How to create a social media marketing strategy

Are you kicking off annual planning? Are you re-evaluating your marketing plan? Have you recently changed careers or onboarded a new team? Whatever the case may be, it’s always a good time for a refresher. Here’s how to create a social media marketing strategy.

Define your goals and objectives

What do you want to achieve with your social media marketing strategy? Do you want to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or generate leads? Understanding which question, or questions, you’re trying to answer will help guide what your efforts are. The best way to keep this straight is with a few user stories. A user story is a simple sentence:

As a [persona], I [want to], [so that].

The “persona” is the audience, or in this case the stakeholder. The “want to” is the intent or the action you’re trying to take. The “so that” is the outcome or the goal. Understanding the “why” of a strategy makes the other pieces of the puzzle fit together without a struggle. It also keeps you and your team focused because everything you do should tie back to your user story.

Research your audience

Believe it or not, you need to know who you want as a customer and where they spend their time. Who are your target customers? What are their demographics, interests, and needs? What social media platforms do they use? You can find this out by looking at your competitors’ social media followers. You can also do this by reviewing research such as this: [https://www.trustinsights.ai/insights/whitepapers/members-only-the-rise-of-private-social-media/] 

Develop a content strategy

 Now that you who you want to target and what they want, you need to create content that they will engage with. Keep in mind that each social media platform has different rules about the kind of content you can post. You’ll need to create videos, audio, and text-based content to cover all the bases. Sound like a lot? Try using the transmedia framework. https://www.trustinsights.ai/insights/instant-insights/instant-insights-the-video-first-transmedia-content-framework/ This framework will help you create content at scale. You can keep your messaging and voice consistent. You can then repurpose that content for different platforms, for different audiences.

Create a process for posting and engaging

If you’re posting each piece of content in the moment, one platform at a time, you’re going to struggle to build your digital footprint. A better approach is to create and then schedule a good portion of your content ahead of time. There are lots of really great tools out there to help you get your content out to your social platforms. Once you have your content scheduled, you’ll be able to spend more time reacting and engaging in real time. It’s not enough to just post your content. You also need to interact with your followers. Engaging with your audience gives them a reason to keep coming back to your social profile.

Monitor and adjust

If you’re not measuring your efforts, there is really no point. Put together your measurement plan so that you know what metrics you’re tracking and what decisions you need to be able to make. This is where your user story can be helpful. Your measurement plan should align with your goal. The “outcome” part of your user story should tell you what you’re going to be measuring. Once you have your measurement plan in place, you can regularly review your strategy and pivot your efforts as you see what’s working and what’s not. 

Having a plan before you start anything is always a good idea. It can help keep your priorities straight, your efforts clean, and your tracking much easier. You’ll know why you’re doing something and how well you’re doing it. Ready? Go forth and conquer your social media marketing strategy.