With 2022 fast approaching, it’s the perfect time for businesses and brands to fine-tune the strategies they have for their social media marketing.
Posting various content on numerous social media platforms without having a sound strategy is a disaster waiting to happen. When you have no idea what your goals are, who you’re trying to talk to, and what it is they want, it’ll be difficult to achieve the results you’re looking for.
With more and more brands vying for attention on these platforms, a strong and concise strategy gives you the focus you need to swap out efforts that don’t help you achieve your goals and only cost you more time and money.
If you’re new to social media marketing or if you just want to see if you’ve still got your priorities right for the new year, here are 5 actionable tips to get you started.
Identify Your Goals
One of the first questions you have to ask yourself when creating a social media strategy is this: “Why do you want your brand to be on social media in the first place?”
Creating a social media strategy that doesn’t fall apart halfway starts with establishing a strong foundation. In this case, these are your goals that will act as your guide towards your desired destination.
Some of the most common goals for social media are the following:
- Increase Brand Awareness
If you’re just at the beginning of your social media journey or if you’re about to rebrand, this is a great place to start. Increasing mass awareness of your brand just means getting your name out there in the most authentic and lasting way possible.
Key metrics to track: brand mentions, post reach, shares, and impressions.
- Increasing Community Engagement
While tracking the total number of your fans or followers is great as it is, building a community that will stick with you for the long term is even better. Encourage conversations with your target audience to deepen your relationship with them. Consider user-generated content or products reviewed by influencers to get the ball rolling.
Key metrics to track: engagement rate, CTR, comments, likes, or shares, and hashtag tracking.
- Increase Sales or Conversions
Whether it’s buying products, signing up for an event, or completing a form submission, social media is one of the best platforms for you to encourage your target audience to convert.
Key metrics to track: click-through rate, bounce rate, and conversion rate.
Other goals include driving traffic to your website, growing revenue by increasing sales or signups, generating new leads, social listening, and providing social customer service.
Understand Your Target Market
Once you’ve set all your goals, the next step is to figure out who you’re going to deliver your message to. Simply making assumptions about who your target audience is will only hurt this entire process.
If you’re in the travel industry, for example, knowing the specific lifestyle of your target market and the content that they love to consume will help you narrow down what you’ll be posting on your socials. These can be vibrant and engaging photos, teasers of new places, and even travel tips.
Creating audience or buyer personas can help you understand your target audience better. Here are some guide questions to ask yourself and your team:
- Who are you targeting? Think about what their job titles might be, their ages, genders, locations, and salaries.
- What are their main interests? Maybe they like to be entertained or maybe they focus more on content that educates them. Perhaps they’re just looking for information on a new brand or they might be interested in taking a deeper dive into a certain product.
- What platform do they typically use? Are they on Facebook or is Instagram more their thing? Check if they have niche platforms that match your business’ tone of voice.
- How do they consume content? Do they read short social media posts or do they prefer longer blog posts? Consider as well if they would rather opt for an instructional video over anything else.
If you’re a business that’s been running for a while now, you probably already know who your target audience is by heart. However, with how fast consumer behavior is changing nowadays, it’s always best to see if your buyer personas are up-to-date.
Know What You’re Going To Share
At the end of the day, social media is all about the content you will produce and post. Based on the goals you’ve determined and the target audience you’ve zeroed in to, you should more or less have an idea of what to publish.
When creating a content plan for your socials, stick to your content themes. Having these will help you become more consistent, resulting in your audience recognizing your distinct brand identity.
It can get a little overwhelming to keep up with the content you have to either curate or create so consider using a social media management tool that will help you organize your content calendar and schedule your posts well in advance.
Recognize The Best Platforms For Your Business
Now that you have content to share, it’s time to determine where you’re going to distribute it. You’ll find that your buyer personas will come in hand here as well as these will help you identify the best platforms where your target audience is most active on and why.
If you’re going for multiple platforms, determine the purpose of each. While it is efficient, simply cross-posting from one channel to another is not entirely effective. You might use Facebook to create a more interactive community via a closed Facebook Group while on Instagram, you promote products through beautifully-composed images.
Another thing to consider is when you’re going to share your content. Now, you might be tempted to follow the suggestions you find on the internet, however, there truly is no universal best time to post. This is another thing where you should consult your buyer personas.
Take time to understand the behaviors of your target audience. When do they bust out their phones and use social media to search for the type of content that you’ll share?
Keep An Eye Out On Your Competition
When it comes to social media, be a hawk when it comes to checking out your competitors. See how their social media marketing strategies compare to your own.
Here are some things to take note of:
- What platforms are they using to connect with their audience?
- How are they communicating with their audience?
- What content are they creating or curating that’s doing well? And what isn’t?
- Where do they need to improve in terms of their social media strategy?
The insights you gather from answering the questions above can then better inform your social media strategy.
Due to the evolving nature of the social media landscape, your brand constantly needs to grow and adapt to newer and newer trends faster than in a blink of an eye. Nothing is ever final when it comes to the world of social media.
There’s nothing to worry about, though. You can always refer to your strategy to stay on track but don’t be afraid to improve on or change a few things here and there so that you can stay relevant and engage better with your audience.