How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy in 9 Easy Steps

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing uses channels to sell or promote a brand, product, or service.

Social media marketing helps businesses:

• Increase brand awareness
• Build engaged communities
• Sell products and services
• Measure brand sentiment
• Provide social customer service
• Advertise products and services to target audiences
• Track performance and adjust larger marketing strategies accordingly

What is a social media marketing strategy?

A social media plan is a written document that outlines your objectives, the strategies you’ll employ to accomplish them, and the metrics you’ll monitor to gauge your success.

List your planned and current social media accounts in your marketing strategy and goals tailored to each platform you use. These objectives must align with your company’s overall digital marketing plan.

Finally, a solid social media strategy should specify your team’s duties, responsibilities, and reporting schedule.

How to Create a social media marketing strategy in 9 Steps

Step 1. Choose goals that align with business objectives

Set S.M.A.R.T. goals

The first stage in creating a successful social media strategy is setting clear goals and targets. It is possible to assess performance or return on investment (ROI) with goals.

Your social media marketing goals need to be SMART, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Track meaningful metrics

Although vanity metrics like follower and like counts are simple to monitor, it can be challenging to demonstrate their true worth. Think about engagement, click-through, and conversion rates as a substitute.

You should monitor several objectives for various social media platforms or uses for every network.

For instance, you would track click-throughs if you used LinkedIn to increase traffic to your website. You might monitor the number of Instagram Story views if you use Instagram to raise brand recognition. Cost-per-click (CPC) is a frequent success statistic for Facebook advertising.

Your overall marketing objectives should be in line with your social media aims. This makes it simpler to demonstrate the worth of your job and win your boss’s support.

Step 2. Learn everything you can about your audience

Get to know your fans, followers, and customers as real people with real wants and needs, and you will know how to target and engage them on social media.

When it comes to your ideal customer, you should know things like:

• Age
• Location
• Average income
• Typical job title or industry
• Interests
• Etc.

The demographics of your followers, locations, and interactions with your brand on social media can all be learned from social media analytics. You may improve your strategy and audience targeting thanks to these findings.

Jugnoo, an Uber-like service for auto-rickshaws in India, discovered through Facebook Analytics that 65% of its user base was Android-using and that 90% of its users who recommended other users were between 18 and 34. Their cost per referral decreased by 40% due to using that data to focus their advertisements.

Step 3. Get to know your competition

Oddly, your competitors are already using social media, which means you can learn from what they’re doing.

Conduct a competitive analysis.

You can learn about the competitors and what they are doing successfully (and poorly) by conducting a competitive analysis. You’ll have a solid understanding of what is typical in your field, which will help you define your own social media goals.

It will also help you spot opportunities.

Maybe one of your competitors is dominant on Facebook, for example, but needs to put more effort into Twitter or Instagram. You might want to focus on the social media platforms where your audience is underserved rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player.

Use social media listening.

Another technique to monitor your rivals is through social listening.

Run social media searches for the firm name, account handles, and other pertinent terms of the rivals. Find out what information they share and what others say about them. How much engagement do their campaigns generate if they use influencer marketing?

As you keep tabs, you can observe changes in the social media usage of your rivals and influential people in your sector. You might discover intriguing new trends. You might even see a campaign or social media material that completely succeeds or fails.

Make the most of and inform your social media marketing strategy with this information.

Just don’t go overboard on the spy tactics, Amanda advises. “Make sure you aren’t ALWAYS comparing yourself to the competition — it can be a distraction. I’d say checking in every month is healthy. Otherwise, focus on your strategy and results.”

Also read : 5 Marketing Mistakes That Look Small but Are Really Costly

Step 4. Do a social media audit

If you’re already using social media, take stock of your efforts. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What’s working, and what’s not?
• Who is engaging with you?
• What are your most valuable partnerships?
• Which networks does your target audience use?
• How does your social media presence compare to the competition?

After gathering such data, you’ll be prepared to consider strategies to get better.

