Do you want to learn about social media strategies? You’re not alone. Social media is a hot topic these days, yet it can be confusing and hard to keep up with. That’s why I’ve created this article on social media strategies for you. I’m going to give you my tips on how to do a social media strategy and what makes up a social media strategy example.
Social media strategy examples, social media strategy tips—you’ve probably read tons of articles, blog posts and tips on how to create a social media strategy. But what is a social media strategy? And how do you create one? You’re not alone. There are thousands of articles, blog posts and tips on building a social media strategy that you can use as inspiration. However, some of them don’t tell the truth about what a social media strategy actually is. Some of these even perpetuate myths and misinformation when it comes to your organization’s approach to building a successful social media campaign.
What Is a Social Media Strategy?
A social media strategy is a plan of how to maximise engagement and interactions across social media to achieve a company’s objective. These objectives may be to generate leads, improve brand awareness or create a viral effect.
THE BUSINESS STRATEGY
The question “What is a strategy?” has ignited hours of debate amongst academics and management thinkers alike. This perhaps is a good indicator of why there is no one single definition of strategy and why businesses struggle with it.
Defining a social media strategy promises to be no less controversial.
- Goals – the aims of the business, its purpose and what it wants to achieve.
- Strategy – defines how you will achieve your goals: the plan.
- Objectives – are the specific details and accompanying measures (SMART)
- Tactics – tactics are specific actions.
I doubt if there is one definition of a social media strategy that everyone could agree with.
The goal of this blog is to get businesses to look at the main principles of social media, step back from the hype (which is mostly marketing focused) and revisit what it could do to help fuel growth.
In particular, it is how businesses can collaborate together at a local level that has the potential for innovation.
Together businesses can form beneficial alliances that could fulfil requirements that normally would go to larger businesses.
Take time to research your target audience
Making assumptions is bad news for marketers.
Only 55% of marketers use social data to better understand their target audience, making it a huge opportunity for both leaders and practitioners. Much of what you need to know about your audience to influence your social media marketing strategy is already available. You just have to know where to look.
With the right tool, marketers can quickly research their audience. No formal market research or data science chops necessary.
Remember: different platforms attract different audiences
Take today’s social media demographics, for example. These numbers speak directly to which networks your brand should approach and what types of content to publish. Here are some key takeaways for your 2022 social media marketing strategy:
- Facebook and YouTube are both prime places for ads due in part to their high-earning user bases.
- The top social networks among Millennials and Gen Z are Instagram and YouTube, signaling the strength of bold, eye-popping content that oozes with personality.
- Women vastly outnumber men on Pinterest, which is noted to boast the highest average order value for social shoppers.
- LinkedIn’s user base is well-educated, making it a hub for in-depth, industry-specific content that might be more niche than what you see on Facebook or Twitter.
Don’t spread yourself too thin. Instead, focus on networks where your core audience is already active.
Do your homework on your existing social media audience
Although the demographic data above gives you insight into each channel, what about your own customers? Further analysis needs to be done before you can determine what your real-world social customers actually look like.
That’s why many brands use a social media dashboard that provides an overview of who’s following you and how they interact with you on each channel.
Use Contests to Get and Stayon the Radar
You’ve surely stumbled upon a social media contest in the past, or maybe even organized one yourself. There’s a reason why so many brands have included these to their social media strategy.
Social media contests are a proven way to get the word out, get people interested in what you offer, and boost your followers count.
Over the past couple of years, social media contests have been especially effective when done in a collaboration with an influencer.
More brands are making the shift towards enhanced customer service and two-way communication. Makes sense, contests and giveaways will remain as relevant as ever, but their main goal will no longer centre around increasing the number of likes and followers alone.
Instead, brands are actively starting to use contests as another way to provide something of value to their audience. Allowing them to not only get on the radar of potential consumers – but stay on the radar as well.
The benefits of using contest in your social media strategies are:
- Increase brand awareness and remembrance
- Grow your email list
- Drive more traffic to your website/blog/social media platform
- Get to know your audience
- Educate potential customers
- Increase sales
- Get people to test your products
- Reward your loyal customers
Most importantly, you don’t need to sell physical products to organize a contest.
Are you a growth specialist helping people who want to start their own business? You can offer a free 30-minute consultation call, or free access to your mini-course.
Or maybe you’re a public speaking coach helping people to grow their business through speaking? Why not run a contest and offer some of your resources for free to the lucky winner?
You can use several contest formats including, but not limited to: follow to enter, tag a friend to enter, like to enter, comment to enter, share to enter, vote to enter, take a photo to enter, or any combination of these call to actions.
Create Deeper Connections with Video
You’ve surely noticed that various social media platforms have added more features for you to share video updates with your audience.
YouTube is huge right now, Instagram Live encourages its users to share instant updates, and longer form content with IGTV, and of course, there’s the incontestable power of TikTok.
Over time, we have witnessed how visuals drive more engagement, and video enables you to talk to your users directly – making a deeper connection.
One of the most powerful ways to drive more engagement and get immediate reactions/feedback is through live streaming on social media. For instance, live streams allow you to cover events, pick or announce contest winners in real time or create buzz around a product during its launch phase.
Social media users appreciate the “raw” quality and “realness” of social media videos. In other words, everyone can become a content creator, even without the support of a team of professionals.
Check out how one of the leading project management tools, Asana, is using videos to show their users and potential customers ways to use their tool to improve productivity.
And of course, many brands marketing to younger audiences have already started adopting TikTok.
For example, look at how Guess’s #inmydenim campaign targeting Generation Z went viral with 41.3M views.
Don’t forget to measure your results. See how both brands are using hashtag analytics to track their campaign performance.
Include Social Commerce into Your Social Media Strategy
Social media platforms used to be a place where people can keep in touch with friends and family. Nowadays, users stay up to date with the latest developments, get inspired and discover new products through social media.
We all know that social networks influence what people buy online. For instance, buyers can easily compare products, read user testimonials and browse new items using social media platforms.
However, over these past couple of years, social networks began to offer new features that allow users to shop on social media as well. In other words, your social media strategy can have a huge impact your bottom line.
Pinterest’s Shop the Look feature allows users to get instantly redirected to the checkout page, where they can immediately turn their inspiration into a purchase.
Similarly, Instagram leads the way allowing brands to not only sell on social, but also to pair social shopping with influencer marketing.
Conclusion:
Social media strategies are a series of activities that work together to make sure you get the most out of your social media marketing. Social media strategies are how you attract followers and build a community. And the best way to think about social media strategies? As a funnel. Every social media strategy works towards funneling visitors into your top blog content, which is what makes up your sales process.