Over the past month, I’ve been looking at the social media use of some of the biggest tech startups. I chose 100 unicorns (private companies that are valued at over a billion dollars) and collected data on how they use social media. The results were pretty interesting.
I chose to focus on unicorns because they have already proved that they can build a big company and attract a large following. What makes these tech startups interesting is that they don’t have an abundance of content to post from their various products such as trendy glasses from Warby Parker or delicious food from Blue Apron. Most of the Unicorns so not have a physical product. They have services or apps that are difficult to show on Instagram because honestly, we don’t really want to see dashboards or app screenshots.
Naturally, there are a few lessons that businesses with social media should learn from them. The biggest lesson is to sell your audience on your brand or company culture. For example, show how amazing your office is or people using your product. The point is, make it about people.
- Evernote has 30k followers and uses their account to show off their office. They get around 400 interactions per photo.
- Lyft has almost the same amount of followers, but features a lot of cityscapes they drive in. They received about 300 interactions on each photo.
- Eventbrite has 7k followers and mainly posts pictures of their office or employees. They get an average of 75 interactions.
- Hootsuite is my favorite because it has been posting all dog pictures. They’ve racked up 21k followers with 200 interactions per post.
These may not seem like the highest numbers to you because you’re used to seeing high numbers of companies with physical products. However, I believe that these numbers are still impressive and deserve a round of applause!
In conclusion, for the app developers around the world – think about the culture that you stand for and think about how to visualize it just like these companies have through behind the scenes photos of their office, team members or photos from everyday work. It is not impossible for you to grow your social media audience, it just takes some creativity from your team.
Additionally, I don’t think that this idea of sharing your culture should be restricted to companies without a physical product. Even if you do have a physical product, I believe that showing your company culture will help you connect with your audience in a stronger manner.
Advisor Abbate 