How to Create a Social Media Strategy in 6 Easy Steps

With 92 percent of midsize and large businesses leveraging social media, according to Statista, and 97 percent of Fortune 100 companies on board, per Entrepreneur, it’s clear that social media marketing is a central part of most digital marketing strategies.

Yet, small businesses don’t leverage social media to the same degree. At one point, almost a quarter of companies wasn’t even using social media at all, according to Clutch, much less including it in a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

The reason for this is simple: small businesses don’t always see the same results that their counterparts do. Some chalk this up to not having enough time to devote to social media marketing, while others simply believe it’s not a fit for their brand.

The good news is that networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter can produce results for most businesses, regardless of size. However, ROI is contingent on developing a social media strategy that’s centered around business goals. In this article, I'll go through how brands use social media today, how to develop a specific social media marketing plan for a small business, and some advice to help you obtain the best results.

How to Use Social Media for Your Business

Social media can help your business achieve its goals in many ways. Think about your organization's goals before launching any efforts, and then assess whether and how social media might help achieve those objectives.

Sales

Most companies start with the intention of using social media to increase leads or revenue. This strategy is reasonable. After all, according to HubSpot polls, one in five Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X social media users report they've made a direct purchase via a social networking app within the last three months. There are a few limitations to using social media to increase sales, though.

First, this strategy works better for B2C than B2B brands. Second, consumers will only purchase once familiar with and confident in a brand. Therefore, if your objective is to generate revenue through social media, you must establish a rapport with your audience before requesting anything from them.

Marketing

The word "social media marketing" is relatively broad and covers a variety of activities, such as optimizing your profile or page, posting, interacting with your followers, advertising, and tracking the outcomes. Its strength is its capacity to reinforce branding, foster relationships, and increase brand awareness. These advantages help with things like increased website traffic, more sales, improved customer happiness, and more.

Consumer Service

People believe brands should respond to their concerns on social media, and the majority expect to hear back within 24 hours. Younger age groups, however, are more likely to use social media as a customer service channel. For instance, according to HubSpot polls, one in five Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X social media users had recently sent a company a direct message (DM) about customer service. Businesses increase client satisfaction and retention by integrating customer service components into their overall social media strategy. Because many customer service interactions begin in the public eye on posts, a swift resolution is an opportunity to attract new customers and close more sales too.

How to Create a Social Media Strategy in 6 Easy Steps

Now that you have some background on how to use social media, let’s look at how to develop a social media strategy that produces results for your small business.

1. Set Goals

Every digital marketing activity your team engages in should tie back to a business goal. Social media is no different in this respect. Once you know your overarching goal, decide which KPIs relate to that objective and establish marketing-specific goals.

For instance, let’s say that increasing brand awareness is a goal for your business. By tracking your followers, likes, and subscribers on social media, you may determine whether your marketing is helping you achieve your objective. Conversely, you might focus on engagement metrics like comments, post likes, and video views to if your goal is customer retention.

Consider your brand's position and what your team can accomplish in a month or quarter based on the resources available and the current strategy before setting goals.

2. Get to Know Your Competitors and Audience

In social media, relationships are everything. You can't hope to connect with anyone if you don't know who you're developing a relationship with. Use buyer personas to guide your social media campaigns.

Additionally, it's vital to research what your competitors are doing. Examine the social media platforms they use, the level of engagement they receive, and any gaps they may be leaving for your business to fill. You can also explore their pages to find out what resonates with your shared audience to diminish the learning curve as you kick your strategy off.

3. Research the Social Media Platforms Used by Your Personas

Many small businesses experience social media fatigue because they try to do it all. Not every social network needs or deserves your brand’s attention. Apply your resources where they’ll provide the strongest results. List all potential social media channels for your brand, then divide them into three categories: primary, secondary, and unleveraged.

Primary Social Media Platforms

Consider allocating 80 to 90 percent of your time to your primary social media platforms. Your audience already utilizes these platforms, which will increase your return on investment. For instance, Facebook is where most people hang out. It covers every age group and demographic. In overall, it's an excellent main channel. Although it caters to professionals, LinkedIn draws a diverse readership as well. Additionally, it works well for most brands. A network like Instagram can also be perfect if you have a solid visual brand or offer tangible goods. Like Facebook, Pinterest leans toward women and has a more extensive following among DIYers.

Examine your personas and analytics if you need help deciding which platforms to choose. Observing which ones your competitors are using and generating the most engagement from may also be helpful.

Secondary Social Media Platforms

Spend at most 20 percent of your time on your secondary social media platforms. These platforms might help you reach a larger audience or connect with people who could eventually become your customers but aren't a perfect fit for your present audience.

