Being a digital marketing strategist and trainer, I have spent a lot of time in this field to understand what works and what doesn’t. Experience has proved to me time and again that a well-crafted social media strategy is the lifeline of businesses trying to promote their brands online. And so, I can say without a doubt that NOT having a social media plan no longer remains an option.
Unfortunately, from my observations, many businesses still fail to realise that! Even if they do start off with an initial blueprint, soon they get distracted from their main objectives in desperation to quickly get more likes and followings. Learn more on why most businesses fail to have an effective online presence, here.
I’m therefore sharing with you some tips to help you develop a social media S.T.R.A.T.E.G.Y that would actually work and deliver the results that your organisation needs!
Measure What Is Right For You
Pre-defining the key measures to evaluate the effectiveness of your social media strategy puts you on the right track from the start. There may be hundreds of metrics out there. What you need to understand is that not all of them really matter. In fact, there are just a few of them that are relevant to your business.
Based upon your social media goals, they lie within one of these five categories: activity, reach, engagement, acquisition and conversion metrics.
Carefully select those metrics that tell you how successful your campaigns are at meeting your specific goals. Focusing on everything at the same time won’t get you anywhere.
Is Everything
Timing is everything when it comes to social media marketing. The “when” to do it is just as important, if not more, as the “what” to do or “how” to do it.
Responding to comments and queries as soon as possible could be one way of doing it. You can also schedule posts for weekends, lunch breaks, and late hours when people are free and more likely to use the net. Also, try coming up with offers for holiday seasons, celebrations and other occasions. How you approach all of these factors can make or break your marketing efforts.
Monitor The Visibility
Keeping a close eye on your competitor’s moves. What works for them is probably one of the most important parts of your social media strategy. You can do this by monitoring their online visibility on social media channels/search engines, their keyword prioritization and their customer acquisition strategy. Moreover, see if all of these are working well together towards accomplishing their business goals.
In short, understanding your competitor’s strategy can give you useful insights in formulating your own.
Roles And Resource Allocation
If you are managing your online presence in-house, you must get everyone on board with the strategy. Align the people with the plan and divide responsibilities within the team.
Equally important is the task of allocating budget and resources in accordance with your social media goals and tactics to achieve them. These may include email marketing, social media monitoring, CRM, services that you may need to outsource, advertising and so on.
Audience
Every channel you choose, every tactic you employ, each piece of content you produce and every search you make, must be done keeping in mind your target audience. Creating a strategy around the needs of your target market helps you craft content that is more likely to reverberate with your audience. The more relevant the content, platforms and tactics are to your audience the more traffic will to come to your site.
You don’t need a content strategy. Instead what you need is an audience strategy, so says Brand Savant’s Tom Webster. An audience strategy according to him is “figuring out which people could be your customers – based on what they believe, value, think and feel – and why they would be.”
Contents For Your Audience
Your engagement strategy could very well be your content strategy and hence your audience strategy. No single aspect of your social media strategy is a stand-alone factor. It all needs to work in tandem to actually become profitable to you and bring success to your business. How companies use social media for engagement can determine which demographics they tap into and which customers they attract and retain.
Define, Communicate And Measure
Your social media goals must be in-line with your overall business objectives. No one person, team or department in your organization should own the social media. Social media goals need to be communicated organization-wide. Not just that, but everyone should chip in their contribution towards its success. Don’t ask others to endorse your brand. Instead, understand that it’s your own employees who can do this best. Setting up social media goals can also help you evaluate the success of your overall strategy. You can do this by comparing what was achieved to what was intended. For e.g. increase in awareness, sales, loyalty and retention.
What is it?
Apple is not about iPhones, it’s about innovation. Disney is not about cartoons, it’s about magic. What’s your one thing that sets you apart and puts you above the competition?
Determining your unique selling proposition and making a push in the same direction, can make a huge difference. Your uniqueness could be the sole factor in attracting and retaining your potential clients through social media. Check out these 10 examples of killer unique selling propositions on the web. Who knows, by the time you finish reading, you might come up with your own.
Are you are looking for a specialist digital agency to develop your social media strategy for you? One that will enhance your organisation’s impact and reach? If yes, then we may be able to assist you with our years of experience in developing the same for many organisations.
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About solomoIT
At solomoIT, we specialise in providing customised training, consulting and strategy formulation for your digital marketing requirements. Give us a call on 1300 430 949 or +613 8630 2810 for a consultation and to get started on enhancing your social media presence and online reputation.