Social media marketing can be overwhelming, there’s an abundance of different networks available and they seem to always add new features for you to learn and integrate into your plan.
If your business doesn’t have a full time team of social experts at your disposal, it’s down to you to create a simple and achievable strategy that fits your goals. Here’s how to get started with social media to drive traffic to your business.
What Is A Social Media Strategy?
Put simply, your social media strategy is your big plan for how you create, post and engage with your social media content. It’s going to encompass your guidelines, how often you post, your marketing/creative plans and your engagement strategy.
Why Do You Need A Social Media Strategy?
The main challenges that any social media marketer faces are; reaching your intended audience, measuring the return on investment and reaching the business’ goals.
By crafting a strategy beforehand, it can help you tackle these challenges. Social media strategies also help you to set goals, track their performance and tweak the goalposts over time to make sure you’re always getting the most out of your time and money. Without a starting point, you can’t measure what is and isn’t working.
A proper strategy also helps you set expectations when it comes to involving people in your team. It helps align anybody working on your social media channels with a common purpose. It also gives a brief on what they should (and shouldn’t) do on your social networks.
What are the key steps on creating a social media strategy?
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Define your target audience
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Start a blog
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Create informative content
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Focus on a few key channels
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Develop a schedule for consistency
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Measure the results
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Adjust your tactics based on the results
Let’s go into a little bit more detail about the above…
Defining Your Target Audience
If you haven’t already begun to identify your target customers and your buyer personas, start by defining the key demographics of the audience you’re trying to reach such as; age, gender, occupation, income, hobbies and interests, etc.
Try to get inside the mind of this person, what are the challenges & problems they have to solve daily. Does your business cater to them?
Start A Blog
Starting a blog is excellent for your business. Fresh content is key when it comes to a successful online strategy, so commit to making new, quality content on a consistent basis. It could be daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Compile a list of common questions from your target audience and answer these questions with new blog posts.
Creating Informative Content
Downloadable content such as ebooks, videos, infographics and guides which answer customer’s questions is a great way to add value to your social media strategy. If your content is truly helpful, people will likely share it on their own social networks to like-minded people and extend your reach.
Focus On Key Channels
Most small businesses don’t have the man-power to establish and sustain a quality social media presence on every single channel. Also, it can be overwhelming to keep up with algorithms and new features on every single social network. Research which social media channels your customers are already on. If your business thrives on visual content, Instagram & Facebook would probably be your go to. Work on building a thriving community there before moving onto another channel.
Develop A Schedule For Consistency
Social media isn’t science, it doesn’t work the same for every business. To see the results for your business, it’s important to establish a consistent posting and engagement schedule. Set yourself or your team goals for posting and hold yourself accountable for following it.
There are plenty of social media scheduling tools out there such as Buffer or Later, so you’re not constantly glued to your screen when it comes to posting.
Measure Your Results
There are countless metrics to track on your social media channels. Start by looking at how much traffic your social accounts are driving to your website or blog. Then, watch what sort of posts people are responding to and look for trends related to particular keywords that generate more interest than others. Once you’ve posted a few times and you get an idea of your average traffic and post performance, set goals and keep a scorecard to measure how much progress you’re making.
Adjust Your Tactics Based Off Your Results
Social media won’t start working overnight. It takes time to establish your brand and seeing results on the world’s biggest, yet most crowded stage. Experiment with the type of content you post and see what works best. Over time, you’ll be able to adjust your schedule, guidelines and personas based on the information you’re gathering. This will help finetune your strategy and gain more consistent results.
Summary
Social media can be a broad, confusing subject. However, it can also be a great multipurpose asset to your company. It connects you directly with the people you’re selling to, it also promotes your products, services and brands.
If you’re unsure on where to start and you want to speak to a social media expert, get in touch with us and we’ll be able to help you out with your social media strategy.