For many marketers and perhaps you, figuring out a social media strategy can seem overwhelming. This is because social media is not as straight-forward as it used to be, given the more complex trends and dynamics that have emerged over the years.
Not only do you have to choose the right channels, but you also have to figure out a content strategy. This is why many marketers find social media intimidating.
If you want to build a social media marketing strategy from scratch or you are looking to revamp things, then here is a list of practical steps you can start taking to go about it. A good social media strategy will help you stick to your goals and stay true to your brand identity.
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Set goals that will enable your business to thrive
Before you start building a social media strategy, you need to figure out your end goal. Perhaps, you might be seeking to make more money from your existing social presence or expand your reach with new followers. Whatever the case may be, it is important that you set realistic social media goals. Start by creating small goals that you can tackle and will enable you to maximise your social media efforts in a manner that is reasonable and affordable.
There are different kinds of goals businesses can have when they are building their social media strategy. Some of them include:
- Increasing brand awareness
- Generating leads and sales
- Growing your audience
- Building a close-knit community
- Increasing web traffic
Do active research on your target audience
When it comes to your audience, the last thing you want to do is make assumptions. Thankfully, the internet abounds with so much demographic data and social media analytics tools that you don’t have to resort to that anymore.
These tools equip you with all you need to know about your audience so that you can effectively implement strategies that will help your business thrive. With the right tools at your disposal, you’ll understand today’s social media demographics better and know how to approach the social media channels accordingly.
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Analyse your competition
Knowing what your competitors are up to can give you useful insights on how to go about building your social media promotion strategy. By simply reviewing your competitors’ online presence, you could learn a lot about the platforms they are on, the kind of content they curate, the strategies that are working for them and those that are not their target audience, and their engagement levels.
Finding out what your competitors are up to will help you make informed decisions when creating your own social media marketing strategy. The goal here is not to steal your competitors’ ideas. Instead, it is to understand what is working for them and design your marketing campaigns accordingly.
Determine your most important metrics metrics
As a brand looking to grow on social media, your social media strategy should be data-driven. In a nutshell, you should be focusing on the metrics that really matter. The recent decision of Facebook and Instagram to hide likes should be a wake-up call for many businesses today.
Rather than depend on vanity metrics, brands have to direct their focus towards data that aligns directly with their goals. The metrics marketers should keep an eye on include clicks, reach, engagement, hashtag performance, and organic and paid likes.
Decide the right kind of content platform for your brand
To create and curate engaging social content, you have to decide the right content platform for your brand. For instance, you would be better off creating and curating visual content if you’re in the creative field. If you’re in the strategy field, then you would want to go for written content.
It is also important to understand the different kinds of content formats and the amount of work that goes into producing them. Video content is arguably the hardest kind of content to produce while writing is probably the easiest. You can produce content in various formats including articles, videos, newsletters, imagery, stories, and infographics. Whatever you go for, try to stick to a format that will align with your goals and brand identity.
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