How to Develop a Social Media Strategy: A Step by Step Guide
Hey small business owners and aspiring creatives!! Are you finally ready to start putting in the effort to step-up your social media game? If your answer is “yes”.... Then yay! I’m so happy for you and your brand!
We know all too well now how important it is to have a presence and community online, especially after everything the year 2020 brought us.
BUT, easier said than done, I know. Getting started is intimidating and staying consistent is time-consuming. Oy vey! Fear not - I am here to help. Consider me your social media fairy godmother.
I have compiled my years of experience and knowledge into a step-by-step guide for you. What’s the best social media network to use for your industry? How should your strategies be organized? We will discuss these questions and more right here in this blog post. You will learn how to successfully build a social media strategy that will save you time and ultimately grow your business.
Ready to get started on developing your social media strategy? Grab a cup of coffee and your notepad, and let’s gooooo.
Step 1:
First thing’s first - set goals.
I know, I know. This sounds a bit obvious, and like I’m just trying to fill some space or something. However, I promise you that I’m not. This step is vital, and I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t go into major detail about it.
Having goals gives you something to aspire to and promotes consistency. Goals allow you to see how effective your efforts are, and to make sure you always have a “why” behind what you’re doing. It’s super easy to give up, and stop posting altogether if you don’t implement your goals early on in the social media strategy process. The day-to-day grind can get monotonous, but the outcomes make it all worthwhile. This is why you MUST implement a road map for yourself early on.
Think about what you ultimately want to achieve with your social media marketing.
Sure, vanity metrics are great, but can you actually tie these into your long-term business goals? For example… will increasing your like count on each post manifest into sales growth?? In most cases, the answer is no. If you want to see results from your social media marketing, it's important to have goals in place that are quantifiable. They also need to be tied to clear objectives that will help you make progress.
When creating your social media goals, you can use a variety of goal-setting frameworks to remember what’s important for you and your business. My ALL-TIME favorite goal-setting framework is the S.M.A.R.T. goal framework. I’m sure many of you have heard of this goal-setting system before, but I’m here to break it down for you, social media style.
The S.M.A.R.T goal framework is all about creating relevant, achievable goals that help support your overall business objectives. See below:
Specific: “Get more followers” is NOT specific. You need to be very clear and specific when setting goals.. Does “increase engagement” mean you want 100 more likes on each post or 10,000 more likes on each post? If you can set concretely defined goals, you can more easily measure your social media progress.
Measurable: Every goal needs some kind of measurement to help you determine whether you are getting closer to achieving it. “Improve my brand recognition” is a great concept, but it’s not a goal unless you have a way to measure that improvement. Make sense?? Maybe try something like "Increase our user generated content by 30% by the end of 2021", or anything similar.
Attainable: Your social media goals should challenge you to improve and stretch as a brand, but they should also be realistic if you put in the time. I like to aim for mini-wins along the way to MAJOR goals. Ya know?
Relevant: This is the piece that ties your goal-setting back to larger business objectives. If your goal involves increasing Facebook likes, for example, make sure you understand how that will actually benefit the business over time.
Timely: Deadlines keep everyone accountable. Include a timeframe for the completion of your goal so you know when to check in on your success.
Defining goals will ensure your SMS (social media strategy) has a clear focus. You’re not going to get the level of activity you want with your social media if you don’t have defined goals. That’s just all there is to it. Having goals will help you keep with it long enough to actually start seeing results. A lot of times, we jump on board with social media, and one month later, the honeymoon phase is over. However, if you have your goals outlined and ready to go and you focus on them each time you log on to social media sites, then you’ll be able to make much better progress and really start seeing the social media marketing strategy taking off for your business!!
Have I drilled the importance of “goals” into your mind yet? Haha. Well just wait 'til you see how into step two I am.
Step 2:
Do some audience/customer research
This one is crucial. Like, how “that’s hot” is crucial to Paris Hilton’s brand. That’s how crucial knowing your demographic is to your social media strategy.
Knowing who your audience is and what they want to see on social media will help you get more shares and build a bigger audience. With this info - you can create content that they will like, engage with, and share with their own following. It’s also critical if you want to turn social media followers into customers for your business.
Your social media strategy should implement a value-driven, interactive process focused on providing value and interacting with others in your target market. When it comes to your target customer, you should know things like the following:
How old are they?
Where do they live?
Do they have disposable income? If so, how much?
What type of work do they do?
What does an average day look like for them?
What are their hobbies?
What are their favorite books, podcasts, tv shows, etc.?.
