Essential Steps for Creating a Social Media Strategy
Having a solid social media strategy is vital if you want to stay competitive and appeal to your desired audience. Still, knowing where to start and what you need to do to keep the momentum going can be tricky. Understanding the basics of social media marketing and partnering with a growth-focused digital marketing agency that understands how to achieve tangible and measurable results is a great way to remove the stress of managing your socials.
Essential Steps for Creating a Social Media Strategy
1. Have a Growth Strategy Call to Iron Out the Plan
First things first: you need to know your objectives and put together a game plan to implement them. Having a strategy call enables you to brainstorm different ideas, discuss brand positioning, and figure out how best to speak to your existing and desired customers. This call should include any current social media campaigns and discuss how they performed and what needs to be tweaked as you move forward.
You can also start to discuss any gaps in your social media marketing and how they can be addressed to stay consistent with your brand message and cover all of your bases. Use this call to think outside the box and have a very frank conversation about what’s working and what isn’t and how it can work with other marketing efforts, like pay-per-click or email marketing.
2. Thoroughly Research the Competition and Landscape
Next, it’s time to look at your competition and the industry landscape as a whole and see where you can set yourself apart and compete. Since every sector is different, it’s good to tap into the resources and expertise of a social media strategy team or growth advisor to see how you can apply lessons from similar companies to your business.
Understanding your competitors’ value propositions can help you develop your own and showcase what makes your business unique and valuable. It also gives you a serious leg up, as many companies may ignore or bypass this vital step and try to identify their own value propositions without doing proper market research.
3. Determine Who Your Desired Audience Is
A key aspect of social media marketing is determining your desired audience and speaking to them on the platforms that they visit. Each platform brings something different to the table. For example, Facebook tends to skew slightly older, appealing mostly to people 35 years or older. On the other hand, Instagram tends to attract younger users, with the majority of its users worldwide under 35.
The message will also differ depending on the platform. LinkedIn is a more professional space and demands a certain type of content, whereas Instagram relies on hashtags and punchy visuals. If you are crafting content across multiple platforms, it’s essential that your message be in line with your company objectives but conform to the type of marketing that the platform calls for.
4. Know Your Unique Value Proposition
Every business has a unique value proposition that makes it tick. Understanding yours can help solidify your brand message and establish industry and customer trust. It’s vital that your value proposition spells out why a company would want to do business with you and what you can bring to the table that nobody else can.
The value proposition will be echoed in your branding across other elements of your social marketing and content, so it’s one of the foundational elements of your social media strategy, and it’s a good idea to take the due diligence you need to get it right before starting on any kind of social campaign. Your value proposition can also help you determine how to present other areas of your online presence, like your blog or website.
5. Make Your Social Media Marketing Message Consistent
Although the way your content is positioned and presented will vary depending on what kind of platform you’re using, the message itself should remain consistent across all social channels. Taking this step has several benefits for you and your company. It reinforces your brand and value proposition repeatedly and across multiple channels and helps you see how certain messages, promotions, or types of posts are performing.
For example, if your social posts direct potential customers to fill out a form on your website, you can see how many click-throughs and submitted forms you received from a particular site to determine whether your message is getting through and whether your call to action is strong enough. You can also look at post engagement to see what topics are catching the eye of your audience.
6. Create Useful Content for Your Audience
Content is absolutely vital, both in the form of individual social posts and in terms of educational, interesting, or inspiring content on your website or blog. Good content can be a powerful tool in telling people that you’re an authority in your industry, shining light on important issues within your business, or letting your customers see your personal but professional side so they get to like and trust you more.
You need to create regular, high-quality content and post it on your social media accounts. Ideally, your customers will like, read, and share this content, further broadening your reach. When it comes to great content, putting in the effort pays off. Customers can smell canned, subpar, or generic content a mile away. During your initial growth strategy call you’ll want to discuss your content objectives and put together a plan to produce it regularly.
7. Use a Social Posting Calendar
If you want to foster lasting customer relations and keep your company top-of-mind online, you’ll need to make regular posting part of your social media strategy, and the best way to do this is to develop a social posting calendar that identifies all of the different mediums you want to use, and schedules posts to them.
You can front-load a bunch of evergreen posts to get the funnel going, but it’s a good idea to leave room for any customized or newsworthy posts, especially if you’re in an industry that changes often. You can also leave some space for holiday-related posts, promotions, or any additional marketing campaigns that will come your way. Having a calendar in place at the outset of your campaign relieves your stress, and you won’t forget to post.
8. Monitor Your Analytics
Make sure that your hard social media marketing work is yielding the results that you want by keeping an eye on analytics and engagement. Your digital media advisory team can help you gather, interpret, and act upon analytics, focusing on measurable results for the most optimal outcomes. Keeping an eye on your analytics can help you see where you need to allocate more resources, which platforms are working for you, and how to expand your audience.
Creating a social strategy can seem daunting, with many moving parts, but when you have the right team behind you, it’s an effective way to set your business apart for all the right reasons. Our professionals are people-centric, research-oriented, and totally transparent. We can help your business reach the next level with a tailored social campaign. Contact Razzmic Ventures at 312-794-7861, and let us give you a free marketing consultation today.
