A social media strategy is a summary of everything you plan to do and would like to achieve on social media. It guides your actions and lets you realize whether you're succeeding or failing.
The more specific your plan is, the more effective it will be. Keep it concise. Don't make it so lofty and broad that it's unattainable or impossible to measure.
In this post, we'll walk you through an eight-step plan to create a triumphant social media marketing strategy of your own.
Instructions to create a social media strategy
Step 1. Choose social media marketing goals that align with business objectives
Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
The first step to creating a triumphant strategy is to establish your objectives and goals. Without goals, you have no real way to measure success and return on investment (ROI).
Each of your goals should be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
This is the S.M.A.R.T. goal framework. It will control your actions and ensure they lead to real business results.
(Source: Know A Few Things While Planning Social Media Strategy)
Track meaningful metrics
Vanity metrics like a number of followers and likes are easy to track, but it's hard to prove their real value. Instead, focus on things like engagement, navigation, and conversion rates.
For inspiration, take a glance at these 19 essential social media metrics. You may want to track different goals for different networks, or even different uses for each network.
For example, on the off chance that you use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website, you would measure click-throughs. On the off chance that Instagram is for brand awareness, you might track the number of Instagram Story views. And on the off chance that you advertise on Facebook, cost-per-click (CPC) is a common success metric.
(Read More: Take a Look at Top Social Media Marketing News & Updates)
Social media goals should align with your overall marketing objectives. This makes it easier to show the value of your work and secure purchase from your boss. Start building up your social media marketing plan by writing down at least three goals for social media.
Step 2. Learn everything you can about your audience
Create audience personas
Knowing who your audience is and what they want to see on social media is critical. That way you can create content that they will like, comment on, and share. It's also critical on the off chance that you want to turn social media followers into customers for your business.
With regards to your target customer, you should realize things like:
- Age
- Location
- average income
- Typical occupation title or industry
- Interests
Here are a simple guide and template for creating audience/buyer personas. Get to know your fans, followers, and customers as real individuals with real wants and needs, and you will realize how to target and engage them on social media.
Gather data
Don't make assumptions. Think Facebook is a better network for reaching Baby Boomers than Millennials? Indeed, the numbers show that Millennials still outnumber Boomers on the platform.
Social media analytics can also provide a ton of valuable information about who your followers are, where they live, and how they interact with your brand on social media. These insights allow you to refine your strategy and better target your audience.
(Read Also: Social Media: Is It Free Or Is It Selling You As A Product?)
Jugnoo, a Uber-like service for auto-rickshaws in India, used Facebook Analytics to learn that 90% of their users who referred other customers were between 18-and 34-years-old, and 65% of that group was using Android. They used that information to target their ads, resulting in a 40% lower cost per referral.
Step 3. Know your competition
Odds are your competitors are already using social media, and that means you can learn from what they're doing.
Conduct a competitive analysis
A competitive analysis allows you to understand who the competition is and what they're progressing admirably (and not so well). You'll get a decent sense of what's expected in your industry, which will help you set social media targets of your own.
It will also help you spot opportunities.
Maybe one of your competitors is dominant on Facebook, for example, but has put little effort into Twitter or Instagram. You might want to focus on the networks where your audience is underserved, rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player.
Use social media listening
Social listening is another way to watch out for your competitors. Do searches of the competition's company name, account handles, and other relevant keywords on social media. Discover what they're sharing and what other individuals are saying about them.
(Read Also: Some Common Mistakes That Most Social Media Marketers Do)
As you track, you may notice shifts in the way channels are used. Or, you might spot a specific post or campaign that really hits the mark—or totally bombs. Use this sort of intel to inform your own social media marketing strategy.
Step 4. Do a social media audit
In case you're already using social media, take stock of your efforts so far. Ask yourself the accompanying questions:
- What's working, and what's not?
- Who is engaging with you?
- Which networks does your target audience use?
