Tips for creating a social media strategy
Social media has become the perfect marketing tool for all businesses of all shapes and sizes, and it’s affordability and flexibility make it a must for any local business looking to get their name in front of an audience. But how do you know what platforms to use, and how to use them to promote your brand effectively?
WHAT IS A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
A social media strategy is a document outlining your business goals, the tactics you will use to achieve them and the metrics you will use to track your progress and success.
When starting a business, or creating your social media presence the first thing you need to do is create a social media strategy, this is where you put together a comprehensive plan of how you will use social media to optimise and grow your brand. I have put together five of my top tips for creating a successful strategy in this blog.
1. Set clear goals – go deeper than “making money”
What do you want to gain from using social media? This might seem like such a simple question, and in essence it is. BUT importantly, getting this right is key to your success. There are a few different answers to the question, even if you are a business simply looking to market yourselves and make money. How you get to the point of making profit and how you make that profit is what you need to think about here.
TIP.
Using the SMART method to create clear goals will really help you out here. SMART is probably something you were taught at school, it is an acronym which stands for: -
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Time-based
For example, instead of saying “to make money”, you should be more specific, while using a measurable goal, which Is achievable and realistic and top this off by giving yourself a clear time period in which to achieve this – “Make £100 in online sales in one month, within the next 6 months.”
MAKING A STRATEGY WITH YOUR GOALS
Now you have clear goals, you can start putting a plan together to achieve those goals via your social media strategy.
There are several different strategies you can use depending on the goals you have set yourself. Let’s go through the key goals, and the strategy you can use to achieve them.
1) to gain online sales, with this goal in mind you need to make sure you are optimising your sales. In simple terms, this means if you are selling products you need to use the shop functions on the different social media platforms, so your users can easily find what they are looking for. It is about making it as simple as possible for someone to see what they are buying and then buy it with as few clicks as possible. If it is a service you are using, make sure you are using Facebook’s services tab and you should look at implementing Facebook’s appointment function to make it super easy to buy your services. An example of a goal using this strategy would be – “Average 30 sales per month, directly from social media, within 12 months.”
2) to show off your products, this is a strategy you can use if your products are not online. The key is to impress users with how great your products are and show off why they should buy them. The majority of your posts should be the different items you sell, or new items you are testing (to see whether the interest is there). You want to make them look as good as possible, so hiring a professional photographer could be key to your success with this goal. An example of a goal using this strategy would be – “Within 2 months, to average 5 customers per week showing us a product we have posted, asking if it is available.”
3) to increase your reach, this is about optimising the exposure your brand gets as opposed to selling products. If your goal involves reaching more people, or gaining more followers, by optimising your exposure you can get your brand seen by more eyes. You can do this by creating content that is interactive, interesting and shareable. You want your followers to be inclined to show off your brand to other people either by sharing posts or telling others about the company. An example of a goal using this strategy would be – “Gain 50 new followers on Instagram by the end of the month.”
2. Choose 3-4 pillars of content
Content pillars are general topics that your brand will consistently discuss and create content for on social media. Choosing 3-4 is a great way to simplify your content, save time coming up with ideas and clarify your niche within the market.
CONTENT IS KEY
Content is key to your social media success, but it is important not to crowd your feed with content that does not relate to your business. To ensure you are creating the best content you possibly can, while staying relevant, it is important to pick three or four general content topics which relate directly to your business. For example, my content pillars are social media marketing, videography and my personality.
Noise is your businesses biggest enemy, simplifying your message will help keep potential customers’ attention for longer. This is because when there is too much information to take in all at once your brain will naturally switch off and you will move on without taking it all in. This can be the same when looking at a social media page, if loads of different things are jumping out at you, it can be daunting, and you will be less likely to engage.
3. Create a clear aesthetic style
An aesthetic style is the overall look and feel of a brands social media account. This term relates mostly to Instagram because the feed can be seen at all times. But it is possibly more important for other platforms because you want your followers to identify that it is a post by you instantly.
Therefore, having a clear aesthetic style for your social media posts is a must.
START WITH COLOURS
Think about what kind of colour pallet fits your brand, are you a hair stylist that can be loud and proud with lots of colours screaming off the page, showing off your natural flair and creativity or are you a therapist where calm colours suit the message you are portraying about your business. Choosing colours that fit your brands voice is so important. What is your brands colour pallet?
