Creating a social media marketing strategy for your business means maximizing business potential. If you're using social media platforms without a strategy, you're missing a big opportunity for growth.
Why You Need a Strategy
A good social media strategy brings several benefits to your business.
Customer Growth and Retention
Social platforms allow an unprecedented amount of interaction with customers. The platforms make it easy to respond to customer concerns, create engaging content, and personalize your interactions.
Brand Awareness
With four billion users across several platforms, social media is the only medium that offers this much visibility. Increased visibility means increased brand awareness and leads.
Return on Investment
While you can spend money on social media ads, you can spend less with a strong strategy. When you focus on producing engaging content and unique interactions with customers, you gain more for less.
Devising Your Strategy
The best social media strategies utilize the following principles.
Establish Goals
You need to know what you want from your social channels. For example, if you want to increase engagement, your strategy will be slightly different than if you want to focus on brand awareness.
After you have a large following, you may want to switch your goal to converting followers into sales. Your goals will adapt as you go, but make sure you know what they are so you can focus.
Know Your Target Audience
Content that appeals to the lowest common denominator doesn't perform well. Instead, you need to identify your target audience based on your business goals.
This looks much the same as in traditional marketing: who buys your product and service? Once you know their demographics and behaviors, you can refine your strategy even more.
Refine Your Platforms
Avoid spreading yourself thin with a social media presence that's too broad. Your demographics dictate your platforms. For example:
- Facebook is best for targeting millennials and the best way for a unique interaction.
- TikTok hosts the most Gen-Z users.
- Instagram should be your choice if your strategy relies on stunning visuals.
- LinkedIn provides the best strategy for B2B companies.
Focus your strategy on two primary social media platforms for the best ROI.
Focus on Engagement
In creating a social media marketing strategy for your business, you need to always keep engagement with your customers as your primary focus. If the content is generic or purely informational, it won't get the traction you need.
Focus on interacting with your audience, building a community, establishing trust, and the interests of your target audience. Offer a variety of content, including videos, polls, and customer testimonies. Respond quickly to comments.
Measure and Adapt
An effective strategy constantly measures performance and adapts to feedback and KPIs. If something doesn't work, try something different. As your audience changes, so will your strategy.
Deploy Your Social Media Strategy
Creating a social media marketing strategy for your business seems complicated, but you have all the necessary tools and knowledge. Using these strategies and refining them as you go means you can utilize the world's most powerful online platforms to your business's advantage.