Let's say, for example, that your business provides a service for retirees. Facebook is probably going to be your primary network because it’s better for older audiences. However, you may also invest some time on LinkedIn if you want to start raising awareness with people before they reach retirement age. LinkedIn would be your secondary platform in this situation.

Unleveraged Social Media Platforms

Some channels aren’t going to be a good fit for your brand or will waste your resources without producing ROI. Although you won't use them, you should still claim your company name on these platforms for branding and trademarking, and you'll want to be familiar with them in case your audience or their behavior changes.

TikTok is a great example here. Just a few years ago, the platform was almost exclusively leveraged by teens. Those teens are now adults and are still on the platform. Plus, TikTok now attracts new users in older demographics as well. Although TikTok may not be the best platform for your company right now, that doesn't mean it won't work well as a primary or secondary channel in the future. Maintain awareness of your unleveraged channels to simplify pivoting if and when appropriate.

4. Create a Content Plan

A content calendar should be used to guide all your content marketing initiatives, including social media. With this high-level overview, you can ensure all your content flows together under specific themes, get more life out of your content, and solidify your core messaging.

At this stage, you should also determine the cadence and frequency of posting for each network. For example, you only need to post once or twice every day on networks like Facebook and LinkedIn because posts have a longer lifespan on these platforms. On the other hand, you might wish to schedule multiple Twitter posts because a Tweet has a short lifespan. It’s easy to do if you produce evergreen content and find unique ways to frame the same content.

Once more, keep in mind that your social media content strategy should relate to the persona you're targeting, the marketing goals you've established, and your business objectives. Choose strategies and platforms that support the objectives.

Examples of Social Media Strategies

• Business Goal—Boost Client Retention: Measure impact with engagement metrics and track retention rates at the company level. Potential tactics include sharing product tutorials or tips, hosting polls and surveys, and encouraging clients to share their own brand-related content.
• Business Goal – Increase Brand Awareness: Measure impact by tracking follower counts. Potential tactics include sharing educational or fun content, encouraging user-generated content, hosting contests, and leveraging hashtags.

5. Distribute the Work and Plan Deployment

Whether you choose to do your own or outsource social media marketing, the work will likely need to be split between several people. For instance, your social media marketing manager might choose the topics before sending the suggestions to a copywriter and/or graphic designer. Someone will eventually upload all of your posts to a social media scheduling service after some approval or proofreading process. As a result, it makes sense to invest in a marketing project management solution that makes it easy to assign tasks, evaluate progress, and maybe even track time. Transfer the information from your content calendar to your project management software, then give each element its own task and designate the right person to complete it.

6. Track, Assess, and Enhance Your Strategy

Review your results regularly on both a narrow and broad scale. For instance, your social media manager should be able to pinpoint which postings are more successful so you can create similar posts in the future. Additionally, examine important metrics at least once a month to see if you're on track to fulfill objectives, then make changes as needed to enhance outcomes.

Tips to Improve Social Media Engagement

You know how to create a social media strategy and deploy it at this point. Next, let's quickly review some tips that can help you improve your social media engagement.

Maintain the Same Username Across All Channels

If your username is the same everywhere you go, people will have an easier time locating your brand and connecting with you.

Be Authentic in Your Communication

According to Social Media Today, 90 percent of people feel that authenticity is vital when choosing which brands to like and support. People can tell whether a brand is sincere versus just giving lip service too. Ensure everyone who speaks on your company's behalf embodies the brand voice and acts according to its core values.

Create Interactive Posts

Making your content interactive is a top social media marketing tactic for increasing engagement. Some examples here include:

• Polls and surveys
• Contests and giveaways
• Questions and fill-in-the-blank exercises
• Live videos
• Calculators

Be Consistent

Stick to the cadence outlined in your content calendar, so people know when to expect new content from your brand and your page stays fresh.

Use Appropriate Hashtags

Although hashtags increase your content's discoverability, according to HubSpot, only about 50 percent of marketers utilize them. Find out which ones work best for your brand by researching, then include them in your bios and posts.

Provide Visuals

According to Statista, more than a third of individuals prefer brand content in video form, while nearly half prefer image form. Brands that cater to the audience in this respect see greater engagement. For instance, posts on LinkedIn receive 98 percent more comments when they include photographs, and tweets with visual content are three times more likely to receive engagement.

Add Value

Make sure every post you share adds value to the reader, whether sharing a joke, offering tips, or asking for their opinions to better your offers. People are more likely to interact with and share your material if it offers greater value.

Get Help Improving Your Social Media Strategy

Social media isn’t a stand-alone component of digital marketing. It isn’t even isolated to marketing. Your social media strategy influences everything from customer satisfaction to SEO, and therefore impacts your whole business and its growth potential. If you need help developing or deploying a social media strategy that gets results, contact me for a complimentary consultation.

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You can also read this article on my website:? How to Kickstart Your Social Media Strategy Like a Pro.