WHAT IS A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY?
A good social media marketing strategy is the key to success. It is not as straightforward as hoping to gain 10k new followers within 6 months by planning what and when to post. A strategy is an actionable plan, driven by insights to achieve your goals. A successful strategy is underpinned by a solid understanding of your target audience, your unique selling points (USPs), and your goals.
WHY DO YOU NEED ONE?
A social media strategy is important because deciding your goals helps you to create a step-by-step guide on how to achieve them. So, it is important to first understand what you are trying to achieve, as this will define your strategy. Whatever your aim is, you need to outline it in the document. This way you can identify if you have been successful or not at the end of the year.
Your goal could be:
- To grow your followers
- To increase brand awareness
- To boost community engagement
- To increase sales or revenue
- To drive traffic to your website
Every decision you make will be guided by this strategy. This helps you to stay focused and only make moves that will help you work towards your main goal.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY?
A concrete strategy is built by analysing and examining your product, goals, and audience. It uses existing data and real-life insights into your audience and industry. A strategy should outline your objectives, the tactics you will use to achieve them, and the metrics you will use to measure your performance. If you are on multiple platforms, you should have each outlined in the strategy.
CLEARLY DEFINED GOALS
Firstly, decide what it is you want to achieve and clearly define this by using SMART goals.
Specific – Be clear about what you want to accomplish.
Measurable – What metrics will you use to measure your success?
Attainable – Before you set this goal, consider if it is reasonable for you to achieve it.
Relevant – Will accomplishing this goal help with the success of your overall business goals?
Time-Bound – When will you achieve this goal? Set a reasonable timeline.
KNOWING YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Understanding your target audience and where they can be found is essential for success. Use your historical data and external resources to build key insights you can use to target this audience. Draw upon your buyer personas to have a clear picture in your head of who these people are and what they are interested in.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
How do you compare to your competitors? What can you do that they are not? A competitor analysis determines who your competitors are and what they are doing. This is a useful way to identify any gaps in the market where you can do something different. Consider the platforms they are dominant on in addition to the content they are posting.
ACCOUNT AUDIT
It is also important to look inward and analyse your resources and performance. Knowing and utilizing your USPs is essential to make you stand out from the crowd. Be sure that you have a clear list of these and how you can highlight the benefit they bring to your customers.
This involves examining what is and isn’t working for you currently:
- What content is working well?
- Who is engaging with you?
- What are they responding to?
- Which platforms are your audience on?
CONTENT PLAN
Now that you have done the research and know what you want to achieve, you must consider tactics and how to implement your strategy.
Create a content plan for each platform – what will you use each social network for? Twitter is popular for customer service and replying to customer queries, whereas Instagram can be a great place to share tutorials, behind-the-scenes content, and use interactive story features. Plan your content accordingly and consider using specific times and days to post.
CHALLENGES
Whether it is a lack of time to plan or implement the strategy, time management can be a pain point for many marketing teams. Between the many tasks marketers have to look after, it is no surprise we run short on time. If you feel you don’t have the time to plan and execute your strategy, perhaps a social media agency is the route you need to go down.
Other common challenges people run into when creating a social media marketing strategy:
- Not knowing where to find the data
- Not being familiar with the best tools to use
- Not understanding your audience
- Not knowing how to utilize the data you have to find useful insights
HOW WE CAN HELP
We provide social media marketing services to those who struggle with any or all elements of this. We create and implement effective social media strategies based on your goals. This is done by carrying out an audit of your social media accounts, target audience, competitors, and content. We cater to each client’s specific needs, whether it is strategy and training you need help with or a social media manager.
