Original title: Social media for startup founders: A practical guide to building an online presence

Original author: Ish Verduzco, a16z

Original translation: TechFlow

People often compare the use of social media to satisfying a sweet tooth, but for most startup founders, building a social presence is an important task. The platforms we choose not only help us study our audience, drive organic growth, build our brand, but also effectively spread our message - so the need for a social media strategy is obvious. However, developing an effective and realistic plan is not easy.

It seems easy for excellent creators - a low-quality post may get 1 million views, and a blue dot emoji may trigger a craze for months - but mastering it all is challenging. For one thing, the rules of social media are always changing. Platform X might affect the visibility of posts that link to external sites; Instagram might start prioritizing new types of content; and while we think cryptocurrency can help in this regard, rule changes often undermine even the most forward-thinking plans.

Algorithms evolve, popular platforms emerge, and new types of viral content emerge all the time. There are always new accounts to create or new experiments to run. So how can a startup with limited resources figure out where to start? And once they get started, how can they tell what’s working? This space is changing rapidly, but there are some practical advice and best practices that apply to any situation.

This post will cover some time-tested guidelines to help startups build a social presence from scratch, including setting goals, identifying target audiences, and measuring success. It will also provide tools and frameworks that founders can use to understand when, how, and what to post, especially when time is limited.

Getting Started: How to Set Realistic Goals

Like any large product project, setting realistic goals before diving in is important to drive momentum and build confidence. Different startups and founders will have different goals, but here are some questions to start thinking about:

· What role will social media play?A customer service-oriented social presence will be very different than a founder’s personal account. An account focused on distributing content will require a different approach than one that manages a decentralized community. It’s important to define all of this before you get started.

· What is the end goal? A company may want to build a social following before a project goes public so that they have a high-intent audience when they launch. Or, they may want to rebrand. What are you working towards as a founder? How will a social presence support your plans?

· What is the timeline? Create short-term goals with specific dates to build momentum. For example, increase the account’s followers by 100 in the first month, 200 in the second month, and so on. Be realistic and stick to the plan.

Let these goals serve as the foundation for all subsequent work. Once goals are established, the team can move from what they want to achieve to the audience they want to reach.

Identify your target audience: How to find your target demographic

Posting to a new social account can feel like shouting into a black hole. Teams must start building audiences early, even if their products haven’t launched yet.

Before sending a post into the void, first think about your target audience: Who do you need to reach to achieve the goals outlined above? Are they potential customers, crypto enthusiasts, investors, or someone else entirely?

Many crypto teams often need to prospect for entirely new audiences — especially when launching a first-of-its-kind or experimental product, or are still pursuing product-market fit. That’s OK: target audience isn’t everything, but it’s a useful input to help decide which platforms to prioritize and what type of content to create.

To start focusing, try using this six-question framework:

1. Which accounts are part of your target audience?Tie this answer into your overall strategy: For example, early-stage crypto startups — even those with broad consumer products — may want to prioritize specific crypto-native audiences. A smarter, more engaged group of early adopters can help startups refine their product roadmaps before a wider launch.

2. Which social platforms do they use most? If all the conversations a team wants to engage in happen on X, then going all-in on Instagram is a mistake. But the answer to this question isn’t always simple. For example, some highly niche audiences (including some of the research and academic communities driving crypto innovation) are best reached through email and in-person meetings.

3. Where in the world is your audience located? This can be tricky with web3 because so many people are anonymous, but the more data you can get about where your audience is located, the better. If you learn that half of your audience is in the UK, you probably don’t want to post content while they’re asleep. Tools like Twitter Analytics can help you get this information. However, there’s also a really simple growth hack to just go into your Discord and invite everyone to show their flag in the chat.

4. What other accounts does your audience follow? Look at the top accounts, influencers, and brands your audience follows to get a feel for the type of content and brand voice. Then think about how your content will look in your followers’ feeds: will it stand out, or will it fit seamlessly into their feed diet? A quick market research can give you a good baseline for early posts.

5. What topics do they like to engage with the most? Study the accounts that post high-performing content. Look at their most recent 50 posts to see what works and what doesn’t, and use the best-performing topics as inspiration.

6. How do they use social media? Everyone uses social media differently. Different platforms may have different functions in a user’s life, whether it’s to relax and have fun, to make connections, or to learn something new.

This is just a basic framework. Think of these questions as a map to help you determine where to start. Specifically, which platforms to start building on and which content types to start publishing.