- How does your social media presence compare to the competition?
When you collect that information, you'll be ready to start thinking about ways to improve. We've created an easy-to-follow social media audit guide and template to walk you through each step of this process.
Your audit should give you a clear picture of what purpose each of your social accounts serves. On the off chance that the purpose of an account isn't clear, think about whether it's worth keeping.
To help you choose, ask yourself the accompanying questions:
- Is my audience here?
- Assuming this is the case, how are they using this platform?
- Can I use this account to help achieve my goals?
- Asking these tough questions will keep your strategy focused.
Search for impostor accounts
During the audit, you may discover fake accounts using your business name or the names of your products. These imposters can be harmful to your brand—never mind capturing followers that should be yours.
Step 5. Set up accounts and improve profiles
Choose which networks to use
As you choose which social networks to use, you will also have to characterize your strategy for each. Benefit Cosmetics' social media manager, Angela Purcaro, told eMarketer: "For our makeup tutorials … we're all about Snapchat and Instagram Stories. Twitter, then again, is designated for customer service."
(Read Also: The Importance of Social Media Management)
For reference, here are the means by which other small and medium-sized businesses are using social tools to communicate with customers. Notice that Facebook and Instagram outrank even email for this purpose.
One more: "We will use LinkedIn for promoting and sharing our company culture to assist with recruitment and employee advocacy."
On the off chance that you can't create a solid mission statement for a particular channel, you may want to ask yourself if it's worth it.
Set up your profiles
Whenever you've chosen which networks to focus on, it's time to create your profiles. Or improve existing ones so they align with your strategy.
- Make sure you round out all profile fields
- Incorporate keywords individuals would use to search for your business
- Use consistent branding (logos, images, etc.) across networks so your profiles are easily recognizable
We've also got step-by-step guides for each network to walk you through the process:
- Create a Facebook business page
- Create an Instagram business account
- Create a Twitter business account
- Create a Snapchat account
- Create a LinkedIn Company Page
- Create a Pinterest business account
- Create a YouTube channel
Don't let this list overwhelm you. Remember, it's better to use fewer channels well than to stretch yourself thin trying to maintain a presence on every network.
Step 6. Discover inspiration
While it's important that your brand be interesting, you can still draw inspiration from other businesses that are great on social.
Social media success stories
You can usually locate these on the business section of the social network's website. (Here's Facebook's, for example.) Case studies can offer valuable insights that you can apply to your own social media plan.
Award-winning accounts and campaigns
You could also look at the winners of The Facebook Awards or The Shorty Awards for examples of brands that are at the top of their social media game. For learning and a laugh, look at Fridge-Worthy, Hootsuite's every other week awards show highlighting brands doing smart and clever things on social media.
Your favorite brands on social media
Who do you appreciate following on social media? What do they do that compels individuals to engage and share their content?
National Geographic, for example, is truly outstanding on Instagram, combining stunning visuals with compelling captions. Then there's Shopify. The eCommerce brand uses Facebook to sell itself by showcasing customer stories and case studies.
And Glossier is a great example of superior customer service on Twitter. They use their 280 characters to answer questions and solve problems—fast.
Notice that each of these accounts has a consistent voice, tone, and style. That's a vital aspect for letting individuals realize what to expect from your feed. That is, the reason should they follow you? What's in it for them?
Consistency also helps keep your content on-brand regardless of whether you have multiple individuals on your social media team.
Ask your followers
Consumers can also offer social media inspiration. What are your target customers talking about on the web? What can you learn about their wants and needs?
On the off chance that you have existing social channels, you could also ask your followers what they want from you. Just make sure that you finish and deliver what they ask for.
Step 7. Create a social media content calendar
Sharing great content is essential, of course, but it's equally important to have a plan in place for when you'll share content to get the maximum impact. Your social media content calendar also needs to account for the time you spend interacting with the audience (although you need to allow for some spontaneous engagement as well).
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