Your audit ought to clarify to you what function each of your social media accounts fulfills. Consider if an account is worth preserving if its purpose is clarified.

To help you decide, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is my audience here?
• If so, how are they using this platform?
• Can I use this account to help achieve my goals?

Asking these tough questions will keep your social media strategy focused.

Look for impostor accounts.

You can find fraudulent accounts utilizing the names of your items or your company throughout the audit.

Even though they steal your legitimate followers, these imposters could harm your brand.

To ensure your admirers know they are dealing with the real you, you should also have your accounts verified.

Here’s how to get verified on:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• TikTok

Step 5. Set up accounts and improve profiles

Decide which networks to use

You must establish your strategy for each social network as you choose which ones to use.

According to Angela Purcaro, social media manager for Benefit Cosmetics, “For our cosmetic tutorials, we’re all about Snapchat and Instagram Stories. On the other hand, Twitter is reserved for customer service.

Even formats within networks are assigned distinct purposes by Hootsuite’s social team. For instance, on Instagram, they use Stories to cover live events or fast social media updates, while the feed is used to post high-quality instructive infographics and product announcements.

Set up your profiles.

Once you’ve decided which networks to focus on, it’s time to create your profiles. Or improve existing ones so they align with your strategy.

• Make sure you fill out all profile fields
• Include keywords people would use to search for your business
• Use consistent branding (logos, images, etc.) across networks so your profiles are easily recognizable

Don’t let this list overwhelm you. Remember, it’s better to use fewer channels well than to stretch yourself thin trying to maintain a presence on every network.

Step 6. Find inspiration

While your brand must be unique, you can still draw inspiration from other great businesses on social.

Social media success stories

These are typically located in the website’s social network’s business section.

Case studies can provide insightful information that you can use to improve your social media strategy.

Award-winning accounts and campaigns

You can see instances of companies that are masters of social media by looking at the winners of The Facebook Awards or The Shorty Awards.

Check out Fridge-Worthy, Hootsuite’s biweekly awards program showcasing firms doing clever and astute things on social media for some knowledge and amusement.

Your favorite brands on social media

Who on social media do you like to follow? What do they do to encourage interaction and content sharing from their audience?

For instance, one of the top Instagram accounts is National Geographic, which combines eye-catching images with intriguing commentary.

Finally, there is Shopify. The e-commerce company promotes itself on Facebook by featuring case studies and customer success stories.

Additionally, Lush Cosmetics is a superb illustration of first-rate customer support on Twitter. Endearingly and consistently, they use their allotted 280 characters to respond to queries and address issues.

The voice, tone, and manner are identical throughout these tales. This is essential for letting users know what to anticipate from your feed. Why should people follow you? What benefits?

Even if your social media team consists of several people, consistency aids in maintaining your content’s brand identity.

Ask your followers

Additionally, customers can provide social media inspiration.

What topics are your potential buyers discussing online? How much can you discover about their needs and desires?

If you already have social media channels, you can ask your followers what they want from you. Just be sure to offer what they request and follow through.

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Step 7. Create a social media content calendar

Sharing excellent information is crucial, of course, but it’s just as critical to plan when publishing content for the greatest impact.

Though you should also leave room for some impromptu participation, your social media content plan must consider the time you spend connecting with the audience.

Set your posting schedule.

Your social media content calendar lists the dates and times you will publish different content on each social media channel. It’s the ideal location to organize all your social media activities, including blog articles, videos, user-generated content re-shares, and sharing links and photographs. Both your daily posting and content for social media campaigns are covered.

Also read : How to write a blog post to get more traffic?

Determine the right content mix.

Make sure your content strategy and calendar align with the goals you’ve set for each social media profile so that everything you post contributes to achieving your corporate objectives.

(We know joining in on every meme is tempting, but a plan should always guide your social media marketing activities!)

