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Rebekah Radice

Online, Digital, Social Media Marketing

3-Part Social Media Strategy That Actually Works
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3-Part Social Media Strategy That Actually Works

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There is a common misconception when it comes to social media marketing.

All you have to do is set up a few social networks and the results will start rolling in.

But you’re smarter than that. You know it takes a lot more.

Focus, organization and determination are just a few qualities you must have.

Because the reality is this.

If you want to amplify your message through social media, you need more than a wish and a dream. You need a plan.

But here’s the good news. It doesn’t have to be hard to create one.

Surprising?  Let’s take a look at how easy it can be to put a social media strategy that actually works in place.

3-Part Social Media Strategy That Actually Works

 Part 1: Align Daily/Weekly Content Strategy With Goals

Do you know how social media is supporting your business goals? If not, now is the time to take stock.

Because running your business without clearly defined goals and objectives is like driving a toaster through a carwash. Scary, dangerous and ill-advised.

I recommend introducing SMART goals into your planning. It’s a simple way to create actionable and tactical social media goals.

Not familiar with the term? SMART goals are:

  • Specific Have you been specific in what you want to achieve? 
  • Measurable How will you know if you’ve achieved your goal? 
  • Achievable Is this a goal that you can achieve?
  • Relevant Is this goal aligned with your mission, vision and values? 
  • Time Specific When do you want to achieve this goal by?

Here’s a great breakdown from Nancy O’Sullivan that shows what SMART goals can do to help you focus within your business and life.

So where do you begin? Here are a few examples of what your initial goals and objectives might look like. Let’s start with your mission.

Your mission:

“To become the industry destination for all business owners seeking social media tips, tools and strategies that support and encourage growth within their business.”

Your goals:

  • Increase Sales
  • Drive Traffic
  • Improve Customer Experience
  • Heighten Brand Awareness

According to a recent survey by Simply Measured, 71% of marketers surveyed cited “Brand Awareness” as their #1 social media objective.

If it’s yours too, build your objectives around a creative content schedule that maximizes every network you’re actively using.

Your objectives:

  • Increase Sales
    • Create 5 specific pieces of content for Facebook and Twitter each week
    • Design a Pinterest image for each new blog post
  • Drive Traffic
    • Tweet 1-2 evergreen blog posts to Twitter every day
    • Use a CTA (call to action) for blog
  • Improve Customer Experience
    • Shorten normal response time
    • Allow for easier access to support
  • Heighten Brand Visibility
    • Use live streaming to build a stockpile of brand content ready to repurpose
    • Create new interview series

Your daily content strategy:

Once you’ve defined your mission, goals and objectives, now it’s time to get into daily tactics.

What type of content will you share and how can you easily post that content without feeling overwhelmed?

One easy way is to create a daily theme across your social networks. For example,

  • MONDAY: This will be your BIG content day. A special piece of content you’ve created that makes it your pillar post of the week. This could be an:
    • Ebook
    • Chart/Graph
    • Study / Analytics
    • Case Study
    • Slideshare
    • Template (Download)
    • Guide
    • Original Research
    • Opinion Post
  • TUESDAY: Q&A that takes client or customer questions and provides a solution. You could use graphics, video or text to get your point across.
  • WEDNESDAY:
    • Fun/Entertaining
    • Quotes
    • Polls
    • Quizzes
    • Infographics
  • THURSDAY: Social Media Best Practices
  • FRIDAY: Roundup of the week that will set your fans/followers up for a productive week. Share:
    • Social media skills
    • Best practices
    • Productivity tips
    • Strategy ideas
    • Success stories
    • How-to’s

 Part 2:  Create Your Daily Social Media Workflow

Now that you know what you’re going to post, it’s time to figure out the steps you’ll take to increase engagement, traffic and sales.

This is your daily social media checklist. An easy to follow list of steps to take each day.

IMPORTANT: The steps below shouldn’t take you more than 30 minutes at the beginning and end of your day. If you don’t have that kind of time, then plan on giving it away.

They are that critical to building your social media presence.

Social Media Checklist

Twitter

  1. Monitor mentions via keywords and respond to any questions, needs, concerns
  2. Respond to influencers, make new connections and schedule posts to share
  3. Thank RT’s
  4. Thank a few new followers
  5. Go through contributors list and schedule retweets and interact with at least 5
  6. Schedule new blog post 3 times throughout the day with a unique CTA

Facebook

  • Respond to any support questions
  • Reply to all comments
  • Thank anyone that’s shared your content
  • Like where appropriate
  • Comment on five relevant Page posts

Google+

  • Reply to all comments
  • Thank anyone that’s shared your content
  • +1 where appropriate
  • Share relevant content in specific groups
  • Interact within groups
  • +1 anyone that has shared your content

LinkedIn (personal and groups)

  • Approve new contacts and group members
  • Approve group submitted content
  • Drop into other groups and see if you can volunteer answers
  • Update group status at least once a day – this should be a mix of questions, links and how-to’s
  • Manage spam

Instagram

  • Post 1-2 times per day – a mix of blog posts, roundup tips, top tips, funny/inspirational posts
  • Like one post from everyone that’s liked your content
  • Search popular hashtags to find new people to follow
  • Comment on other people’s posts
  • Thank those that have shared our content
  • Send direct messages to new followers with a video and CTA

Pinterest

  • Pin 5 images per day – a mix of your content and others
  • Like 5 posts per day
  • Repin 5 images per day
  • Check notifications and thank anyone who’s repinned
  • Choose evergreen posts to repin to new boards
  • Pin to group boards for added exposure
  • Update and boards or titles that need optimized

Now put this into play for your business. Create an easy checklist that will breakdown each step you’ll take on a daily basis.

