A social media strategy is needed to successfully make use of the various platforms available today. Social media goes beyond postings and upload of images. A strategy sets goals and parameters for success. The strategy drives the social media plan into action.
Steps on How to Make an Effective Social Media Strategy
A social media strategy directs the business to where it is headed while a social media plan shows how to achieve the set goals.
Create an executive summary
This is a clear identification of the purpose why the business must be on social media and how this ties with the overall objectives of the business. Set a primary goal then specific ones. Identify the channels to focus on. DO NOT ATTEMPT to do all platforms but choose the ones that will go well with the business and target audience. Set parameters to measure results and to make further adjustments as needed.
Do a social media audit
Know who the competition is and where they are in the social media space. Get to know their audience as well. Observe what types of content are posted and which ones are getting engagements. What is the quality and scope of their content? How are followers reacting to their content?
Have buyer personas
When the types of buyers are identified, it is easy to make specific content. One way to do this is through the creation of buyer personas. What then is a buyer persona? This is a detailed description of someone who represents the target audience. An example is the person’s age, occupation, job descriptions, goals and other qualities that give a specific target group. The business social media may have students or real estate brokers as followers.
The buyer personas are real people with real interests that can boost traffic to the website.
Make strategies and use tools
This is the part where the specific strategies are set and by using tools make them into motion.
Below are some strategies for socal media:
- Paid
Facebook has a paid featured post option. A business may opt to have a brand boost once a week for a targeted audience, A good strategy is to first post organically then boost after some time.
- Owned
Use a brand and extensively do postings across all social media platforms. Provide a link on each post to the e-commerce website. Encourage people to use the hashtags and mention social media links and captions.
3. Earned
Monitor closely social media for branded and targeted keywords. Twitter is one platform with many of these keywords. Find where these conversations are and engage to gain authority and drive traffic to the business website.
Tools for social media strategy
Select the tools that can be use easily. For image posts, CANVA is a good tool to start with especially when there is no graphic artist on the team. HUBSUITE and BUFFER can be good scheduling tools when implementing a social media content plan. There are thousands of free and paid tools to help in social media.
Scheduling the social media plan
They say timing is everything in social media. There are the best times including days to upload images and posts to the platforms. Find out which ones will work for the business. Engagements have also been found to occur during certain times like after work hours for some platforms or during Fridays for others. Observe the competition as well.
Monitor the social media strategy
An effective plan is one that can also be measured. Some platforms like Facebook have their own analytics to provide metrics. Make use of these analytics to know which posts appeal to the audience.
What is important in an effective social media strategy is its flexibility. The business must not be rigid on its approach but needs to be fluid and adjust to the need of the moment. With the right way to look at analytics and other best practices, the business can bever go wrong on its approach.
