Let’s talk about strategy and social media. Strategy, as everybody knows is important in business, but what most people do when it comes to social media is to throw strategy out the window and go for the scattergun approach, so let's start…
What do you want your social media to achieve?
There are lots of different things that you may want to achieve with your social media strategy. Perhaps you just want to be out there - box ticked. Perhaps;
SEO
To build relationships
To target specific groups
Promote an event or a product
Drive people to your website...
There's lots of things you might want to achieve. Whatever you decide your goals are to be, make sure they are SMART.
Once you’ve decided what you want, you can then decide what will success look like.
How do you know your social media is successful?
Are you playing a numbers game and looking for more likes, more shares or engagement, do you want more people on your website, sales, downloads or something else?
Now you know what success looks like you will know how to evaluate it. If it's a numbers game that's easy enough to evaluate by using the in-platform analytics tools, but however you measure that success, do plan how and when you are going to evaluate because that’s how you'll know if you're doing the right thing, or whether your goals and tactics need to change.
Should you pay for social media advertising?
Thing the other thing to think about is whether you're going to throw money at the problem and if you have got a budget to play with, what kind of social media advertising will be you be using and what do you want to achieve with it? We go back to what I said about knowing what success looks like… Then your next thing to think about is content.
Content is king
Content is absolutely king with social media because you need to either create or curate great content. Your target group are going to be interested in different things and they're going to be on different social media platforms, looking for different types of content. You do need to plan what content you want to be sharing where, and how will it differ across your chosen platforms to keep the interest up.
Are you going to put all that content on social media or will you be using it as a teaser to get people back to your website? Will you be using video or photos, are you going to use competitions? All this kind of thinking needs to go into your social media strategy.
When you've decided what you're doing with your social media and you've got your audience interested, is your website ready for them?
Website landing pages and social media
Landing pages and conversion is a very important part of social media strategy. Do you have specific landing pages written and ready to go, so that when they leave social media and come onto the website you've got a greater chance of conversion? Are you clear on the type of conversion tool you will use, so that your visitors know exactly what you want them to do when they get there? It could be reading a blog, picking up the phone or clicking through to a download or shop, for example.
Traditional marketing activities and social media
So, now you know what you want to achieve, you know what success will look like and have decided how to strategically produce that content. You then need to think about what's going on with the rest of your business and how you can utilise what you're doing in the real world.
Are you producing posters and flyers that could easily be made into social media posts or advertising? Do you have press coverage you can use, are you making videos, or taking photos while you're out and about? All this kind of content that's happening in the real world can be put to good use on social media.
This is where strategy is important on social media, because of all the different arenas you are active in. If you think about what you want to achieve, if you plan your content right, then you will find that strategic social media gets you much better results than a scattergun approach.
Useful social media strategy template
Thank you for reading. This blog is also available as a video, with thanks to B4 Knowledge Bank, if you prefer to watch your content than read it. We have also produced a useful Social Media Strategy Template to give you a head start with your strategising, feel free to download the pdf.