You might decide that:

• 50% of content will drive traffic back to your website
• 25% of content will be curated from other sources
• 20% of content will support lead-generation goals (newsletter sign-ups, ebook downloads, etc.)
• 5% of content will be about your company culture

Placing these different post types in your content calendar will ensure you maintain the right mix.

If you’re starting from scratch and you’re not sure what types of content to post, try the 80-20 rule:

• 80% of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain your audience
• 20% can directly promote your brand.

You could also try the social media content marketing rule of thirds:

• One-third of your content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit.
• One-third of your content shares ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses.
• One-third of your content is personal interactions with your audience

Don’t post too much or too little

If you’re developing a social media marketing plan from scratch, you might still need to learn how frequently to publish content on each network to get the most engagement.

If you post appropriately, you avoid driving people away. However, if you post infrequently, you can avoid appearing uninteresting to followers.

Start with these posting frequency recommendations:

• Instagram (feed): 3-7 times per week
• Facebook: 1-2 times per day
• Twitter: 1-5 times per day
• LinkedIn: 1-5 times per day

Step 8. Create compelling content

Recall the mission statements you wrote in Step 5 for each channel. Now let’s dive deeper and give some samples of the material you’ll post on each network to accomplish your goal.

If you’re unsure what to post, here’s a long list of social media content ideas to get you started.

The idea here is to:

• Keep your content aligned with the purpose of each network;
• Show other stakeholders (if applicable) what kind of content they can expect to see on each network.

When your coworkers ask why you have yet to share their case study, whitepaper, or blog article with TikTok, this last item will especially assist you in avoiding any awkwardness. Linda, it’s not part of the plan!

The goal is to create content kinds that are appropriate for the network and serve the goals you’ve set for it.

For instance, if you’ve chosen Twitter primarily for customer assistance, you wouldn’t want to waste time producing brand awareness tweets. Furthermore, viewers of TikTok want to watch brief, unpolished films, so you would want to avoid uploading incredibly polished corporate video advertising there.

It might take some testing over time to figure out which type of content works best on which type of network, so prepare to update this section frequently.

We won’t lie: content creation isn’t as easy as everyone not on the social team seems to think. But if you’re struggling, Amanda suggests going back to basics.

Step 9. Track performance and make adjustments

Your social media marketing strategy is a hugely important document for your business, and you can’t assume you’ll get it exactly right on the first try. As you implement your plan and track your results, you may find that some strategies don’t work as well as you’d anticipated while others work even better.

Look at performance metrics.

You may track social visitors as they navigate across your website using UTM parameters and the statistics available inside each social network (see Step 2), allowing you to determine exactly which social posts bring in the most visitors.

Re-evaluate, test, and do it all again.

Use the information as it becomes available to reassess your strategy regularly. Additionally, you can utilize this data to compare other postings, social media marketing campaigns, and marketing tactics. You may continually improve your social media marketing approach by testing new ideas to see what works and what doesn’t.

To monitor your growth over time, you should review the performance of all your channels at least once every week and familiarise yourself with the fundamentals of social media reporting.

Surveys are another excellent tool for evaluating your social media strategy. Find out if you are fulfilling your followers’ requirements, email list subscribers, and website visitors. Find out what they want to see more. After that, follow through on what they advise.

Also read : Social Media Management Costs for Businesses 

Conclusion

In conclusion, a well-executed social media marketing strategy can be a game-changer for businesses aiming to thrive in the digital age. By leveraging the power of social media platforms, businesses can establish a compelling online presence, forge meaningful connections with their audience, and drive tangible results. However, success in social media management requires careful planning, consistent execution, and an unwavering commitment to understanding and adapting to the ever-evolving digital landscape. By implementing the key elements and insights discussed in this blog, you have the knowledge and tools to craft an effective social media management strategy that propels your brand toward growth, fosters engagement, and positions you as a leader in your industry. Embrace the possibilities, unleash your creativity, and embark on a journey of social media success that resonates with your audience and drives your business forward.