Using social media for casual entertainment is simple. You simply join a platform and start enjoying funny cat videos on it. However, using social media for proper business marketing is very different. You have to follow a proper strategy. Otherwise, you’ll be putting your effort to waste.
There are various strategies for building a social media strategy. They vary according to a business’ requirements. The most effective strategies that you can use for this will be examined in this article. Now, let’s start.
Top Strategies for Building a Social Media Strategy:
We have listed these strategies below:
Have Calculated Goals:
Before launching your campaign, every social media marketing expert in the world would advise you to set a goal. The majority of them won’t tell you to have calculated goals. There’s a fine difference between them.
“My objective is to gain 500K followers on Instagram”, is a goal. “I will post four times a day for 12 weeks to get 150K followers” is a calculated goal.
Having such calculated goals not only tells where you need to be. They also tell you what you need to do in order to get there. The example we discussed above is general. It can be tailored according to the nature of your business and focus platform.
Have a Target Audience:
Having a target audience is also one of the best strategies for building a social media strategy. It’s true that social apps give your business exposure to a large audience. But not everyone is interested in your brand.
For example, if you sell women’s beauty products, advertising them to a male audience will bring no results. That’s why, your social media strategy should focus on a target audience. It will help you create and share the most relevant content to them. Such content has a greater chance of attracting leads and making your social media campaign successful.
Select a Relevant Social Media Channel:
A social media strategy may not be efficient if it focuses on multiple irrelevant social media channels. That’s why it’s important to know which one is right for your business. Let’s try to understand it with the help of an example.
Let’s say you run a clothing brand. Focusing its marketing on X (Twitter) may not be as successful as it would be on Instagram or Snapchat. Similarly, a journalism crash course would sell better on X than on Instagram. These examples clarify why selecting a relevant social media channel is important.
Determine your Success Metrics:
Social media marketing has become a very large field. There are different metrics that a strategy focuses on. You have to pick specific metrics that will determine the success of your strategy. Some major ones are:
- Brand awareness
- Sales
- Leads
- Followers count
If you determine that the success metric is brand awareness, your social selling strategy will focus on getting views and engagements. For example, if you get 100K views on your social media account, your brand awareness efforts will be successful. If your main focus is on making sales, having only views will not be considered a success.
Read More: How to Combine Social Media and Email Marketing to Grow Your Audience?
Create Engaging Content:
Content is the core of a successful social media strategy. That is because it’s the way through which you communicate with your audience. It can help you get a lot of engagement and followers. Similarly, it can also ruin your brand’s image and repel your existing customers.
That’s why you have to be careful while creating it. The best practice is to create content that is engaging. That is because it encourages your audience to take part in it. In this way, it also has the chance of getting viral. If that happens, you will have a great reach and conversion rate in a matter of days. The only condition is the quality and engaging content.
Create a Content Calendar:
As we have mentioned earlier, content is essential for social media. However, you have to publish it strategically. You can’t post ten posts on Instagram and expect to get engagement. Social media algorithm rarely works like that. You have to create a content calendar that will determine what and when to post. The complete nature of this calendar depends on the nature of your business and audience.
In general, you can select days when you’re going to post more actively. Besides this, you can also select how many times you’re going to post. Keep in mind that having one calendar isn’t going to work. You may have to keep making changes to it according to requirements.
Use Influencers:
Millions of people claim to follow influencers on social media. So, using these influencers to reach out to your target audience is also one great strategy for building a social media strategy. This is becoming an industry itself, called “Influencer Marketing.”
You can contact people with a high fan following and ask them to market your business. In doing so, you have to be careful as well. For example, if you run a gym business, you will have to reach out and use fitness influencers.
Do Paid Advertising:
Many social media moderators might be against paid advertising. They have a valid reason for that. Usually, social media gets you an audience without spending any money. However, paid advertising can speed up the process. It can help you reach out to your audience at a large scale in a very short time.
Each social media platform has created its paid ads system. It lets you publish your posts as advertisements to a specific target audience. If the post is engaging enough, you can get several thousand followers within a matter of hours. Only use this strategy if it is in your budget and you want quick results.
Collaboration with Other Brands:
There’s a saying that goes “Two heads are better than one”. It explains that two persons working together are better than one struggling alone. This also applies to making social media strategies. Sometimes, collaborating with other brands can help you get more reach than working alone.
Each business has another business that relates to it in some way. Let’s say you run a gym. You can collaborate with a whey protein company and market your content on social media. In this way, you both get a chance to reach out to a larger audience and generate more sales.
Keep Monitoring the Results:
Finally, you need to regularly monitor your results. Social media is changing quickly. Their algorithms change almost every day. The strategy that worked last week may not work again.
That’s why, you have to analyze the performance of your efforts. If you see that they’re doing fine, try to make slight improvements. If they’re not working as they’re supposed to, changing the strategy completely might be beneficial.
Read More: Hashtag Analytics Guide for Social Media Marketers
Finally
Social media is helping people promote personal and business brands to a large audience. To do that, however, you have to create a great strategy. It should be focused on your goals and the nature of your audience as well as your business. We have discussed the best strategies for building a social media strategy in the information given above. These points are general and can be changed according to one’s requirements.
FAQs:
Is marketing on social media easy?
Yes. Marketing on social media is easy but it may take time.
Which social media platforms are good options for promoting brands?
It depends on the nature of your business. However, Instagram and Facebook are two of the leading names.
Can I hire a professional to create a strategy?
Absolutely. If you think that your business requires detailed work on social media, you can hire a professional for that.
