It may seem excessive, but few things have changed the world as much as social media.
Sure, the wheel, gunpowder, and airplane have played important roles in shaping the course of history, but did any of them allow you to chat with your friend on the other side of the world in Facebook Messenger in real time?
Or easily share photos of your sister’s birthday party with your cousins via Instagram? And none of them gave you the chance to interact with celebrities the way Twitter does.
It’s no surprise that social networking has become such a ubiquitous part of modern life.
It is also not surprising that it has become an essential part of marketing in the modern world. From the biggest global brands to the mom and baby on the street, no marketing strategy is complete without a social media component.
But developing an effective social media marketing strategy can be challenging—especially as platforms evolve and their popularity wanes.
This piece will walk you through the basics of social media strategy and give you a step-by-step plan that you can implement to increase traffic and increase exposure.
What is social media marketing?
Before we dive into the how-tos, let’s first cover exactly what is meant by the term social media marketing — and what it’s used for.
You probably don’t need a dictionary to know that it is a type of internet marketing that uses social media platforms as a tool.
But what makes this better than, say, a print ad or a TV ad? In a word:
Engagement
Unlike traditional forms of marketing, social media lets you talk with Your audience, no in they. Create conversations about your brand and what’s important to your customers in a give-and-take format.
It allows you to tell your story while keeping the narrative responsive and authentic – something you won’t find in other types of marketing.
but that is not all. Social media has many other benefits of marketing, including:
Increase brand awareness
There are more than 4 billion social media users all over the world. This means that you could theoretically reach more than half of the world’s population.
The Dayton, Ohio-based accounting firm’s Facebook page is obviously not likely to attract new clients from Hyderabad, India, but it could potentially help build your local awareness.
And as a marketer, you know that increased awareness leads to more leads, which in turn leads to more sales.
Good return on investment (return on investment)
One of the biggest advantages of social media marketing is that it allows you to build an audience without a big budget.
Creating a business profile is free on most platforms, and while you can use things like paid advertising, it’s not necessary.
Instead, you can build an audience and expand your reach simply by consistently posting content that your targets will find valuable.
SEO optimization
Social platforms can also help your search engine optimization efforts.
Although there is no direct link between your search engine ranking and social media, your ranking is not directly affected by what you post on YouTube or Instagram, but there is a connection.
First, social media allows you to promote your content. This leads to more traffic and more engagement, which are positive signals for the user.
It also gives you more opportunities to build backlinks, not to mention that your profile can rank in itself for search terms.
Better customer service
From troubleshooting issues to offering tips and tricks, social media gives customers an easy way to connect with you.
It can be an effective way to turn a negative experience into a positive one while allowing you to keep your finger on the pulse of patterns in purchase, use, and potential issues.
How to create a social media strategy
The benefits of implementing social media in your marketing efforts are obvious, but you can’t randomly post photos, polls, and status updates and expect results.
You need a clearly defined strategy. Here’s how to create one:
1. Define your audience
The first thing you need to do is decide who you are targeting on social media. This will help you create content that will interest and interest them.
Consider not only their wants, needs, and challenges but who they are. Many marketers find it helpful to create customer personas, which are key subsets of your audience.
Group your customers into four or fewer groups and identify the general similarities in each. Make sure to include things like:
- demographics – Age, gender, job title, salary, location, etc.
- interests What type of content might interest them?
- Their goals in relation to your content Are they looking for a new job? To improve their fitness? to learn a skill?
- choice platform – Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc.
- preferred format Are they more likely to watch videos or read text posts?
One caveat: don’t try too hard to target outliers or exceptions. Instead, look for consistent generalities within each group.
2. Set specific and measurable goals
To track your effectiveness and get the best return on investment, you first need to decide what you want to achieve with your social media presence. This can be a single goal, or you can have multiple goals.
Whatever you choose, it must meet three criteria: 1. achievable, 2. measurable, and 3. be relevant to your brand.
Some of the most common social media marketing goals are:
- Increase traffic to your website.
- Generate new leads.
- Make conversions (subscriptions, sales, etc.).
- Promote participation.
- Take control of the conversations about your brand.
Your goals should be as specific as possible and aligned with your social media metrics so you can track the effectiveness of your campaign.
3. Check out the competition
There is a good chance that some of your competitors will also use social media as a marketing strategy.
