How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy

A social media strategy is crucial to grow and expand your business online as it guides you in the future and lets you take important decisions. The more specific and well researched your plan, the better the results. Do not jump on to trends and base your social media strategy on what others are doing. Work on a social media strategy that aligns with your business goals and helps you grow online. In this blog, we will look at steps that you can take to have a rewarding social media strategy.

1. Set SMART goals according to your business objective

It is extremely important to determine why you want to start using social media for your business. Note that there can be different goals that need a different strategy on social media hence all your goals can or cannot be achieved by a singular strategy. However, all the social media goals should contribute to the overall business objective and help a company achieve the desired results in the long run.

A very effective way to set your social media goals is to follow the SMART model which mentions that your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
Specific – Have a clear outcome of your goal, like increasing sales.

Measurable – Put a number to the goal.

Achievable – Be realistic and set attainable goals without overpromising.

Relevant – Choose goals that serve the bigger purpose and help you to achieve business objectives.

Time Bound – Make sure that you have a deadline for your goals

An example of the same can be to Increase the sale of product X by 15% in Q3 2023.

Some of the goals for your social media strategy are: –

a) Increase Brand Awareness

b) Increase conversion rates

c) Increase website traffic

d) Generate leads or Boost Sales

2. Identify your target audience

Once you have decided on the social media goal, the next step is to determine who will help you achieve that goal. Identifying the target audience also helps you decide the platforms that you are going to target. Many marketers fail to target the right audience which will help them achieve their social media goals and waste their money on irrelevant ads. Businesses need to go beyond the conventional ways of generic segmentation like demographic segmentation and focus beyond on aspects like buyer behavior, preferences, attitudes etc. to target them effectively. A customer persona should include: –

a) Age, Income, Gender

b) Goals and Preferences

c) Behavior

d) Interests

A detailed persona will help you create content that performs well for the specified target audience. Once you have identified the interests of your target audience, it is easier to make content that they would like to watch. It also increases the chance of conversion and

3. Conduct a SWOT analysis

At this stage, it is time to understand where do you stand currently in terms of your content, brand identity, awareness etc. You need to determine your area of expertise and the things that you master. Weakness gives you an idea about the areas that you need to focus on or work on. You should also look at the content that your current social media handles have and if they are providing value to the customers. Opportunity and Threat analysis helps you identify the competitors in the market and understand the areas they are good at. You can have a look at the platforms that your competitors are using and the type of content they publish which performs well. You can also take inspiration from their content and a lesson about what to avoid.

4. Choose the relevant platforms

After understanding the kind of content that you want to publish in the future and what your competitors post, the next big challenge is to determine the platforms that you are going to focus on. It can be confusing as you will have a lot of options to choose from. However, do not intend to be present everywhere. Focus on two or a maximum of three platforms that suit your target audience and your content style. Every platform comes with its pros and cons, it is ultimately your decision to select what best suits your current goals. Some of the most widely used platforms are: –

a)Facebook – Facebook is the biggest social media platform in today’s world as it has the biggest customer base and the fact that it has all age groups. Both visual and video content perform well on Facebook.

b)Instagram – It is the most famous platform amongst the younger audience. If you are targeting the younger age group, Instagram is your go-to platform. Instagram supports and pushes video content more so if you are planning to use Instagram, be ready to create some good reels.

c)LinkedIn – One of the best platforms to target professionals with over 875 million users monthly. It has all the top executives of the companies and if you want to reach the executive level individuals, LinkedIn is the place to look for them.

d)YouTube – It is the biggest platform for video content and after the digital revolution, almost all the companies advertise on YouTube to reach their target audience. If you are using video content to promote your product or service, YouTube can be a very good option to go for.

5. Create educational and engaging content

After deciding the platform that you are going to use for reaching out to your prospective customers, it is important to understand the type of content that has higher reach and the topics that people want to know about. You need to solve the problems or address the pain points of your target audience. Your posts should be informational, innovative and most importantly engaging. One of the ways to decide the content that you are going to publish is to find the latest trends in your industry by using google trends. You can also do a detailed keyword analysis and understand the topics that receive the maximum engagement on social media. It is important to understand customer preferences and their expectations of your content.

It is also important to keep in mind the ultimate goal of your social media strategy. If you are looking to provide informational content to your audience, writing blogs and articles about your industry is the right way. If you are just posting for brand awareness, you can post about your company mission and vision along with your product/service information. If you are trying to build a community and engage with them, try posting tips and tricks to improve/grow their business and interact with them regularly focusing on providing value and knowledge. It is extremely important to define your content strategy as it helps people have a better understanding of your product/service. Ensure that the content is aligned with the purpose of each platform and that you are posting in the right format which has a higher chance of going viral.

6. Track and improve your content

Your social media strategy is a very important aspect of the business and it can be a deciding factor for your success. However, you can’t expect it to work on the very first try. As you start implementing the campaign, you might find out that your strategy isn’t working the way it should or some of them work better than expected. You should decide the metrics that are important according to your strategy and start monitoring them regularly. You can have more than one performance metric that is important for your business and you have to start collecting them all for further analysis. Once you have the data, start analyzing the aspects that are of extreme importance to you. For example, engagement might be more important for one campaign whereas total outreach can be a prime focus for others.

All the social media platforms provide you with a wide variety of analytical tools that you can use to get an overview of your performance online. You can see what keywords/topics generate more interest and areas to focus on in the future. Keep track of such data and continue adjusting your content strategy according to the need of the audience. Social media is all about understanding your audience and then to deliver them what they want.

We at Smart Web Design provide expert opinion on your social media and help you formulate a better strategy for the future to increase the conversion and get better return on investments. Get in touch today to unlock your true potential with Smart Web Design.