A social media marketing strategy is defined by consistently posting content that is engaging and compelling to your audience. Your strategy is a detailed plan of what, when, how and why of all content being posted on your social media platforms.
What are the components of a social media marketing strategy?
A successful social media marketing strategy should include the following essential components.
Identification of business goals: Each piece of your strategy must be defined by your company goals. Increasing brand awareness, retaining customers and reducing marketing costs are good goals to start with. It is a good idea to prioritize your goals as well, because having too many goals can distract you and you will achieve more starting out with less.
Setting Marketing Objectives: Without specific parameters that define when your goals are achieved, your efforts may be ineffective. Marketing objectives define how you get from an unfulfilled goal to a successfully fulfilled goal. For example, if your goal is increasing click-through rates, how many click-throughs do you need to get before considering your goal successful? Set realistic and attainable goals and track them using analytics or tracking tools to keep up with your progress!
Identify Ideal Customers: Buyer personas can help define and target the right people at the right times and places. When you know about your target audience’s demographics, occupations, income, and more, it will be easier and more cost-effective to target them on social media. The more specific knowledge you have, the more leads will be generated.
Research Competition: This will give you an idea of what is out there, what’s working and what’s not. By compiling a list of 3-5 main competitors, you will be able to analyze their content strategy and look at how much engagement they are getting and see how it compares to your own.
Choose Channels and Tactics: Avoid wasting your time in the wrong place by focusing on buyer personas to determine which platform is best for your strategy. When your customers are using a certain platform that is where you should be too. Investing your time and budget in the right channel will ensure a successful social media campaign.
Create a Content Strategy: Type of content, time of posting and frequency of posting are the three main components of a successful social media marketing strategy. Your content should fit with your organization’s tone, voice and brand, and the content should be relevant and important to your followers.
Allocate Budget and Resources: Plan out your strategy and tactics and then plan a budget that fits the tactics that will lead to meeting your social media goals. It is important to make a list of what tools you will use,what services are being utilized and any advertising you will purchase. Then include an annual projected cost so you can determine what you are investing in and how it affects your marketing budget.
Assign Roles: Assigning and knowing who is responsible for what will avoid confusion and ultimately increases productivity. Once everyone knows their role, you can start planning the execution process and plan a schedule for posting content.
Social Media strategies can make or break your success on social media. Spending time taking these steps can greatly influence how successful you do on social media and will make the process easier in the long run. For more information or to start planning a social media strategy for your organization, reach out to AOE today!
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