Creating a social media marketing strategy isn’t painful. All you need to do is follow the steps that I am about to discuss in the following paras.
Social media strategy is a plan that you create so that you follow it ardently and fulfil your aim – generate leads, increase ROI, and get more audience.
This plan becomes your guiding light and tells you if you are succeeding or failing. The social media marketing strategy acts as a cushion. In case you feel lost in the middle of path and are unable to understand what to do when stuck, the plan comes in. You can anytime go back and make changes, try those, and continue the process.
So, this plan is the support, action-guiding force, and the entire summary of what you will do with your products, services on different social media platforms.
While you make a plan, keep the following points in mind:
- Keep it for specific audience
- Keep it clear and concise
- Use bullet points
What Is Social Media Marketing Strategy?
A plan or a document dedicated to the use of social media is defined as social media marketing strategy. Whereas social media marketing is the art of using social media channels to sell, promote a brand or a service.
The document outlines the social media goals, the tactics, the metrics you will track to measure the progress.
It is now extensively used by businesses of all niches around the globe because of the innumerable benefits it provides, such as bringing brand to notice, creating product or service awareness, building likewise communities, selling, understanding the customer behaviour online, advertising, and a lot more. You can read the blog to know more about the social media marketing. the ultimate guide to social media marketing
Things your social media strategy must contain:
- Existing and planned social media accounts.
- Goals specific to each platform you will be using.
- Type of content to be used.
- Time, and date to post the content.
- The budget to be used for social media ads.
- Defining roles and responsibilities with the social media team and outline your reporting cadence.
Having all of these points in the social media marketing strategy is important because the plan is your support. Any time you feel confused along the path you can see the plan and carry on with the work. Now let us see the social media marketing strategy.
Let’s dive in:
Research and Set Goals
The very first step is to conduct in-depth research. It should include knowing the competitors, their tactics, the trending content on social media platforms, etc. Based on the research, set your goals. These goals must not be unrealistic in nature.
For instance, if you are a start-up and new to social media, you would not want to compete with your competitors. All you would want is to create the online presence and attract the target audience. But if you are already a business on-the-go, you would want to see what more your customers want, what are your competitors doing, and what tactic you need to change.
Nature of Your Goals
Your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound in nature. Setting goals and objectives is the first step to creating a winning social media strategy. Without research and establishing goals, it won’t be easy for you to measure success and ROI.
Learn About Your Buyer Persona
Understanding who your buyer is critical to the success of social media marketing. After all you are promoting your products and services for whom? You customers right! So, learn about them. To know more about the buyer persona, read the blog A simplified guide to buyer’s journey Gather data based on their demographics, likes, dislikes.
Learn About Your Competitors
Now you know your target audience. The next step is to know your competitors. Odds are your competitors are already on the social media platforms. So, it means you have everything to learn from them. You have a competitive advantage. To understand the competitors, you can also conduct a competitive analysis.
What is Competitive Analysis?
A competitive analysis tells you who your competition is. What are they doing well and what are they doing that is not going so well. Through this analysis, you will get an idea of what to expect and what not. Besides, it will also help you spot opportunities.
For example, maybe one of your competitors is dominant on Instagram, but is not active on Facebook. This gives you a chance to focus on the networks where your audience is yet to be tapped.
Social media audit is the best thing that you can do for our business. to conduct this audit, you would need a social media guide.
Brainstorm Social Media Content Ideas
This is the time to decide the ideas. This is done by taking inspiration, learning and again researching. You can draw inspiration from your competitors. Know their success stories, read about the award-winning campaigns, look into your favourite brands on social media.
Based on all the research, create ideas. Your social media marketing strategy should not be written in essay format. Just write the bullet points and elaborate a bit. You can also create a social media content calendar. Before you share the content, it is better to have a plan to create maximum impact.
Things your social media calendar must contain:
- Content to be posted
- Interaction time with the audience
- Date and time at which you will publish content on each channel.
The social media content calendar is a perfect place to plan all the social media activities. Right from posting images, and link sharing.
Determine the Right Content Mix
If you are starting from scratch. You must try the 80-20 rule:
- 80% of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain.
- 20% should focus on promoting the brand.
Analyze The Results and Track the Performance
Your social media strategy is an important document. Once you start implementing your plan. It is crucial to track results because you may find that some strategies are working while others are not. So, to know what is working and what is not working well, keep a track of regular activities going on the social media platform.
Creating a strategy that always work is not possible. One strategy may work and other may fail. But that does not mean you will stop planning. But if you strategize your content smartly, there are fair chances for your business to stay in the competition and give back the same to those who are already in competition.
If you are looking forward to a company that handles all your social media marketing, reach out to the best social media marketing company, The Big Unit in Australia.
