How to create a Social Media Strategy

1. Identify the target audience.
2. Begin blogging.
3. Develop educational content.
4. Focus on a couple of key channels.
5. Create a recipe card to follow.
6. Measure the results.
7. Modify tactics.

Let’s learn how to start building a social media strategy.

If you haven’t already identified and documented your buyer persona, begin by defining the key demographics of the audience you’re trying to reach — gender, occupation, age, income, interests, and hobbies.

Consider hurdles and what problems need solving. Target less than 4 types of people that represent the majority of your buyers.

Fresh content is vital for a successful social strategy, so obligating yourself to create new, quality content consistently is what will bring your blog to an elevated level. Gather a list of common questions from prospects and commit to addressing these questions with at least one new blog post every other week at least.

Create downloadable content like checklists, videos, eBooks, and infographics that address your buyer’s pain points. The objective is to truly be helpful, then people will more likely share it on social media and extend your reach.

Many small businesses don’t have the bandwidth to create and sustain a quality social media footprint on every single channel. It can be overwhelming to learn the rules of engagement on all the platforms.

Learn where your target audience is spending time and put your efforts on nurturing, building, and sustaining a community there before adding on another channel.

Social media doesn’t work the same for every industry or business. Next Generation Brands will establish a consistent posting and engagement schedule for results, because creating an attainable recipe card can assist in setting goals for postings and engagement frequency.

A good starting point is to look at how much traffic your social accounts are driving to your blog or website.

Pay attention to posts to see what people are responding to, and look for relatable trends to specific keywords, or topics that generate more interest than others. After you have an idea of your average post-performance and traffic, set goals for key metrics and keep a scorecard to gauge your progress.

Simple and easy metrics to gather are best – if it’s too time-consuming to track, you may not be able to measure quickly. Examples of simple metrics (to start with) include the number of interactions, new followers and fans, and net new fans and visits to your website from social media platforms.

Social media to start is a 90-day plan as a norm because momentum needs to be created for following, establishing your brand, and to start seeing results. Building an audience, Next Generation Brands can assist you with this.

Social media is a multipurpose business asset. It connects you with your audience, and it also promotes your products, services, and brand. Both functions are equally important.

Building a social media strategy for marketing is a bit different than the process we discussed above. How so? For example, your benchmarks and goals may be more specific to metrics you track for other marketing efforts.

When using social media to market your business, ensure the experience on your social networks is a positive, consistent one. All imagery and content on your social media accounts should be consistent with those on your website, blog, and other digital real estate.

Pay close attention to any questions or comments your audience posts and be quick to address those (as that engagement could make or break a conversion or purchase).

Lastly, align the content you post and how you post it with marketing campaigns you’re running on other channels (e.g., email or ads). This brings us to our next section …

Content is the crux of any social media strategy. Without content, you can’t engage with your audience, promote your products, or measure performance.

The somewhat fleeting (and brief) nature of social media may lead you to believe that you don’t have to plan its content as much as you do for, say, your emails or blogs. That’s untrue. Social media content may not be as static as your landing pages or blog content, but it’s still equally important for engaging your audience and representing your brand as a whole.

For that reason, you should also have a social media content strategy. This should include:

• Posting guidelines and specs for each network on which you’re active (e.g., share GIFs on Twitter but avoid on Facebook)
• Target audience nuances per network (e.g., the younger segment of your audience is more active on Instagram than on LinkedIn)
• Repurposing plans for long-form content from your blog, podcast, e-books, etc.
• Who on your team is allowed to post and who’s responsible for engaging followers
• The companies, publications, and individuals you’ll repost (and those who you won’t/can’t)

Social media is overwhelming; Next Generation Brands, LLC has three programs; Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 to start your strategy to market your business. You can see our Program here. For a consultation and to get started please contact us here.

With our templates, you’ll receive:

• Scheduling templates for every channel, since social media channels aren’t one-size-fits-all
• Complete calendar of hashtag holidays, so you never forget to participate with new, fun content
• Social auditing template to track your followers, engagement rates, and more
• A social media content calendar to organize campaigns across every channel
• A social reporting template to track your monthly social successes
• A paid social template to help you manage and optimize your paid budget