I love to do this with mind-mapping software. It makes visualization so much easier and all of a sudden the task now becomes manageable.

Here’s an example of what this might look like.

 Part 3: Track, Measure and Adjust

Ever wish you knew exactly what type of content your target market is looking for?

Wouldn’t it be great if you had a crystal ball that let you know what they wanted, when they wanted it and where they wanted to receive it?

You can, or at least you can come close by paying attention to your analytics and goals.

Numbers don’t lie and will always give you the guidance and direction you need.

Measure your conversations, interaction, engagement, and shares through tools like:

Whether you’re looking at Twitter engagement or Facebook growth, tracking and measuring your efforts should be the backbone of your social media strategy.

Social media is fluid making analytics all that more important. Your strategy must remain flexible and agile.

Take a dive into your analytics and see what’s working and what’s not.

When was the last time you researched what’s happening across each social network?

The beauty in social media is this. If you stay alert, there’s always an opportunity to adjust your sails.

Final Thoughts

A big part of your social media presence is actually being “present.”

But it’s not enough to just be present, you also must ensure that your efforts are consistent and effective.

No matter what you decide to implement, make it manageable and realistic. Stretch goals are great, but they’ll never get met if you’re not 100% onboard.

Know what you’re willing to give, how much time it will take and then work like crazy to make your social media strategy work.


Full disclosure: Links on this page may be affiliate links which means that if you decide to buy, I will earn a commission. 3 things you need to know: I only recommend products I use within my own business, am extremely happy with, and can confidently promote.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. The thing to keep in mind about social media marketing is that social traffic represents people way up top of funnel. This means social viewers are often people with the least amount of awareness or interest in a product. Combine this fact with the fact that social media resists commercialization, and social selling can be a tough nut to crack.

    Because social is top of funnel, your messaging has to be very different and very compelling. It can’t be sales-ey. That just doesn’t work on social. For best results, you have to have sexy, provocative content. And you can’t go in for the sale right away.

    You must start conversations, build buzz and interest. This takes time. After some time of getting viewers past the know, like and trust phases, then you *might* be in a position to start a sales conversation. But that conversation must begin with something that requires a low level of commitment: like signing up for a newsletter.

    You cannot apply direct response messaging of Pay Per Click advertising to social ads. It just won’t work. All of the content, including visuals, must be different.

    Now, one tool that works very well in direct response, sales-oriented marketing is text messaging. Texting and mobile giving are so powerful that it’s amazing these technologies are still so underrated in the nonprofit community. SMS, for example, is truly a cinderella technology for nonprofits and social enterprises.

    Texting is cheap, fast and easy. Has almost zero barrier to entry. And is built into every phone. People in lower-income communities, not just in the U.S. but around the world, have been utilizing SMS to give to charity.

    We’ve been helping nonprofits use text messaging to raise funds since 2008. We offer a text to donate service that is affordable and effective.

    Research shows that many nonprofits will raise more overall with an SMS donation program in their marketing mix than they will without one. Learn more https://www.gmg.cm/blog/do-sms-donations-work

    Reply

  3. Super helpful Rebekah! Thank you for breaking it down in this way. Easier to see which area needs attention and I’m going to try the concept of leading with Monday’s content for the week.

    Reply

  5. Thanks for you insightful suggestions. I like to be reminded of the importance of thanking our sharers and RT’s. These people help us grow and should be treated as royalty.

    Thanks again

    Reply

  8. Hi Rebekah,

    Excellent guide,
    I like your social media goal setting and the action-able tips. I do create an exclusive image for pinterest for every blog post that I write. Sometimes I do create one when sharing other people’s content. Pinterest works out really well with good images.

    I like using tools like Buffer to schedule and space out the tweets through out the day. Am also trying to decrease the response time on the social media by checking notifications multiple times a day.

    Interesting suggestion about the interview series. Am working on an AMA series at this moment, sort of like Interview – just that the questions will be asked by the community, instead of me!

    I like to post the best content of the week on Monday – like you said, it is the big content day. Posting something valuable at the start of the week helps as it allows me to promote it for the rest of the week.

    thanks,
    Uttoran Sen,

    Reply

    • I’m a huge fan of Pinterest and it’s ability to drive traffic Uttoran. It’s great to hear you’re creating images specifically for it.

      Your new series sounds really interesting. And smart move letting the community ask the questions. Super helpful!

      Reply

  10. Hey Rebekah,

    I know many will appreciate this!

    The plan that I follow is quite similar to this one. Specifically on Part 2. I tell you that it works out great once you get into the habit of it.

