Building a Social Media Presence for Emerging Tech

Aspiring junior engineers often fall into the trap of using social media primarily to be heard rather than to showcase their potential. Remember, the primary goal of presence should be to demonstrate your skills and your journey in the tech world. Here are some strategies to help you use social media more effectively: 1. Focus on Building: Your projects and contributions should take center stage. Regularly update your network about what you are working on, the challenges you are tackling, and the solutions you are discovering. 2. Showcase Your Work: Use your social media platforms to share your projects. This doesn’t just mean the finished product; share the process, the mistakes, and the learnings. This approach not only displays your technical skills but also your ability to persevere and adapt, qualities that are crucial in the tech world. 3. Seek and Utilize Feedback: When you post about your projects, ask for Feedback and engage with those who comment. For instance, if someone points out a potential improvement in your project, ask them to elaborate on their suggestion. Understanding different perspectives and critiques can vastly improve your skills. 4. Network Through Engagement: Use the feedback as a networking opportunity. Connect with those who engage with your work. They can provide valuable insights and might even open doors to new opportunities. This fosters a sense of engagement and connection in the tech community, making you feel valued and part of a supportive network. Social media is a powerful tool when used correctly. Let it reflect your professional journey, showcasing your growth and commitment to learning and improving. This constant evolution and contribution of something valuable is what truly matters, making you feel confident and reassured about your professional journey.

You're wasting your money if you hire a social media manager to just "keep up" with your social media pages. If maintenance is your perspective, it's time to step into the new world. 🙃 Social media is an EXTREMELY powerful tool, and to think that social media is just something to "maintain" is naive in this digital landscape. Cutting the BS - if you need social help for your SaaS tool, here's my exact playbook. 1. Your best ambassadors are right under your nose. Turn your employees into influencers, experts, and thought leaders. Give them ample, consistent training and resources, create an incentive system to reward them. Especially your sales team. 2. Go HARD on your executive personal branding. Twitter, Linkedin, press, video, everything for your exec team. 3. Forget one-time influencer partnerships. Forget volume. Find 1-2 influencers to partner with on long-term partnerships. Go beyond just posting. Collab on a feature, a podcast, a product, newsletter, something. Go hard on the engagement. 4. Implement social listening. Monitor all keywords related to your product and plug into every single relevant conversation. 5. Your company's organic social media pages are your last priority. They are for middle of funnel, not top of funnel (except paid, of course). Keep it simple. Have ONE reason people go to the page. Example, a content series of tips on how to use your product on twitter. - A "Day in the life" of your team on TikTok - A funny Ig page - etc. 6. Plug into alternative channels. Reddit. Facebook groups. Discord, BeReal. Doesn't matter what the channel is. As long as your audience is there. 7. Forget conventional advice. Forget doing whatever the latest HubSpot best practices is. Go crazy. Lean into what works. Be unique. #socialmedia #digitalmedia #socialmediastrategy

Startup Social Strategy 101 Here’s the ‘minimum viable social strategy’ I would use to take your startup from 0 → 1000 followers (and start generating leads) on LinkedIn/Twitter: 1) Decide between personal or brand account For most startups, building the founder’s personal brand is an easier lift. Your company has 0 brand recognition, so it’s going to be hard to stand out on the timeline. Plus, even companies that do have brand recognition have a harder time than personal accounts. Both assets (personal & company page) are necessary long-term, but to get your social presence off the ground, I’d build your personal brand first. 2) Pick your platforms This one’s simple. Just use LinkedIn + Twitter. This is where most B2B startups’ ICPs hang out and consume business-related content. These two platforms also allow for easy diversification because you can create a post for LinkedIn and then copy it over to Twitter as a long-form post, and vice versa. There are some nuances, but super easy to repurpose. 3) Pick your content pillars In short: WHY is someone going to follow you? - Are you going to lean into entertainment/humor or education? Or a combination of both? - What topics are you going to educate or entertain around? I usually break topics up into 3 buckets. Broad ‘business-related’ content (top of funnel) Industry-related content (middle of funnel) Product-related content (bottom of funnel) The exact ratio of each type of content depends on the goal of the social strategy and the maturity of the company’s presence on social. Assuming this is a 0→1000 strategy, I would recommend making most of your content either ‘broad’ or ‘industry-related.’ You have no audience to start, so nobody really cares about your product yet. Fill the room first, then try to sell. 4) Decide your cadence - 5x per week on LinkedIn - 5-10x per week on Twitter - 30min per day of engagement and outreach Example schedule: Post 1: Personal story about solving a hard problem related to your industry Post 2: Breakdown post of a strategy used by a popular brand or person in your industry (this allows you to ‘borrow credibility’ and stop the scroll) Post 3: Listicle breaking down 5 common myths about your industry (bonus points if they’re a bit controversial) Post 4: Personal story about why you started your company Post 5: Customer case study that highlights a major pain point in your ICP (here’s where a direct CTA makes sense) Post 6 (Twitter only): One-liner, slightly polarizing statement Post 7 (Twitter only): Meme highlighting a pain point our ICP faces Post 8 (Twitter only): Engagement prompt related to your ICP This isn’t a perfect calendar. That’s going to depend on your company and what ends up working for you as you test. But if you stick to this for like 7-8 weeks, I’d be surprised if you didn’t get some traction. Running out of room, so will do a follow-up, but hope this helps. Share it with your marketing team or your founder if it is helpful.