If you post it, they’ll like, share, and comment, right?
It’s true you have to post to grow your social media following and engagement. But posting just for the sake of posting won’t give you the increase in your social media stats that you want.
Social media strategy planning helps you target each post to engage your followers, grow your audience, and achieve your social media goals.
What goes into a social media business strategy? Keep reading for our overview of planning your social media strategy.
Identify Overall Growth Strategies
Your social media channels are a tool to support your growth strategies. Define what you want to achieve before planning social media.
Common goals from social media include:
- Increasing online sales
- Boosting in-store sales for brick-and-mortar businesses
- Getting more website traffic
- Growing your brand awareness
- Growing your online community
- Increasing customer loyalty
You may have more than one purpose for your social media. Every post should support one of those goals.
Know Your Audience
Refer to your customer persona to better understand your audience. The best social media posts are pointless if they don’t resonate with your target audience.
Know what your audience wants to see. What problems do they have that your social media posts can solve? What types of images attract them?
Research your audience’s preferences to create guidelines for your social media posts. Define what elements each post needs to meet those preferences.
Even social media platform preferences vary based on demographics. Instagram attracts a younger audience than Facebook with 90% of users on Instagram being under 35. Pinterest attracts more women than men, with 45% of women using the platform and only 17% of men using it.
Maximize Your Channels
You don’t need to have your business on every social media channel. Spreading your resources too thin can make your social media strategy planning less effective. Instead, focus on one or two main channels based on where your audience goes.
If you use multiple platforms, don’t just cross-post the same content. Customize your content for those platforms. You can use the same base information with different formatting to fit the selected platform.
The most effective social media content varies by platform. Videos perform well on Facebook while Instagram is the spot for your professional-quality photos and quotes. Twitter users prefer news and blog posts.
Create Quality Content With a Purpose
Use your overall social media goals and specific channel strategies to plan targeted content with a purpose. Everything you post should help you get closer to your established goals.
Quality content is essential. If you slap together sloppy posts, they won’t attract attention. You grow your social media presence by standing out.
Including images helps draw attention. Choose high-quality images that match your branding, support your purpose, and attract people. Social media image sizing is also important because it ensures the images are clear.
Track Performance
How will you know if your new social media strategy plan is working if you don’t track the statistics? Social media platforms have built-in analytics for business accounts. Use those statistics to see how your shares, views, likes, and comments increase.
You can also use social media analytics to see which content performs best. Use that data to plan your future social media content calendar.
Master Your Social Media Strategy Planning
Feeling overwhelmed trying to handle your own social media strategy planning? We can help.
Check out our social media management services. We can take care of everything from creating your strategy and content to managing your ads.
