What is a social media strategy?
In recent years alone, social media activity has increased drastically to 59.4% of the world population equating to 4.76 billion users in 2023. This percentage opens a myriad of opportunities for creators, influencers, and smaller businesses to have a real impact on social media, through compelling stories, a more personal look into a business, product updates, services and sometimes even a tale or two of ‘Karen’ customers.
With the rising number of people using social media, competition to stay relevant or even maintain brand awareness has gotten fiercer. This can be demotivating for many creators, influencers, and businesses but rather than giving up, look to close that gap with a solid social media strategy.
A social media strategy is a plan that outlines your social media goals, helps plan your content and decide which tactics you can use to measure and achieve your targets. A simple strategy can be the difference between invisibility and success – so it’s important to identify what channels and approach will be most useful for you and your brand.
Here are 6 steps you need to know for a successful social media strategy:
Step 1: Set Goals.
Setting clear goals and establishing a road map will help in navigating your strategy. Utilising SMART objectives is one of the most effective ways for this:
Specific
Your goals need to be clear and easily understandable for a clear vision of what you want to achieve.
Measurable
You need to have quantitative metrics to measure your goals. These metrics are engagement, influence, exposure, and conversion.
Achievable
Your goals need to be achievable. By setting goals within your capabilities, you can avoid becoming demotivated and better manage your progress.
Realistic
The goals you set need to be realistic, both short term and long term.
Time Bound
You need to establish deadlines for your goals, this keeps you on schedule and helps track progress and effectiveness within the time frames.
Step 2: Know your audience.
Knowing who your content is for goes a long way. Creating the right content for your product or service will help you reach and engage with your audience.
Step 3: Choosing the best platform(s).
You have your content or product, and you know your audience, so now you need to pick which platform (or platforms) is the best for you. You’ll need to create a detailed analysis, exploring things such as which platform your target audience is most likely to use. This can be a difficult task but is essential in ensuring your efforts aren’t in vain.
Step 4: Create a schedule.
Scheduling the content you want posted on social media makes a world of difference. Its time efficient, consistent and all you need to worry about is creating the content itself. When making your schedule, include the whole process from thinking about ideas, creating content, and finalising it.
Step 5: Engagement with target audience.
Your audience is like a plant that needs tending. By engaging with them on social media, replying to comments and answering questions on live feed, you help your following grow. By expressing gratitude and going that extra mile, you can create a genuine relationship that turns into brand loyalty. Always communicate with your customers because if they feel ignored, they’re likely to go to your competitors.
Step 6: Adaptability, Learning & Growth.
With the relentless, ever-changing, fast paced environment and new trends emerging every day, it can be hard to keep up and stay relevant. Your brand needs to be able to adapt to new trends, test new strategies and educate yourself to see what works and what doesn’t.
Testing new strategies will educate you in generating:
- Clicks.
- Impressions.
- Engagement.
- Reach.
Ready to make your own social media strategy now?
By following these 6 steps, you’ll be able to create and effective social media strategy to grow your audience and brand awareness. Get your research ready before you start to post online for a hassle-free, consistent, and reliable social media presence.
If you are still unsure about the social media strategy, do not hesitate to contact us for our Digital Marketing Service/s for a consultation.