Social media. It’s top of mind for most digital marketers these days, especially now that the pandemic has forced just about everyone to go virtual. You hear how it builds brand awareness, increases website traffic, differentiates you from the competition, generates leads, etc . . . So, while that is all true and although it is vital to a complete and well-rounded digital marketing strategy, if it’s not done correctly, it may as well not be done at all.
Creating an Instagram account, for example, is a great first step as there are currently over 130 million users in the United States alone (and no doubt, a good majority located in the Holy City, with all those picturesque cobblestone streets and pastel facades) but if you stop at just that, you are falling short. No worries, though, as we’ve put together our best practices for taking your social strategy game up a level.
And before we dive in, we leave you with this:
Your biz should be being social instead of merely doing social. If you remember one thing from reading this article, let it be that.
How to Create a Winning Social Media Strategy
Determine Goals that Work For YOU
Not every business is the same and not everyone will have the same end-goals when it comes to social strategy. Make sure you brainstorm with your team first what your main objective is for your social plan as a whole. Are you looking to …
- Generate more sales and increase revenue?
- Jazz up that follower count?
- Increase engagement and conversation via your platforms?
- Bolster brand awareness?
Once decided, implement that thinking into all further social strategy decisions.
Brush Up on the Competition
True story. Your already established competitors are going to provide powerful insight into what is and isn’t working in the social realm. Use this information to your advantage. Analyzing how and on what platforms your audience is conducting their digital conversations is a good starting point for research. Conduct this research and then draw conclusions based on said research and infuse those conclusions into your own campaigns and outlets.
Target Your Ideal Audience
Once you’ve discovered where your audience is, the next logical step is to figure out who your audience is. What demographics or certain characteristics define who they are? Luckily for marketers, these days all of that information is at their fingertips and easily found using social media dashboards. After you’ve settled on who your target audience is, consider how that should affect how you conduct yourself on social media. For example, if your target audience is primarily female, consider creating a Pinterest board, where females dominate the gender ratio. Just some things to consider.
Establish Key Metrics
Creating a social strategy is awesome but you have to have some means of gauging success (or lack thereof). You have to be able to determine if the steps your taking in your strategy are actually working. We suggest grounding your strategy with some measurable performance indicators like engagement, clicks, reach, and beyond. Every social media strategy needs to be data-driven.
