Creating the perfect social media strategy is a lot like creating a sales funnel. It’s a series of steps that leads you to your goal. It’s a roadmap you can follow to be successful on social media. A comprehensive social media marketing strategy is vital to the success of your business. A well-thought-out approach allows you to measure your progress, track key performance indicators and reach an audience that’s interested in what you have to offer.
In this article, we’re going to walk you through a step-by-step process that will guide you through creating a winning social media strategy.
○ Step 1 – Choose social media marketing goals that align to business objectives
○ Step 2 – Learn everything you can about your audience
○ Step 3 – Know your competition
○ Step 4 – Choose the right social media platforms to reach your audience
○ Step 5 – Do a social media audit
○ Step 6 – Set up accounts and improve profiles
○ Step 7 – Find inspiration
○ Step 8 – Decide on the best time for posting content on social channels
○ Step 9 – Create a social media content calendar
○ Step 10 – Create compelling content
○ Step 11 – Track performance and adjust your social media strategy accordingly
Social media marketing is the process of creating content and distributing it on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Social media marketing can be done by individuals or businesses.
It is an effective tool that has been used for several years now by businesses to help them reach their target audience. Social media marketing can be used for branding, attracting customers, boosting sales and increasing brand awareness.
○ Before you set up your first post, consider the following questions:
Business objectives determine the overall goal of your social media strategy and what will be accomplished with it. When you have a clear idea of your business objectives, it is easier to develop a social media marketing strategy that aligns with them and meets your needs.
○ It’s easy to assume that everyone who uses social media is the same, but that’s not the case. You need to know what they want and how they want to receive it before you can build a successful strategy around them. Research your audience on social media platforms and study the data they are sharing and commenting on. Identify their interests, likes and dislikes, personality traits, purchasing habits, and more. Understand their current needs, wants, and concerns. Identify who they are as a person across all platforms they use. Make a list of the questions you have about your target audience. This will help you to get to know them better and build trust. You can use tools such as Google Analytics or SessionCam to learn more about their behavior on your website or in the app.
○ You can do this by asking questions or by conducting an online search for related information. When you’ve done that, it’s time to look at the kind of content they’re producing and how well it’s performing on social media channels. For example, if one of your competitors is using a lot of images in their posts, it’s likely that they’re using image-based content more often than text-based content.
○ Social media marketing is as much about choosing the right platforms as it is about choosing the right content. Pick the right social media platform that your audience will find appealing and relevant to them. If you’re not sure where to start, here are some of the most popular social media sites:
Facebook: One of the most popular social networks, with over 1 billion active users each month. It’s a great place to share photos and videos of your work, as well as share updates about your business.
Twitter: A social network where you can post short tweets or longer updates about what you’re doing or what’s happening in your industry. You can also follow other people’s tweets and reply to them directly.
Instagram: A mobile app that lets users capture and share photos with friends (and potentially strangers). Instagram is an ideal platform for businesses who want to show off their products and services.
Pinterest: An online pinboard site where users can collect content related to anything they like — from recipes to fashion trends and more! That means it’s a great place for businesses who want to showcase their wares or offer tutorials on how they do things better than anyone else does them.
LinkedIn: A professional networking site where you can connect with old friends
○ The best way to ensure your social media marketing strategy is working is by doing a social media audit. The first step is to do a quick audit of your existing social media accounts and then set up a plan for them. You need to be aware that some platforms are more useful than others, so it’s important to choose those that will help you reach your audience. A good place to start is by checking out which platforms have the most followers and being active on them regularly. This will give you an idea of where you should focus your efforts and how much time they’ll take up without being too time-consuming.
○ Set up accounts on the platforms you have chosen. You can also consider setting up an email newsletter and website. To improve your profiles on each of the sites you have chosen, you can use many different tactics.
For example:
Add pictures of your team members. This will help you show off your team’s personalities, which can help people get to know more about you and your company. Add videos that show off how your company works or what it does (such as how you make products).
○ There are a lot of ways to find inspiration. You could look at how other brands are using social media. You could look at what other brands in your industry are doing on social media or you could look at what they’re not doing on social media and see if you can figure out why.
You can also go to your competitors’ websites and read through their marketing strategies, which will give you some ideas about how to approach your own marketing strategy. If a competitor uses a certain hashtag or does something that seems like it’d be interesting for your brand, use that as inspiration for creating content for your own social media pages. Another way is to think about the people you want to target, the audience that you want to reach, and what kind of content they like. You can start writing down or sharing some of your own ideas with others in your industry or community. You might have a story or idea that’s unique and could be useful for businesses that are just starting out on social media marketing.
○ The best time to post content on social media is when people are engaging with it most frequently – when they are online, actively searching for information, or sharing something interesting. You have to make sure that you don’t miss out on any potential opportunities by not posting at the right time or place.
○ Your calendar should include the dates and times that you will be publishing new content on each social network. Create a master list of your top posts and share them across your channels so that you can focus on creating new content, not just reposting old material. Once you have created your content calendar, make sure to regularly update it so that it stays fresh and relevant.
You can’t just create content and hope it goes viral. You have to create compelling content. Content marketing is all about creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and interesting information that your target audience will find interesting, valuable and helpful. You can blog, do video, or even create a podcast. The most important thing is that you find the right medium for your business. Keeping up with current events and trends in your industry is also a great way to connect with your customers, who might be interested in topics you don’t cover
regularly.
You can’t just throw money at social media without knowing how it’s working. You need to know what kind of return you’re getting on your investment. The first thing you need to do is decide how much time and money you want to spend on social media marketing. By tracking these results over time, you’ll be able to see which posts are getting the most traction, and whether they’re bringing in the right kind of traffic. If a particular post isn’t bringing in the visitors it needs to, it might be time for a change — or even a complete revamp of the post itself.
As social media marketing becomes a staple in many businesses and organizations, the need for more information, guidance and education increases. The reality is that too many companies are going in blind about how social sharing occurs and what it really takes to create a successful online strategy.
The value of a social media marketing strategy lies in its promise to maximize your return on investment with minimal time and effort. That’s why, before you even begin to execute your plan, it’s essential to have a solid strategy in place to guide all of your efforts. Think of it as the
foundation of your platform—if you build your house on shaky ground, you’re going to have some problems along the way. Building a strategy that encompasses all facets of your online presence will help your company begin to reap the benefits of social networking.