    I also use Google analytics mainly for to view my sessions, time and site, and bounce rate. Just these metrics let me know if I’m slacking off or if my target market is consistently coming to my blog.

    The only thing is that I haven’t really done part one which could be the missing piece of the puzzle. I will take note on this.

    Thanks for sharing! Have a good one!

    Reply

  11. Loved your article Rebekah, thanks for the clear and actionable steps! You just encouraged me to write down my mission pen on paper, for the first time 🙂

    Reply

  12. Hi Rebekah,
    Great post as ever. I love how you’ve set this out in such a clear and actionable way. As a freelancer – and someone who advises freelancers – I know people can get overwhelmed by social media and everything that they ‘have’ to do. You’ve given a really clear roadmap that takes out some of the stress. Will definitely be sharing this.

    Reply

  13. Under Twitter, it says to schedule your blog posts with a unique CTA. What’s an example of a UNIQUE call to action?

    Reply

    • Hi Crystal – that’s really going to depend on your business/campaign/product. A call to action could be as simple as “download now” or more involved with a specific target and workflow involved. For e.g. reader comes to your post, you offer your ebook with a next step of moving them into your webinar. Or visitor reads post and has already downloaded your ebook. Then the CTA would change (customized) based on where they’re at within the customer journey.

      Reply

  14. Hi Rebekah, i loved reading this article. Its clear, precise and breaks down the 3 strategies perfectly. I absolutely agree when you say its not just enough to be present when it comes to social media because our efforts must be consistent and effective. I never realized how relevant is SMART for social media platforms, i love this idea and looking forward to write about it on my own blog referring to yours which i find most engaging. It’d be great if you could check mine someday and provide feedback. I’m a third year student in Mass Communication and the blog i’m working on is for an assignment but i wish to pursue this field after my studies.

    Can’t wait to read more of your posts!

    https://angeliquelemaire.wordpress.com/

    Reply

    • Hi Angelique! So in looking at your blog, it seems your focus is PR? You have a lot of exciting work ahead of you! PR goes hand-in-hand with Inbound marketing and of course – social media. It’s good to see you’re fully embracing that from beginning to end. 🙂

      Reply

      • Hi Rebekah! Yes in the beginning my blog focused more on digital PR and recently decided to explore social media more in depth as i’m very much interested in this field. I find it fascinating! Do you have any advice/tips for writing about social media? Thank you for checking my blog, i’ll be adding posts weekly 🙂

        Reply

  18. You have one of the most useful blogs of actionable advice I’ve ever read. All I have to do is look at my Evernote files for your name and your list of articles is my longest. This 3-part strategy was exceptional and extremely useful. One area where I struggle is how to keep track of the analytics in one place and how often should I be checking them for the different networks. Also how long does it take to generally recognize a pattern with your followers? Thanks so much for your awesome post!

    Reply

  19. It’s ALWAYS the measuring that gets me. Every. Single Time! I look at data and my eyes glaze over but I know…I’m totally dropping zeeeee ball. {face palm}

    This is an epic to do list, Rebekah! I wish I would have had that part 2 breakdown when I first started. It took me two years to get a system going that didn’t end in me tearing my hair out or wasting all day sucked into social media. It’s such a slippery slope when it comes to being active & being productive. I’m definitely getting better but I relish the day I get as ninjaesque as you are, lady! 😉

    Reply

  20. Thanks for this great article. It is very timely for me, as I just came from a SEVEN networking meeting where the topic presented was Social Media Marketing. I will share this with my group.

    Reply

    • Hi Jason! Great question. For me, Monday has always been my strongest publishing day. I’ve tested multiple days throughout the week and keep coming back to Monday.

      As a company, it will depend on your analytics. What days and times your fans/followers are online and how your content has performed in the past. As we know, there’s no one size fits all answer to strategy.

      Reply

  23. Another awesome article Rebekah. One of the best social media checklists I’ve ever seen. Lots to do, but you’ve broken it down nicely into manageable chunks, very helpful indeed!

    Reply

  24. This is great content. I agree with Julia above, that it is important to choose where your target market is before investing time, energy and money; especially for a small business. You do not need to be engaged in every social media channel.

    Also, for our clients we need to create a schedule that is easy to follow, and accountability. Marketing can seem like an overwhelming task that doesn’t pay off, like other activities (selling & producing) so having the accountability piece sure helps. Celebrate small success along the way!

    Thanks again for the valuable content for small businesses. I hope those in the business owners in Loveland, CO and Denver, CO area see this post.

    Reply

  25. What a fabulous overview Rebekah – and one I will be sharing out on the networks!

    One area that you didn’t mention is choosing which networks to use in the first place, based on business goals, target audience and the type of content a business will be creating.

    I think this is key to having an effective strategy – many businesses get overwhelmed by the sheer number of networks available – if we can help to hone it down to say the top 3 for their niche, then we’ll have gone a long way towards making their social media plan more viable.

    Do you agree? Thanks!

    Reply

  27. Really fantastic guide here, Rebekah, thanks for sharing. We’re looking at making a formal social media playbook for our small agency and this post will be a really helpful starting point for us! Thanks again!

    Reply

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    Reply

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