Fun tip - I like to think of my target audience as ONE person, and she even has a name :) This helps me really personalize my audience and I feel it helps me stay uber relatable.
It’s also important to always be analyzing the conversations and trends happening not just around your followers, but around everyone that fits within your demographic and using those insights to make better social media content decisions.
Get to know your fans, followers, and customers as real people with real life wants and needs. This will help you know how to target and engage with them. Social Media should be about engaging and adding value to your niche in order to interact with others within your market.
If you don’t already know who your audience is and/or where to find them, data is key. Don’t make assumptions. Use any and all data you can get your hands on. Do research into your business industry, and if you have Google Analytics - GO THROUGH THEM WITH A FINE TOOTH COMB!
Step 3:
Competitor analysis
It's a safe bet that you're not the only one in your industry using social media. More than likely, your competition is already implementing a social media strategy of their own. THIS is great news for you. You can learn from them!! What are they doing well and what are they doing poorly??
Doing this research will give you a good sense of what’s expected in your industry, which will help you set social media targets of your own. It will also help you spot opportunities. Maybe one of your competitors is dominant on Instagram, but has put little effort into Twitter or TikTok. You might want to focus on the networks where your audience is under served, rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player. By examining content and activities that do and don’t work for competitors, you should have a better understanding of which tactics resonate with your target audiences. Start by selecting two to five competitors. Analyze their social profiles or campaigns on different platforms, paying attention to:
Top Posts
Types of Content Shared (are they video heavy? do they post a lot of micro-blog captions?)
Average Engagement Rate
Posting Time and Frequency
Follower Growth
Post Reach and Impressions (check out sites like Phantom Buster to find this kind of info)
Adopt the content and posting strategies that consistently generate engagement and correlate with follower growth.
All of that being said, it’s important to mention that while having a competitor analysis is super important, it’s more important to develop a strategy that is unique to you and your brand. PLEASE, I beg you, do not copy your competitors. This will literally put you in their shadow and you’ll always be two steps behind them. This is not something you want. Study their tactics, and what has worked/has not worked for them - then use that knowledge to build a strategy that no one has seen before in your industry!
Step 4:
Platform strategy
Let’s talk about which social media platforms should be a part of your strategy. There really are SO many different platforms these days, it can be overwhelming to keep up. And while some businesses need to be on each platform, most do not. Especially small businesses. You only have so much time and resources to allot to your overall marketing strategy, and social media is just one portion of that. You want to decide which platforms your audience lives on, and set up camp on those platforms, and those platforms ONLY. We want the ROI of your time to be high, people!
While considering each social media platform, keep these questions in mind:
Who is your target audience (remember step two??), and which platforms do they use most (a simple Google search will help you here)?
What story are you trying to tell about your business, and your product or service?
What kinds of content do you plan to consistently produce?
How will social media support your website?
Once you have a firm grasp on the above questions, play to the strengths of your offering and each platform. Here are some pointers to help you select your best platform:
Facebook: Sixteen years after its inception, Facebook still reigns as the most popular social platform. It’s the place you go to keep up with family and friends, or snoop on people you used to know. We check Facebook several times a day, often without even thinking about it. It offers the lowest organic reach, but compensates with robust paid advertising capabilities.
Pinterest: widely preferred by women and converts to sales better than any other platform. You may want to read that again. There are more than 2 billion searches on Pinterest every month, and shopping is the top priority for 48% of all Pinterest users
Twitter: revolves around 140-character interactions, 80% of which happens on mobile. Twitter is THE place people think to go for quick customer service, and it’s especially useful for SAAS and other tech companies.
LinkedIn: caters to the B2B community across 200 countries. The average user spends 17 minutes on LinkedIn per visit and 40% use the site daily. LinkedIn isn’t weighed down by cat videos, or your grandma sending you weird political nuances; content shared on LinkedIn is intended to raise a company’s profile, connect with other businesses, and nurture recruitment.
Instagram: translates brand value into visual appeal. This platform is popular with millennials and international users, as 80% of Instagram users are outside the U.S. Instagram is a fantastic place to humanize your company, showcase your values, or to elevate your brand with striking images and video. A survey released by Facebook (who owns Instagram) revealed that people perceive companies who use Instagram as popular, creative, entertaining, relevant, and committed to building a community. T
Snapchat sustains a predominantly female and millennial user base that thrives on video. It’s definitely for the playful, cheeky brands, and significantly more popular with B2C companies.
Tik Tok - the platform where Gen Z kids were born. Interestingly enough, millennials are beginning to slide over to this platform too… cautiously though. TikTok is great for those that want to reach a younger audience, be innovators on a new video platform, and primarily share entertaining content.
