What is a social media strategy?

A social media strategy lets you set clear, measurable goals, set benchmarks, and create specific plans. It takes time and research to be able to have your social platform reach your target audience – it’s not just posting on Facebook or Instagram a few times a day.

In this day and age where everything is at the swipe of your fingertips, it can be easy to forget you need a social media strategy to really get your business soaring. You also can benefit from a social media content calendar which we talk more about here.

What platform should you be posting on?

We all have a favourite social media platform; for some, Twitter, for others, Facebook or Instagram. When it comes to your business, however, certain platforms will reach your audience better than others. 

Facebook – A popular platform to use for business. It’s a great place to interact with your followers, answer questions and create chats. It is also great for target advertising and has powerful analytics. 

However, depending on the age bracket of your target audience, you may not get the interactions you hope for.

Instagram – Its use in business continues to grow. It catches people’s attention visually and is great, especially if your target audience is the under 30s. Instagram allows you to show, not tell, your product or story in creative and eye-catching ways. 

To really get off the ground, however, you need an aggressive posting schedule otherwise, you may lie forgotten.

Twitter – If you want a short but catching post that encourages your audience to interact, Twitter is the way to go. By having a word limit, you can get straight to the point without the ‘noise’ that can come with longer posts on Facebook (Twitter ads also see a higher success rate than Facebook). 

With the freedom of unlimited # and @’s, you can reel in a large amount of traffic – however, sales may not be influenced much.

TikTok – The most popular place to post about your business, ESPECIALLY if your target audience is young people 18-30, as they make up over half of its users. With its changing trends and its ability to share a lot of information at once, TikTok is basically Facebook, and Instagram rolled into one. 

While you can share information in a fun way, it’s not for every business though. It works best if your target audience is between 18-30yrs and your hopeful reach stretches borders.

Youtube – We all love Youtube; the cat videos, songs, vlogs, etc. The thousands of visitors mean thousands of opportunities for your marketing without needing to open your wallet.

 

It is easy to embed your videos and profile onto your website, videos are able to be shared beyond your reach, and videos can be as long as you like. 

The cons to using Youtube include:

• People use hashtags in their videos that they don’t need to use, but you do, messing up your searches.
• You must promote your videos yourself.
• Negative reviews/comments are quickly able to damage your business reputation.
  
  

LinkedIn – If you want to spread your social media marketing to reach the corporate world, LinkedIn is where you want to be. 

It’s a great place to network within your industry, sector and region, all while staying updated on the industry news and trends. 

You can build your brand awareness and generate leads using ‘funnels’ (the visual representation of the steps a visitor takes from first finding out about you to when they become a customer/client). 

It does, however, need quite a bit of time and energy invested into it to really get it off the ground and doesn’t always integrate with social posting and analytics tools. 

There are almost 5.5 Billion people with at least one form of social media, and only half of your competition is using social media platforms to reach them – take advantage of this! 

 

What are the steps to a successful social media strategy?

To create a social media strategy that helps your business grow, there are a few steps you need to follow. 

• Set goals that align with your business:
  
  

Setting a goal for your business isn’t only ‘get 1000 new followers every week’ when you only have 10 new clients every month. You need to make sure that the goal you set is both achievable and aligns with your business. 

Setting a business goal should help increase awareness of your brand and community engagement. E.g. Sell 100 cupcakes from my bakery in a week – advertise a coffee-cupcake deal on Instagram.

• Research and KNOW your target audience, don’t just assume :
  
  

Did you know that only half of your competitors are actually researching their target audience? This means they most likely don’t actually know who their clients are! 

For example: if your target audience is young entrepreneurs who are just starting off, you wouldn’t advertise or post about topics or use lingo that is only used by experienced entrepreneurs. 

You will end up losing them before they even finish the sentence!

• Establish your most important metrics and KPIs:
  
  

Do you know how much engagement you need on your social media to get your business noticed? What hashtags will you use so your target audience can find you? How far do you want your business to reach?

These are all important questions to ask yourself as you create your own social media strategy. The reason is that unless you know how many clicks it takes to know you’re reaching your audience, what the difference is between organic and paid likes, and what hashtags to use to reach your target audience, your social media will inevitably never grow.

• Be timely with your social media presence:
  
  

In this day and age, it is so easy to schedule your social media posts days, weeks, even months ahead and then just forget about them. However, if you want to reach your target audience and really grab their attention, you need to be actively connecting with them, not just simply posting whenever and forgetting about it.

To connect with your audience, you need to be able to respond to their questions in a timely manner, enthusiastically thank people for their purchases and testimonies and know when your target audience is online, so they will see your posts.

How do I start a social media marketing strategy?

Now that you know what a social media marketing strategy is and the guideline to follow, it is time for you to create your strategy.

• Take a pen and a piece of paper (you may need a whole notebook) and write. What is your target audience, and what do they deem as valuable content? What content do you want to post that is valuable to your business?
  
  

• Drive engagement. On your posts and ads, leave a Call To Action, or CTA (what to do next), ask your audience a question and to answer in the comments, and tell them to share with five people to receive 10% off their next purchase. Something that will make your target audience actively engage with your posts.
  
  

• The third part of the strategy is to turn your target audience into potential clients, then active customers; this is called conversions. Gaining conversions is simple: they don’t need to become customers straight away, you just need to keep reminding them you’re there. 
  
  

How do you do that? Tell them to sign up for your newsletters, or your catalogues, to download your free PDF. In each of these, make sure to leave your CTA (e.g. schedule an appointment, order your set now, sign up now).

• Create a content calendar. This is a written schedule of what you will post, when, and where (if you have multiple platforms). Content calendars (or editorial calenders) usuals include upcoming ‘reveals’ or sales, updates, promotions, and partnerships. 
  
  

They allow you to stay organised and know when things are happening, know what you need to create, encourage team collaborations, and give you a birds-eye view of your business schedule. 

Conclusion 

In summary, to create a social media strategy for your business, you first need to make sure you set realistic and relevant goals that align with your business, know your target audience, not just assume, establish your KPIs and metrics, and be timely in your posts and connect with your audience.

So be relevant and be sure to use the right context and content. Discover the best hashtags and platforms for your social media presence so you can reach your target audience. Research and stay up to date with your social media engagement and presence. Watch your business soar.