Now more than ever, social media is a must-have marketing tool for any business. But, without a clear social media strategy, you’ll be missing out on seeing any real results from your marketing efforts.
Fortunately, if you dedicate your time to doing it right or hire a professional agency, you can easily plan your strategy and achieve your goals in no time.
With this in mind, we have put together a list of our 5 top tips for how to plan a social media marketing strategy.
How to plan a social media marketing strategy in 5 steps:
- Understand your starting point
- Set social media goals
- Understand your target audience
- Organise your content
- Maximise your reach
1.Understand Your Starting Point
The very first thing you should do when planning your social media strategy is to understand your starting point. Before creating the plan, take a step back and take a look at your company profile as well as your competitors.
Conduct A Social Media Audit
This will check how, where, and with what results you have been communicating up until this point. Conducting this audit will allow you to assess growth, opportunities, and anything that can be done to improve your social media presence.
Carry Out A PESTEL Analysis
This type of analysis will explore where your company stands politically, economically, socially, technologically, environmentally, and legally.
Prepare A SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis will determine the strengths and weaknesses of your business as well as the opportunities and threats it faces from the external business environment.
Analyse Your Industry And Competition
Researching both your competitors and industry will help you discover how your business can stand out from the competition and offer something they don’t.
2. Set Social Media Goals
Social media strategy planning starts with your goals, so begin by asking yourself “what do I want to get out of social media?”.
According to the 2021 Sprout Social Index™, the most common goals for social are increasing brand awareness (58%) and increasing community engagement (41%). Some other social media goals could be to generate leads & sales, or drive traffic to your website.
Whatever goals you choose, make sure they are realistic, measurable, and specific to your social media platform.
3. Understand Your Target Audience
Understanding your audience is crucial to a successful social media marketing plan.
Facebook sees on average 2.7 billion monthly users, making it the most-used and engaged-with social platform. Facebook’s largest age group is 25-34 (26.3%) years old, and this influx of boomers highlights why it’s such a prime place to run ads, particularly among older demographics with more money to spend.
1 billion people use Instagram every month, with their largest age group also 25-34 (33.1%) years old. Instagram’s steady growth cements it as the second largest network after Facebook.
LinkedIn sees on average 738 million people a month, with 46-55 year olds as the largest age group.
According to LinkedIn themselves, it’s the top rated social network for lead generation, making it a great source for B2B marketers looking to find targeted and motivated audiences for their campaigns.
4. Organise Your Content
Use A Content Calendar
Using a content calendar is a great way to organise and schedule your upcoming content by detailing what and when you will post.
Consistency is key for social media, and a content calendar will help you stay consistent and keep your audience engaged.
Post At High Engagement Times
Organising your content wisely also means posting at times of your highest engagement i.e. when your audience are most active.
5. Maximise Your Reach
Sometimes, the algorithm may not be on your side and your engagement might be low. Fortunately, there are a number of ways you can maximise your reach.
Invest In Paid Social Campaigns
Social media platforms allow you to ‘boost’ your posts and target your desired audience. This can massively increase your reach and engagement.
Hire Influencers
You may decide to hire influencers within your niche to promote your products and brand. Make sure to hire those who have a similar target audience to yours, who post attractive content and have a significant reach.
Use Retargeting
To get your content across, it’s worth considering targeting those who are already familiar with your brand.
To Conclude…
Of all the ways to digitally advertise, social media is arguably the fastest growing, yet most complex, with the number of variables there is to negotiate. It is also the most dynamic with new platforms and ad formats entering the market regularly.
For many business owners, planning a social media strategy and managing paid socials is a time consuming task which requires extensive skill and knowledge. For this reason, you may look at hiring a professional digital marketing agency, like ourselves, to take on the work for you.
To understand where to start, or how you can improve your current social media campaigns, book a free consultation or request a free audit here.
Written by Kate, for ThisIsUs.Digital.
Discover our other digital marketing blogs.
