In 30 seconds:
- In order to reach potential customers online, you need a social media strategy that captures their attention and drowns out the competition.
- Social media marketing is a great way to not only sell your business, but also create an engaged community around your brand.
- What are the steps to the best social media strategy? We’ve identified a 7-point plan to put you at the top of the feeds.
In 2022, there are more social networks, more social media users, and more competition than ever.
In fact, research shows that more than half of the world (58.4%) now use social media. That’s a rise of over 420 million since 2021.
Amongst all that new noise and activity on the socials, there are even more brands vying for consumers’ attention. That means that if you want your brand to stand out online, you need to have a strategy that boosts your content.
How do you do that? By developing a social media strategy that effectively hits your business goals and lands your content in front of your target audience. We’ve developed a seven–step plan to get you started on the right track.
What is a social media strategy?
To be clear, your social media strategy describes your brand’s approach to your marketing across social media platforms.
And in 2022, social media marketing is a cornerstone of any brand’s marketing efforts. You can find an online presence for almost every company – whether they’re tweeting, sharing stories on Snapchat or Instagram, or getting involved with the latest TikTok trends.
But without a high-quality strategy, those posts are just for the sake of posting, and they won’t guarantee you the results you’re looking for.
Successful social media marketing can help your company to increase brand awareness and lift brand sentiment amongst a set of consumers, drive traffic to your site, sell your products, and build a community of engaged and loyal fans online.
Developing that brand love is a key factor to any marketing campaign – Gen Z in particular form loyalty to brands as they age – so your community should be front-and-centre of your overall strategy.
7 steps to the ultimate social media strategy
You’ve got your social media accounts set up, you’ve got the ability to make content, all you need is a social media strategy that sets your brand off on the road to success.
Look no further than our 7-step plan, which will have you successfully carving out your own spot in the social media landscape in no time.
1. Define your business objectives and set goals
Before you sit down to write out your social media plan, you need to define your overall goals and KPIs. This is to make sure that the content you produce will actually help to hit your targets.
So, start by asking yourself this question: why is your brand active on social media? And why is your brand active on each different social media site?
Is it to increase brand awareness? To make sales? To advertise an upcoming event or product launch? To establish better links with customers? To show a different side to the brand?
Whatever you answer will form the basis of your plan. From here, you can set social media goals that are actually achievable, measurable, and which will promote the growth of your brand online in the area you care most about.
2. Do a social media audit
Doing your homework on your existing social media presence and social media activity will provide a great jumping-off point for your new marketing plan.
Gathering information about what is already working (and what isn’t!), who you’re reaching, and which social media platforms are most popular with your target demographics will ensure any improvements you make target the right areas.
For example, if you find that your Facebook account is mostly full of tumbleweed, you can consider whether you actually need it. Is this where your customers are hanging out? If not, where are they? And if you do need it, you’ll know where your efforts are best directed.
Another thing to check up on: how the competition is looking. This is not only great for inspiration purposes (more on that below), but it will also help you establish achievable goals, and identify any gap in the social media market that your brand can occupy.
3. Make sure your accounts are set up and optimised
If you want potential customers to be able to find you, you need to make sure your social media channels are clearly designated.
Use consistent social media handles, as well as branding and logos across every social channel to make sure you’re easily recognisable – and don’t skimp on the profiles! Include your website, fill out your bio, and make sure your contact details are easy to find. Take a look at how each social media platform is geared for SEO, and make sure you optimize your profile to make yourself as easy-to-find as possible.
It’s also important to make sure you’re set up with business accounts on each social media network, so that you get the full range of benefits afforded to brands online. For instance, we talk you through how to optimise your TikTok account here, and how to set up your Snapchat marketing here.
The other important element to optimise is the nature of your social media posts. This is a matter of tailoring the format and content you post on each platform to the platform. Upright, short-form videos on TikTok, polls and quizzes on Instagram Stories, customer service responses on Twitter… That’s just the beginning. It’s worth spending a good amount of time on each platform before you post anything, to understand what kind of content people post on there. Then, you need to identify how you can create native content that leads to social media success.
This is no small task, and you can save the trial-and-error by asking the experts. We’d love to talk you through how to make your brand shine on each social media platform.
4. Search out inspiration
How do you best understand the kind of content that works on each platform? A great method is by looking to others’ success stories.
Keep in mind your goals and your target audience here. There’s no point designing the ultimate social media strategy to attract Gen Z when your target audience are in their retirement. Equally important, your goal should be to attract the segment of an age group that will want to buy your product. If you grow a huge audience on social media, but they are uninterested in your actual business, you’re running a fool’s errand. You can take lessons from any successful brand, but make sure your strategy is your own.
