It has become common knowledge that, in this day and age, social media is important for a business to succeed online.
Just because your business is on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or another social platform, it doesn’t guarantee your business’s success.
In order to effectively reap the benefits of these social platforms, your business must ensure that you have a social media strategy in place. The key principles of a social media are fairly obvious; the strategy should focus around the core values of your business and it must be consistent. Despite these principles being fairly obvious, many businesses still end up going wrong with their social media.
So, let’s break down the steps and principles that go into creating a successful social media strategy.
1. Identify your business goals
Firstly, your business should start by identifying any specific goals you want to achieve. Once you have identified your goals, you can then decide how you want to use social media to meet those goals.
2. Define your goals
After identifying your goals, you will then need to define them; give them a figure or way of making them measurable. This will enable you to know when you actually reach or achieve one of your goals.
3.Identify your audience
After you have taken the time to define and identify your business goals, you should now do the same with your target audience. Carry out detailed research into your target audience; discover their age, occupation, interests, habits, the social platforms they are using and when they are using those platforms.
4. Research your competition
The next step involves researching your competitors. Begin by identifying your key competitors and then find out what social platforms they are using and how they are using them. You can then take what they are doing well and shape this to work for you and learn what not to do from their mistakes.
5. Choose your platforms
Take the research you have carried out around your target audience and your competitors to then make the decision of which social platforms you are going to use for your business. The research you have carried out will help you to avoid wasting your time in the wrong place.
6. Create a content strategy
A content strategy should outline the type of content you will be posting on each social media platform and how this content should be created to reach your target audience. The research you carried out around your target audience will also be of good use within this step as it should help you decide on what type of content is going to work best and when you will post your content. The time that you decide to post your content is crucial as it could mean more engagement.
Once these six steps have been carried out, your business should then put the strategy into action and begin posting your planned content. It is important to remember to monitor and analyse your social media platforms, so that you can discover whether your content is working effectively, or whether you need to consider making changes.