4 Tools & Tips for Getting Your Start-Up on Social Media

Stat alert! Did you know that 78% of consumers say that the posts made by companies on social media influence their purchases (Source: Forbes). It's no surprise that marketers have embraced social media: 83% indicate that social media is important for their business (Source: Hubspot).

However, whilst the stats point to social really working, that doesn't stop the fact that starting out on social media can feel like an uphill climb. In flip-flops. Let's take getting your follow figures up to a respectable figure. Yes so-called gurus say it's not about the quantity, it's about the quality - but if we're honest, no business wants to link their website to accounts with 50 Twitter followers or 25 Facebook fans.

With that in mind, here are 4 tips, tools and tactics that will ensure your social media presence is awesome from the start:

1. For increasing your reach - Thunderclap

Everyone wants their message to be heard and social media is the perfect way to do this. Thunderclap is a website that helps you amplify your message on social media. A bit like Kickstarter it involves people supporting your message. When you have reached your support target Thunderclap will spread your message across all the supporters' accounts. A great way to create some buzz - or maybe even get a hashtag trending. People have the option to support your message via Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook

Pricing: Free

2. For engaging - #BizHour

As the name suggests, social media is about being social. Don't get sucked into the routine of pushing out content and not involving yourself in any conversations. Tweet chats are a great way to engage whilst growing your following at the same time.

The tweet chat #BizHour takes place every Wednesday between 2pm and 3pm and it's aim is to create a place and time for UK businesses to engage and network on Twitter. Although some businesses just use it to push out content there is also a great opportunity to network and engage with others.

Pricing: Free

3. For finding influencers - SocialBro

Pinpointing the key influencers in your industry is vital. This way you know who to follow, RT and ultimately engage with (even if you don't always get a response). SocialBro is great if you are looking to outreach to influencers on Twitter and Instagram. It allows you to analyse your followers based on:

• influence

• number of followers

• follower ratio

• how long since they last tweeted

• how long they have been on twitter

• how times they tweet a day

SocialBro also has a nifty little function that tells you when the best time to tweet is, so that your content has the best chance of reaching the right people.

Pricing: Free and premium accounts. In the free version you can have 2 accounts and up to 5000 followers. Some reports are only available if you upgrade e.g 'Discover Retweeters'.

4. For keeping a consistent presence - Hootsuite

It's important to maintain a consistent presence with a certain amount of posts per day. Common advice is that you tweet at least four times a day, and post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram & Google+ at least once a day.

Doing this every day can be a handful and will cause a lot of time to be wasted. This is where is Hootsuite comes in. Hootsuite allows you to schedule your content in advance. This means, even when you're busy and away from a computer, your accounts will still be active pushing out your content.

Pricing: Free and premium accounts. The free account allows you to have up to 3 social media profiles.

That's it for our 4 tools & tips - now we want to hear from you. Comment below with your own suggestions!

This post was brought to you by Sarah Kerrigan. The Social Media executive at MadeSimple