ACS has three innovation labs in Australia – Harbour City Labs in Sydney, River City Labs in Brisbane, and Bay City Labs in Melbourne.

‘A Look in the Labs’ is an Information Age series profiling the high-growth startups based in our labs – what they do, their ambitions, and the advantages they’ve gained being based at the ACS Innovation Labs.

This week, we speak with Tim Hill, Co-founder and CEO of Social Status.

Business Social Status

Established 2013

Based at River City Labs, Brisbane

Online at Website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube

What does your business do and how does it help your customers?
Social Status is a social media reporting and analytics tool for marketers and agencies. Reporting on social media performance is one of the biggest pain points facing marketers, especially as more social channels emerge and more media types are launched.

Social Status automates paid and organic social reporting including competitor analysis and influencer tracking into boardroom-ready formats like PDF, PowerPoint and Google Slides. Users can also see up-to-the-minute social analytics in a live dashboard and export data to CSV - particularly useful for campaigns.

How did the idea for your business come about?
Prior to Social Status I worked in advertising and digital agencies as a Social Media Strategist so I experienced the pain point first-hand of creating social media reports.

The initial intention for Social Status was to help me do my job more efficiently and automate tedious and time-consuming aspects. But it was clear I was not alone and this pain point is experienced by the 20 million marketers worldwide who need to report to clients or stakeholders.

What has been the biggest challenge and the biggest milestone for your business so far
The biggest challenge is reaching the potential market. It is a big, global market and whilst there are a lot of social media tools out there, Social Status is specifically a social reporting and analytics tool so as a specialist tool it requires a different comms and outreach approach. This year we crossed over 10,000 users and we serve marketers in over 100 countries - this is a great milestone and we're so proud of what our small team has achieved so far.

Where would you like your business to be in two years?
Two years will see our growth increase as we reach more marketers who need social media reporting. Ad spend continues to increase on social media so there will always be a need for more robust and advanced reporting options.

Facebook has built a really strong content management tool called Creator Studio for Facebook and Instagram. Since it's launch a lot of social marketers are reverting back to scheduling and managing social content "on channel" but the massive functional gap is around reporting. What Facebook hasn't done is built out robust reporting, instead surfacing up just basic metrics and this is where Social Status is best placed to continue to grow.

What is the best business or life advice you’ve ever been given?
I would say get enough sleep and put aside an hour every day for physical activity. So much advice for founders is around business and the startup journey which is fine but ultimately most founders need to chart their own path as each business journey is really unique. A lot of business advice just doesn't apply in most cases.

I think the kind of advice relevant for every founder is the simple stuff that we all know but most of us don't prioritise. Getting regular, sufficient hours of sleep per night is so important. I believe that in tech, people are generally sleep deprived. This leads to all sorts of issues and degraded physical & mental wellbeing. I also think we're all too sedentary and we all need to prioritise at least an hour of physical activity every day.

What made you decide to move into the ACS Innovation Labs and how has it assisted your business?
I moved into River City Labs to be close to other founders. In Brisbane, there's no better place to be and I would strongly recommend any founder at any stage of their business to do the same. RCL have a fantastic community and run events for founders regularly. It's this community and sense of shared experience that's so valuable at RCL.

Was being an entrepreneur always one of your life’s goals and what have you learned about being an entrepreneur?
No, I didn't ever expect or dream to be a tech founder. For me I kind of fell into it based on my experience in my career and the opportunity in market. What I've learnt is that you need to accept that the journey is full of constant ups and downs. You have to be ok with the emotional rollercoaster of wins, losses, challenges and failures on a daily basis. That is the only constant. It's pretty unique to the startup journey and it's amplified for founders given how invested you are in your company's success. Just accept the ride and roll with the punches, you'll be fine.

For more information on the ACS Innovation Labs, visit the websites of Harbour City Labs in Sydney, River City Labs in Brisbane, and Bay City Labs in Melbourne. If you're interested in joining successful Australian businesses in the ACS Innovation Labs, email scale@acs.org.au