Like your business, an effective social media account needs proper care and attention, and this involves creating an effective strategy. Posting for the sake of it is not effective, so ensuring you stay on track with a plan will mean you make the most out of your social media and therefore, get the most out of it. Now we understand that this can seem overwhelming at first, where to start, how to plan, because of course if you don’t plan effectively your strategy won’t work anyway. So, to help, here are some useful ideas to get you started on how to create your next social media strategy!
Why is Social Media vital for marketing?
Social media at its core is like any other marketing tool: it can help increase brand awareness, bring sales, and find new customers if used effectively. If not, it will simply eat away at your business’ time and budget which is of course bad news.
One of the big advantages of social media is how accessible it is in comparison to other marketing tools. You don’t have to pay hundreds, even thousands, to get your brand out to potentially millions of people. In fact, you can start out with a relatively limited budget, small following and, quite organically, build that following overtime.
Who do you want to reach?
The first question you need to ask yourself, as you did when you started your business is: who is my audience? Like your business, this will affect every part of your social media strategy down to the tone of voice you use. So, before you even start on social media, ensure you know who you’re targeting.
Which platform should you use?
There are an array of social media platforms out there that you can sign up to. A lot more than you may think. In fact, there are 35 with at least 100million users! The good news is though, you don’t need to be on everyone and in fact, I highly discourage it. To start off with, and after some research into the best places to set yourself up, you’re best starting out on two platforms you’re vaguely familiar with. By doing this, you can focus on making the best profiles as possible without spreading yourself too thin and getting overwhelmed.
For example, if your content is quite visually appealing, you might concentrate on Instagram or TikTok for your content. Less so? Perhaps X and LinkedIn are your haunts!
How do I navigate social media well?
Don’t post the same style of content over and over!
Try not to post the same content over and over – it will bore your audience and send them on their way. Instead, try and mix it up a bit: discussion posts, videos, polls tips, so on and so on. Also, avoid posting the exact same content on different platforms if you can – occasionally recycling content is fine and expected (for example, announcements) – when you do, try to change up the captions or add to them!
Pair text with visuals!
Always pair text with visuals – people notice pictures and often blocks of text can become overwhelming. Text alone also looks boring. Don’t make your brand boring.
Engage!
Always answer comments and questions, go onto other businesses’ profiles, and interact with them. This will increase the reach of your posts as algorithms favour businesses and accounts that engage with others, after all, social media is about building relationships and communities. This is also important from a business perspective – building relationships with other businesses could even enhance your own in the long run. Engaging also doesn’t need to be simply posting, it could be liking, sharing, or following too!
Be consistent!
When you post consistently, your reach will grow, as soon as this stops, it will start to decrease, and you will have to start all over again. To do this, it is best to create a backlog of posts that you can schedule into a tool like Publer or Business Suite! This means you’ll only need to spend perhaps one day a week scheduling as opposed to having to create a post every day or rather, forgetting to.
Post more than just your brand
Posting about your business is important, but you can’t let it be the only thing you talk about on your socials. Create content that discusses relevant topics in your industry, insights and behind the scenes. No one wants to be sold to all the time, it will make people switch off and will make you come across as ingenuine.
Block time for answering direct messages every day!
Customers who message on social media typically expect a quick response. By setting aside time each day to check all of your platforms for any messages, you ensure that nothing is missed for longer than 24 hours. Even if it’s just a 5-minute check in the morning and another one after lunch, you can keep your audience happy!
Get on it!
When you plan out your social media strategy effectively, you’ll find it can be a great way of promoting your business to the masses. Potentially even more! If you need any help though, just get in touch with us today and we can either give you an audit on your current social media strategy, consult you on where to begin or, even manage your social media strategy for you!
