Your social strategy is like a garden.

When we begin working with a client, they want to know when we will start publishing and engaging. The truth is usually “not yet.” For about the first month or so when we work with a client, there is planning and strategic work involved.?

I consider a social strategy like a garden. Before you can make a salad with what you grow out there you must first plan, prepare, organize and think through what the garden will look like when plants are fully grown. With social, your brand must think the same way. Before you can ever push "publish" you must think through the content you have and the content you need. You must take a look at the calendar and determine what you need to be ready to talk about. This is a pretty basic explanation of building an editorial calendar, but if you aren't putting this type of thought into your brand's voice... well, you're probably doing it wrong.

We typically focus on two assets when prepping for a new social voice (or pivoting an existing voice):

1. An editorial calendar and?
2. A content library.

Starting with an editorial calendar gives us a good layout of what will happen through the year for that client. Is their business seasonal? Do we need to leave room for events? Are new products or services planned for the year – and when? The key to a strong editorial calendar is flexibility. Know that you can have the best calendar planned out but life is going to get in the way, and it’s important to not be so stuck to the schedule that you can’t pivot quickly. Something could change in the business, there could be a crisis in the business or in the world – and this will surely affect any good plan.?

The bigger challenge can be the content library. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve begun work for a client and they tell us they have “tons” of content. Well…. sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. Great content needs to be unused, fresh, relevant to the brand and the day and be tied into business objectives. We can work with video that has been shot and not yet edited, but it doesn’t mean the content library is ready to roll. We always start with the content the client has and go from there. But many times we must start fresh with complete brand standards, new graphic templates and a complete new set of storytelling videos.?

Once that plan is set you can begin to nurture it and give it the TLC it needs to build a strong voice. Again, it's just like a garden. If you start planning now and start prepping the soil as spring begins, by mid-summer you should have a thriving garden, full of vegetables and fruits and plants to make that delicious salad you're looking forward to eating.

Now... a social strategy may not grow as quickly as a garden, but with the proper planning it can grow for a long time and help your business meet its objectives.

Sometimes we’ve gone through the exercise of sharing this top tip with a consulting client who swears they have what it takes to do this on their own. And you know what happens? They determine they are just too busy running their business to devote the proper time to a solid social media plan. If that’s how you’re feeling, give us a call. It might be worth outsourcing your voice to a specialist like my team.?

You can reach me here.?