Are you interested in refining your social media marketing strategy? Great! This is the ideal opportunity to take action. In an environment with increased competition, content, and networks, having a concise strategy allows you to prioritize and reject activities that do not contribute to your objectives.
For this reason, we have compiled a thorough manual for developing a social media marketing strategy from the beginning. Whether you are entirely inexperienced in social media or wish to review your priorities in 2024, this manual provides you with all the necessary information.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing refers to the utilization of social media platforms such as Instagram, X (previously called Twitter), and Facebook to advertise your brand and drive the sales of your product or service.
Social media marketing encompasses promoting the launch of a new item on social media, engaging with customers through comments, and creating captivating content to showcase the brand’s values and story.
You will need to utilize your social media management skills and tools in this type of marketing. Similar to how you prepare other parts of your marketing strategy, it is essential to have a plan for your social media marketing.
Set goals that make sense for your business
The first step in planning a social media strategy is to identify your goals. Whether your objective is to grow your team, increase your following, or foster a more engaged community, it is crucial to define your social goals as a starting point towards achieving them.
Your social media marketing strategy and the amount of time and effort you spend on your campaigns will be determined by your goals.
Research your target audience and select your networks
Making assumptions is not advantageous for marketers. Both leaders and practitioners have the ability to challenge assumptions through the insightful information obtained from social data. By utilizing the appropriate tool, marketers can efficiently analyze their target audience without the need for formal market research or expertise in data science.
To influence your social media marketing strategy, the necessary information about your audience is accessible; you simply need to locate it.
Understanding the location of your target audience is crucial in comprehending social media demographics and statistics. Equally important is grasping the specific characteristics of each social network, allowing you to make informed decisions about the presence of your business.
Bigger brands that have a wide customer base usually have a presence on various platforms. Companies like McDonald’s and Starbucks are more likely to have the necessary resources to be present on all platforms simultaneously, but what if you operate a medium or small business? Additionally, the existence of numerous social platforms does not imply that all of them are suitable for your brand.
Picking networks for your social media marketing strategy
There are over 15 social media platforms available for your brand’s use, but it is advisable not to spread yourself too thin. Instead of attempting to conquer all platforms, it is recommended that you analyze which ones are most applicable to your industry and target audience.
Before you can identify the characteristics of your real-life social customers, conduct thorough research on your current social media audience. Concentrate on platforms where your primary audience is already engaged.
Many brands opt for a social media dashboard that offers a comprehensive view of their followers and their interactions across different channels.
Sprout’s analytics dashboard places your audience demographics at the forefront, showcasing the social networks with the highest activity and aiding in the effective allocation of your time on the appropriate networks.
By analyzing the data, you can decide if it is beneficial to create a new social media account. Sprout allows you to conveniently compare data from X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest. The data can be customized and exported based on specific time periods and profiles.
Establish your most important metrics and KPIs
Your social media strategy should rely on data regardless of your goals or industry. Instead of prioritizing superficial metrics, examine data that directly supports your objectives. Which metrics are we referring to? You can find a brief summary below, but our comprehensive guide provides a more in-depth analysis of the essential social media metrics and their significance.
- Reach. Post reach is the number of unique users who saw your post. How much of your content actually reaches users’ feeds?
- Clicks. This is the number of clicks on your content or account. Tracking clicks per campaign is essential to understand what drives curiosity or encourages people to buy.
- Engagement. The total number of social interactions divided by the number of impressions. This sheds light on how well your audience perceives you and their willingness to interact.
- Hashtag performance. What were your most-used hashtags? Which hashtags were most associated with your brand? Having these answers can help shape the focus of your content going forward.
- Organic and paid likes. Beyond a standard Like count, these interactions are attributed to paid or organic content. Given how much harder organic engagement is to gain, many brands turn to ads. Knowing these differences can help you budget both your ad spend and the time you invest in different formats.
- Sentiment. This is the measurement of how users react to your content, brand or hashtag. Did customers find your recent campaign offensive? What type of sentiment do people associate with your campaign hashtag? It’s always better to dig deeper and find out how people talk or feel about your brand.
