climate. Whereas the failed startups, some of them fail due to an improper vision strategies that they draw at the initial stage. Ultimately, there is a lack of foresight which might have saved their companies. 

I should strongly recommend that the startup companies should adopt the recent trends and technology of Social media platforms to make their business long lasting successful enough. Companies are diverting resources and rethinking their traditional outreach strategies. It is high time that every business adopts social media and takes it seriously.