What are the 10 most effective steps to develop a perfect social media marketing strategy for your brand? Social Media has changed a lot of things. Whether you’re a small business, mid-sized or a large, it’s something that you must include in your marketing strategy. If you think it’s not required, your consumers don’t think the same. Social Media is about democratizing your brand and making it more reachable for your consumers. Consumers like to be heard. It’s about the ability to reach the right people at the time that makes a huge impact. It’s like telling your customers that ‘we care about your voice’. Having said that, it is obviously not the easiest thing to do. We will tell you the right ingredients for a perfect social media marketing strategy. Before that we will give you the most important reason we think that social media is important for your brand. • • • • • • •
Improved brand perception and awareness Engagement with consumers Improved brand loyalty Improved brand authority Increased traffic to your website Improved SEO rankings Quick feedback from consumers
Random social media efforts will not yield any results. You need a social media strategy that can keep your social media efforts consistent, cohesive and synchronized. Social Media Strategy gives a direction to your efforts; efforts that can be measured.
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10 steps to make a perfect social media strategy 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Define your social media vision List your social media goals Identify your target audience Identify your competitors Find the most relevant social media platforms Align your content marketing strategy to your social media marketing strategy Use tools for your initiative Identify a social media team Measure your results Revisit your strategy
Let’s discuss each of the points above in details. 1.
Define your social media vision
It’s a broad statement that answers the question, ‘What do you want your social media to achieve for your brand?’. Do you wish to raise awareness about your brand or generate leads? It always better to start with a simple vision and derive your social media goals from there. 2.
List your social media goals
Your social media goals must be SMART- specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-sensitive. You need realistic social media goals that can help you determine the progress of your social media efforts. The social media goal cannot be vague or weak. It must be specific with an end date and the action that can help you to achieve it for example, grow 100 Facebook followers in 1 month. The social media goals are derived from the social media vision. 3.
Identify your target audience
You need to identify who your target audience is so that you can achieve conversions with your social media efforts. Attention from a lot of people may help build your brand but attention from your desired audience can help you grow your business. For example, if you’re in the business of selling protein shakes, your target audience will be fitness freaks in the age-group of 18-40 years. You can further specify the geography to finetune your content and messaging. Once you have a target audience profiling, you can also determine the most suitable channel where you can reach them. 4.
Identify your competitors
So that you have a unique positioning and stand out, you need a clear understanding of what your competitors are doing on social media. This activity will give you an understanding of the way your social media landscape looks like. Take in account aspects like their frequency of posting content and the social media channels used. 5.
Find the most relevant social media platforms
Not all social media platforms are relevant for every kind of business. You need to identify and prioritize the social media channels that are relevant for your industry and business. For example, product-based companies benefit most from Instagram and Pinterest (social media channels that are more image based). 6.
Align your content marketing strategy to your social media marketing strategy
Your content should be built on the premise of entertaining, informing, interacting or converting your consumers. Create text, images, infographics and videos as per the most important aspects that you’re trying to market related to your brand. 7.
Use tools for your initiative
There are many social media tools that your schedule your posts and measure the performance of your social media efforts. There are tools (both free and paid) like HootSuite, HubSpot, Buffer and Sprout Social that can help you get more effective results from social media efforts. 8.
Identify a social media team
You need specialists to perform different tasks involved in social media marketing. For example, you need a content specialist to write a script and need a person well-versed with analytics to measure your social media metrics. You need team members to publish your posts and interact with followers. 9.
Measure the results
You must employ both tracking and analytics tools to measure your social media performance. You can measure your brand perception and the conversations around your brand on social media platforms. You must measure in terms of volume, reach, engagement and influence. For more details on social media metrics, click here. 10. Revisit your strategy If you didn’t achieve everything that you planned as per your social media goals, you need to revise your social media marketing strategy. Don’t be afraid to include new ideas in your strategy. If you need a specialist to help you with your social media marketing strategy, speak to one of our experts.