social media marketing Archives

London’s startup successes – what can we learn?

London’s startup ecosystem is thriving. In the past 12 months the number of startups heading to Silicon Roundabout increased by 21%, with tech-focused ventures alone boasting an increase of 200%. We’ve taken a look at some of the best talent coming out of the capital and suggest what you can learn from their success.

1. Deliveroo

The city’s hottest food delivery service attracted £45 million of investment just last week. With Hungryhouse and JustEat already offering an online marketplace for takeaway food, Deliveroo fills a gap by bringing customers premium meals from their favourite restaurants straight to their home or desk. Whilst tube advertisements, prestigious partnerships with large chains and a pledge to maintain a base-rate service charge of £2.50 have undoubtedly contributed to the company’s growth, so has their clever social media strategy. It consistently delivers stylish photographs of food and regular competitions, most recently under their hash tag #mouthparty. Add to the mix an easy-to-use mobile app and you’ve got a tasty recipe for success.

2. CityMapper

Another venture that’s filled a gap in the market, CityMapper is a free app that collates data from the city’s transport infrastructure and transforms it into a user-friendly navigation guide. Since its launch in 2010, it’s become the go-to journey planning service for on-the-go Londoners, New Yorkers and Parisians. An anomaly for this list, the company has spent next to nothing on marketing. Instead, they choose to market themselves through their app update release notes – presented directly onto a user’s phone when the app is opened after an update. This is cleverly used as an opportunity to get across their off-beat, humorous and fun-yet-functional personality.

3. Songkick

A website and mobile app that provides personalised news about live music events, Songkick is a Silicon Roundabout trailblazer and Y-Combinator alumnus. The company’s continual innovation adds it to our list: it’s transformed from scanning music playlists and notifying users when bands come to town, to providing a whole new crowdfunding platform called Detour, which allows users to efficiently pledge financial support to cover an artist’s venue costs. A true game-changer that’s changing how fans engage with artists!

4. Moo.com

Online print designer and startup heavyweight Moo.com recently received £3 million from Barclays’ brand new Fast Growth Tech Fund. The company can thank their 50% average year-on-year revenue growth to a great service offering and clever social media marketing. Their blog is consistent and friendly in tone, and includes interviews with other designers and innovators, whilst their Instagram boasts 38,000 followers and features playful and colourful photographs of stylish designs. They’ve put effort into gaining almost 500,000 Facebook likes and 100,000 Twitter followers – engaging them through interesting, visually stimulating and interactive content.

What can we learn?

These case studies demonstrate that win-win strategies that work for the business and their users are a sure fire recipe for success that others can emulate. As Steve Jobs once said, “design is not what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Startups that focus on consistent engagement, creativity and innovation are the ones that will reap the rewards.

Photo by Ko Fujimura Flickr/CC/ BY 2.0

3 tips for improving your #hashtag

If you’re posting without a hashtag then you’re missing out on the opportunity to increase your exposure.

A hashtag is not just a tool that helps group social conversations, it brings together a vocal community of users by opening posts to be viewed by all accounts. When these users are brought together in the right way, the value of the hashtag increases.

Famously, Cancer Research UK found social users posting pictures of themselves with no makeup along-with the hashtag ‘#NoMakeupSelfie’ in order to raise donations for the charity. Impressively, in just 6 days over £8million had been donated through user generated hashtagging.

It’s not just charities that can benefit from a useful hashtag. Lancôme asked their followers to post ‘bare faced selfies’ for the launch of the DreamTone serum. Not only did they receive positive engagement on social platforms, but remarkably, the selfie gallery on the company’s website generated a 4% conversion rate for the product.

The power of a well thought through and executed hashtag has been proven time and time again. Here are three tips for using hashtags more effectively.

1. Give your hashtag a purpose:
You must be selective about the topics you’re associated with. Make a list of the 4 topics you want to become involved with and do some research into what thought leaders in those areas are already hashtagging. This will give you a baseline understanding of what’s trending in those areas.

2. A brand hashtag that resonates.
Choose one #hashtag that represents your brand’s values and also engages users to click-through or start a conversation. For example toilet paper brand Charmin uses #TweetFromYourSeat to open and encourage engagement from social fans.

3. #Don’t #overuse #the #hashtag.
Using too many hashtags actually devalues their strength. It can even cause further damage by causing a loss of followers and permanently damage your branding. Instead, Twitter officially recommends that you use no more than two #’s per tweet.

Some people use hashtags for fun, others to promote their brand, regardless, you want your posts to be simple and filled with useful content that engages the user to click on your link, visit your website or even buy your product. Hashtags, used correctly, open these posts up to a new audience.

#HappyHashtagging!

Image: CC/BY/2.0 Ognian Mladenov

Is social media still worth it for brands?

When social media was in its infancy, it promised a revolution for brands. No longer would we simply push and pray, broadcasting our messages as far as possible and desperately hoping for resonance with our target consumers. Now we would have rich, satisfying dialogues in social spaces, making meaningful connections with our customers and growing awareness, loyalty and of course, sales. However, as social platforms’ business models increasingly focus on their paid-for advertising, is this promise being realised any longer? Is social media still worth it?

Let’s look at Facebook as an example. As Mark Ritson points out, the social giant has drastically reduced the organic reach that brands are able to achieve by posting to their fans on brand pages. So instead, brands have to turn to Facebook advertising to reach their target consumers. This is not exactly how social media marketing was originally intended to be. We are exchanging enriching conversations and long lasting relationships for bursting into people’s social world’s with advertising. Indeed, is Facebook advertising any better or different to any other form of broadcast promotion?

Certainly, the shift in emphasis amongst social platforms towards paid-for models requires brands to re-think their strategies. However, perhaps unsurprisingly for a digital marketer, I still believe social media can be an incredibly valuable tool if used correctly. Here are three ways you can ensure a valuable social media presence, despite recent changes:

Make the most of paid-for advertising. Unlike TV for example, Facebook advertising is extremely targeted. As we all know, Facebook has incredibly sophisticated data about its users which you can leverage to target your ads to new, highly relevant prospects. It is also very reasonably priced and therefore a great option for those with small marketing budgets.
Don’t give up on your brand pages. These are stills hubs for your most loyal customers to explore your products and for you to listen to and learn from your fans. As such they are incredibly rich sources of insight and extremely effective retention tools. So make sure that your pages are packed with interesting, valuable content that your fans will want to share with their friends. And don’t forget to ask questions of your fan base and listen to their answers.
Remember that social media can only ever be one part of the marketing mix. Like any other marketing tool, it should be used strategically, with a clearly defined purpose and in conjunction with other relevant channels.

So, don’t give up on social media just yet. But do think about your existing strategy on social, and whether it is fit for purpose given recent changes.

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