Building An Effective Social Media Strategy: The 4 Decisions Every Business Must Make

Yes, your business needs to be on social media. I’m looking at you, B2B businesses! But before you go keyboard crazy, remember to build a foundation for your social media with a comprehensive, data-driven social media strategy that matches your brand. To start, there are 4 key decisions that you should make for any social media strategy:

1. Defining Your Goals

Step one of any strategy is defining your goals. If you don’t know where you’re going, you most definitely won’t know how to get there. That’s true for directions, and that’s true for social media.

Need help defining your objectives? Remember the sales funnel. This is a great starting place for any business to understand where they need to start and what might need some TLC to improve. Are enough people aware of your business? Are they aware, but don’t understand what you do? Are you a top-of-mind contender when they’re considering their options? Considering these questions will lead to the objective that will make building a social media strategy effective but also so much easier.

2. Choosing Your Audience

Any writer will tell you that you can’t create good content if you don’t know who you will be reading it. Think about your ideal client and personify them. Write down their interests, goals, worries, daily schedule, anything that will help you understand them more. Knowing your audience to this level of detail will make your content creation process easier, faster, and more engaging – all good things when it comes to social media!

The audience is also key because, as we’ll discuss later in this article, different social media platforms appeal to different people. Here are some stats to get your mental cogs spinning:

• 70.4% of the Twitter users are male (Statista, 2022)
• 59.2% of LinkedIn users are 25-34 years old (Statista, 2022)
• In February 2020, 63% of internet users accessed Facebook at least once (Statista, 2022)

3. Choosing Your Platform

Not all social media platforms are created equal (and that’s a good thing). A good social media strategy starts by deciding what platforms you’re going to focus on. Let’s debunk 3 myths of social media platforms, so you can make the best decision for your brand:

Myth: Bigger is better

First, choosing the platform with the biggest audience might seem like the obvious choice. However, bigger is not always better. Most often, it matters more why the audience is on the platform and what their purpose is for having a presence in that particular digital space.

A small, engaged audience is worth so much more than a larger, but unengaged audience.

Every social media platform has a different value proposition for users. Facebook users have a much different reason for using Facebook than TikTok users, Instagram users, or LinkedIn users.

Every business should have a LinkedIn account because that’s what LinkedIn is built for – building business, networking, and professional development. People know and expect your business to be using LinkedIn to connect with them. Start there, and as your social media strategy develops, you can add platforms that match your purpose.

Myth: Quantity over quality

Some businesses think they have to be everywhere, doing everything, all at the same time. The inevitable consequence is burnout, or doing everything but being great at nothing. Avoid these suboptimal outcomes by being great at what will be most impactful for your business. If that’s only being on LinkedIn, then only be on LinkedIn and pack a punch with your content. You’ll grow a more loyal following, build a stronger, more memorable brand, and deliver value when and where your audience needs it.

Myth: If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all

Platforms are most definitely not all built the same. Each platform has its own brand, audience, and associations that should be taken into consideration. Where you say something impacts what you say.

The reality is that your content needs to be customized to each platform you use. You can’t copy-and-paste your LinkedIn article to an Instagram caption—it just won’t read the same, and users won’t know how to use it. Knowing the ins and outs of the unique capabilities of each platform, and the strengths and weaknesses of each will help you customize your content so it makes the biggest impact.

4. Choosing Your Content

Creating content is no easy feat. As any social media manager will tell you, it takes a lot of time and effort to create engaging content. However, knowing your audience, purpose, and messaging for your brand will make it easier. Here’s some creative inspiration to use for your next social media post:

• Thought leadership – usually in the form of articles, thought leadership pieces establish your expertise in your industry. This type of content is especially useful for B2B businesses.
• Human interest – humanize your brand by featuring the employees that make it possible. Especially in B2B situations, people want to work with people that they like. Those relationships start by building connections, and (this might be obvious) people connect with other people.
• Free resources – never shy away from sharing knowledge that your audience will find valuable. You will never regret sharing your insights. Gratitude is a major component of building trusting relationships, and it will pay you back in the long run.

Always remember that your social media presence has a social purpose – it’s for building relationships. Period.

Every industry has a conversation. Involve yourself in that conversation, and never look back.

Building a social media strategy won’t come without time, treasure, and talent invested in making it great. Luckily, marketing agencies like ADV Marketing exist that specialize in that process. If you’ve got questions, we want to hear them. Reach out to us. And you guessed it, you can find us on social media. ;)