16 Social Media Marketing Tactics That Have Generated Buzz for Startups
Discover how startups are creating social media buzz as we dive into successful tactics from Chief Marketing Officers and Marketing Directors. From engaging audiences with giveaways and interactive stories to utilizing voice AI for trending videos, explore the diverse strategies and outcomes in these sixteen expert insights.
- Engage With Giveaways and Interactive Stories
- Leverage Micro-Influencers for Authenticity
- Utilize Employee-Generated Content
- Debunk Myths With Live Sessions
- Connect With “Inside Joke” Content
- Drive Traffic With Weekly YouTube Videos
- Conduct Rapid A/B Testing on TikTok
- Innovate With Facebook Messenger Bots
- Educate Through Authentic Social Content
- Highlight Transparent Pricing Strategies
- Create Viral Challenges for Engagement
- Leverage AI for Niche Content Creation
- Partner With Niche Influencers on Instagram
- Showcase Success With Client Testimonials
- Syndicate TikTok Content Across Platforms
- Utilize Voice AI for Trending Videos
Engage With Giveaways and Interactive Stories
For many startups in India, especially those launching with new social media profiles and no followers, a smart tactic has been running giveaway contests and using interactive stories. This approach is all about engaging directly with your audience.
Giveaways are a fantastic way to grab attention. Offer something exciting, and you’ll see people flocking to your profile, sharing your content, and connecting with your brand. It’s a solid strategy to boost your visibility and start building a community of followers who genuinely care about your brand.
Then there’s the magic of interactive stories. They’re like having a conversation with your audience in real time. Through these stories, startups can show off their brand’s personality, share the latest happenings, and get instant reactions. Adding interactive elements like polls or Q&A sessions makes your audience feel a part of your journey. This technique helps in creating a base of loyal customers and getting people talking about your brand.
These methods have been super effective for many Indian startups. They’ve seen a real increase in their follower count, all organic, and they’ve made their brand more visible and relatable right from the get-go.
Nikita Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Hicentrik Digital Marketing
Leverage Micro-Influencers for Authenticity
For one of our clients, we developed a social media marketing plan that has proven to be effective within our startup.
A successful strategy was the use of micro-influencers. Unlike famous influencers with millions of followers, micro-influencers have a smaller audience (usually between 10,000 and 100,000 followers). However, their audience is often more engaged, targeted, and loyal. We collaborated with micro-influencers whose audience closely matched our target market.
The key to our success lies in an authentic and personalized approach. We allowed the influencers to create content that seemed natural and true to their usual style, while subtly incorporating our product. This strategy led to a significant increase in brand awareness, an improvement in our image, and, most importantly, a notable increase in conversions and sales.
A concrete example of this success is our campaign with a micro-influencer in the health and wellness field. This collaboration generated a 30% increase in traffic to our website and a 22% increase in sales during the campaign month.
This approach showed that an authentic and relevant connection with the audience is crucial, especially in the competitive world of startups.
Guillaume Le Port, Web Designer, Btg communication
Utilize Employee-Generated Content
We’ve made employee involvement a key part of our user-generated content (UGC) campaigns, integrated into our social media marketing strategy. I believe that for B2B companies, user-generated content doesn’t only have to come from online communities or target audiences. In our case, it often comes from our employees.
If employees are willing to share, we ask them how they’d like to share their photos, videos, and posts, and encourage them to do so on our social media page. We capture images of trade show booths, conference speakers, event attendees, and other aspects of events our employees attend. These photos are great for social media posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
This strategy has led to significant gains in our marketing efforts. Our employee-generated content has not only enriched our social media marketing materials with authentic and relatable content but has also strengthened our brand’s credibility and relatability.
It has created a sense of pride and ownership among our employees, enhancing their engagement and connection to the company. It’s also good for our employee retention, as it fosters a strong, inclusive company culture that values and showcases its team’s contributions.
Precious Abacan, Marketing Director, Softlist
Debunk Myths With Live Sessions
Our unique social-media tactic involved hosting Financial Mythbusters Live sessions. We debunked common misconceptions about finance in engaging live streams. This tactic not only educated our audience but also sparked discussions, drawing in curious viewers.
The results were impressive—heightened engagement, a surge in followers, and increased website traffic. By leveraging informative yet entertaining content, we effectively generated buzz, establishing our brand as a trusted source in finance.
