Social media has become an integral part of our lives, both personally and professionally. It’s a powerful tool that can be used to connect with customers, build brand awareness, and increase sales.
However, without a clear social media strategy, your efforts may not deliver the desired results.
In June’s learning slot, marketing experts, Fran Watson and Danni Johnson discussed six steps to creating a successful social media strategy that’ll help you achieve your business goals.
Why 80×20?
80×20 is a series of events created by Xpand that allow you to learn about the latest in the digital marketing world while getting the chance to network with other business owners and marketing professionals.
In June we covered…
In June’s ‘20 minute mastery,’ the subject was – Six steps to creating a successful social media strategy
A successful social media strategy involves a clear understanding of your target audience, the platforms they use, the type of content they engage with, and how to measure success.
Attendees learned:
- The importance of understanding your social media goals.
- Identifying the right platforms for your audience.
- Reviewing and potentially refocusing any existing platforms.
- Planning content consistently – so you never run out of ideas.
- Social media tone of voice and how to use it to attract potential clients.
- Measuring the success of your efforts.
Video
Slides
Why do you need a social media strategy?
So why is it important to have a social media strategy in the first place? Below are some notable stats detailing why you need a social media strategy.
Some notable stats:
- 87% of the population is now using social media, that’s a huge statistic. So if you’re not using social media to connect with your prospects, then you’re missing a massive opportunity.
- The average time spent on social media per day is 1 hour and 56 minutes. Again a notable stat, people are spending more time on their phones.
- The split between genders using social media is now more even. In the past, the female demographic was higher, but more males are now on social media.
Creating a successful social media marketing strategy
1. The importance of understanding your social media goals
So what is the point of having a social media goal? Essentially, you’re shooting in the dark if you don’t have any.
How can you measure your activity if you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve?
Your social media goals need to be tied back to your overall business objectives. Some great examples include:
- Increasing brand awareness
- Driving website traffic
- Generating leads
- Boosting sales
- Creating a community
All of the above are great examples, you can choose one or more. But make sure whatever you choose is relevant to your business.
The next thing to consider alongside your goals is your mission statement for each social media platform you use – usually, this directs your goals too. So both your goals and mission statement go hand in hand.
An example of a mission statement for using Instagram could be:
“Company X will use Instagram to support their businesses recruitment objectives”
So basically, it’s about looking at each platform and first identifying which ones to use, but then highlighting what the purpose is behind using them.
How would using those platforms support the overall business objectives?
That will create the basis of your mission statement for each platform.
Once you have your mission statement, you can then build your goals and metrics based on that mission.
Why do these mission statements matter? And why do you need one for each platform you use?
- They allow you to manage your marketing budget
- They give you structure and clarity
- They prove ROI
- They provide alignment between all your goals
2. Identifying the right platforms for your audience
Once you know your goals you need to work out who your target audience is. Who will you be speaking to on your social media platforms?
The most effective way to do this is by creating audience personas for your business.
What is an audience persona? These are fictional representations of your ideal clients or customers.
This document should outline who your ideal customer is, their needs, wants and pain points, their personality traits, what motivates them to take action, who they follow online, and much more.
It is a detailed document which gives you a deeper understanding of your ideal customer, which can then inform all your future marketing activity.
This document will also allow you to see which social media platforms they use and what content you need to create to attract them to your business.
To dive deeper into how you can create detailed buyer personas and identify your target audience, watch the video of a webinar run by Danni Johnson.
3. Review and refocus existing platforms
It’s essential to look at the platforms that you’re already using and review what’s working and what’s not. As well as look at new ones that may be important for your industry and audience.
There are lots of social media platforms out there, and many more are being released every day. How do you know which ones to use for your business?
Your audience research will come in handy here, as that’ll inform you which platforms your audience frequents, and therefore, where your business needs to be present.
Let’s compare two platforms side by side as an example, of course, you can use the same method to analyse and review the rest of the platforms to see which platform is best for your audience.
If your audience is Millennials who are in higher management, then LinkedIn is the platform you should focus on.
However, if you sell a fun product that is aimed at a younger demographic, then TikTok could be your best option.
What’s important to note is that just like your social media strategy mission statement, every platform has its own mission statement too. That’s something to consider when you’re looking at where you’re putting your content.
4. Plan content consistently – so you never run out of ideas
Now you know the importance of having a social media strategy and also know who your target audience is. The next challenge is how to create content that not only resonates with them but also has plenty of it! This is where content pillars come into play.
These are a set of themes or topics that you’re going to base all your content around. Usually, you’ll know this after you’ve created your audience personas and know what content your audience would want.
In the example below we have 3 themes, but you can do as many as you want for your business, it all depends on your overall objectives.
Content pillars should tie back to your social media goals, which is why we have them at the bottom of each content pillar document we create for our clients.
A few other ways to create consistent content are:
- Use social media scheduling tools – There are lots of them out there that you can get started with for free, so use them to make your workflow more efficient. At Xpand we use Publer.
- Use a variety of formats – Create engaging and shareable content, leveraging various media formats such as text images, videos and infographics.
- Use content curation techniques – This includes RSS Feeds (Real Simple Syndication), Tools like Feedly, and using AI.
- Empower your employees – Employees are your best advocates, they can help push out your posts to a wider audience. Employee posts about your company have 8 times more reach than posts from your company page.
5. Give your social media profiles a voice
This is a big one. Most businesses have a branding tone of voice but nothing for their social media.
A lot of businesses will use the same for both. This is a mistake. But, before we go any further, what is the tone of voice?
Tone of voice (TOV) is how your brand ‘speaks’ when you are communicating with customers, reflecting your personality and your values.
However, when it comes to social media your TOV can be slightly different, depending on the audience you’re looking to communicate with.
For example, If your brand tone of voice is professional and serious, this may not translate well on social media, where you may need a friendlier tone.
It’s critical to find a unique voice that is evident throughout all your social media marketing, make sure you’re not always just selling. You wouldn’t go up to someone new in a networking event and start selling them your product, the same goes for social media.
We recommend a rule of 80/20. 80% of your content should be helpful, useful and informative and then 20% you can use to sell your services.
Finally, a social media TOV allows for better community interaction. It will enable you to connect with your community as a human as opposed to a brand, which makes the interactions more personal.
6. Measure your success
When was the last time you checked the analytics for your company pages on social media? Did you then make changes to your content, after analysing this data?
There’s no point in doing all of the strategy steps if you aren’t analysing the results. And then tweaking your content in line with this feedback.
All social media platforms have an analytics dashboard that allows you to see data related to your profiles and content, as well as audience engagement. Use this data to inform and tweak your social media strategy over time.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of how you can use social media to grow your business.
Remember, this is only the tip of the iceberg. When we create a social media strategy for clients, we go into much more detail. Contact us for assistance in creating a successful social media strategy for your business.
