Technology and Social Media: Why Startups Prevail

Every day, in every industry, a new entrant zooms past a long-time player. The embattled company watches in disbelief and despair as the startup gains awareness and customers faster than they’ve ever imagined possible. Pretty soon, the logarithmic growth of the startup meets and rockets past the former leader, leaving them scrambling to reinvent their product and marketing.

Behind the scenes of these brushups is a common issue: technology. While the startup launches with the latest, the former leader is held back by engrained systems and dated infrastructure. While the startup is nimble and scalable, the dinosaur lumbers slowly with proprietary, non-connectable, inflexible technology. To avoid extinction, the former leader has to go through painful technology overhauls.

It turns out social media is the much the same.

Corporate baggage can make it difficult to get traction with social media and technology 

There’s a reason that most social media success stories come from young companies; they haven’t existed long enough to accrue the bureaucracy and fear that prevents many older companies from fully embracing social media.

So it comes to a decision point: will you let inertia and tradition hold your organization back and watch as newbies steal your market share and future? Or will you embrace change and use social media to build awareness, engage with customers, monitor your brand, and increase loyalty?

Need some extra motivation? Consider these social media truisms:

• Your customers are already engaging with brands on social media, just not yours (yet).
• A personal recommendation has always been the highest-converting marketing medium. Today, these happen on social media.
• The rising generation is highly tuned to identify authenticity and respect transparency. Instead of whitewashing (or ignoring) social media black eyes, you’ll gain major trust by dealing with them openly and proactively.

Ready to jump into social? Start with a focussed, trackable strategy that matches your customers’ needs and your business goals. Want an outside perspective? Let’s talk.