The greatest social media strategy plans are tool-neutral and lay out goals and measurements that outweigh any one social platform.
Facebook was the platform that global marketers used the most in 2021, according to 93 percent of marketers. Following closely after were Instagram and LinkedIn, while one in ten businesses utilised TikTok for advertising. As of January 2021, 88 percent of business experts thought that adopting social media as a marketing technique will enhance exposure, while 79 percent claimed that it would increase traffic.
It’s quite simple to slip into the trap of viewing social media through a tactical lens rather than a strategic one given the abundance of new tools and platforms that are continually being developed. Let’s examine the most effective technique to develop a successful social strategy.
Step 1: Set Your Goals
Yes, you may use social media to further a number of business goals. However, the most effective social media strategies are those that centre (at least initially) on a more specific purpose for social media. What do you want to utilise social media for primarily? Awareness? Sales? Retention and loyalty? Choose one and focus on that goal.
Step 2: Determine Your Market
Decide who you will be communicating with on social media after listening to your audience. What are the racial, ethnic, and psychological make-ups of your present or potential clients? How does that affect the social media activities you can and should try?
You may decide where to have these interactions with your audiences by setting up audience personas that reflect their online activity, values, and challenges.
Step 3: Take Into Account Your Target Market and Competitors
“Listen” is still sound advice that is frequently disregarded, despite being an old chestnut in social media strategy. If you expand your social listening outside your brand name, your customers (and competitors) will really provide you with a good indication of where and how you should be engaged in social media.
Analysing the manner and settings in which your audience organically engages in digital interactions might help you avoid a lot of headaches. Instead of beginning from scratch, look for platforms where you can engage with people who are already discussing (or attempting to engage with) your business.
Step 4: Identify Your Uniqueness.
Good enough is no longer acceptable; your brand and content must stand out.
What sets you apart from your rivals? Your brand needs to stand out in a cluttered world by captivating and involving your consumers.
Who you are or what you sell doesn’t matter. Features and benefits alone won’t ignite enough love for your product. How will your company appeal to the emotions rather than the intellect of your audience? Disney is about enchantment rather than movies. Apple is about innovation, not technology. What do you stand for?
Step 5: Build a Channel Strategy
You should pay attention to the “how” of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the rest only when you have a clear understanding of why you are even involved in social media and how you plan to evaluate the success of your social media strategy. Your channel plan should explain your target audience, your content strategy and editorial calendar, any resources you’ll need, and how you’ll evaluate the performance of each individual platform. This channel strategy should be unique in that you have a justifiable cause to engage in each activity.
Step 6: Identify Success Metrics
How will you know whether this is genuinely having an impact on your company? What critical metrics will you use to assess the success of your social media strategy? How will you go beyond likes and engagement, hopefully?
Setting organisational expectations for how the ROI of your social media initiatives will be monitored through the selection of KPIs (key performance indicators) is important.
A fitness program, not a fast fix, is what a social media strategy is. Success may be attained, but only with persistence and patience. Achieving long-term leadership buy-in requires thoughtful KPIs and achievable, quantifiable quarterly goals.
Your expertise is reflected in the success measures of your company. For instance, cutting-edge businesses keep track of customers as they move through the funnel, from social media involvement to purchase. Organisations just getting started prioritise reach, impressions, and diverse engagements.
Step 7: Choose the Right Team of Experts
Social issues should affect every aspect of the business and should be treated more like air than water (you have to go get it. However, the first stage in the procedure should be establishing a cross-functional team to assist in developing and managing the remainder of the strategy. Instead of doing so, an outsourced team of social media experts can handle all your social media needs. Therefore, finding the right team of experts and choosing them to be part of your business is not a waste of time and money.
My final bit of advice is that you must identify how you will be human.
The social mechanics push businesses to compete for customers’ friends’ and families’ attention. As a result, rather than acting like an entity, your organisation must behave (at least in part) like a person. How will you carry that out? Our team of professionals can handle that.
Although the plan and deliverable when we work on social media strategy for major corporations are far more extensive than what you see above, they are still built on this framework and way of thinking. Moreover, I hope it will be helpful to you in your own pursuits.
Our team of professionals will help you maximise the tools and platforms available to reach your business’ full potential.
