7 Easy Steps to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media marketing strategy can be tricky. It is not just about creating aesthetic content, but also converting the audience into leads. 

Social media can help businesses to increase brand awareness, engage with audiences, advertise products and services, and many more. That is why you need to create a specific strategy and plan to keep it effective, achievable, and measurable.         

Steps to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy   

Social media marketing strategy is a summary of your social media (all platforms) goals and plans that will be used to achieve them as well as the metrics to track the progress. To avoid misunderstanding, it also must define the roles and responsibilities within your team. Here are 7 steps to create an effective social media marketing strategy:    

1. Set the Goals 

The first thing to do is to set clear goals using SMART (smart, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) criteria. Make sure it also aligns with business objectives.  

2. Learn about Your Audience and Competition 

Do in-depth research about your audience, This includes their ages, average incomes, job industries, and interests. You can conduct a survey or competitive analysis using social media measurement tools to find those things. 

Your competitors surely have been using social media, so you can learn from them. By conducting competitive analysis, you will get knowledge about:

- Your competitors' shortcomings, so you can provide it to your audience. It will give you an advantage to become the audience’s choice.  

- What your competitors are doing well. 

- Their audience (ages, interests, etc.).  

3. Measure Your Social Media 

If you are already on social media, measure your efforts so far. This will let you know:

- What is working, and what is not? 

- Your audiences’ characteristics. 

- Which network(s) are the best to reach your target audience?   

- Comparison between your social media and competitors’.  

- Impostor accounts that pretend to be your brand. Verify your social media account and report those impostor accounts to avoid misunderstanding between you and your audience.  

After collecting that information, you will be able to start thinking about ways to improve. Do not hesitate to stop doing anything ineffective. 

4. Set Your Social Media Accounts 

Write a one-sentence mission statement for each social platform to keep you focused on a specific goal. 

E.g.:

- We use Instagram to repost high-quality content from influencers. 

- We use LinkedIn to promote our company culture for the sake of recruitment. 

- We use TikTok to create engaging content and sell products.    

Then improve your profiles by doing these:

- Filling out all the profile fields

- Using consistent branding across social platforms (logo, hashtag, etc.) to make your brand more recognizable. 

- On your account bio, include keywords that people will use to find your business. 

5. Seek for Inspiration 

You do not need to think about everything from zero (0). Instead, you can find inspiration from competitors and award-winning accounts. Besides that, if you already have loyal audiences, you can simply ask what they want from you. But make sure that you deliver it quickly.    

6. Create a Content Calendar 

Having a content calendar will give you a clear timeline to create each content. You can add a posting schedule, reference, type of content, caption, etc. Set the number of content that needs to be posted on each platform per week.  

To allow efficient collaboration, you can create this calendar using Google Sheets. This calendar will show your team the deadline for each content as well. So they can set priorities right.   

7. Execute and Track 

Finally, you can execute your strategy. Make sure to create compelling content and track your performance using social media tools. If you have a limited budget, you can analyze the insight provided by each social platform. 

Evaluate your performance to find what needs to be continued, discontinued, and improved. This will enhance your social media time by time.  

Final Words 

You need to set a clear and achievable social media marketing strategy to keep your team focused on the right thing. However, social media moves fast. So remember that you and your team need to adapt quickly.