Six Steps To Creating A Social Media Strategy

Social media is now everywhere we look and companies are beginning to recognize its value and therefore adding it to their marketing mix. Many people, however, are unclear as to how to begin or develop a plan.

By establishing how to use social media correctly, you are able to engage your audience in different ways, make new connections, and sustain the ones that you already have.

With these thoughts in mind, here are six steps to assist you in developing a social media strategy:-

1. Listen To What Is Being Said

It is important to listen to what is being said on the internet. Pay attention to the varying points people are making about you and your brand. Consider the main people who influence others and who you should cooperate with.

Establish your audience and where they are online. Blogs are useful resources as you can search for blog posts that have content related to your niche. Twitter is also very useful as it is a great place to come across real-time conversations and monitor them. Once you have established your audience then pay attention to what they are discussing in relation to their needs, opinions etc. In doing this and understanding this information you will be able to establish how best to add to the conversation and make a contribution.

Determine the people who have a strong influence and who is driving the conversation. These people have authority or experience and if they endorse a product people are more likely to listen.

2. Identify Goals and Objectives

Once you have had an opportunity to listen to your audience you should be in a stronger position to establish your goals. Some goals may be to drive a certain amount of traffic to your website. or you may wish to increase your number of followers by a certain percentage over a certain period of time.

You need to establish your company’s goals and audience’s goals. Think about what your audience wants and needs. By offering people something of value you will be more successful with your social media marketing. Once you have given your audience something of value to them, you can promote yourself a little.

3. Develop Your Plan and Time Your Content

You need to work on your approach to delivering content to your audience. There are a number of creative ways with which you can approach your audience. It is wise to be innovative.

Establish a period timeline about a year in advance, to identify events, product launches etc. that you are aware of. You should now identify the content ideas you wish to deliver that can enhance those events.

Identify the social platforms you should use to deliver your content. For example, consider if Facebook is the right platform for you, or whether you should combine various social media networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. If this is the case, you should develop a small plan for each site and consider how you will consistently use each tool to accomplish your goals and objectives. However, make sure you start with one or two sites at a time and develop them to a sold level before moving on to another social media site.

4. Develop Your Content

You should now develop the content you have outlined from your timeline. This timeline will help you to establish in what order you should begin building your content. You must be very creative.

Optimize your content with your targeted keywords. If you have a solid keyword research report with relative categories, you should be able to obtain some great ideas for relevant content that will be of interest to your audience. This content can come in various forms including photos, interviews, top 10 lists, polls, news etc.

5. Put Your Plan Into Action

Once you have clever objectives, a solid timeline, great content, and the appropriate social media sites, you are now ready to start posting your content. Engage in conversations and express your point of view.

Ensure you keep to your schedule and stay consistent. It is important to respond to comments and feedback in order to keep the conversation going. This must be done all the time for maximum impact.

6. Measuring Success

An important aspect of any company’s marketing strategy is the ability to measure the effectiveness of marketing activities.

You may wish to look into who is reading your content and where they are coming from. Other areas to look into are how much is being contributed and how many visitors are interacting with your content.

Having a strong social media strategy can help to make a difference to how successful your campaigns are. It will help to portray you in a more organized way and increase your chances of being viewed as a real player in the social media space.

If you would like some help with maximizing the effectiveness of your social presence, then why not give us a call and have a discussion with one of our digital strategists.