Unlike in the Field of Dreams, “if you build it, they will come” certainly does not pertain to gaining initial traction for your startup. If anything, the complete opposite is true– you need to work insanely hard just to start acquiring your first few customers or followers, and then work even harder to grow those early followers into sustainable momentum. The holy grail for all businesses is gaining that initial momentum– but how?
Building a successful business and growing a customer-base cannot be done in a vacuum– while traditional, unscalable marketing methods need to be the central part of any early startup’s growth strategy, using the internet to spur initial growth can be extremely effective if done correctly. One of the best ways to build that initial momentum online is to be very vocal about yourself and your business in creative, non-spammy, non-annoying ways that actually adds value to those listening.
Some platforms work well for some businesses and not-so-well for others, and usually the ones that work well will surprise you, so I would suggest giving each platform an honest chance. It’s also important to note that each of these platforms has their own norms, so it might take a while to get over the learning curve, which is necessary to truly determine if the platform is useful for your purposes or not.
Finally, remember that it takes time to build up a following and reputation on each platform, so once you determine which one works for you, be active and grow your presence. It takes time to build a truly engaging group of followers — which you’ll need to do almost anything, such as launch a new product, launch a kickstarter campaign, etc — so the earlier you start growing your following on the appropriate platforms, the better.
Without further ado, these are the ten websites that I would urge all entrepreneurs and soon-to-be entrepreneurs to be active on:
Reddit is amazing. It has a rather steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, you truly understand why it’s slogan is “The front page of the internet”. If you’re not familiar with Reddit, just imagine how powerful it would be for your business to be on the front page of a major newspaper or publication– that’s the power Reddit holds, but for the internet. I can’t think of any business that wouldn’t benefit from having a presence on Reddit, but be careful to not even come close to spamming– their vote-up/vote-down system will burn you quickly.
Quora
Quora is another amazing platform. It’s basically public Q&A with a long blog post format as answers that attracts bright individuals. While Reddit has the ability to quickly give you a short burst of traffic, Quora has the ability to grow a sustainable traffic flow by building backlinks and credibility. Use Quora to build your expertise and credibility in a certain industry. Unlike Reddit, you can also have an in-depth profile on Quora linking back to your other social media platforms and websites, so the more questions you answer well, the more visibility you will have.
Angel List
Contrary to popular belief, Angel List is not just to help companies raise funds– it also has a robust jobs board, allows you to invest alongside famous angel investors in small startup companies (if you’re an accredited investor), and allows you to build a profile for yourself and your business that contains all relevant business operational and financial information. If someone is interested in a public company, they check out Yahoo! finance, but if someone is interested in a private startup, the check out Angel List.
Industry-specific forums
It’s tough to build a marketing campaign that has viral potential and far reach, but you can make it easier by being part of your niche community– and forums are a great way to stay engaged with your respective community. Credibility is almost entirely proportional to the number of posts you’ve made and how long you’ve been a member, so don’t even mention your business until you’ve built some credibility with the forum, and when you do, be transparent.
Slideshare
Being on Slideshare has so many benefits– you can add Slideshare presentations to your Linkedin profile to add to your credibility, it provides strong SEO backlinks, and it can drive some native traffic on it’s own.
YouTube
YouTube takes all the benefits of SlideShare, and raises it to the next level– the SEO benefits of YouTube are enormous and often overlooked, it can drive a ton of traffic to your video on it’s own, and provides a great platform to share your videos on other social media networks for viral potential.
Google+
Social media sharing has a strong effect on SEO, so wouldn’t you think it would be smart to be part of Google’s own social media network? Another benefit of having a Google+ account is that you can use what’s called “Authorship” to claim your content, so when a blog post or article of yours shows up in the search results, your image shows up next to it, significantly increasing credibility and click-through rates.
I almost left this one off because the viral potential of Facebook content is blatantly obvious, but I wanted to also be able to stress the importance here– you personally need to be on Facebook. In fact, if you also own a business, your business needs to be on Facebook as well. One of the main reasons Facebook is so powerful is because it’s hands down the easiest platform to share content, so viral potential is very high. If you post good content on Facebook with a great title or catchy post, it will get shared, and you will get more eyeballs to your business. Social sharing metrics are also now a big part of SEO, so the more your content gets shared, the higher you will rank in the search engines.
Another one I almost left off the list because it’s pretty obvious at this point, but you and your business need to have profiles on Twitter. One of the best explanations I’ve heard on how to use Twitter was something along the lines of– “Facebook is the social network you use to keep in touch with people you know, Twitter is the social network you use to get in touch with people you don’t.” It’s amazing how powerful one retweet from an influencer can be. Of course this will only result in a (hopefully huge) uptick in traffic and followers, but a) you need to start somewhere, b) social sharing increases your SEO power, c) you will have more followers so you will have a louder voice when you need it, and d) if you use retargeting ads, you’ve just build yourself a very powerful list.
Finally, the “Professional’s Social Network”. Obviously, it makes sense to be on Linkedin– it also has great SEO powers, you can build a personal and a company profile, you can engage in group conversations, and you can be active on job boards. If you are lucky enough to be able to publish as a Linkedin Influencer, your audience just got that much bigger and voice that much louder. If someone searched your name in Google, typically your Linkedin profile will be one of the top links, so it’s also a great first-impression tool as well.
There you have it– the ten websites all entrepreneurs and soon-to-be entrepreneurs need to be on. It takes time to learn the ropes of each platform and to build a following, so the sooner you start, the sooner you will reap the benefits.