“Gen Z” arose with the spread of social media, and from a young age it was able to create a wide network of friends and followers, and it became easy for university students and young entrepreneurs to market their projects very quickly thanks to the ready customer base and the marketing platform available at their hands.
In a report published by the American channel CNBC, writer Liana Wells says that social media platforms realize this potential and publish marketing and business development tools.
For example, Pinterest and Facebook were among the first platforms to launch shopping features, followed by Instagram a few years later, which gave startups the opportunity to reach millions of users around the world, and some of them became giants.
3 billion users on Facebook per month, one billion users on Tik Tok and Instagram, and “Pinterest” has 444 million users, and this huge number of users gives any new project great opportunities for success.
Extensive market and new tools
Last August, the TikTok platform announced a partnership with Shopify, with the aim of enabling Shopify users who have a business account on TikTok to add the shopping tab to their personal accounts. The star, Kylie Jenner, was one of the first users to try the new feature on Tik Tok, and she used it to market “Kylie Cosmetics” beauty products to her 37 million followers on the platform.
According to the writer, any ambitious university student can take advantage of these marketing advantages to resurrect his own legitimacy, if he has a large base of friends on social media platforms, because this will dispense with the costs of doing a marketing plan or spending a lot of money on ads.
There are 3 billion users on Facebook per month, one billion users on Tik Tok and Instagram, and “Pinterest” has 444 million users, and this huge number of users gives any new project great opportunities for success.
Instagram currently has more than 200 million business accounts, and 40% of its users in one survey say they use features like shopping tabs and tabs to make purchases each week.
good financial income
During the Corona pandemic, Kerissa Mason, a student at Baruch College in New York City, launched a project to sell artwork on demand on Instagram, where she posts short videos to showcase her work and receives many requests on the platform.
“Instagram has enabled me to share my artwork with friends and the general public using algorithms in order to reach as many followers as possible,” says Mason.
Instagram has more than 200 million merchant accounts, and 40% of its users say they use features like shopping tabs and tabs to make purchases each week.
Alexis Laritegui, a recent graduate of Sunny Plattsburgh College in New York, launched her skincare products project on Instagram. A few years ago, Lartegui discovered just how harmful some products could be to her skin, so she worked to develop organic products. In the college, I noticed the difficulties students face in purchasing these products, so Laritege worked to provide good products at reasonable prices.
The writer adds that social media platforms help followers and other companies discover these innovators and their products. Instagram has recently introduced new tools to support content creators and brands with the aim of better reaching followers and enhancing collaboration with other brands.
Among these new features, choosing the best creators to participate in brand campaigns using unique filters, collaborating with other brands can help small business owners reach more followers and introduce their brands and products, 87% of respondents in a survey said They made the decision to follow a brand or make an online purchase after seeing information about the product on Instagram.
Mason earns about $45 apiece, and considers her project a good side business, which she is considering continuing after she graduates. Laritege believes her business, which earns about $300 a month, will still be extra work, but she wants to see it develop and collaborate with other companies.
Are you interested in starting your own business?
“We have to take initiative and learn because we are in a generation that can easily access anything,” says Chantal Richardson, who runs a consulting firm that uses multiple social platforms.
“University is the perfect place to think creatively and come up with new and unusual ideas, and the time to be ambitious, because you have nothing to lose,” says Mukund Iyengar, a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology who runs a number of training programs to help students start their own businesses.
Suggested value
Melinda Emerson, a marketing consultant and expert on small business entrepreneurship, stresses that the most important step to starting a business is to have what’s called a value proposition. “Your business should have an advantage that your competitors cannot easily copy. Try to find something unique to make your customers feel special and create an amazing customer experience,” she adds.
Good search on the net
It is important to search YouTube for videos to develop your knowledge and skills in the field you choose to work in, see what others are doing, learn about available products, marketing methods and the best platforms to use, says Laritege.
Attending a Class in Entrepreneurship
Mason believes that attending a business startup class will provide the student with the necessary knowledge needed to run a business. “If you have a business idea, it would be a good idea to support it with an academic aspect to achieve maximum success,” she says.
Product development through feedback
Emerson believes that there are influencing factors that make people choose to buy a specific product, which is what you should pay attention to from the opinions and comments on the communication sites, and she explains, “When you present your product for the first time, people may not like it, so you must change it and present it again. You have to monitor the opinions of consumers, And social media is an easy way to do that.”
Choose one platform at first
Mike Alton, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse, which specializes in account management tools on social media, believes that it is best for startups to choose one marketing platform initially and focus on it until the desired reach is achieved. other platforms.
Looking for a guide
Alton thinks it’s important to talk to an expert before launching the project, and says that experts “don’t know everything, so you have to choose the right person who will give you their time and experience, and try to make the most of it.”