How to Create a Social Media Strategy
Much like running a business, social media needs structure and planning in order to see results. Posting just for the sake of it is money and time down the drain, so make sure you’re staying on track to make the most of your presence on all platforms. We’ve broken down how to create a social media strategy from scratch, as well as some useful tips on how to perform well no matter where you are posting.
Why is social media important?
Social media is like any other marketing tool. It can increase your brand awareness and bring in sales if done correctly, or it can eat into your business time and budget if it’s not.
One major drawing factor is how open and accessible social media is to market on. Even if you have a limited budget and start off without a large following, you can easily put your business in front of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
It also gives you another opportunity to meet your business goals, as your social media goals should always be aligned with what your business is trying to accomplish.
Who are you trying to reach?
The first step of building your social media marketing strategy is to figure out exactly who you are wanting to reach. This is where having a few target personas will come in handy- if you don’t have one, have a look at our tips on how to create the perfect target persona for your business to get you started.
Once you have your target audience in mind, you can then figure out where they spend their time online.
Choose the best platform for you
There are many social media platforms out there that you can be on, and chances are your target audience is on more than one of them. This doesn’t mean you have to be on every single platform. In fact, it’s best to choose two platforms to start off with. By doing this, you can focus on making your profiles as best as possible and create content that engages your audience.
For example, if your target audience contains people who are business owners aged 30+, then they might be on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. However, if your content isn’t so visually appealing, then you might choose to focus on LinkedIn and Twitter to have a variety of longer and shorter form social media content.
8 best practices for social media
- Don’t post the same style of content one after the other. Try to mix it up a bit- i.e. discussion post, video, poll, infographics, video, discussion etc. Also, avoid posting the exact same content on all channels- even if it’s just rewriting the caption, it will help reduce fatigue and appearing spammy
- Try to always pair the text with a visual – even if that is the feature image from the blog post. These tend to get seen more often by social viewers.
- Engage on each platform at least 5 times before/after posting, in order to increase the reach of your posts. The algorithms on social media like people/businesses that engage and not just post as it shows they are active and not just on it to promote themselves. This can be liking, retweeting, following and commenting.
- POST CONSISTENTLY! When you post consistently, your reach will grow, as soon as this stops, it will start to decrease and you will have to start all over again. To do this, it is best to create a backlog of posts that you can schedule into a tool like Hubspot. You will then only have to bulk create a couple of times a month rather than find the time a few times a week- which often gets forgotten about.
- Decide what content should go where– not all content suits every platform. For example, longer-form videos work better on Youtube than on Twitter. Your audience and engagement on each platform is also different, so try to deliver what they want to see.
- Post more than just your brand– Posting about your business is important, but it can’t be the only content you produce. Create content that discusses relevant topics in your industry, insights and behind the scenes, and even using humour to connect with your audience. No one wants to be sold to all the time, it will make people switch off. So provide them with valuable content, and they will stay engaged.
- Create polls and surveys– This encourages quick engagement that people don’t have to think too much about, and know they will also remain anonymous to other people who see the poll/survey. It also gives you great insight into your audience and who is actually engaging with your content, allowing you to tailor it more to them.
- Set aside time for answering direct messages every day– People who message on social media typically expect a quick response. By setting aside time each day to check all of your platforms for any messages, you ensure that nothing is missed for longer than 24 hours. Even if it’s just a 5-minute check in the morning and another one after lunch, you can keep your fans happy
When you plan out your social media strategy fully, you will find that you can reach not only your social media goals but more of your business ones as well. If you would like any further advice on how to start making the most of your social media presence, get in touch today for a free consultation.
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