Take a deep dive into their profiles and content. This will help you get a sense of what kind of content your audience likes — as well as the ones they don’t.
Look at which platforms are getting the best results and which are not. Is this because your goals favor one app over another, or are your competitors missing an opportunity?
But don’t look back once and move on. This should be an ongoing process and part of the social listening process.
4. Determine which platforms you will use
At this point, you should know which social apps your target audience is using. Obviously, these are the people to focus on.
You don’t have to be on every platform. Did you understand that? You don’t need to have a social presence on every platform. Some of them will not be used by your target, so if you are targeting retirees on TikTok, you are probably wasting your time.
With that said, most brands find it helpful to have a presence on the “big four” – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Understand the strengths and weaknesses of each platform and how they work into your strategy.
5. Improve your profile
Now that you know where you’ll be posting, it’s time to set up or improve your profile. Since this is the face you show to the cyber world, it is important that you include all the information your audience needs at the outset.
Be sure to include your business name, contact details, and anything else visitors might want to know.
With our keyword research tool, identify the words and phrases your customers use in searches and include them in your profile.
Next, make sure you’re using consistent branding, with high-resolution images that don’t look skewed as thumbnails. Your goal is to make your brand instantly recognizable across all touchpoints.
This is also a good point to look at any content you’ve previously posted and get rid of off-brand content.
6. Plan your content
Your content will depend on many factors, including what you’re promoting and your audience’s preferences.
You also want to make sure everything is working toward one of the goals you set in Step 2.
Depending on the system(s) you’re using, your content could include memes, video tutorials, links to blog posts, or anything else your audience finds useful.
You should include informative and entertaining content, as well as things that directly promote your brand. This will usually lead to better engagement and engagement than strictly cutting sales.
7. Create a social media content calendar
The next thing you should do is create a content calendar that clearly defines when and where you will post.
Your goal is to capture the attention of the largest audience and maximize engagement. This will vary, depending on several factors, including your business, your audience, and the time of year.
However, you should ensure that you post content regularly. Try to find the sweet spot between posting too much (and annoying your audience) and posting too little (and being irrelevant).
Don’t worry if you can’t figure this out right now. It may take some experimentation on your part.
And speaking of things that will require some testing, your content calendar should include not only the date you’ll post things but what time of day you’ll be posting them.
Every brand has an ideal publishing time as it will be seen by the most targets. There may be once a week or several times a day – it all depends on your audience.
8. Track your performance
Once you start posting live, you’ll start gathering information on what’s working and start identifying trends.
The best and easiest way to monitor this is to look at your metrics. Most social media platforms offer some form of analytics for business users, where you can view statistics about reach, impressions, and response rates.
The things that matter to you will depend on your goals.
For example, if you are tracking the number of web visitors who subscribe to your newsletter, you will want to measure your click-through rate, conversion rate, and bounce rate. If you are using paid ads, you will need to keep an eye on your CPC. If your goal is to increase engagement, you will need to track likes, comments, and re-shares.
Find commonalities between your most successful and least successful posts. This will give you an insight into the type of social media content you should be posting.
9. Modify and reformulate your strategy
Social media marketing is not something that pays instant dividends. It takes time to understand what works and what your goals are.
And once you feel confident that your content is targeted, on-brand, and driving results, your social media strategy will still require regular adjustments based on preferences, changing trends, and audience needs.
You will need to regularly review and rethink your plan. As your business evolves, your social media presence must evolve with it. You may want to branch out to new platforms, add paid ads into the mix, or change how often you post.
The goal is to keep looking for new ways to maximize the impact of your presence on social platforms. And while this is a never-done task, over time you’ll get a sense of what you’re doing and it will help you achieve more consistent results.
Keep your eyes on the price
It’s easy to get distracted in the world of social media, and that makes creating and implementing a strategy for that challenging.
You can get so close to your content that you lose the forest to the trees, which makes it important to step back regularly and look at the bigger picture.
Everything you post should have a purpose and actively work towards one of your goals.
But through action, keeping an open mind, and not being afraid to take risks, the social media strategy you develop is sure to reap the rewards of your labor.
Happy sharing.
More resources:
- How to Dominate Social Media Marketing: A Complete Strategy Guide
- Social media content strategy: from start to finish
- 9 steps to a future-proof social media strategy in a Web3 world
Featured image: jd8 / Shutterstock
