How to create a marketing strategy for social media that works

If your business relies on social media marketing, it’s essential that you have a strategy in place. This means having a plan for what you want to do and how you will achieve it.

Additionally, a good social media strategy should help your business understand whether you’re on track to meet your goals and what you can do to improve.

To create your own marketing strategy for social media, here are some simple steps to follow.

1. Determine your goals

First and foremost, before creating a social media marketing strategy, you need to make some goals. These should be aligned with your company's objectives, and they should be “SMART”:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainable

• Relevant

• Time-bound

Setting goals is a must. Without them, you have no way to measure your success and ROI. Plus, your strategy will lack clarity and direction.

When choosing the right goals for your business, make sure you pick metrics that are meaningful and have real value, such as conversion rates or engagement.

2. Create an audience persona

Next, it’s important to learn as much as you can about your audience. To do this, you need to create a buyer persona, which you can use to create content with high engagement rates.

Start by thinking about your target customers’ demographics. This includes their age, location, interests, and potentially other information like their job title, industry, or income level.

After doing this, gather as much information as you can by doing plenty of research and using a tool like Sprout Social to collect key insights into your social media performance.

3. Pick the right platforms

There are lots of social media platforms available. Which is best for your business largely depends on your business objectives and your target audience.

For example, Twitter is generally considered the best site for customer service, whilst video tutorials work best on visual-based apps like TikTok or Snapchat.

Top tip: If you’re using multiple channels, make sure you adjust your marketing goals accordingly. Different platforms have different purposes, so you may need different goals.

When you know which platforms you’re focusing on, set up profiles (if you don’t already have them). Make sure you fill in all the essential fields, including keywords, as much as possible.

To maximize your success rates, be consistent with your branding and promote content across different channels as much as possible.

Additionally, make sure you add links to your pages on your website and landing pages, as well as on offline marketing channels like your business cards. If you need new business cards for this, you can create some online using a free tool like Business Cards.

4. Create a content calendar

Sharing amazing content is one of the best ways to boost social media engagement, gain new followers and customers, and meet your business goals.

To get the most out of your content, it’s very important to have a plan in place. This will help you stay organized and ensure interesting content is posted consistently on all your channels.

To start with, decide how often you should post for the most impact. If you’re short on time, it’s better to post less often and keep it regular than to go weeks without posting anything.

Make a schedule for your social media posts, including the types of content you plan to use, such as images, videos, or blogs, as well as some ideas for topics and titles.

Try to focus more on adding value than selling, trying to use the “80-20” rule if you can. This means 80% of your posts should be to educate, entertain, or inform your audience, and the remaining 20% can be used to promote your brand or products.

Once your strategy is in place, make sure you are evaluating it often so you can make adjustments. This way, you can stay on track your meet your goals!