Danielle Roberts, Co-Founder, Boomer Benefits
Connect With “Inside Joke” Content
Let me tell you about this effective tactic I’ve been using in my and my clients’ social media content. It’s something I like to call the “Inside Joke” method. I create tons of content, but the real game-changers? Those are the videos where I zoom in on those little moments that only my dream clients get. It’s like saying, “Hey, I see you, and I get what you’re going through.”
Here’s a fun example: Remember that TikTok trend with the Bold Glamour filter? Everyone started with this gorgeous filter and then switched to the wacky Striking filter to show off the hilarious gap between “expectation” and “reality.”
I thought, why not spin this for my crowd? They’re the small-business owners juggling their socials but also struggling with content creation. Once I had the concept ready to go, I whipped up this video in no time, making sure I rode the wave while the trend was still buzzing.
Guess what happened? I made this cheeky 10-second clip showing “Filming Content: My Expectation vs. The Reality.” And boom! My Instagram and TikTok leads shot up by 50%! Talk about hitting the right chord.
So, what’s the moral here? It’s simple: Be real, be you. Make stuff that makes your perfect client go, “Yes, that’s so me!” Forget chasing picture-perfect content; it’s all about connecting through your message and feelings.
Ketsia Colas-Leroy, President, HeyKetsia Consulting
Drive Traffic With Weekly YouTube Videos
Of course, it’s YouTube. Video marketing is currently the most effective and fastest way of communication. Compared to traditional text and images, videos have the advantage of generating more engaging discussions.
Maintaining at least one video per week on YouTube allows you to benefit from algorithmic traffic, meaning you can achieve significant viewership even without advertising. YouTube likely has community features, so it’s worth using videos for content marketing and maintaining interaction with your subscribers within the community.
This approach yields better results. As a startup marketing company, we’ve also gained decent recognition in the industry by employing this strategy.
Sorla Lau, Project Manager, Geniushub
Conduct Rapid A/B Testing on TikTok
I used a simple TikTok strategy to get our AI startup 3,100 users in a single day.
In February 2023, we made one of the first third-party apps using the GPT playground. To drive users, I turned to TikTok, where I had been building a personal tech and marketing following for several months.
I’m a huge believer that there is no such thing as a boring product or service, but it could take several tries to frame the brand in the right light so that it’s interesting and appealing. Here’s what I did:
In 75 minutes, I published three videos about our AI product.
Each video had a different hook. Testing hooks and angles on TikTok is a notable strategy because TikTok will essentially A/B test your hooks and angles for you.
TikTok’s distribution is built in. You just need to put the content out, and TikTok will tell you what is most engaging.
Video 1 got 2,000 views.
Video 3 also got 2,000 views.
But video 2 got 67,000 views and brought us 3,100 users in a single day.
Rapidly A/B testing angles and hooks on TikTok is one of my favorite social media strategies for generating buzz.
Edward Sturm, Fractional CMO, Edwardsturm.com
Innovate With Facebook Messenger Bots
We struck gold with a unique tactic: using Facebook Messenger chatbots for domain reveals. Users send a product ID, and the bot reveals the domain name—a first in our industry.
This innovative approach boosted engagement dramatically, turning a simple interaction into an exciting event for our community.
The results? Higher engagement and a noticeable uptick in domain sales. It’s a prime example of how embracing new technology can make a real difference in social media marketing.
Antony Deroshan, Founder, Domain Coasters
Educate Through Authentic Social Content
As a salsa, bachata, and kizomba dance instructor with over a decade of experience, I’ve learned the power of social media to generate interest. When I opened my studio, I relied on Facebook ads to spread the word. Initial image promotions about new classes, schedules, and locations were effective but yielded limited engagement. Posting dance videos or raw class footage improved clicks, yet my greatest success came from an informational video answering a common question: “What are social dances?”
In this rather long-for-social-media 4-minute video, I explained how social dances differ from competitive forms in their inclusive, cooperative nature. I shared my viewpoint that this non-competitive approach nurtures the best community. The video itself was my home-recorded voice narration over a decent number of short 3-5 second video clips from the classes. It cost me almost nothing to produce, only my time and effort.
It quickly went viral with thousands of shares from enthusiastic viewers. I amplified its reach with a Facebook ad, which was super cheap considering its shareability. This simple, from-the-heart piece generated an incredible buzz for my new studio. Within the first year, we became the largest dance school in our city of 800,000, with that one video playing a pivotal promotional role.