Knowing where to publish: How to prioritize platforms and accounts

Having a clear target audience helps make several key decisions, especially which platforms and accounts to prioritize.

It’s not uncommon for users to switch between multiple platforms every day. However, for content creators, trying to be on all platforms at once can seriously affect social strategy. This is especially important for founders because it’s difficult to maintain more than two social platforms at the same time.

The goal is to start small and gradually build the ability to create great content. You can then expand to more platforms (perhaps by hiring people to help you create and manage content). In the meantime, we typically recommend that founders focus on 1-2 platforms, do them best, and then consider expanding.

For example, founders shouldn’t limit themselves to just having a branded account on LinkedIn and X. It’s also important to consider how their own social media accounts fit into the overall strategy (discussed more below).

Put Your Personal Account to Work

Founders often ask us what kind of account they should use to promote their work. Should they invest more time in building their brand on their personal LinkedIn? Or should they create a startup account from scratch?

The answer will depend on their specific goals; however, we are increasingly finding that founders are advised to leverage their personal accounts for several reasons.

1. People want to hear a human voice, not a brand voice.Brand accounts often come across as promotional for marketing purposes, while founders’ voices come across as more authentic and less marketing.

2. Personal accounts seem to outperform brand accounts.We’ve also found that on platforms like X, personal accounts outperform brand accounts in terms of engagement and reach, as the algorithms currently favor individual voices.

3. Building a personal brand can create an audience that is not tied to the product. No matter which idea a founder is working on or what stage of the product lifecycle they are in, having a strong presence on social platforms can create a built-in audience for future projects, upcoming product launches, or even new social accounts.

Founders don’t need to choose between the two. In fact, running two accounts allows the company to communicate with the community more effectively (since only a portion of each follower base will see each organic post). For more information on founder accounts vs. brand accounts, see here.

Deciding What to Post: How to Test Content Types and Find Your Voice

We often hear founders say, “I know I need to have a social media presence, but I’m not sure what to post about.”

The goal here is to create social stories that people want to follow because they offer valuable information and expertise that can’t be found elsewhere—whether it’s an inside look at a popular project, an interesting take on industry dynamics, or niche tips and tricks. In short, great accounts have a unique perspective that sets them apart.

So how do you find your perspective? First, we typically tell founders to focus on their personal life experiences, interests, and obsessions, as well as their unique expertise. Then, tell stories from those perspectives that educate, inspire, and teach. They can take an objective look at their careers, how they spend their free time, the books they’re passionate about reading, or the creators they follow. Then distill that into a niche.

For more inspiration, there are a few different themes and topics that apply to most companies and are great starting points for adding value:

· How-to content (showing how people do something)

· Behind the Scenes (giving people a peek into the inner workings of your company)

· Industry Insights (sharing macro trends that your audience cares about)

· Product Updates (sharing about the product and its new features)

· Company Announcements (sharing a major accomplishment, for example)

· Community Questions (sharing a question your audience might be interested in discussing)

· Founder Reflections (share something you’ve learned, recommend a book you’ve read, or share your thoughts on a topic your audience is interested in)

The bottom line? Find a niche. Accounts that have a unique perspective and experiment with different content types and formats can add a lot of value.

What Happens When the Metaverse Changes

We’ve all witnessed how changes in social platforms have reshaped how people interact and engage with their content. A recent example is when X began to downrank external links, especially those pointing to Substack. This change forced those promoting their Substack on the platform to rethink their strategies — from burying links to cross-posting entire newsletters on X.

But while X’s change got a lot of attention, the reality is that this happens all the time, and social media platforms are constantly trying new ways to keep users on their apps and sites instead of going elsewhere. Creators can learn how a certain platform works and optimize for content that will rank well, but the rules can change at any time.

As a result, it’s increasingly important to stay flexible and willing to try new content types as the landscape changes. While these changes can be painful, they also present opportunities to think outside of the box and test new ways to engage with followers.

Now that we’ve discussed what content to start posting, let’s talk about how often to post.

Establishing a cadence: How often to post

For those who are new to social media, a common misconception is that the more content the better – if a post isn’t resonating, it’s often assumed that it’s because of the volume of posts an account has posted.

This is a common misconception. When it comes to posting cadence, the order of importance should be:

Quality > Consistency > Quantity

Focus on quality first, using in-app analytics tools (more on this in the next section) to measure which posts are getting engagement, comments, and shares.

Then think about consistency. Start with one quality post per month and work your way up to two. Watch the data, and if things are going well, increase your frequency to daily.

