Planning without any strategy to execute those plans can most times flop, and that’s why, as a marketer, you need to have social media marketing strategies that will help your brand achieve everything planned on social media. 

Creating a social media marketing strategy helps you to guide every action you take on social media and also monitors the results to see if it’s working or failing. 

However, when drafting your strategy, ensure they are attainable to avoid frustration, and increase chances of success. 

How to create a social media strategy

Set SMART goals

Like every other strategy, you should have a definition if your SMART goals. What are your specific, measurable, and attainable ideas that are relevant, and you can execute in a particular period? 

When you don’t take out time to set out your goals and objectives,  it becomes confusing when trying to measure your success. Please write down your social media goals and ensure it aligns with your marketing strategy which of course goes more in-depth than social media. 

Track essential metrics

Not every metrics on social media is essential. When using the analytics, ensure to pay attention to those that will give you a clear picture of your content’s performance.

Track metrics such as conversion rate and lead generation, and also keep in mind the parameters that are of most relevance to your brand, which could be brand awareness, organic reach, audience engagement, and so on.

For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, then you need to track metrics like shares, followers, etc. If it’s for engagement, metrics like mentions, comments, likes, should be your top priority. 

Know thy audience

The beginning of every social media strategy is knowing your audience. They are either customers or prospects that will bring an increase in sales and contribute to building your brand.

Start by seeing your customers and potential followers as the real people they are, who also have wants and needs they wish to fulfill. You can be able to anticipate their needs from this point of view. Caring to find out more about your audience helps to determine the kind of content to create for them. You know what kind of content they are likely to engage with and shower likes, comments, and shares.

When trying to know your audience, ensure you work with real data and not assumptions to avoid shooting blanks with your content. You can use the analytics of the various social media platform you have an account with to gather data about your target audience, especially when running campaign ads. 

Keep an eye on the competition

This might sound like an old social media strategy chestnut by now, but “listen” is still good advice that’s often ignored. The reality is that your competitors will give you a good guide to where and how you should be active in social media.You want to ensure you know everything about them by carrying out a competitive analysis. With this, you’ll have clear information about their actions and inaction and how it affects their social media performance.

Monitoring your competition is also an excellent way to know industry expectations and how to meet up to them. It also opens the door of opportunities if you look closely.

You get to see things your competitors are not doing well, such as not responding on time, not posting at the right time, not providing the audience with adequate information, or not being active on some social media platforms.

Your ability to spot these loopholes and capitalize on it to serve your audience better will help your social media strategy succeed. Another way to keep your eyes on the competition is by engaging in social listening.

Track relevant keywords and posts that keep going viral and have a high rate of engagement to include it in your plans. 

Do some evaluations 

Sometimes, you’ll need to take a step back and look at your overall effort to determine what you are doing right and where you need to improve. Compare your performance with that of your competitors to see where you stand.

Learn how many followers you’ve gotten or connections you’ve made. With evaluations, you also get a clear insight into the purposes your social media accounts are serving and discard those that are not adding any benefits to your brand and sales. 

Improve the outlook of your account 

You will need to optimize your account for success if you are yet to do so. And this includes using high-quality profile images that depict your brand and art the correct sizing for the specific network you intend using it.

Ensure you fill all the fields on your profile section, including those that are not required. Remember to fill them using keywords so that when people search for things related to your industry, your brand’s profile shows up thus increasing brand visibility and awareness.

Also, if you feel that there are some other social platforms, you should have your brand in,  create an account immediately. It won’t take much of your time creating an account. You only need to ensure the social platform is part of your strategy so that you don’t end up spreading yourself too thin.

You can also delegate responsibilities to each of your networks. For example, Instagram could be for tutorial videos, while Twitter and Facebook can help you connect to your customers.

Here are some essential social media accounts you should consider creating:

The Facebook business page, Twitter business account, LinkedIn company page, YouTube channel, WeChat business account,  Pinterest business account, Snapchat business account,  and of course, Instagram business account.

Using a business account if you are running a business and focusing on brand building is more effective than personal accounts as it allows you to enjoy some advanced analytics and campaign ads privileges.

Create a schedule 

Crafting quality content your fans and followers will appreciate is one thing, but ensuring you post them when they are available to engage with it is the main thing. For this purpose, you need a calendar that allows you to create a posting schedule so that you never miss the window of opportunity to engage your audience with exciting contents

Get inspired 

You can always draw inspiration from anywhere when creating content. You can draw inspiration from award-winning accounts, or your favorite industry-related brands. Take a step further by asking your followers the kind of content they would love to see.