How to Make a Successful Social Media Strategy

What is a social media strategy?

A social media strategy outlines your company’s marketing goals, budget, content plan per platform, and a way to measure your progress. It’s a way to organise and schedule your brand’s social media posts to ensure your ideal audience is being targeted at the right time and in the right place.

What should I consider when creating a social media strategy?

We think a great place to start is by putting goals in place: Are you wanting to grow your audience? Which platform are you wanting to focus on? Are you wanting to increase sales of a particular product or service as a result?

From there, you can build a strategy to reach those goals.

The strategy will include how often you’re going to post on each platform, and which features you’d like to focus on (ie. Reels on Instagram). It’ll also include any paid campaigns you’d like to run, including the timeframe, message and platform you’d use.

When it comes to the specific copy and content you’re using, you’d need to understand the tone required to appeal to the right audience. An easy way to jump-start this process is to start with your business’s mission statement, as this would be your foundational goal and tone for your posts.

How do I create and obtain relevant content?

If you’re not a graphic designer by trade, don’t worry. Canva is all you need to produce professional-looking content easily. It won’t take you long to get the hang of it, and you’ll be stunned by the results.

Influencer content is another way to get your brand out there with professional photography. Teaming up with an influencer within your budget and who matches your brand’s tone and philosophy can take time. But once you’ve partnered with an influencer that fits, you’ll have amazing, relevant content going forward. Not only will their content reach their audience, but sharing their photography to your channel means your channel will gain enormous value from this investment. 

If you just need to upgrade your content, hiring a photographer or content creator short term could be the answer. They’ll give you a bank of incredible content to work through, which will make your social media look amazing.

What’s the best way to publish my content on social media?

The best place to start is by organising your ideas in a Google Sheet. Your whole team will have easy access to it, and can create tabs to make everything easy to find. For example, a tab for awareness days and important company updates/messages, a tab for hashtags and inspirational social pages, a tab for weekly topics you’d like to cover (ie. Humpday Wednesday, Thursday Thoughts, Friday Funday, weekly blog share), and a tab for a rough schedule outline if needed. 

It’s important to organise your posts in advance to ensure that you’re posting regularly (2-3 times per week), and publishing stories daily if possible.

The most streamlined way to convert your strategy into a schedule is to use programs such as Later, Hootsuite or Loomly. You’ll upload your photos, write your captions, include your hashtags, tag relevant accounts, and schedule it to post in advance. It’s the perfect way to save time as you’ll be able to post to your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts simultaneously.

Importantly, over time you’ll collate stats to see what posts worked best, who your audience is and when they’re most active. You’ll be able to use this data to tailor your posts to your ideal audience.

Top tip:

Finally, scheduling your work is one thing, but don’t forget to check into your accounts everyday to reply to comments, direct messages and interact with other profiles. It’s a great way to stay on top of trends and new features too.

There’s a lot more to social media than just posting snaps. If you’re interested in upgrading your social media game, we can help! Get in touch with us today to see how we can help you to reach your goals.