For content strategy inspiration, try searching out your competitors, looking up award-winning social media campaigns, or finding case studies that have utilised a fresh social strategy that excites you.
Or you can focus on what’s trending! Social media moves fast, so keeping up with what’s hot is one way to make sure your branded content stays relevant.
We just so happen to have a weekly newsletter that can help guide you through the latest TikTok trends, so that you’re always up to date with ways to get your brand in front of engaged eyeballs. Sign up below.
5. Create your social media content calendar
Once you’ve established your different goals and the types of content you’ll be including in your social media marketing plan, you need to set up your calendar. This social media content calendar will list the key dates and times you intend to publish content across your brand channels.
A common social media strategy template will follow the 80/20 rule, which states that 80% of your posts should seek to inform and entertain your audience, and only 20% should be direct promotions of your products or brand.
A social media content calendar should act as a compass, not a rod for your back. It will reflect the key moments in your brand’s year (releasing a new collection? Hosting an event? Sharing a new update?) and it will help create momentum around these. It is also important to note that the frequency at which you post can help trigger social media platforms’ algorithms, so they can help promote you. But especially for platforms like TikTok, it’s also important to give yourself more freedom to react to trends on the platform. Too rigid a calendar will prevent you from engaging in spontaneous viral moments; something that has proven to be helpful for brands.
Your calendar will help you work out how frequently you’re posting, and it will be a great guide to refer back to when you’re monitoring your progress.
6. Get posting
Easier said than done, perhaps, but only once you start to post can you see the response to your strategy across platforms.
Don’t worry about posting all the time. It’s vital that you strike the right balance between being front of mind of your audience, and annoying them with too many posts. It’s more important to make sure you’re hitting the key points in your strategy, and focus on creating and posting content people love. If you’re unsure, focus on quality content over quantity.
As for optimising how you post your content, small businesses and global brands alike should consider using social media management tools. These will help you batch-process your social posts, which saves you valuable time.
When we talk about posting on social media, often people only consider content marketing. While it’s very true that this should be a priority to show off your brand in its best light, many brands forget to consider their strategy for posting comments and engaging with their audience. This is key. It helps foster a community around your social profile, and keeps social media users coming back to you.
Think about how your brand would act if it were a real person on social media. What kind of visuals would they share – and how would they engage with their audience? Are there trends in their niche that they would be interested in, and how would they react to the trend originator – or put their own spin on it? You should already have an idea of the personas you want to attract, so how would your brand interact with them? Social media should be a space for your brand to be sociable, so don’t just use it as a noticeboard: actively engage with others on the platform.
7. Check your stats
The work on developing your social media strategy doesn’t stop once you’re up and running. It’s important that you’re able to adapt throughout the year in order to stay responsive to new trends and goals, and get the best return on investment.
That means keeping a keen eye on your stats. Every platform will have an analytics dashboard where you’ll be able to check how your content is performing. Keep an eye on your social media analytics such as follower counts and engagement rate, as this gives the best idea about how your brand’s content is being viewed by your target audience.
Increasing engagement and followers = you’re on the right track. But it’s also vital to ensure that the metrics you use and the way you report on your social media activity is a reflection of the wider business, too. Your marketing team has aligned their activity with business goals, so make sure the way you present your findings lines up with these.
By monitoring your successes, you can make sure you’re not wasting energy on output that doesn’t land. If your static imagery is getting no traction, for example, you can shift your strategy to focus on more video-first content.
By keeping a constant close eye on your results, you can make sure your social media strategy is really continuing to work for you.
Successful socials in 2022
Taking the time to develop a social media marketing strategy means you can ensure your marketing efforts are streamlined, geared for success, and no time is wasted on content that doesn’t advance your brand.
By targeting each social media app, and each audience differently, you’ll get the best results across your platforms. That does mean a little extra legwork – but it’s definitely worth it.
After all, the biggest social media users, Gen Z, are also soon to become the biggest consumer generation. Getting on their best side means you’ll set your brand in a great position to earn some of their $140 billion in spending power.
So get thinking about your goals, exploring your feeds and, most importantly, get posting! If that sounds daunting, get in touch with us – we’re the experts on social media marketing, and have created award-winning social campaigns and strategies for brands of all sizes. We’ve managed account growth for Nasty Gal, set up influencer campaigns for Burger King, and we’ve sent small brands like Wanna Date viral. And that’s the tip of the iceberg. We’d love to talk to you about how we can make your brand shine, too.
For a social media strategy that always hits the mark, look no further than the links below:
