Social Work

With social media networks growing by leaps and bounds, it’s no surprise that some entrepreneurs are using the various platforms not just to promote their businesses online—but also to start their companies there.

Social Spin, a San Clemente, California-based social media marketing company, started when “Bradley Will, a 25-year-old social-media coach from Chicago, sent a Facebook message to Russell Yermal, a 23-year-old Texan involved in the same thing," according to the Orange County Register. "I think you do great work, let's talk," Will said.

Through Will and Yermal’s friends, two more people joined the business, meeting face-to-face for the first time on New Year’s 2010. As the company grew to eight employees, the partners decided that being in the same place would work best for their startup, which offers social-media training tools and free blogs for businesses. So off they moved to San Clemente, and of course, in the social media world, their story wouldn’t be complete without cameras rolling to document their every move. Their show ‘Unstrapp’d’ airs on YouTube.

Social Spin isn’t the first company to have started via Facebook. Brooklyn Boulders founded by then-25-year-olds Steven Spaeth, Lance Pinn, and Jeremy Balboni, decided to start their climbing gym when they kept seeing multiple posts about the dearth of such spaces in the New York borough. They created a Facebook page, got some friends to volunteer help them build the 18,000 square-foot gym and didn’t spend a dime on marketing, letting their Facebook page and word-of-mouth do the job.

While these two companies found success with—and through—friends, starting a business on Facebook takes consideration. Boston-based social media consultant Patrick O’Malley suggests following these four steps:

• Create a Facebook fan page which includes your company’s basic information, how to contact you, and your brand message (easily posted to the company page’s wall).
• Solicit friends, family, and current customers to build your fan base. They’re already your biggest fans. Ask them to share the page, and suggest it to their friends, and all of the sudden, you’ve got a following.
• Encourage more Facebook users to become fans. Offer users something unique that will establish you as a trusted source and add to your fan-base.
• Create content that will draw attention to your fan page. There are millions of pages out there. Yours has to stand out, and just using the page as a mouthpiece for your company doesn’t work. Users see right through it. So offer thoughts about the industry as a whole, share insights into what makes you tick, talk about inspiration, and listen. The more you interact with your customers, they happier they will be and the more likely they will be to tell a friend about your business.