Creating a powerful social media marketing strategy doesn't have to be difficult. This comprehensive guide will walk you through every step of developing a strategy that delivers results for your business.
Understanding the Importance of Goals
The foundation of any effective strategy is clear goals. Your social media goals should be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Don't just focus on vanity metrics like followers - track meaningful metrics tied to your business objectives.
Some common social goals include:
- Increasing brand awareness
- Acquiring more email subscribers
- Driving website traffic and conversions
- Engaging customers and communities
- Generating leads and sales
- Improving customer support
- Measuring brand sentiment
Your goals will likely vary by network as well. For example, you may use LinkedIn to generate leads, Twitter for customer support, and Instagram to promote products. Aligning goals to each network and your overall business goals ensures your strategy delivers value.
Learning About Your Audience
To effectively market on social media, you need deep knowledge of who you're trying to reach. Create detailed audience personas representing your typical customers' demographics, interests, values, and pain points.
Leverage social analytics to gain audience insights directly from your profiles. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter provide data on age, gender, location of followers and how they interact with your content. This informs the type of content that resonates most.
It's also important to consider where your target audience spends time online. Prioritize the networks they are most active on to maximize your reach. Don't spread yourself too thin across every platform.
Researching Your Competition
Performing competitor research is crucial for crafting a winning strategy. Review how competitors are using each major social network - what are their goals, following sizes, types of content, posting frequencies and levels of engagement?
You can also "listen" to conversations about competitors through social media monitoring. Tools like Meltwater, Brandwatch and Hootsuite allow tracking keywords, hashtags and handles related to your industry. This reveals opportunities and helps avoid repetitive strategies.
Pay attention to campaigns receiving high engagement rates or that go viral. Learn from strategies your competitors are executing successfully while also identifying gaps to position your brand differently.
Conducting a Social Media Audit
Before finalizing your strategy, evaluate your existing social profiles and efforts. A thorough audit examines what's currently working well and opportunities for improvement. It also identifies any dormant or redundant accounts to consolidate efforts.
Areas to assess include goals vs. results of each profile, top performing types of content, times of day with highest engagement, follower demographics and the customer service experience. Surveying followers provides direct feedback.
The audit reveals weak areas to strengthen and allows reallocating efforts to higher potential networks or content types. It serves as a benchmark to measure progress against your new strategy.
Setting Up Profiles on Key Networks
Once target networks are determined, set up professional profiles optimized for search and clarity of brand messaging.
Complete all available profile fields with keywords reflective of your business. Use high-quality, properly sized images and video headers respecting each platform's standards.
Customize your bio with a compelling elevator pitch and prominent calls to action. Link profiles together for a seamless customer experience.
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and TikTok each require Facebook Pixel and other tracking codes installed correctly. Proper setup drives future strategy success.
Gathering Inspiration from Other Brands
Don't try to reinvent the wheel - look to brands excelling at social media for ideas. Study case studies of strategies producing measurable results. Analyze award-winning campaigns. Pay attention to conversations about your favorite brands to understand what resonates.
Become familiar with industry leaders' approaches. For example, how do they address customer service issues? What ratio of hosted vs. curated vs. promotional content do they post? What formats like photos, videos or collections perform best?
Evaluate brands excelling specifically within your niche or targeting similar demographics. Adapt proven techniques while maintaining an authentic voice for your own products/mission.
Developing a Content Calendar
A content calendar is crucial for planning social media activities in a structured, strategic manner. It maps out various types of posts and timing across networks on a weekly or monthly basis.
Balance types of posts between promotional, educational, and community-focused depending on network goals. Space out relevant industry/cultural events, product launches and campaigns.
Test different post frequencies according to platform standards. Vary the cadence on a given day or week to avoid becoming too routine. Leave flexibility for real-time engagement within the scheduled framework.
The calendar also assigns responsibilities like content creation, community managing and reporting. This ensures accountability for results while preventing dependency on any one person.
Creating Engaging Content
With your strategy and content calendar in place, focus on developing top-quality social posts. Highlight signature products, behind-the-scenes look, customer spotlights, expert tips, relevant industry news and more based on proven high-engagement topics.
Vary content format depending on network - photos for Instagram, quotes/brief updates on Twitter, videos on Facebook and TikTok, long-form articles on LinkedIn. Tailor messaging and hashtags/mentions to each channel's unique audience.
User-generated content builds authentic relationships when shared ethically within your brand's values. Don't underestimate the power of well-timed shares from key influencers and Ambassadors too.
Test compelling subject lines for promoting blog articles or try a clickbait-style headline sparking curiosity occasionally. However, avoid being vague or misleading which risks losing credibility.
Tracking Performance and Testing Changes
The strategy is only as good as the results, so analyze key metrics on a regular cadence to assess effectiveness and opportunities for optimizing approaches.
Compare metrics like website traffic, lead generation, conversion rates, and ROI over time to understand return on your efforts. Analyze top performing days, times, post types and platforms indicating where to invest more heavily.
A/B test variations in headlines, calls to action and creative elements to optimize engagement rates on a post-by-post basis. Experiment rotating scheduling approaches, adding/removing content categories and adjusting frequencies.
Don't be afraid to periodically redo portions of your strategy based on insights from performance tracking and testing. A living document approach keeps your efforts aligned with an evolving digital landscape and customer base.
Sample Social Media Marketing Plan
Here is a sample 1-year social media plan template that brings together the key elements discussed:
- Executive Summary
- Goals & Objectives
- Target Audience
- Competitive Analysis
- Current Presence Analysis
- Platforms & Profiles
- Inspiration Research
- Content Calendar
- Content Strategy
- Team Roles & Management
- Budget
- Success Metrics
- Risks & Challenges
- Quarterly Initiatives
- Conclusion
The full plan runs 15-20 pages detailing tactics, responsibilities and intended results for major campaign periods. It serves as the guiding playbook while remaining open to real-time adjustments based on data.
Common Questions About Strategies
How long does it take to build an effective strategy?
Quality over speed is key, but the initial planning phase typically requires 1-2 months depending on team bandwidth. Allow time for research, testing minor tactics, and gathering stakeholder approvals. Refine continually.
Do strategies need to cover every network?
Not necessarily. Focus your energy primarily where your audience spends most of their time and where you can realistically serve them well long-term. Often 2-3 top networks suffice versus diluting efforts.
How often should I update my strategy?
At minimum, tactics should be tweaked quarterly based on performance reviews. But full strategic overhauls make sense yearly or when major variables change like products/services, leadership or customer demographics. Flexibility is important.
Where can I find strategy examples?
Case studies from platforms, marketing books/journals, events/webinars, other brand plans you admire via their websites are all great reference material tailored to your industry. But ultimately customizing to your unique audience needs and resources yields the best results.