NEXT FOCUS ON DESIGN AND VIBE
Next thing you need to do is think about the design and vibe of your content, if you are using lots of different styles of pictures and content it can quickly be off putting as mentioned above and your followers will not develop a way to know which post is by you on their feed. The hairdresser for example can have a feed full of there work, maybe even with before and after. Including lots of different colours, if a client wanted bright blue hair - that will fit in with your aesthetic because it shows your versatility and creative flair. Whereas, if the therapist posted a picture which is very loud, it may not suit the rest of their content which will most likely be calm and therapeutic. What is your brands vibe?
NOW LOOK AT YOUR WRITING STYLE
It comes back to the pillars of content, make sure the way you word anything in your content fits with the voice you are putting across for your brand. By this I mean if you offer a professional service, using slang word might not be the best approach. Think about who you are targeting, some people may not understand what you are saying if you use slang that is not used by or around them.
The hairdresser could use slang and less professional wording, to talk directly to their audience. It may also show there personability and friendliness which is an important aspect of this service. Whereas, if a therapist started using slang it will come across as being unprofessional, which will have a negative effect on their image. What is your brands writing style?
4. Set guidelines for EACH platform
This is quite possibly the most important tip of them all for your strategy, because of one simple reason – every social media platform is different and focus on different things. They are mostly very obvious differences for example Instagram focusing on images and videos, and TikTok being solely videos. Other platforms have different tones, for example LinkedIn is for professionals therefore posting the same content on LinkedIn as you do on Instagram may make your LinkedIn fall flat and vice versa. So, creating different content for each platform or tailoring content for different platforms, is important to ensure you are optimising your social media strategy.
Another thing you need to consider is which social media platforms are right for your brand, if your target market is not found on there, you may just be wasting time, effort and in some cases – money. An example of this is a football club using Pinterest, which is a social media platform that stereotypically has a female user base, whose interests are more creative hobbies like cooking, fashion and interior design as opposed to staying up to date with a football team.
Understanding what type and style of content will work on each platform is one of the most difficult tasks when creating and maintaining a social media strategy.
PUT DOWN IN WRITING THE GUIDELINES YOU CHOOSE
With this in mind, if you write down clear guidelines for each social media you decide to use and think about tweaking the aesthetic style to suit each platform, you are setting yourself to succeed.
To help you out, here is a brief guide for each social channel: -
Facebook: Facebook is a very broad channel which is the biggest in the world, with 46.31million active users in the UK in 2020. Pictures and videos work best on here, but updates and curated content will also work very well. Key content types: Videos and curated content.
Twitter: Twitter is a very fast-paced social media platform, which makes it quite different to the others. A large number of its users use it to keep up to date with news. Key content types: News, Blogs and GIFS.
Instagram: Instagram is very popular and is a platform I highly recommend your brand being on. Users are teenagers and young adults, content on here should be visually very eye catching. Key content types: High-res photos, quotes and stories.
YouTube: YouTube is best for long form videos. It is the second biggest social media platform in the world, with 35.6 million users in the UK. It has a largely younger audience, but 35% of the UK population use the site which shows it has a large demographic reach. Key content types: long videos, Vlogs and tutorials.
Pinterest: Pinterest is a very niche social media platform, but users that do use this site are on here for a relatively large amount of time per day. It is used primarily for inspiration and ideas for everything from life skills to crafts. Key content types: Infographics, inspiration and step by step photo guides.
TikTok: TikTok is the fastest growing platform in the world, it is used for short form videos (up to 3 minutes) and has an algorithm that allows your content to be shown to people who watch similar videos; as long as you are tagging your videos correctly. Key content types: short videos and viral trends.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn is slightly different to the rest as it is a professional tool primarily for networking. Make sure if you use this platform, you are creating professionally focused content. Key content types: Jobs, company news and professional content.
5. Be flexible - Experiment with what works and what doesn’t
This is the point where I tell you that what you have just read is not an exact science. Make sure you are constantly checking your metrics to see where you can improve, what is working and what isn’t?
However, an important point is not to expect things to happen fast, it can be a slow process, but if you put the work in, you will be rewarded. You just have to persevere.
Thank you for reading this blog, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.
If this all seems too overwhelming (and let’s be honest, it can be) I am currently offering my total social media management service for only £500 per month where I will take care of all of this and so much more for you. Bargain.