We’ve all heard the horror stories… an ill-advised tweet, a Facebook post that erupts into angry protest, or a meme that was better left unshared.
While it may take some time to create your perfect social media strategy, it’s important to nail it down sooner than later.
It could make the difference between an oops you can’t recover from and a strategy that builds brand awareness, conversation, and engagement.
So, let’s begin with the basics, and make this easy on you. Because strategy should be fun, not heavy, uncomfortable, or frustrating.
In this episode of the Brand Authority podcast, you’ll learn how to quickly establish your social media brand strategy.
Subscribe to Brand Authority Podcast in iTunes
How to Develop Your Social Media Brand Strategy
Highlights From Episode 6
1. Set Goals and Make Them Stick
You can’t start crafting your strategy if you’re not clear on your overall goals and objectives.
Take a few minutes to write down what you want to achieve. And don’t forget to give them a deadline.
A goal without a date is only a dream.
2. Choose Your Social Media Platforms
You don’t need to be active on every single social media platform – just the ones that best support your goals.
So, ask yourself:
- What social network(s) is your audience actively using?
- What platform(s) align with the type of content you share?
- What platform(s) are appropriate for your industry?
Answering these questions will help you choose the right platform for you, your brand, and your audience.
3. Create a Content Strategy
Before you start creating and sharing content, you must understand the needs of your audience. Go to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more to see what type of content your target market is most interested in.
Next, brainstorm your content topics based on the research above.
Now it’s time to decide on the type of content you’ll share. I suggest you focus on content that converts:
- Blog posts
- Webinars
- Ebooks
- Case studies
- Special Reports
- White papers
- Workbooks / Downloads
- Podcast interviews
- Checklists / How-to’s
- Video guides and tutorials
You don’t have to share every type. Pick one, see how it performs, and move on to the next type of content.
Source: Graphic Mama
4. Create a Posting Strategy
Having a data-backed posting strategy will ensure that your content is reaching your audience on the right platform and at the right time.
First, determine what social networks you’ll share your content on.
To get started, first write down what type of content you’ll share on each channel.
Next, decide how often and when you’ll share that content. Use analytics to determine when your followers are most active online
Finally, create a content calendar to stay on track.
Don’t have one? You can download this free calendar and then organize based on your posting schedule.
5. Track, Measure, Adjust
Are you paying attention to your results? It’s difficult, if not impossible, to build your brand on social media if you:
- Don’t know what you want to achieve
- Don’t have a system in place to monitor results
- Don’t actively track, measure, and adjust strategy
There’s now way to know if what you’re doing is getting you closer (or pushing you further away) from your goals unless you track and measure your ongoing efforts. Doing so will help you:
- Set the right goals
- Determine what’s working and what’s not
- Iterate
- Choose a few metrics that are aligned with your goals and track them daily. I suggest you focus on actionable metrics, that help you make decisions.
Final Thoughts
The marketing world is constantly evolving. The only way to stay ahead is to have a clear and effective marketing strategy to guide you.
If you haven’t already, listen and subscribe to my podcast where I dive deeper into how to create a strategy that works.
Udit Khanna says
December 6, 2018 at 12:08 pmThanks for this Informative article.
These tips will really help us to make a strong social media strategy. I just want to add one more thing in this. If you really want to make a strong social media strategy and attracts traffic to your site then you must have use info-graphics in your content strategy.
Seema Sharma says
June 19, 2018 at 5:09 amAmazing Post! Quality SMO drives quality traffic to the business.
Jane Brewer says
December 17, 2017 at 8:21 pmThese all tips are amazing just want to add that your strategy should be focused on the targeted audience. Thanks for sharing
Socialesque says
October 16, 2017 at 9:39 amAnd 6. be mindful of, and leave room for, your customers. They also make, or break, your brand.
harshad says
October 5, 2017 at 4:34 amthanks for sharing post. this post is very help full. i like 2nd and 3rd . this post very useful and interesting.
json formatter says
September 27, 2017 at 7:20 pmA very useful article. It’s simple and easy-to-understand
Schaan O\'Hara says
September 25, 2017 at 12:02 amGreat post. Quality SMO drives quality traffic to the business. One needs to cover all the essential steps important for the branding of the business through social media optimization. Well explained the features of SMO.
Shantanu Sinha says
September 6, 2017 at 2:23 amHello Rebekah,
Great tips over here 🙂
Social media is one of the largest platform in this time. There are billions of people who are highly active on it.
We can not touch them all, but if we know what type of people we want to hit, then half the game is done.
I love Twitter, I know what people I am hitting over there and how I can engage them to visit my web site and turn into my loyal ones.
Creating the content strategy is one of the best thing one can begin with. We need to know that what type of audiences we have and what kind of content we need to create for them. Either it is a blog post, e-books, podcast, webinars etc. Then we can hit that part with the full force to get the better results.
These are some really helpful tips to keep our tracks on, as the world is changing at a very high speed and every day
competitors are evolving, so its better to be smart and clever.
Thanks for the share.
Shantanu.
Jarvee says
September 5, 2017 at 1:34 pmSocial media strategy that is well planned, organized and supported by facts for your research is what will lead you to successful social media strategy.
We need to make our choices wisely and set priorities, we can’t be everywhere and reach everyone. But when you know who you need to reach and what are the next steps, you are already halfway there.