Look At Social Media Marketing From A Different Perspective: The Strategy

Some social media strategies...

What am I doing here?, you ask yourself as you accept a new connection invite on LinkedIn. You have almost 500 connections now, but still have no idea who most of those people are.

Why have I made an account?, you ask yourself as you log in to your Instagram profile. You feel you are more of a Facebook person, you really can’t be bothered to spend your time on Insta.

You created all these accounts because someone, some time ago, told you that everyone else is “social”. So you wanted to be social and all. Now what?

So here you are, switching between Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram… you even have a YouTube account, even if you never recorded a video. Oh, and a Google Plus account because, again, someone told you it’s good for SE… what was it? SEO? SEM?

What does it mean, “being social”?, you ask yourself as you read yet another article on how to create a new social media strategy…

Oh wait, that’s the article you’re reading now.

Social Media Marketing: Where do I start?

There are three important questions you need to ask yourself before you do anything else on social:

• Who am I and what is my brand?
• What is my message and what do I want to communicate online?
• Why am I doing this and what is the goal of being on social media?

Every social media marketing strategy begins with these questions. Once you have an answer to all of them (tip: put everything on a sheet of paper for clarity), it is time to ask the second round of questions:

• What are the most relevant social media platforms for my brand/business?
• What type of content can I create for my audience?
• How often should I share content on social media?

Again, use that sheet of paper to write the answers to these questions.

Bonus tip: For clarity purposes, answer all these questions in as much detail as possible. For example, the answer to,  “What is the goal of being on social media?” could be: “To increase website traffic by 50% in the first two months” or “To boost my brand’s online visibility by gaining 1,000 new followers in the first month”. Being as specific as this will guide you in your decisions on how much you want to invest in this strategy.

Learn the 5 steps you need to know to build your first social media strategy.

‘Being social’: Is it like ‘being fit’ or ‘being trendy’?

Being social is not a mood, nor is it a status that you assume by dressing in a certain way.

It is more like having a different perspective on how you do business. It is having the courage to let other people shape who you are.

When you’re being social, you are there for your community; you are there to help your followers, to entertain them, to listen to their needs.

So ‘being social’ is more like ‘being there’, ‘being empathic, helpful, and extremely fun’. Being human.

Recent studies show that even though in Australia the majority of business owners and marketers implement social media marketing strategies, very few of them know what to post and how to post and when to post.

• Failing to understand that there IS a strategy involved, or WHAT the strategy could be
• People saying how many hours they spend per day “doing social media”, but failing to gather relevant information on their strategy’s success (KPIs)
• Not knowing how to implement a social media strategy in a way that is leveraged
• Embracing the wrong way of thinking: “I tried it and I can say for sure it doesn’t work!”

Admitting that you are overwhelmed by social media marketing is OK. I’d be overwhelmed if I had to… drive a truck or build a house from scratch.

There are some things we are meant to do and other things we are meant to ask for help when doing.

Social media marketing can be a pain in the bottom for you, AND THAT IS OK. Because you don’t have to scratch your brains out trying to figure out how it works, or why (chances are in a year or two you’ll have to re-learn everything since the industry is forever changing - so I get how it can be nerve racking).

Discover DMC here

About Fiona Soutter

Fiona has been actively involved in the digital marketing industry since 2008. During this time she has run several online businesses before launching Super Savvy Business in 2012. Having trained with many of the world’s top internet marketing gurus, Fiona is highly experienced and knowledgeable in all things digital marketing, including SEO, emotional direct response copywriting, blogging, email marketing, social media, digital strategy and more.