Social Media Guidelines: Engaging the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Building your community

Being active on social media not only promotes your brand message, but also builds an active community of existing and potential customers.

Engaging with Rev along the way will improve the region’s entrepreneurial network as well as amplify the reach and impact of your message.

Tips for Engaging With Your  Community

Engage with your community – Social media is meant to start a conversation. Engaging with your social media community will create an open space of dialogue to garner customer feedback, such as responding to comments, starting discussions, and sharing customers’ experiences.

Tone of voice – Decide if you want your tone to be casual or professional. Remain consistent.

Cross-promotion – Invite people to follow you on multiple platforms. For example, post your Instagram photos on Facebook with your Instagram handle, and invite people to follow you. Also, include social media icons linking to your accounts on your website and any e-newsletters.

Hashtags – Utilizing hashtags on Twitter and Instagram facilitates discovery among users. Hashtags allow followers to organically find your brand and follow it.

How to Engage with Rev Along the Way

Members should maintain connections with local and regional partners and influencers. Members should be the “lead story” on social media, but ensure that Rev remains a common thread.

Engage with Rev on the following platforms:

Twitter: @RevIthaca

Facebook: Rev: Ithaca Startup Works

Location tagging

Another way to celebrate the unique entrepreneurial ecosystem that is supported by Rev. When you are at Rev, or at your office, you can tag the location in your social media posts.

Hashtags

• #revithaca – This hashtag will create an aggregation of the posts that use that hashtag.
• #twithaca – This hashtag is used within the Ithaca community to promote local events and disseminate news. Since the start of #Twithaca, it has gone viral and has turned into a way for the community to share town and college events. Utilizing this hashtag will increase impressions and engagement.
• _____________________________________________________________________________
• This is Part 1 of a two-part social media guideline series about promoting your brand to achieve your goals, while also involving the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. See Part 2 here. Guidelines were created by Isabel Balla and Kristi Krulcik from the Rev: Ithaca Startup Works marketing team.