HOW TO MAXIMISE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

So, you’ve built a content marketing strategy, you’ve honed your storytelling skills, and you’re creating content that connects. But have you developed a social media strategy to align with these efforts?

More than 3.6 billion people currently use social media and that number is expected to reach almost 4.41 billion in 2025.[1] The ability to reach such large audiences is just one reason social media is a crucial part of content marketing.

Other reasons? There are plenty. For starters, social media helps brands connect with customers in the places they’re already spending time. More economical than traditional marketing, social media also helps humanise brands and, in turn, increase brand awareness, leads and sales. But this doesn’t happen without a plan.

A social media strategy is a blueprint for success. Put simply, it outlines your marketing goals as well as the steps you intend to follow in order to achieve them. The type of content you create, and the social media platforms you choose to use, will depend on your industry, your target audience, and whether your business is B2B or B2C. But there are some key steps that will help maximise your strategy, no matter where your brand fits in.

Set SMART goals

You’ve probably come across this acronym before. Even so, a recap can’t hurt. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, and by setting SMART goals, you’re setting yourself up for success. SMART goals clarify your ideas, make the best use of your time and resources, and are much easier to measure.

Know your audience

With 2.6 billion users[2], Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world. Needless to say, the reach potential is huge, but aggregate numbers don’t tell the full story. User diversity is key information when it comes to targeting your audience. If, for example, you’re hoping to target the 18-24 age group, Facebook is a reasonable bet with 76 per cent of this market using the platform. Yet, over on YouTube, you’ll find a whopping 90 per cent of this demographic.[3] With social media analytics, you can better understand who your followers are and how they interact with your brand, which will allow you to create content they want to see and interact with.

Provide value

As we outlined here, an audience-first approach is key to your content marketing efforts. Social media content is no different. It should inform, entertain or help the audience in some way. And it should not come across as ‘salesy’. Despite the absence of a marketing push, this approach works by building brand awareness, recall and loyalty. It comes down to psychology, really. We are naturally more inclined to give back to those who look after us.

Create a multichannel approach

You know the old adage about eggs and baskets, right? Well, the same applies to your social media strategy. While you might have identified, for example, that your target audience is spending most of its time on Facebook, directing all your resources to one place will limit your growth. For what it’s worth, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the most common social media platforms used by marketers, according to HubSpot’s 2020 State of Marketing Report, which surveyed 3,400 marketers. YouTube comes in at number four. Instagram, meanwhile, is the social channel with the second highest ROI among marketers. Creating content to suit multiple (but always relevant) channels will help amplify your brand.

Measure success

We’ve discussed the importance of setting SMART goals. As part of this process, it is worth considering what metrics you plan to use to measure performance. Make sure you’re tracking the metrics that really matter. Of course, ‘likes’ are nice, but the real value comes in the form of engagement, click-through and conversion rates. The beauty of a social media strategy is that it is malleable. Your results will inform changes to the strategy and, in turn, enable continual improvement.

Need a little clarity on the specifics of content creation. Click here to read about Reeton Media’s four-step process.

References: [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/ [2] https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics [3] https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media#:~:text=With%202.3%20billion%20users%2C%20Facebook,over%20half%20a%20billion%20users.