Again, the social media platforms you choose should depend on your business and its intended audience. A multi-platform social media strategy is like a Rubik’s cube. Each social platform presents its own unique challenges and rewards.
Be sure to ask yourself "What is the purpose of this channel for your brand?". It's very important to define a purpose and strategy for each social media platform you plan to utilize to reach your audience and target your potential audience.
In summary, social media platforms take time to cultivate. Multiple social media platforms are an important asset to your overall SMS, but they each require knowledge of how the platform works and the ability to listen to and truly engage with your audience, share useful or entertaining content, and remain agile and flexible in the ever-evolving world of social media.
Step 5:
Determine how often/when to post
I feel like this is one people can get REALLY tripped up on. Don’t sweat it all that much. This is an important step, but it can be a very gray area. Let’s dive in and I’ll explain more.
It is important to map out a social calendar for each platform you decide to utilize for your brand. Your social media content calendar lists the dates and times at which you will publish types of content on each channel. It’s the perfect place to plan all of your social media activities—from images and link sharing to blog posts and videos. It includes both your day-to-day posting and content for social media campaigns. Your calendar also ensures your posts are spaced out appropriately and published at the best times to post. Let’s look at some ideas to maximize your schedule and your time spent on social media.
Determine the right content mix
Make sure your content strategy and calendar reflect the mission statement you’ve assigned to each social profile so that everything you post is working to support your business goals. You might decide that:
50% of content will drive traffic back to your website
25% of content will be curated from other sources
20% of content will support lead-generation goals (newsletter sign-ups, ebook downloads, etc.)
5% of content will be about your company culture
Placing these different post types in your content calendar will ensure you maintain the right mix. If you’re starting from scratch and you’re not sure what types of content to post, try the 80-20 rule:
80% of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain your audience
20% can directly promote your brand.
You could also try the social media content marketing rule of thirds:
One-third of your content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit.
One-third of your content shares ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses.
One-third of your content is personal interactions with your audience
The number one, most important thing to remember from this step is to be CONSISTENT!!!!!!! I’ll say it louder for the people in the back - CONSISTENCY IS KEY!!!! Alright, I’ll stop yelling. But please remember that. When all else fails, consistency will be your anchor. Social media is a numbers game and a trust game. Your followers will forget about you and lose trust in you while filtering through a sea of other profiles if you cannot commit to remaining consistent - whatever that means for you. For me, it means multiple times per day.
Step 6:
Plan, develop, and schedule your content
This step consists of 4 micro-steps if you will. This is where you really get to get to the meat of this whole social media strategy thing. Here is where you start to brainstorm, create, map out, and schedule that beautiful content that is going to speak to your desired audience. Don’t skimp out on ANY of the below micro-steps. These will define the trajectory of your long-term growth on any and all platforms.
Micro-step #1 - 𝐌𝐀𝐏 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐋𝐘 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑: Using your own understanding of your audience and topics, map out all the times you want to publish posts at the beginning of each month.I recommend you grab a big sheet and print or draw a calendar for the upcoming month.
Micro-step #2 - 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐄-𝐓𝐔𝐍𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍: Once you've determined how often you want to post, you can determine what day and order each category will publish in. All this means, for me, is that I write a list of my categories and assign each a number. Then I start on the first day a post is set to publish on my map and literally just write, “1, 2, 3, …” on all the posting days on my calendar, restarting at 1 after 5.
Micro-step #3 - 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒: This step will likely take up the bulk of the time you've set aside for this project. Now that you have your posts mapped out, it's time to group them into your five different categories to prepare in batches. With your posts grouped by category, you’ll find that creating the content for your captions becomes a breeze. Choose a category to start with and write all your posts for the month in that category at once. By batching similar category posts together, you’ll be able to stay in that same mindset as you’re preparing the post, which saves a lot of time and brainpower.
Micro-step #4 - 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐏𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐇: After you’ve planned the content for all five categories, arrange the posts into the proper order (I love using Loomly) and schedule them according to the days and times you outlined on your big monthly calendar. After your posts are all scheduled to publish, you’re done with the planning!
And that’s all folks. These are my six starting steps to developing a successful social media strategy.
Please remember that a truly great and successful social media strategy is a constant work in progress and should change with emerging trends, but with these six steps, you can give your social campaigns a strong foundation from the beginning. Remember that little, small steps every day create success! You have got this! I believe in you and your business! PLEASE let me know if you have any questions. I am here to help you grow your business through social media. Keep following along with our blog for more tips and insight every week. You can also check us out on all of our social media accounts as well!
