Not long ago I did an “Ask Me Anything” on Product Hunt, a website that showcases new products, apps, and startups. Today I’m going to share some of the questions I answered during that session because I thought maybe if one person is asking me this, other people are having these same questions. Listen in to hear me talk about everything from the best platforms to be on, tools to be using, advice for startups, and tips for fundraising for your new social business.

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In This Episode:

• The first question was about what the most underrated social media platform is that a lot of businesses overlook, and I actually think that’s kind of a trick question, because it completely depends on what your business is and who your audience is and where they’re spending their time, right?
• I think the most underrated platforms are the ones that lose attention, especially when stock prices go down; Right now, I believe the most underrated platform is Twitter – it isn’t seen as a strategic network these days
• The next question I got was about what tools I use daily:I use a ton of tools on a daily basis, but the main one that I think companies should be using is a social media dashboard, something like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Sprout Social, Buffer, eClincher, Agora Pulse, or Post Planner
• The next question had to do with international experience in social media: Social media is used pretty similarly throughout the world, but I find there are differences in the stages of development; Europe is generally 6-12 months behind the U.S.; Asia, on the other hand, is a really mobile first society, and personal messaging apps are extremely popular
• The next question was a three parter all about startups: First was about advice for startups to leverage their social, second was about what budget they should expect, and third was about the best routes for gaining traction on social
• The next question asked if I believe in paid ads on Facebook, and the answer is YES; Facebook has some of the best targeted advertising out there
• The ROI of a Facebook ad campaign is only as good as your targeting, your budget, your conversion definition, and the strength of your ad copy and visual to attract the relevant potential customer to CONVERT. Don’t forget to experiment, measure, optimize, repeat!
• Another question was about Twitter’s biggest challenges and opportunities: Now, this question came at a time of change in Twitter, when all those executives left and of course, you make a change like hinting at extending the character limit and the stocks take a tumble – the challenge is tweaking Twitter to generate more revenue has to be done while growing a passionate community without alienating them
• Another person asked what I think is the most effective but underutilized method of social media for business and here’s what I said: 1) have content on one’s website that is shareable, 2) build community in social, 3) leverage that social community for business objectives
• The next question was about my opinion on social selling tools around social CRM – I’ve got two opinions on this, and the first is the sales people, even in this age of social media, still need a CRM tool and they need to append that tool with social data (like Nimble); On the other hand, just like social media marketers need to use many tools, maybe salespeople need to do the same
• The last question was if I was going to fundraise for a startup today, how would you go about doing it? First I would be very clear about what question you’re trying to solve, who the competition is and how you can defeat them, what the market size and sales profit estimates are, and having a solid business plan. Then I would try to gather attention to validate the idea. And I wouldn’t look to social media for fundraising, I would look to angel investors and venture capitalists and only maybe use social media to make those connections.

Resources & Links:

• Listen to last week’s episode about focusing your efforts in 2016.
• Learn more about why you should find the right social media dashboard.
• Other tools I think are must-haves.
• Learn more about creating a Facebook Ads strategy.
• Learn about the role of content in CRM.
• Follow me on WiseLike.

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