Plan your content
After completing your research and selecting the appropriate social media platforms, it is now necessary to contemplate your content and strategy. To assist you in commencing, please refer to our social media style guide. To begin the process of planning your content, let us consider the following steps:
- Create a tone for your pages. Tone is how you want the world to see and speak to your brand. Are you formal or informal? Do you use humor or is your business more serious? Each platform has its own personality too, so do you want to speak differently on each and showcase your brand’s personality?
- Create content themes or content buckets. Look at what your USP is and see what content themes or buckets you can create. For example, if you’re a travel resort or hotel, you could create a content bucket around wellness showcasing your spa and healthy recipes. Another content bucket could be about your location, what makes that place unique and interesting, is it the wildlife, scenery etc.? If you need help with content creation, there are some great tools out there.
- Create a content calendar. It’s key to post regularly on social networks and a calendar can put some order to your posting especially if you’re posting on multiple channels. There are optimum days and times for networks too so take that into account and find out when to post on TikTok and the best times to post on Instagram.
- Schedule your content. It can be difficult to keep up with the pace of social media and if you post regularly, keeping to a schedule is important for consistency.
What makes a good social media post
Creating posts may be easy, but investing the time to generate valuable content will prove worthwhile in terms of reaching a wider audience and fostering engagement. Therefore, how can you guarantee the creation of quality posts?
- Monitor content performance – it’s important to analyze your content to see what does and doesn’t work
- Optimize your content – Tweak your content to optimize its performance
- Think about new angles for your content – Would humor work or what about video testimonials from previous customers? Don’t stick to the same message and format all the time, try new things.
- A/B test content – Try different versions of content on platforms to see what works better. Is there a keyword that resonates better, or do different colors get better engagement?
- Track your KPIs – Refer back to your KPIs to make sure you’re on track with your content
Creating good content does not have a magical solution. It involves releasing content, scrutinizing it, improving it, and experimenting with new approaches.
Manage and engage your community
The positive aspect of social media lies in its ability to establish connections that can develop into communities. Communities have a remarkable impact by promoting engagement and increasing brand awareness. A thriving community is particularly valuable as it can generate brand advocates and attract fresh customers. However, nurturing a community requires dedicated effort spent on both its construction and expansion.
To effectively manage and involve a social media community, it is important to be attentive. Whenever a customer expresses a question or feedback, respond promptly and offer assistance. With the increasing popularity of social media as a means of customer communication, it is inevitable that complaints will arise. It is crucial to react positively and identify ways to enhance their experience in order to prevent a social media crisis.
By utilizing polls or surveys to ask questions, you can involve your community and foster a sense of belonging. Additionally, this approach may provide valuable insights about your customer base.
Grow your following
If you don’t gain new followers, having a social media channel serves no purpose. Gaining a larger audience is a crucial aspect of any social media strategy, and you must employ tactics to accomplish this.
There are two methods to increase your audience: by organic growth or through paid advertising. Content plays a vital role in the first method as it helps to attract users and generate interaction. For instance, you have the option to organize a competition or provide exclusive behind-the-scenes footage showcasing the work culture of your brand.
When thinking in a sequential manner, you can rephrase the given text while keeping the meaning intact. Avoid adding new information and do not omit any existing information. Remember, it is possible to promote one platform on another platform. For instance, you can direct your Facebook users to your Instagram feed. Promote a post that encourages people to visit different channels and witness the effects.
By utilizing paid advertising, it is possible to establish a daily budget and focus on a specific group of users. Employing a paid media campaign tracker allows for effective management of all campaigns. Additionally, collaborating with influencers presents an opportunity to endorse a particular product.
Micro-influencers can significantly benefit businesses operating at a local level, such as restaurants or bars, by attracting customers. Employing public relations techniques, like issuing a press release or securing an article in a relevant publication, can also help direct individuals to your social media platforms.
How do you create your own social media strategy
It is crucial to have a solid understanding of the fundamentals of social media marketing as well as the intricacies of each platform in order to effectively target the appropriate audience and enhance your strategy.
By following the outlined steps, you will be able to develop a social media strategy that effectively drives engagement and generates leads.
