Have you ever scrolled through your competitors’ social media pages? It probably doesn’t take long to tell which of them have a solid social media strategy, and who is just kind of winging it.
Companies with social media strategies are disciplined in keeping posts on brand, they link with a purpose from their social feeds (often to their own sites), and they share valuable content that their followers find relevant, as evidenced by the conversations sparked online.
Contrast that with organizations who are posting without regard to their brand or the platform, whose posts are only company-centric and don’t add value or elicit conversations. They are active on social media because that’s what companies do in 2022, but they really aren’t quite sure why.
A content marketing strategy focuses a brand’s efforts on the platforms that are popular with their audience and aligned with the personality of their brand.
As you prepare to launch or reimagine your own social media marketing, be a company with a strategy. Here’s how…
1. Choose Your Platforms Wisely
Relax- you don’t need to be active on every social media site! Some may not even be a good fit for your company, and forcing posts on the wrong platform is counterproductive.
Determine which platforms are most popular with your target market, which is most aligned with your brand, and focus your social media activity there. Two or three social media profiles is most likely sufficient for accomplishing your objectives.
And what are your objectives? Are you trying to attract business prospects from social media sites and direct them to your website? Are you interested in amplifying brand awareness or showcasing a different side of your company? Would you like to directly engage with customers and prospects and build brand loyalty?
Choosing specific objectives for each of your social media profiles will help keep your feeds focused and working toward a greater goal.
2. Set Goals for Each Platform
“Set goals?,” you might say. “I already set an objective.” An over-arching objective will guide all your posting activity. A goal, on the other hand, defines how you will achieve your objective.
The key to effective social media goals is to make them attainable, time-specific, and measurable. Let’s say your objective is to entice social media followers to click from your social feed onto your website.
A useful goal to achieve that objective is to set a number of new prospects you would like to click on the links you post back to your website. “I would like 50 new prospects coming from Facebook to my website per month,” for example.
That goal is measurable because it has a concrete number and finite timeframe, and it’s perfectly attainable with a steady stream of engaging posts that link back to your site.
3. Use a Social Calendar
So you are now managing Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for your business. If you give each of the platforms the individualized attention they deserve, you’ve got a lot of content to post. Using a social media posting calendar is a great way to make sure you keep each of your profiles vibrant and fresh.
4. Measure Your Results
Did you write down those goals? After a period of consistent posting, it’s time to get out the measuring stick. How many prospects have clicked on the links you have posted and landed on your website? Did you hit your goal of 50 per month?
Even seemingly less tangible goals like increasing brand awareness are measurable on social media with data like number of retweets and shares. Similarly, you can measure audience engagement with an accounting of the likes and comments your posts elicit.
For tips on tracking social media activity, check out our Guide to UTM codes.
When you’ve chosen the right platform, determined an objective, set specific goals, and measured your results, the return on your investment in social media marketing will come into focus.
Thanks for stopping by,
Laura
Editor’s note: This blog was originally published in March 2017 and has been edited and updated in January 2022.
