social-networking, pre-launchWe are currently in the ‘coming soon page’ phase of our startup Craft (www.itsoncraft.com). We have gathered 1000+ leads and people are starting to follow us on our social media channels.
How active is required to be on social media in this phase? It seems people aren’t expecting high activity, therefore we should be alright doing an occasional update when it makes sense, and not routinely tweet, for example four times a day.
What are your experiences with this?
Give your leads “freebies” regularly, and post about yourself each time you reach a major milestone in your progress.
For example, I make YouTube videos, and I’m a registered partner with a company named Fullscreen that represents a lot of YouTube creators. The network tweets daily about new YouTube features, other things related to online video, and (occasionally) big accomplishments of the video creators that it represents (like someone getting cast in a movie or TV show). A few times a month, they tweet about a new program of theirs, a new deal they’re offering, or something similar.
You can do the same at this point. Give your leads useful information about the industry. Be generous. Position your company as an industry expert. And 1-2 times a month, when you’ve taken another step towards launching, post about that step on your social media platforms.
Keep your audience interested and expectant without going as far as annoying them with too many updates. Once or twice per month is about as much as you can send before your list starts ignoring you or reading you as an afterthought.
That said, your subscribers are more interested in what you’re up to when they initially sign up. Set up an auto-responder to that effect. Issue a half-dozen emails and highlight the benefits of what you’ll deliver. Also set up a TweetDrip.
Then, keep your subscribers updated once or twice per month on your progress, depending on how much you have to say. No more, else you’ll ultimately get ignored as noise emails with unsubscriptions down the road. You can do a bit more on Twitter, or for that matter Facebook, but be wary of not giving the impression you’re whoring for attention – it’s a big turn-off.
A few months before launch time, look into recruiting affiliates if that can apply to you. And touch base with any/all journalists that may be following your topic for a PR push on D-day.
Come launch-time, email your list a few times in the prior two weeks to build sales momentum. Rehash the benefits and your sales arguments in these emails. Blast a “don’t forget!” email the day before, and a “we’re live!” email on launch after you issue the requisite press release and notify with journalists who found your project interesting.
Lastly, throw in another “last call!” email announcing the end of your launch special shortly before it ends. (You extended a special offer to early adopters when launching, right?)
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