You have a fantastic product and a viable business idea. But you need to attract investors in order to expand your business. You do not have a huge marketing budget for publicity but you know it is important to put your best foot forward and showcase your product/service. What to do?
Many start-ups are taking advantage of social media platforms to attract investors. Bearing in mind that 80% of these startups fail within their first five years and the major reason for failure is funding, here are some great ideas that you can use to attract investors to your start-up using social media.
What is the Best Social Media Platform for your Start-Up?
We already dealt with this subject in this post.
In summary, you need to be where your investors are. A good place to start your research would be on LinkedIn. Find the investors and then use their names to search other platforms to find where they are most active.
There is no better advice for start-ups use of social media than to say “follow the money”.
Slvr Wlf Insights
5 Ways to Attract Investors to Start-up on Social Media?
1. Build Social Credibility
Presenting social credibility is one of the most critical aspects of securing any investment as a start-up.
Here are a few ways to achieve this:
- Post quality content that tells your story in an authentic honest voice.
- Your social media accounts should have strong branding that utilises high-definition images and well-written information.
- Do not mislead your followers by lying about your products or achievements.
- Post clients’ testimonials.
2. Be Consistent with your Content
If you go days, weeks, or months without posting, your social media will be like a ghost town which suggests it is not a professional account, and no one will want to work with an inconsistent start-up.
Create a posting schedule and share posts at regular intervals. Keep posting how your product is unique, solves problems, and is difficult for competitors to mimic. By doing this, you tell investors more about your business and increase your chances of getting more investments.
3. Make them Notice you
We already talked about identifying the investor interested in your industry/product/niche. You can follow and interact with people they are following so that your posts feature on their feed.
You may also use sponsored ads or promoted posts with the right targeting. Another option would be joining a community related to what you do; posting your content and responding to questions. By doing this, you allow yourself to advertise your expertise and know-how.
4. Tell your Brand Story
The way you brand and position yourself for investors is meaningful, and storytelling is one of the most powerful strategies. This is done by providing viable, educating, entertaining, and inspirational content in video slides, blog posts, pictures, etc., to wow your potential investors.
When you think of a brand story, think about your origin- how is it that you fell in love with what you do? Talk about your progress and minor achievements. Also, carry potential investors along, and be the start-up they want to support.
5. Regular Milestone Updates
Giving regular updates is also one of the most significant assets for attracting investors. What do you need to do? Update the public and potential investors on how far you have gone. If you pick a day for fundraising, you give an update. If you have raised funds in the past, you provide an update specifying what the money was used for. If you successfully carry out a particular project on your road map, give an update and state what you are looking to accomplish in the next project. Doing this shows transparency and can ideally be used to build wider networks.
Conclusion
Social media is such a potent form of leverage; it can either make or mar you. You must use this platform wisely by projecting yourself to potential investors. As has been shown, simply being on social media is not enough. You need to show through your posts and engagements that you mean business. This is sometimes an uphill task as you may want to spend more time on product development. Let Slvr Wlf take that task off you as you concentrate on building a unicorn 🙂