While flashy images or polished videos can work, I’ve learned that even simple educational content can connect if it speaks to people’s interests. By leading with my purpose and perspective, not sales pitches, I sparked meaningful conversations that grew my community exponentially. Authenticity wins hearts and minds. The numbers followed naturally.
Roman Bosque, Founder, Dancelifemap.com
Highlight Transparent Pricing Strategies
The element we always try to feature in our social media marketing is our pricing. It’s a key factor that sets us apart from our competitors.
By focusing on our low, transparent, up-front prices without any add-ons, hidden fees, or surprise taxes, we’re able to build consumer trust, which is a key element of our brand identity.
We back up this pricing information with reviews and testimonials from actual customers to give it more authenticity.
Nick Valentino, VP of Market Operations, Bellhop
Create Viral Challenges for Engagement
Certainly, one social media marketing tactic that has worked wonders for our startup is the use of viral challenges and user-generated content (UGC) campaigns.
Here’s the gist: We create engaging challenges related to our product or industry and encourage our audience to participate and share their experiences on social media using a specific hashtag.
The results have been fantastic. These campaigns boost engagement, grow our user base, increase brand visibility, and provide valuable user-generated content that resonates with our audience. It’s all about creating a sense of community and excitement around our brand, and it’s been incredibly effective in generating buzz.
Bhavik Sarkhedi, Growth Head and CMO, Content Whale
Leverage AI for Niche Content Creation
One tactic we’ve used with great success at Adaptify SEO is to leverage AI-powered content creation for highly specialized niches, such as ACH payment validation for financial institutions. We targeted the exact moment potential clients were facing issues related to their payment validation, leading to high-quality organic leads.
As a result, there was a 64% month-on-month growth in online impressions. We found that creating a steady flow of content with a focus on topical authority was key to driving these results. This strategy used automation to create and post 100+ quality articles, leading to a high volume of quality traffic and niche authority.
Dominic Zijlstra, Founder, Adaptify AI
Partner With Niche Influencers on Instagram
One successful social-media marketing tactic we implemented at our startup is the use of influencer partnerships on Instagram. We sought influencers within our niche, whose audience aligns well with our target market.
These influencers would then promote our products in their posts or stories, providing us with access to a larger and more engaged audience. Because of this strategy, we saw a significant increase in our brand visibility and follower count. Also, there was a 35% increase in website traffic, and sales conversions improved by 20% within the first month of the campaign.
Rehana Aslam, Head of Marketing, Oh My Luck
Showcase Success With Client Testimonials
At Cleartail Marketing, we’ve found great success with creating engaging, educational content in the form of video testimonials from our clients. One of our clients, Bridgesaw.com, experienced a 278% growth in their business within just 12 months of implementing our SEO strategy. We recorded a video testimonial with them, discussing the strategy and its success.
Once we had the video, we promoted it on various social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. It was shared by both our team and the client, which not only generated great buzz but also created a sense of authenticity and trust in our services. The result was an increase in our brand visibility and the acquisition of many new clients who were impressed by our demonstrated results.
The key here is to create content that isn’t just promotional but also provides value to your audience. For us, those were real-life examples of our work and the tangible results that businesses can expect from an effective SEO strategy.
Magee Clegg, CEO, Cleartail Marketing
Syndicate TikTok Content Across Platforms
We create content on TikTok and then syndicate it across LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms. The content is a mix of down-in-the-weeds details related to our business, which is advertising, and others that focus on client problems.
These videos have reignited past B2B relationships, which is huge for us. They have also created new fruitful relationships. About one-third of the sales calls we’re on mention the videos on our social media.
Robert Brill, CEO, Brill Media
Utilize Voice AI for Trending Videos
To show our mark amongst the competitors and many using video editing AI tools, we used our own powerful AI tool to create short, long videos on specific topics that were and are trending, like the July 4th speeches by Obama or Biden, which were dubbed in multiple languages in one video.
We introduced our voice clone feature by cloning famous American celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, and so on, or created voiceovers of favorite memes, which made the content relatable to users and encouraged them to use our simple tool for such fantastic video content.
The notable result was a spike in our subscribers on YouTube and increased followers on TikTok, reposts, and mentions on Twitter, as a couple of videos went viral and were covered by other platforms, too. Social media and our direct traffic from an SEO perspective saw over a 150% rise in over 60-90 days. Push out content in specific demographics per your target audience, understand what your audience wants, and then start providing them with rich content.
Nikhil Mehra, Marketing Head, Wavel AI
