Social media isn't rocket science, but it requires some thought and planning to make it work for your brand and business growth plans.
When done well, social media can be an excellent marketing channel. It can help your brand and its customers bring their stories to life in engaging, informative, and entertaining ways (all the likes and shares!).
If it all seems overwhelming, don't worry. These five tips will help you formulate a social media game plan that keeps your content fresh and on point.
1. Start with a Strategy
Social media strategy is a subset of overall marketing strategy based on business goals. Essentially, it boils down to preparation.
You'll want to conduct audience research to understand their needs, wants, and interests. It also helps to look at posts other brands have made for a similar audience that resonated in the past. A quick note of warning: don't try to cut corners by copying and pasting what other companies do. This research is for inspiration—for your campaigns, you will need to factor in specifics for your brand, target audience, and marketing goals.
Use this research to formulate content topics and make a content calendar where you list topics and the dates for each post.
Lastly, track performance with metrics and adjust your approach based on the data.
These elements together form a cohesive social media strategy that will guide your brand toward achieving its growth goals using online platforms.
2. Make a Content Plan & Calendar
You don't want to start with a blank slate when it's time to post. Instead, create a content plan that lists your post topics or concepts you've researched in advance. A plan ensures your social content is relevant and appealing to your audience. You can write the posts, create your artwork and even schedule them to go live well before you want them to appear on your feed.
A content calendar shows you what you're posting when, so you don't have to scramble last-minute to put something on your socials.
3. Be Consistent
Consistency is the name of the game when it comes to all social channels. When your brand becomes known for being a reliable poster on social media, it increases the likelihood that your audience will "invest" by devoting attention to your brand and its voice.
4. Post Interesting and Engaging Content
This can be challenging for some folks who may not have many ideas. An easy way to approach this is to look at what other similar brands are doing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, and elsewhere.
And remember: post poaching isn't cool. Although you want to avoid plagiarizing, you can certainly take inspiration from other brands' post topics and spin them in a new way.
There are many ideas for social media posts; you have to find them.
5. Measure Metrics and Adjust
Being a data nerd pays off big time with your social media efforts. Track the performance of your social media posts, including likes, shares, comments, and more, as well as your follower growth over time. Try to identify your best-performing posts and understand what makes them work. Then do more of them.
See You Online
Social media marketing can seem mysterious at first, but once you get the hang of it, the process becomes routine and, dare we say, fun. Creating a content plan with a strategy that aligns with your marketing goals gives you a roadmap that makes the journey much easier.
How's your social media strategy working out? If you want to talk about it, get in touch!