Social media marketing can be tough. But some folks have it easier than others.

That might be because they have a product ideally suited for a glossy Instagram grid or a tone of voice that’s a winning match for Twitter. Or it might just be that they already have a large, engaged user base.

I’m not saying that the folks at Nike have it easy by any means. Getting Ronaldo to sign off on an Instagram post might be a right pain. But they don’t have to worry about building an audience from scratch. Even if they were joining social for the first time, they have enough cultural reach to get a healthy follower base quickly.

I’ve been in that privileged position throughout my career. When I joined both Spotify and Monzo, they already had social channels and a good dollop of brand awareness. Maybe not as much awareness as they do today, but hey — I’ve got to take credit for something!

But it means I’ve never had to take on the challenge of building a social presence from absolute zero. No channels and maybe even no users. So, where do you start?

Do you absolutely need to be on social media?

This flies in the face of every time I’ve said, “every business should be on social media”. But frankly, it might not be true!

If you have literally zero customers and no brand awareness, consider whether social media is suitable for you at all. If you’re pre-launch, you might be best off focussing on product-market fit or doing some other job in what is likely still a small team.

Yes, social media is great for building hype. And once you’re confident you’ve got something worth taking to market, use social to drive interest. I follow plenty of accounts for things that don’t exist yet, and may never do. That’s the entire premise of every Kickstarter, after all.

But social for the sake of ‘being on social’? It’s questionable.

Pick your social channels carefully.

Rule one: don’t spread yourself too thin. You might have absolutely killer ideas for Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin, AND TikTok but be honest with yourself — are you going to have the time?

Content creation is a full-time job. And our industry is moving away from a one-size-fits-all Social Media Manager role to specific channel owners.

If you’re still in start-up mode, you’ve probably got a lot else going on too. Believe me; you won’t have time to film those sick YouTube ideas when you’re busy building desks and packing shipments to customers.

My advice? Pick one channel and dedicate your efforts to it. If it blows up, great! Down the line, you can use it to drive people to your other channels too.

You won’t get followers overnight.

To be clear, never buy followers. It’s the worst deal on the planet.

Bought followers are worthless. If you want to drive up your follower vanity metric, fine. But bought followers aren’t your friends. They won’t engage with your content, they won’t share it, and they won’t do anything to improve your channel’s health. Just don’t do it.

I get where the urge comes from, though. I tweeted for years on my personal Twitter to a follower count that plateaued at around 450. I have about ten times that now, which I’m happy with — but it took over a decade of consistent posting and the odd viral hit.

Follower growth is slow, especially when you’re new. And especially when the channels are as congested as they are now.

The exception is TikTok. The great thing about TikTok is that your follower count doesn’t matter! Sure, having more followers helps grow your views over time. But it’s well understood that TikTok mostly shows your content to non-followers via the default For You page. This means you can go viral with 0 users.

So if you want a shortcut to getting lots of attention, try TikTok. Just make sure the content showcases what you’re about as well as possible.

The tactics that work for big accounts won’t work for you.

When you start off, you have to ignore a lot of advice aimed at big accounts. I, for instance, rave about certain social media formats like conversation starters and witty copy-only tweets.

These will only work if you have followers. Don’t bother with conversation starters; nobody will reply if you have nobody following you. Likewise, nobody is going to see your tweets, no matter how funny they are.

Instead, get creative. Find a way to stand out. Be visible in the replies of bigger accounts. Create content that looks out of place or wrong in the feed. Surreal, a start-up cereal company, are the king of this. And they’re dominating LinkedIn as a result.

So you have to throw the rule book out and forge your own path. It sounds scary, but it’s quite the opportunity. I had the fun job of growing the @MakingMonzo Twitter account, for example, which we did with a strategy of radical transparency — literally showing the folks at Monzo at work.

Don’t be afraid of a bit of paid.

Last but not least, you can always spend some money. As much as I believe in the power of organic marketing when you’re starting out, you can’t beat the power of paid.

To be clear, I don’t mean spending money on silly things. Again, don’t buy followers. And beware of any agencies that can promise huge results. Don’t buy shiny tools that you don’t need. Put your money to work in smart ways instead.

That could mean promoting some tweets on Twitter or running an awareness campaign on Facebook. Boost your best content to people you think might be interested in seeing it. This can ultimately evolve into a whole Paid strategy (which you’ll need someday). But at the start, paying a bit to get noticed can do some good.

And that’s all my advice! I hope it helps.