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No smoke and mirrors. No jargon. Just honest marketing that works. We believe the best work happens when we collaborate.
It’s never too late to jump on the social media train, and if you are looking to setup a social media strategy for this year, you’re in the right place! Having a successful social media strategy can help your business in so many ways.
Let’s begin by asking, what is a social media strategy?
A social media strategy is a plan that looks at who you plan to target, how you will target and engage with them, and pretty much everything that you plan to do on social media in relation to your goals for your business.
These “goals” could simply be increasing awareness of your business name and the offering; be it a service or a product. Alternatively, another goal could be about engaging with potential customers, such as inviting them to an event or gaining their feedback on a product or service.
With a social media strategy, the more specific your plan is, the more success you are likely to have.
Below are some steps to setting up a social media strategy:
The first step to any successful social media strategy is to be clear about what you would like to achieve, and then setup some goals. For example, would you like to increase brand awareness, grow your audience, or increase sales?
The more specific your goals are, you’ll find it’s easier to measure your success and also know what type of channel, methods and content work best for you; or not. In our experience, we find people like to have goals such as “I’d like to increase my sales”; but how are you going to get there? Everyone wants more sales, but it is understanding your business and your audience which will make this achievable. This is why you need to be specific.
Let’s look at it like this… (and roll with us on the weak/strong analogy, as we are trying to keep this simple).
Goal: To sell 15 products to my Facebook audience.
This is weak as it is not specific enough. Let’s say you have a colleague who is implementing this how are they going to do it?
Goal: To sell 15 t-shirts on my Facebook page, utilising the Facebook shopping feature by posting x2 t-shirt posts per week for a month. Promoting this item on Facebook with an advertising budget of £25, using the conversions ad objective type.
This is strong and precise about how you’re going to achieve your goal (method/time), which allows you to see if it’s successful based upon the approach being taken.
Feel free to look at more social media objectives from our previous blog “What is social media management.”
Not setting yourself any social media goals will lead to not knowing if your social media strategy is successful.
The second step to a solid social media strategy is to understand your audience. Who are they? Where are they? What type of content do they respond to and engage with? Are you providing quality for them?
Take Facebook for example. Have you noticed that when you post content on this social media channel, that you don’t really have that much reach (people who see your content)? Well, it’s all down to Facebook’s algorithm.
If people do not like your content, Facebook will automatically think that your content is poor and they won’t show it on the newsfeed; or give it less importance. This is why you’ll often see businesses liking their own content sometimes, just to get it within the newsfeed for that added reach. This is something you can do, but do keep an eye on if others are liking it too. If not, rethink what you are posting out, or better still, why not reach out to the audience you do have and ask what they’d like to see!
It’s also the same with your Facebook likes; if your audience is predominantly your own friends (and they don’t like your specific sector), there isn’t any real point in having them like the page; there than for support, which is lovely but not actually achieving much. Facebook will try to serve your content based upon the audience and interests of the people that like your page.
Do you want to understand more about Facebook’s algorithm? Check this out!
Let’s look in more detail at how we understand our audience?
There are a few methods, but the easiest one is to check your Facebook ‘page insights’. Facebook insights can pretty much tell you everything you need to know about your audience. From age, gender, times they are online and also their location.
You can also use a Facebook Pixel to gather information about your audience, and if you have a website and you’re capturing information such as purchases and form submissions, you need a Facebook Pixel. A Facebook Pixel will allow you to create more useful (and hopefully effective) Facebook adverts; and utilising ‘custom audiences’ by serving your website to people who have similar interests to previous visitors.
Note* – Apple’s recent IOS 14 8.1 will change how your pixel works, keep up-to-date with Aggregated Event Measurement
Ok, so you have outlined your goals and you know your audience. Now it’s time for step 3, setting up your social media profiles.
If you are still unsure about which social media platform works best for you and your business, Check our previous blog!
With your social media profiles, it’s crucial to be consistent across the board. Make sure you have the same logo, colour combinations & your content is similar across all channels. Having a brand that looks consistent shows that you’re a professional outfit and also helps users know they are in the right place and looking at the right business.
We highly recommend using high-resolution imagery on your social media. Make sure the photos are of high quality. If you need commercially free images we recommend using Pexels or Unsplash.
Many businesses when they are starting up, just grab anything off the internet that resembles what they’re looking for. Don’t just steal imagery or post out poor, pixelated stuff; people see straight through it and expect more. Creative, bespoke artwork can really draw attention to your brand and show your customers, old and new, what you’re about.
Does your business need a Social Media Re-brand? Check out our special offer for just £150!
Content is arguably the most important piece of the jigsaw. If you have no content to publish, you don’t really have a social media strategy. Your content is the backbone of your strategy.
So what do you publish? Now, this is up to you and your specific goals and targets. But for this scenario, let’s say we would like to promote our t-shirt company to sell those x15 t-shirts this month. You may look to create 3-4 posts for the week.
It could look something like this…
Monday –
Wednesday –
Friday –
This is just an example. It’s for you to decide what the best mix of content is for your brand, and trialling a mix of content will help you see what your audience engage with best.
Cool Tip – If you have multiple social media platforms for your brand, it might be time to invest in a social media scheduling too. A scheduling tool will make your life easier, especially if you are pressed for time. Check out Buffer or Sprout Social.
Do you need help with your Social Media management?
Time to measure if your social media strategy has been a success or not. Don’t worry if the strategy has not been successful the first time round, this is where you evaluate what parts have worked and what parts you need to change or refine.
Checking your data is going to provide you with key feedback. You may find that some posts are getting more reach than others.
For example, are your posts getting more reach on certain days and times? This is where data gets handy, as some posts work better at different times and depending on the social media channel you are publishing on. Next time you post content, you will be better equipped to know when your audience are on the channel and engaging.
Hopefully you will have Google Analytics or some sort of tracking software on your website. Website data is a great way of seeing if your social media strategy is paying off, too. Within your website data, you will see how many people are clicking onto your website coming from social media. You will also be able to see how much time has been spent and if they have purchased an item as a result of their journey.
With your social media strategy, you will find that you’re constantly reviewing it; weekly or even daily, depending on the volume of content/traffic you’re creating or receiving. Don’t be afraid to make changes to your strategy. The news and what’s relevant changes all the time, and a large part of social media is being reactionary and reflecting ‘the times’. Moreover, you’re going to be changing or refining your goals was your business develops. Be flexible.
With your social media strategy, if you’re working in a large team, make sure you share your strategy with everyone. This will help everyone to be on-board with the messages your are giving out and to keep a consistent tone and approach.