How to Create a Strong Social Media Strategy
Social media has become an essential part of our daily lives, providing a platform for people to connect, share and interact with each other. With over 4.7 billion social media users worldwide, it has become a powerful tool for businesses to market their products and services. Social media marketing (SMM) is a digital marketing strategy that leverages social media platforms to reach potential customers, promote brand awareness, and increase website traffic.
Social media marketing involves creating and sharing content on social media platforms to achieve marketing and branding goals. It is a powerful way for businesses to connect with their target audience and increase brand visibility. Social media platforms are affordable and accessible, making it possible for businesses of any size to reach a wide range of customers. Social media marketing can include various types of content, such as videos, images, and infographics. By creating and sharing high-quality content on social media, businesses can establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry and build brand recognition.
In this day and age, social media marketing is an essential part of any business’s larger marketing plan. It allows consumers and customers to interact with your business, develop like, know and trust, before they make the a purchase or enroll in your services. It provides a unique way to get to know our potential customers and for them to get to know your brand, which is why it is a great marketing tool.
Despite knowing this, many small business’s and entrepreneurs don’t use social media marketing to it’s full potential. The most common reasons I hear are:
- Limited Budget – The platforms are free, but it costs too much money to hire a social media manager to manage things for them.
- No Time – They are already wearing too many hats in their business, and don’t have time to invest in learning how to use the social media platforms well and in making fresh content all the time.
- Lack Know-how – Content creation can be new for business owners who work outside of creative fields. What to write and what to post can feel overwhelming, in addition to understanding how to navigate the different platforms.
Sound familiar?
My goal is to empower entrepreneurs and small business owners with the information they need to create great content and market themselves. Yes, social media marketing takes some effort and planning to get it right, but I am a firm believer that if you take the time to set yourself up well at the start, it makes it easier and less time consuming to create consistency in your marketing. So, with that, here are some basics to think about in order to create a successful social media marketing strategy.
Creating a Social Media Marketing Strategy
Here are some key steps to keep in mind when developing a social media marketing strategy:
- Get clear on your brand: What is your brand identity? What are your brand values? How do you want to be described in your industry? What value to you bring to your customers by creating content on these social platforms? Many small businesses skip this step, which easily leads to a muddled message in your content.
- Define Your Social Media Goals: Before starting any social media marketing plan, it is essential to define your goals. Do you want to increase brand awareness, send followers to other online platforms or blog posts, drive website traffic, generate leads, or improve customer service? By setting clear goals, you can create a strategy that will help you achieve them.
- Identify Your Target Audience: Identifying your target audience is crucial in developing an effective social media strategy. Who are your potential customers, and what social media platforms do they use? By understanding your target audience, you can create content that resonates with them and choose the right platforms to reach them.
- Choose the Right Social Media Platforms: There are many social media platforms available, and it’s important to choose the ones that are the best fit for your business. Different platforms attract different types of users, so it’s important to research which platforms your target audience is most active on. Although you may get better reach by using various platforms, there is no rule that you have to use all of them to build a strong social media presence.
- Set up your Social Media Profiles to Represent Your Brand Consistently: Make your brand easily recognizable online! Use a consistent logo or profile pic to represent who you are. Whether someone finds you on Instagram or your Facebook Page, they will know it is the same person.
- Develop a Content Strategy: What are your content pillars? These are the broad topics that you are going to include as the foundation of your content plan. From there, map out a content plan that includes various types of content, such as images, infographic, and videos, that relate to each of those content pillars.
- Consistency is key: Consistency and quality are more important that quantity. You can grow you following on your social media profile simply by posting high-value content 2-3 times per week. Plan out your you content for a few weeks or a month at a time. This will allow you to see how your content works together to tell a strong brand story, as well as save you time on a day to day basis. There are many different scheduling apps that connect to your social media accounts and post your content for you. I have used Later.com to schedule posts, but others include Hootsuite, Planoly and Metricool. Some even come with additional features, like recommending “best times” to post, which takes the guess work out of your posting schedule. However, in the last year, I have moved over to using Meta Business Suite as it’s functionality is catching up with many of these platforms, and it’s free!
- Engage with Your Audience: Social media is a two-way conversation, so it’s important to engage with your audience regularly. Respond to comments, answer questions, and thank people for sharing your content. Social media is an excellent customer service tool, and responding to inquiries in a timely manner can improve customer satisfaction.
- Monitor Your Social Media Analytics: To measure the success of your social media marketing campaign, it’s essential to monitor your social media analytics. Analyze your data regularly to see which posts are performing well, what types of content your audience engages with, and how much traffic is being driven to your website.
- Adjust Your Strategy as Needed: Social media is constantly evolving, so it’s important to be flexible and adjust your strategy as needed. Monitor trends, experiment with different types of content, and adjust your social media goals as your business grows.
Analytics: Knowing That You Are On The Right Track
Most social media platforms and scheduling apps have built-in analytics tools that allow you to track your performance. You can use these tools to monitor your engagement rates, click-through rates, reach, impressions, and other important metrics.
Using these metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of your social media marketing efforts and determine if you’re achieving your goals. If you’re not getting the results you want, go back to your social media marketing plan and see if you need to make any changes. Social media is an ever-changing landscape, so it’s important to adapt and evolve your strategy to keep up with the latest trends and changes. As you monitor your results and track your performance, you may discover new opportunities or challenges that require you to adjust your strategy.
Pro tip – don’t be reactive and change your marketing plan simply because your content doesn’t get a lot of likes at first. It can take a few months of consistent posting to really understand what your audience likes, and doesn’t like, especially when your audience is small (under 500 followers). It is also important to know that sometimes it isn’t the content itself, but the times you are posting and the hashtag you are using (or maybe not using?). The best way to really assess how well your content is performing is to give it a few months of consistent posting. After that, if you see patterns then adapt and evolve your strategy.
Be open to change and willing to experiment with new ideas and tactics. If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to try something else. What works for one business might not work as well for another, simply because consumer behaviour varies industry to industry.
Creating a social media marketing strategy can be a daunting task, but it’s essential for any business looking to build its online presence and connect with potential customers.
Remember that social media marketing is an ongoing process that requires patience, persistence, and commitment. It takes time to build a loyal following and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. But with the right strategy and the right mindset, you can achieve your social media marketing goals and grow your business in the digital age. If you are an entrepreneur or a new business owner in the Collingwood or Blue Mountains area, and you are looking for more support marketing yourself on social media, check out more information about the Social Media Simplified VIP Package.
Alexa is a personal branding photographer and social media strategist who works closely with entrepreneurs and small businesses in Collingwood, Blue Mountains, Thornbury, Grey Bruce and beyond to help them achieve online marketing success. Click here to find out more about her services.
