1. Audit & Optimise Existing Social Media Presence
The first step in creating a social media marketing strategy is to audit and optimise your social media presence.
This means taking a look at all of your accounts and assessing which ones are performing the best (based on likes, shares, and other metrics such as web traffic).
Once you have an idea of which channels are working well for you, it's time to tweak them according to your specific business goals.
For example, if you're looking to increase brand awareness, then make sure that all of your posts are high-quality content that reaches your target audience.
In addition, it is important not only to monitor follower numbers but also the types of content being shared - likes, shares, comments etcetera. As with any marketing campaign or strategy, periodic review is essential for making changes that will continue enhancing performance.
2. Set Social Media Goals for the Business
Setting goals is an important step in any social media marketing. It helps you map out a course of action and track your progress.
Once the goals have been decided, it's time for a company to plan how it will get there. Here are some things to consider during this goal-setting phase:
- Determine what metrics will best reflect the success with a social media marketing strategy
- Create a timeline for hitting the target audience with the right content at the right time
- Define key tasks that need to be completed in order not only to reach but also engage the target market
- Make sure everyone involved (including brand managers, marketing directors, etc.) understands the business goals and strategies before starting anything; otherwise it'll be hard to keep track of things!
3. Researching the Target Audience
Before content creation can begin, it is important to know who the target audience is and what they are interested in.
Once this information has been gleaned, the next step would be to develop a strategy that will help reach them on the platforms that are most relevant.
Ensuring that the content on all these channels is engaging and relevant can go a long way in boosting brand awareness and developing loyal customer bases resulting in regular sales or enquiries.
4. Researching Director Competitors
If there's one aspect of a social media strategy that is just as important as researching a target market, it's conducting a thorough competitor analysis.
To stay ahead, it is vital for any company to understand its direct competitors and what makes them successful on social media.
Taking the time to analyze what makes them successful will help you form an effective strategy for a company's social media presence.
One piece of data that may arise from this research is that a company may have more or fewer competitors than they initially thought.
5. Choose Relevant Social Platforms
Now that a target audience has been identified, companies now need to take the time to choose the most relevant social platform to market on.
While it may seem like the most logical move to choose all the platforms that we've featured above, it's a step in the wrong direction.
As we have mentioned a number of times now in this guide, marketing to a target audience on platforms where they frequent is key here.
If you're an aged care service provider, it probably makes very little sense to market on TikTok because your target market is unlikely to be using this platform.
However, platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, are four platforms you would market services such as aged care on.
6. Choose the Right Social Media Management Tool
Choosing the right social media management tool is essential for effective, and planned social media marketing.
There are a variety of tools available on the market, so it's important to decide which one best suits your business needs and the social media network platforms being used.
Scheduling and publication tools such as Sprout Social & Hootesuite will allow for Facebook & Instagram accounts, but may not accommodate other platforms.
If you've got a business that needs to be on Pinterest, we can't recommend Tailwind enough.
7. Plan Your Content
It is important to plan the content in your strategy well in advance so that it can be executed effectively and generate the desired results.
Regular monitoring of results is necessary to decide whether adjustments need to be made, and a company's branding should be consistent across all channels - website, blog, social media, etc. to ensure brand cohesion and recall among the company's target market.
8. Measure Success With Analytics
There are a number of metrics and platforms that can be used to measure the success of your social media marketing strategy.
Some common ones include likes and shares, but we'd recommend including others such as how content has had an impact on website traffic, as well as sales & leads.
As a company, you should also keep an eye on trends in social media so you're not promoting content that's no longer relevant or engaging with your audience.
Once you've identified some key performance indicators (KPIs), it is important to use them to improve and fine-tune your campaign as needed.
This way you can ensure consistent results over time and make sure your strategy is achieving its goals at all times or at least working toward them.
It's also important to track the success of social media campaigns so you know whether or not it's worth continuing to invest resources in the specific platforms you've chosen to market on.
