Why you need a social media strategy + how to create one for your biz

Marketing your business on social media is the easiest and toughest thing at the same time. In theory, a single viral post could bring you in front of the right audience and help you sell your product/service for as long as you both shall live. In practice, you need carefully targeted, valuable, constant posts that speak to the pain points of your ideal customer. But let’s take a few steps back before we dig any deeper.

This is not a social media strategy

You have accounts on different social networks. You feel the pressure to post every now and then, so you start scrolling for inspiration. Next thing you know, it’s been an hour and you still don’t know which TikTok trend you could do on the spot. You pick a random photo or video from your phone and add a brief caption, post it to Instagram with a couple of hashtags, and hope for the best. Hardly anyone sees it, so you think the algorithm is out to get you ☹️ You’re disappointed, and it takes a while before you regain confidence to post again.

How a social media strategy can help your business

When you wing your social media posts, you can get mixed results. Sure, you might reach some people, you might see some growth, but are those the people who will buy your product? Probably not. Having a strategy ensures that you’re reaching the right audience, tailoring your content to their preference, strengthening customer relationships and increasing the probability of actual sales.

Your business goals are also taken into consideration in a social media strategy. If you’re just starting out, for example, you’re probably looking to increase brand awareness, so you’ll want to put your brand in front of a lot of people. However, if you’re at a point in your business journey when you’re focusing on return customers, you’ll want to create content that appeals to your existing followers, and invites them to engage more and purchase. Knowing your social media goals makes them easier to measure. Your strategy will change as your business evolves, and keeping an eye on analytics to inform further decisions is crucial.

Another advantage is the consistency in brand messaging and aesthetics. If you post randomly, you’ll use random visuals and possibly send conflicting messages to your audience. If your brand’s look and voice are part of your social media strategy, your brand has a consistent voice that’s unique to you, and that makes your brand appealing to your ideal customer.

A good social media strategy includes planning and creating content in advance, which comes with so many of its own benefits. First of all, you save time batching these tasks. You might actually have time off on the weekend! Secondly, you’re using cohesive branding. You’re also less likely to be discouraged, since you know more on-brand posts are coming even if a single post flops. Posting consistently also pleases social network algorithms, which unfortunately we have to take into consideration these days.

This is how I create a social media strategy

Every social media strategy I create for my clients starts with an audit. I look at the networks where they’re posting, at the resources they have available, and of course, I look at their analytics. It’s important to find both what’s been working and what hasn’t been working on social.

Then comes a lot of research. Who’s your direct competition? What brands do you admire? Who’s your ideal customer? Where (else) are they shopping? What social networks to they use? How exactly does your product help them? What tone of voice or visuals are they more likely to respond to? There are a lot of questions to answer about your brand, ideal customer, and the relation between them before anything else.

To define social media goals, I need to look at business goals first. Every business wants to ultimately sell their product, but it matters which phase of the process you’re in. It also matters that you already have good systems in place - an efficient customer journey, a user-friendly shopping experience, friendly customer services. Unless all of those work, a social media strategy can’t work.

Because I mentioned resources earlier, that can mean several things. Do you already have a media library available? How do you plan on creating one? Are you willing to speak to the camera, do voiceovers or do you want to post faceless content? Will you use stock media? How often are you able to post without being overwhelmed? How many social networks can you realistically post on?

Strong branding is very important for the process of content creation. You want your posts to look cohesive, so your audience recognizes them without necessarily looking at your handle. That doesn’t mean you need a perfectly aesthetic Instagram feed to succeed, but having guidelines does make the content creation process easier. This is also why content pillars are usually defined in a social media strategy.

Like I said, scheduling content in advance makes your life easier. Schedule at the times recommended by your analytics to increase the likelihood of followers seeing your content. Speaking of analytics, visit regularly and look for patterns of what your audience may or may not like. While having a strategy is important, so is being flexible - leave room for last-minute events that you simply must address, and be ready to switch it up depending on what your analytics show.

If you got to this point with your reading, then you must be serious about creating a social media strategy for your business. Send me an email if you need some help from a pro.