Five questions to ask yourself when creating an effective social media strategy
With five years of experience in social media marketing, working in-house for an aggregate company, and now with marketing agency List and Found, I’ve experienced social media marketing as both an ad-hoc activity and an organised, strategic master plan. After a stint working with both, the results of a strategic plan are tenfold.
As marketeers, we are constantly chasing the ROI. A strategic marketing plan allows a data-driven approach to ensure your reporting takes a more logical format, clearly showing ROI and creating a common language for stakeholders. Sticking by your strategy will also give you clarity and direction for your daily social media activities. Managing multiple platforms can often feel overwhelming.
Whether you are refreshing your current social media plan or just starting, the five questions I’ve listed below are vital to creating a successful social media strategy.
Five questions to ask yourself when creating an effective social media strategy
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What are the commercial objectives of your company?
Understanding these will help you create goals which make sense for your company and, from there, allow you to choose the most suitable metrics for success and introduce KPIs for your social media campaign.
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Who is my target audience?
I recommend creating a buyer persona for your ideal customer. It’s a great way to determine your customer’s main pain points, which will drive the content plan and narrow down the social media platforms most suitable for your target audience.
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What are my competitors doing on social media?
By analysing their messaging, content, and posting frequency, you can gain insights into how they interact with customers and gauge the effectiveness of their engagement. This knowledge empowers you to replicate successful strategies or explore alternative approaches to capture the attention of potential customers.
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Which social media platforms are most appropriate for your marketing strategy?
It is best to focus on a few key marketing channels and use those to the best of your abilities. For example, if your target audience is a younger segment, Instagram would be a more favourable channel to focus on rather than LinkedIn.
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What tools can I use to get the most out of my social media campaign?
It’s essential to manage your social media campaigns effectively so you can effectively monitor your progress against KPIs and create impressive reports to show off your campaign results. Trust me, if you’re managing multiple platforms, you need all your information filtered into the same place, or it can feel messy.
Our favourite social media management platforms are:
- Hootsuite
- SocialPilot
- SproutSocial
Now you have a marketing strategy in place; it’s time to crack on with your content strategy. I hope this has helped give you some clarity on creating a social media strategy; stay tuned for more useful blogs.
