5 Steps to a successful social media strategy

[See original article here] Today social media marketing is no longer an “option” for businesses, but is rather an integral component of a a successful marketing strategy. From creating brand awareness to increasing sales revenue to generating leads, a successful social media strategy can keep great rewards (think: real ROI).

But many businesses and marketers are not sure how to start. If you’re needing help developing your social media strategy, start with the following 5 tips.

1. Know your business goals.
Knowing your overall business goal(s) is key to determining your social media strategy, because then you can ask yourself: “How will I utilize social media marketing to reach these goals?” If your goal is to increase brand awareness across a certain demographic, this will guide the social media strategy you use.

2. Develop your social media goals.
What social media goals will contribute to meeting your business goals? Make sure that your goal is measurable and give yourself deadlines. (Your goal, for example, may be to grow a targeted email list – say 500 new emails in a 30 day period.) You will need to be flexible and observant – constantly adjusting and adding new goals to your social media strategy.

3. Know your ideal customer or client.
Develop a customer or client persona. Who is the person that you are trying to attract? What are their behaviors? Likes? Dislikes? What social network(s) do they prefer? This will help you develop your target audience and pinpoint into what social channels you should focus your resources.

4. Develop your message and attractive content.
What content really excites your ideal customer? What message really hits home and resonates? You may (in fact, we suggest it) do some competitor research here to see what content is working/not working for them. Keep your message and design consistent. Engage your fans with the content they love.

5. Establish roles and standards for review.
Social media marketing takes work. Who will manage what tasks? Make sure that you clearly define who is responsible for certain tasks: strategy, content creation, research, etc. And also make sure to have a standard in place to review tactics: what’s working, what’s not, and whether goals are being met on time. In some cases, you may realize that certain goals are not realistic, or that strategies need to be altered to better achieve them.