Guide to Social Media Marketing Strategy

What Is Social Media Marketing Strategy?

Very simply put, a social media marketing strategy is a summation of all the tactics and activities that one would implement and execute for business using social networks. An ideal social media marketing strategy should consist of various methodologies, including social marketing calendars, social profile audits, content creation plans, messaging and setting up of Social Media Marketing goals, to ensure you’re getting the maximum ROI on efforts.

Here is our guide to formulating a winning social media marketing strategy –

Set Social Media Objectives

Setting objectives is an integral part of ensuring an effective result for your social media marketing game plan. Not setting an objective is like driving without a plan, this can never be counted as smart social media marketing strategy. Setting objectives will result in evaluation of every activity and course correction.

The goals you create can be simple benchmarks like setting the number of incremental Facebook likes, shares or  re-tweets, or they could involve more intense  metrics like website traffic referred, consumer reaction and the number of leads generated with social media updates. Of course, it’s always recommended you go for the complicated plans, but to each their own!

And always remember that your goals should be SMART i.e. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant And Time-Bound. Look it up.

Conduct Social Media Audits

Social media audits enable one to better understand the demographic build-up of audiences connected to one’s existing social profile and matching them with the desired audience profile for your brand.

Also, connect with Search Engine Marketing, let your accounts be SEO optimized and all of them should have complete information linking back to your contact details and website. Non-relevant information should be removed and immediate reporting should be done of fake or fraudulent accounts in your name.

Social Media Inspiration

The biggest reason for being active on various social media networks is that your consumers are already there. On the flipside, this also means that your competitors are active there as well. Instead of being discouraged, you should take that as a positive sign, knowing that there is already a plethora of information on the social networks regarding the likes and dislikes of audiences for your products and services. Do a thorough research on what your demographic likes and dislikes the most, and use that information to update your Social Media Marketing Strategy. This helps you in getting the best social media engagement possible.

Still confused? Follow industry experts and trend setters on their social media accounts and see what their fans and followers respond best to.

Always Have a Content Calendar

No Social Media Marketing Strategy is complete without a stellar content creation and marketing plan. Make sure that your go-to-social activity plan includes not just the creation of content but also its curation and publication. Posting content without having a plan is like going scuba diving without your gear – pointless. Content marketing is highly strategic, and you should always keep that in mind.

So, what’s a content calendar in social marketing? Well, it is a calendar that basically helps you understand what is to be posted when, and why. It is the necessary framework for you in order to build trust with your fans and followers, as well as reaching as many of them as possible. Timing is also of utmost importance when coming up with a calendar. If you’re selling baby clothes, putting your post out at 1 am would be a waste. Get the drift?

Test and Evaluate Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

No Social media marketing strategy is complete without this step, and you should always ask the following 3 questions to know where you stand –

1. Which is that one thing (not two, not three or anything more) which I’ll be testing today?
2. What metric will best reflect the measurement of the success of my plan?
3. Did I collect enough and accurate data to ensure that no flukes were involved?

The social world is a huuuuuuge universe and the data points are best explored using analytic tools that are readily available. Some of the best analytic tools give a free or trial version allowing you to test your social media marketing strategy before you make the decision to buy. Try and Buy is the adage to be followed.

Most small business (and even at times large businesses!) tends to view social media platform -(one of the most popular digital marketing tools) as merely a place where one does a regular post. They do so under the belief that posting = social media marketing. Nothing could be further from the truth. The true worth of social media marketing lies in being able to build a strong and loyal community base of fans and this is best done through a planned social media marketing strategy

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About the Author:

Rajesh Menon is a digital marketer and entrepreneur. He runs a start-up Agencyonnet, while juggling with his primary business of running his digital agency – Impact Marketing , where he advises and works with brands and companies on helping them tell effective digital stories to their customers.

Rajesh is contactable via LinkedIn and Twitter