Social Media Marketing requires both strategy and creativity. Creating a social media marketing strategy does not have to be a long painful process. A Social Media Marketing strategy is everything you want to achieve and plan to do on social media. The more specific your strategy and plan is the more effective it will be. Below are a few steps to help you get started on your Social Media Marketing Strategy.
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How to Create an Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy
Step 1: Audit Your Current Social Presence.
Step 2: Choose Social Media Marketing Goals That Align With Business Objectives.
Step 3: Document Who Your Ideal Customer Is.
Step 4: Know Your Competition.
Step 5: Set Up Accounts And Improve Profiles
Step 6: Create Engaging Social Content.
Step 7: Track, Analyze, Optimize
Audit Your Social Presence
Before you strategize about where you want to go, take a quick look at where you are. You should consider the following when auditing your business’s social media presence:
- Are your networks fully optimized?
- Which Social Media Networks are you currently active on
- Which of your Social Media Networks are currently bringing you the most value
- How do your profiles compare to your competitors’ profiles?
Your audit should give you a clear picture of what purpose each of your social accounts serves. If the purpose of an account isn’t clear, think about whether it’s worth keeping.
If you’re already using social media, take stock of your efforts so far. Ask yourself the following questions:
- How does your social media presence compare to the competition?
- Who is engaging with you?
- Which networks does your target audience use?
- What’s working, and what’s not?
When you have collected this information, you are ready to start thinking about ways to improve.
Choose Social Media Marketing Goals That Align With Business Objectives
The second step to creating a winning Social Media Marketing strategy is to establish your objectives and goals. Without goals, you have no way to measure success.
Track meaningful metrics: Your followers and likes are easy to track, but it’s hard to prove their real value. Instead, focus on things like engagement, click-through, and conversion rates. For example, if you use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website, you would measure click-throughs. If Instagram is for brand awareness, you might track the number of Instagram Story views. And if you advertise on Facebook, cost-per-click (CPC) is a common success metric.
Social media goals should align with your overall marketing objectives. Start developing your social media marketing plan by writing down at least three goals for social media.
Your Social Media Marketing Goals Should Be:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Document Who Your Ideal Customer Is
You will want to get as specific as possible with this part. For example, if you identified your target market as parents it would be ok. However, if you identify your ideal customer as a parent that lives in Gauteng, is between 30 and 50 years of age, earns over R70 000, primarily uses Facebook and has an interest in outdoor activities you will have much more success.
Even the best marketers will fail if they are marketing to the wrong audience. Answer the following questions to help you come up with a highly focused buyer persona:
- Audience Age
- Audience Location
- Audience Job Title
- Audience Income
- Pain Points (that your business can solve)
- Most Used Social Network
Know Your Competition
Most of your competitors are probably already using social media, and that means you can learn from what they’re doing. Doing an analysis of your competitors allows you to understand what they’re doing well (and not so well). You’ll get a good sense of what’s expected in your industry, which will help you set social media targets of your own.
If 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 not targeted, rather than trying to compete against a dominant player. Do searches of the competition’s company name, account handles, and other relevant keywords on social media. Find out what they’re sharing and what other people are saying about them.
Set Up Accounts And Improve Profiles
As you decide which social networks to use, you will also need to define your strategy for each. Once you’ve decided 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 fill out all profile fields
- Include keywords people would use to search for your business
- Use consistent branding (logos, images, etc.) across networks.
Create Engaging Social Content
Step 6 is the fun part, posting to social media. You know who your ideal customer is and you used that information to create your social media marketing strategy. Armed with this information it should be easy for you to begin creating content. So, what exactly is considered content? Here are a few examples of content you could create:
- Images
- Videos
- Blog Posts
- Company News
- Infographics
- eBooks
- Interviews
The list of content ideas goes on, but make sure you focus only on forms of content that align with your strategy, as well as your skillset. Content is what fuels social media, so it is crucial that you consider creating high-quality, engaging content as a top priority.
WEB ARTIST® strongly recommends that you create a content calendar that outlines how often you will post to each network, which topics you will share, and when you will share them.
Track, Analyze, Optimize
This may be the most important step when it comes to succeeding on social media. Even the best social media marketers rely on trial and error. It might seem basic, but tracking your results, analyzing the data, and then making tweaks to optimize them is crucial.
Each previous step should be re-evaluated after you have had time to analyze the results of your marketing efforts. Let the data drive you. If it is telling you Facebook or Twitter is your most effective channel, consider doubling down.
A great social media strategy is never set in stone. It is a constant work in progress that changes when necessary. So get out there, create a strategy and start optimizing it as you continue to grow and learn more about your business and your audience.