Social Media is an invaluable tool for small businesses. It gives you the opportunity to promote your business to potential customers all over the world without having to spend a penny.
But getting started on social media can be completely overwhelming. With so many platforms to choose from and so many types of content you can create, it can be difficult to know where to start.
This is why having a strong social media strategy is essential for success.
What is a Social Media Strategy?
A social media strategy outlines your goals and lays out the content you’ll post and the platforms you’ll use.
Having a good social media strategy can help you to grow your following, build awareness of your brand, and ultimately, make you money.
A social media strategy is a long-term plan. You cannot expect overnight success. Instead, you must be patient and consistent.
How to Create a Social Media Strategy
Set Goals
The first step when creating a social media strategy should always be to set goals. For example, you may want to use social media to build brand awareness so you may set a goal to reach a certain number of followers. Alternatively, you may want to use social media to drive website visits so you may set a goal to reach a certain number of clicks.
When setting goals, you should consider whether they are SMART.
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely.
Considering these factors helps you to set meaningful, realistic goals which will help your business to grow.
Choose Your Platforms
Once you’ve set your goals, you need to decide which social media platforms you’re going to use to help you achieve them.
There is often a temptation to use as many social media platforms as possible, but this is not always a good idea. Of course, in an ideal world, your business would be active on all social networks as this opens you up to the most potential customers but that’s not realistic.
Most small business owners simply don’t have the time to consistently post on several sites. It is much better to be consistent on one platform than to post sporadically across five platforms.
This being said, it’s important that you choose your social media platforms carefully. You need to consider which sites your ideal customers are most likely to use as well as the type of content you want to create. In our next blog post, we will be taking an in-depth look at each of the social networks to help you to choose which are best for your business.
Content Pillars
A content pillar is a topic that your brand will consistently create content about.
For example, at Pretzelled, our content pillars are SEO, Web Design, and Social Media Marketing. If you read our blog or check our socials, you’ll see that the majority of our content fits in one of these categories.
You should aim to have 3 – 5 content pillars.
Using content pillars will establish you as an expert on the topics you choose and ensure that you don’t run out of ideas for content. They help you to find a niche and build a community.
Measure Your Results
Measuring your progress is an essential part of your social media strategy as it shows you whether your strategy is working or not.
All of the major social media sites have built in Analytics or Insights features which allow you to track a variety of metrics.
The metrics you choose to monitor depend on the goals you have set. For example, if your goal is to raise brand awareness, then you probably want to track how many times your posts are being shared. Or if you want to create an engaged community, then you’ll be interested in how many comments you’re getting.
Tracking your progress allows you to adjust your social media strategy to better help you achieve your goals.
So there you have it! Now you’re in a position to create a social media strategy and take your business to the next level.
If you’d like some help with creating your own social media strategy, then get in touch for a free consultation and find out how we can help you!