We’ve moved into the digital age and it’s all about social media. If you’re not on it, you need to change that fact asap!

While being on social media is great, it’s not always enough. You need a strategy. A survey once showed that 50% of businesses admitted that they don’t have a social media strategy. A social media strategy is essentially your master plan. It’s how you intend to create, post and engage on social platforms.

The top three challenges marketers face are researching their audience, measuring ROI and reaching business goals. With a strong strategy, you can take just a regular social media presence and turn it into something that impacts the industry and your customers.

Here’s a little guide we’ve put together to help you find the strategy that works for you!

1. Conduct a Social Media Audit

This is key to putting together an effective strategy. See how your brand is doing compared to two or three competitors. Don’t stay within the confines of your industry. You can even have a look at non-competing businesses for inspiration. Other brands that are tech-savvy will give you a fair idea of what’s working and what isn’t.

Start by comparing content and response rates for engagement posts. Engagement is one of the best ways to calculate a business’ ROI of social media advertising. Google analytics will let you know just how much engagement is getting you. You can also do a comparison with things like reviews, keywords and the usage of hashtags.

2. Focus on your Objectives

Get your SMART goals down! Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely.

• Being specific about what you want to achieve is crucial. Everyone should be working towards a very exact goal. A large, vague goal will get you nowhere.
• You should be able to measure your goals and quantify your success rates. That way, you can track your progress and see figuratively how well you are progressing and succeeding.
• The goals you set for your company goals should be achievable. For instance, aiming to hit 500,000 followers in a month, when you’ve only got around 150 followers that increase by an average of 10 each month, isn’t realistic. Goals that aren’t achievable only lead to demotivated employees who will be naturally discouraged if they don’t achieve the targets set.
• There is no point in working so hard towards a goal that isn’t relevant to your business. That is just a waste of your time, efforts and resources. They need to be supporting your social media goals and serving the wider purpose.
• When you have goals, you need to be setting a timely deadline for people to work towards. The faster you’re able to set a goal and achieve it, the more efficient operations will be.

3. Define your Target Audience

Knowing your target audience is essential. Everything will become a whole lot easier. And you will know who to create your content for. Start by defining the demographics of your target audience. These include age, gender, occupation, interests, etc. Consider all the challenges they might be facing and how you can help solve them.

4. Create Educational Content

There’s always a demand for learning. People are always ready to learn and educate themselves. And who better to learn from than the people in the industry? If people like your content and find it helpful, they will share it on social media and further your reach.

5. Focus on Key Channels

You need to know which social media platforms to put all your efforts into. Most businesses, especially if they’re a start-up, won’t have the capacity, time and resources to sustain a social media presence on all platforms.

Based on your target audience, you’ll get insight into which platform to prioritise where your customers will be most likely to connect and engage with you.

6. Adjust your tactics

Almost all of social media branding takes time to see results. It’s all trial and error. You need to see what works and what doesn’t and adjust everything accordingly.