Could updating your social media strategy be in the cards for you in the New Year? Today we’re going to cover the four major steps we take when creating a social media strategy for our business, as well as our clients. The blueprint you create here should align with your overall marketing strategy.
Your social media strategy will define your goals, the steps you will take to achieve those goals, and the metrics that you’ll track to measure your success. Remember, you want to be able to easily measure your efforts. Set goals that are clear and concise.
Set Goals & Establish Which Metrics You Will Focus On
Before you can get to action items of a social media strategy, you need to establish your goals and decide what metrics you’ll be focusing on. Keep in mind that not every business will share the same ones, and what’s important to the owner of an ice cream shop probably won’t be the same as someone who owns a women’s fashion e-commerce store.
With that being said, here are a few common social media goals:
- Increase Brand Awareness
- X # of Email List Sign Ups
- X # of Conversions (Sales)
- Driving Traffic To A Specific Site/Landing Page
When configuring your goals, we recommend breaking them down into yearly, quarterly, and monthly goals. Once you have those set, you can then decide which social media metrics you’ll focus on. If reaching the maximum number of people possible is the goal, then keeping track of “Impressions” and “Accounts Reached” on Instagram would be two metrics important to your progress. If conversions and/or email list sign ups are your priority, “Website Taps” would be one of the metrics to focus your attention to.
Create A Content Calendar & Incorporate Short Form Video
There’s nothing worse than realizing you haven’t posted on Instagram or Facebook in days so you start scrolling through your phone looking for a picture to post. Creating and sticking to a content calendar will be your best friend as a business owner, especially if you’re a one woman (or man) show. The best part about creating a content calendar is that there’s no one way to do it. You do what works best for your business and schedule. For example: some business owners choose to batch an entire month’s worth of content in two days, while others work week by week. It’s completely up to you!
Speaking of content, you can no longer avoid creating short-form video content for your social channels. There are a wide variety of industries posting to Instagram Reels and TikTok and seeing success from their efforts. It’s important that you jump on the bandwagon if you haven’t already. To get started, start scrolling through Reels to gather inspiration. You can take trending sounds/videos and make them work for YOUR brand.
Creating A Solid Customer Service Workflow
Today, more and more customers are reaching out to brands than ever before directly through social media. No longer are they calling the 1-800 numbers or submitting a question through the “Contact Us” form on their website. They’re sliding into the brand’s DMs, and even more, expecting a timely response. What does this mean for you as a business owner? You’ll want to implement automated replies so your customer knows that they’ll be taken care of within a certain time frame.
Regularly Review Your Analytics & Make Changes Where Necessary
Whether you’re making a big shift in the way you’re creating content, or making minor changes for an upcoming product launch, keeping a close eye on your social media analytics will tell you if your efforts are paying off or if changes need to be made. While Instagram and Facebook have their own native insights, you can use a 3rd party program like Later or Buffer to take a deeper dive into your audience’s behaviors.
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