A common mistake people make is flooding their feeds with posts in the hope of connecting with their audience. The goal is to gradually develop social media proficiency, process, taste, timing, and more—all of which takes time.

A Quick Start Guide to Building a Rhythm

Don’t rely on inspiration. Creating a backup of evergreen posts—content that resonates no matter when you post it—can help fill the gap between big product updates and timely posts.

Instead of waking up every day hoping to come up with a great content idea, use a few focused hours and a little creativity to create a solid backup. Here's how: First, write out as many ideas as you can, then pick a few that you like best. Write them out and schedule them for posting over the next few weeks. To keep the momentum going, make sure to spend about 30 minutes a day interacting with the comments in your feed.

All this upfront work may seem like a huge time investment, so how can the team tell if their efforts are paying off? Let’s take a quick look at the metrics of success…

Measuring Social Media Success: An Introduction to Social Metrics

Ish Verduzco:

“Social media success ≠ follower growth

It’s also about:

- Driving leads

- Converting customers

- Improving brand sentiment

- Increasing email subscribers

- Expanding brand influence

- Building relationships with KOLs

- Growing your closed community

- Get Product Feedback"

There are two basic and complementary approaches to measuring the success of social posts:

1. Qualitative:This is the measurement of sentiment (how people feel about your company/brand). This includes feedback, replies and questions, as well as quote tweets, mentions and private messages.

2. Quantitative: This is the measurement of growth. This includes things like engagement, impressions, reach, shares, conversions, followers, and referrals.

For most founders, the value of quantitative data is obvious — measuring audience growth, shares, and likes is simple, just like a set of product metrics. Qualitative feedback, on the other hand, is more difficult to assess; but it is one of the best indicators of how people (and especially which people) are connecting with your brand.

So first, let’s look at some very basic quantitative data metrics.

Quantitative Data

When people are just starting their social strategy, basic tools like in-app analytics tools (Twitter Analytics, LinkedIn Analytics, etc.) will provide all the data they need. Professional tools like Sprout Social and HubSpot can be used to schedule posts, but can be a bit too complex when it comes to advanced analytics. Regardless of the tool your team chooses, here are some key metrics to start with:

Engagement

Engagement is often the most important qualitative metric you have. Increasing engagement can increase impressions of your content, i.e. how often users see a piece of content. Increased impressions can also lead to more visits to a profile, more followers, etc.

Most analytics tools, including in-app analytics, will provide some formula for quantifying engagement, usually in the form of Total interactions / Total followers or impressions x 100, but this can vary between platforms. The accuracy of a specific formula is often less important than using a consistent benchmark, and different measurement methods should not be mixed.

One effective way to use in-app analytics is to look at the top and bottom performing posts from the last 30 or 60 days, in reverse chronological order, and try to parse why those posts performed well or poorly.

The team might discover that certain memes are performing really well, or that posts linking to a blog aren’t getting clicks, or that certain topics inspire or inhibit engagement. Tracking this data over time can help you better understand what your audience expects from a particular channel.

It’s also a good idea to track metrics like total shares, reactions, and retweets on a weekly basis. It’s not about getting too granular with the specific numbers, but more about seeing the trends over time. For example, if the numbers are consistently rising, that means more people are seeing the account’s content, thereby expanding its reach and reaching more potential followers.

Conversion Rate

Assuming the team has a product in the market, another key statistic is conversion rate, which is the number of people who click through a social post to the product website, newsletter, podcast, etc.

Teams can also use Google Analytics, UTM links, and other tools to track conversions from organic posts (vs. paid ads), from clicks to signups or purchases. But in the early stages, this level of granularity is often more nice-to-have than necessary.

Audience

Understanding which content drives a surge in follower count is more important than just tracking total follower count. If a certain type of post reliably grows a specific audience, this is valuable information. As mentioned earlier, it’s also a good idea to track the best and worst performing posts and try to understand what makes a particular post a success or a failure.

Growth in follower count is a good indicator that an account is reaching more people, but it doesn’t provide deep insights into whether the account is reaching the right people. That’s where qualitative data comes in handy.

Qualitative Data

Don’t ignore qualitative data. In fact, spending time thinking about qualitative social information can be more helpful than quantitative data, although this mindset can be hard for some data-driven founders to accept.

For example, countless businesses rely on the power of “influencers” to spread their message. A share from someone with a wide network and trusted brand is often more influential than hundreds of shares from a small account. Just like reaching higher-quality leads often drives more significant business growth than reaching people who have no need for a startup’s product. When it comes to follower growth, it’s just as important (if not more important) to ask “Are we reaching the right people?” rather than just “Are we reaching more people?”

The tricky thing about extracting actionable information from qualitative data is that it’s more art than science. The best way to do it is manually, at least initially — while there are a lot of different sentiment analysis tools, this type of analysis isn’t completely precise. The goal is to extract themes from the messages and direct messages you receive, paying special attention to the words people use and whether those words are positive, negative, or neutral. Then track this information over time.

All of this material helps companies understand what people think of them — critical information for improving customer service, identifying gaps in your product offering, and even finding product-market fit.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative

Each measurement strategy should evaluate performance from multiple perspectives. This is because relying too heavily on one metric can distort your view of how a post is performing. It can also create perverse incentives for social strategies in the long term. A familiar example is the over-focus on views and impressions. Posts that get the most views and impressions (clickbait, so to speak) are not necessarily conducive to building a well-liked or trusted brand.

Instead, focus on a more diverse mix of metrics. For new teams, there’s no need to measure everything at first, but qualitative performance should be combined with broader measures of quantity (like impressions) and quality (like engagement and click-through rate). This very basic framework can provide a more accurate picture of post performance.

The Quiet Supporter Challenge

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to accurately capturing sentiment is the emergence of “quiet supporters” who read your startup’s content but don’t leave a comment or like it. Some people consume a lot of content but don’t engage in the feed for a variety of reasons; for example, to avoid publicly expressing reactions on social platforms like LinkedIn.

Don’t be discouraged by the missing pieces — there are several different approaches content creators can try to encourage engagement and help round out the overall picture.

1. Start a conversation: Have conversations with those who do and don’t engage with your content, asking for feedback to replicate what works and discard what doesn’t.

2. Host events: Host virtual or in-person events to deepen relationships with your audience (content creators may find that their followers become more publicly supportive after attending an event).

3. Focus on community management: Try more outward-facing community management (e.g., interact with 5 different followers per day).

4. Test different types of posts:Sometimes people are supportive, but just not interested in the content format. Try different formats like video vs. photo, short vs. long content, or introduce new ways to interact like polls, questions, and AMAs (Ask Me Anything).

5. Don’t get discouraged:Social media success comes in many different forms, including leads, email subscribers, brand sentiment, 1-to-1 relationship building, product feedback loops, and more. Just because you’re not seeing the engagement you’d like, doesn’t mean your social media efforts aren’t having an impact.

With people inundated with social media, creators need to find different ways to measure their impact (as well as come up with creative ways to keep their audiences engaged).

Understanding the “Growth Flywheel”

There’s no magic formula that will make a company’s social accounts grow 10x overnight. But over time, a sound social strategy will create a virtuous cycle in which increased engagement leads to greater reach, which leads to more followers, which leads to more engagement, and so on.

Here are a few ways to accelerate that cycle:

· Community Management:Posting content without responding to feedback is a huge missed opportunity for growth. Responding to comments on a post can move it up in the feed and get more people to see it. Every time you reply, like, or otherwise interact with a comment, you’re reaching a new audience.

· Attract shares and replies:Take the idea of community management a step further and create posts that are easy to discuss. Ask questions (“What are your favorite crypto memes?”), create curated lists (“10 must-have resources for zero-knowledge proofs”), and ask for opinions (“How would you explain web3 to someone who’s new to crypto?”).

· Maintain a consistent voice:This is why founders create personal accounts that don’t exactly mirror the company account in tone and subject matter. Making them distinct gives people a reason to follow both the founder and company accounts.

· Cross-platform promotion:The idea here is to leverage an audience on one platform (like Discord) and get them to follow an account on another platform (like a newsletter). Simple.

· Avoid links as much as possible:Because social platforms want to keep their audience on the platform, their algorithms tend to deprioritize posts that contain external links. One way to circumvent this is to post a screenshot of the content you want to share. “Link in profile” is another common circumvention.

· Don’t rely on AI:One of the biggest mistakes we see (on social media) is people completely outsourcing their social presence to AI. Accounts powered by AI lose so much context and personality. To many people, it’s obvious that the account is not run by a human — which can lead to mistrust, lack of engagement, and overall awkwardness.

The bottom line? Be helpful, focus on your niche, and (especially in the beginning) limit yourself to two platforms. You’ll grow your audience over time.

Social media can feel like a side hustle for multi-tasking founders. The good news is that starting small is not only good for time management, but also for growth. With some real prioritization, even small teams can build a feed that people want to follow, and maybe even have a little fun.

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