There are around 4.95 billion social media users worldwide. Businesses not using social media platforms to reach customers, miss several opportunities. 

In the constantly changing dynamics of the social media landscape, using it effectively for business growth may sound challenging. However, it is not.

All you need is a strong social media marketing strategy. With a strategy in place, you will know your goals, your target audience, their content preference, etc., to execute your efforts in the right direction for maximum benefits. 

You can either design an effective strategy or seek assistance from social media marketing companies.

Are you confused about how to build a social media strategy for your business? Dive into this blog and learn how to do it in 5 easy steps. 

1. Define S.M.A.R.T Goals for Your Social Media Efforts

To build your social media presence, you must first determine why you are doing it. Are you trying to

  • Promote your products? 
  • Drive website traffic? 
  • Provide customer support? 

Defining your goals will dictate your entire strategy and help you take the right steps forward. Here is how you can fix your SMART goals - 

  • Specific - Be specific about the outcomes you want from your social media strategy.
  • Measurable - Define how you will measure your success. Choose the metrics to track your performance.
  • Achievable - Set realistic goals that you can try to achieve. For example, if you are new to video content and aiming to get 5000 YouTube subscribers in a month, it may be unfeasible. 
  • Relevant - Fix goals relevant to your current business goals to generate higher ROI (return on investment). 
  • Time-bound - Fix a deadline for achieving your goals. Classify them into weekly, monthly, or quarterly goals to stay on track. 

2. Determine Key Social Media Metrics 

We talked about determining metrics in the previous section. Why is it important?

Defining metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators) helps you gauge the performance of your campaigns. It will allow you to improve your social media performance and build a brand with the help of your followers. 

Social media metrics are not limited to post shares, likes, comments, etc. They are of no use if they do not translate to conversions and sales. Your ultimate goal is business growth. 

It's more about monitoring the audience's opinion about your business. Analyzing your audience's positive and negative reactions will help you identify the areas you can improve to engage them better. 

Refer to your goals to create a checklist of metrics you want to track.

  • What type of sales do you aim for?
  • How do your social channels reflect these goals? 
  • Are these goals going to help you deliver on your KPIs consistently? 

That said, here are some metrics you can track to take your campaigns toward success- 

  • Engagement on posts - Compare post impressions (the number of people your posts reach) with post interactions.
  • Number of conversions from your calls-to-action - See how many people move forward on their buying journey through your social posts 
  • Traffic from social channels - Track the number of visitors on your website that come through your post on social platforms. 

3. Find Who Your Audiences Are 

The one-size-fits-all theory does not work with social media marketing. Determining your audience to personalize and segment efforts is crucial to the success of your social media strategy. 

The target audience for your social media strategy can be a segment or all of your business’s overall audience. Once you have identified your target audience, picking the social channels they frequent becomes easier.

For instance, if you are targeting Gen-Zs, you must focus on platforms like Instagram or Snapchat. Similarly, LinkedIn is the place to be if you aim to reach business professionals. 

So, how can you find your target audience? This needs a bit of research. Start with finding answers to these simple questions- 

  • Who are these people? What are their job titles, age, gender, location, etc? 
  • What type of content might engage them? It can include entertainment, informational posts, case studies, educational content, etc. 
  • What challenges do they face? 
  • What are their preferred social channels? 
  • When are they usually active on these platforms? 
  • Why and how do they consume content? It can be in the form of videos, blog posts, infographics, etc. 

If you already have your business running, you can connect with your sales or custom success team to gather data about your target audience. Even better, connect with your customers and ask your questions directly. Conduct interviews and send out surveys to get first-hand knowledge about their experience with your brand. 

You can also analyze who your competitors are targeting and build buyer personas that match them. 

4. Create a Content Calendar 

If you research your target audience properly, you will know the platforms they use the most. You can ask this question in the survey forms you send out. You can also monitor your competitor’s social presence to know your ideal customer’s preferences.

Once you understand which platforms your target audiences prefer, you can move on to build a social media content calendar. 

  • Identify the content type you want to use on the social platforms. Design content that will align with your brand voice and identity. You can follow the 80-20 rule to plan your content. It suggests that 80% of your content should be informational and entertaining for the audience, and 20% should promote your products or services.
  • Decide how many posts you want to publish on each platform in a week. Create a draft for each post and note it on your calendar. You can use Google Sheets or other management tools to keep track. 
  • Determine the right time to post on each platform. It mostly depends on your target audience, preferences, and behavior. Tools like HootSuite, Hubspot etc., can help you schedule your posts at specific times. 
  • Decide the frequency of your posts. Ideally, posting once or twice a day is recommended for platforms like Facebook. Similarly, two to three tweets/day is ideal for Twitter. 

Follow the content calendar containing all this data to maintain consistency in your social posting. Remember to track all the posts using the metrics you picked in the initial steps and improve your efforts. 

5. Modify Your Strategy for Success 

You should not be rigid with your social media strategy. What’s working for you now might not generate the same result after a while. So, your strategy must evolve with your business to meet your changing goals. 

It is recommended to tweak your strategies every one to three months. Try using new content types, testing new ideas, incorporating influencer partnerships, etc. It will help you enhance the effectiveness of your posts and increase engagement. 

Remember to track your social media performance using the metrics you picked in the initial steps and improve your efforts. 

Wrapping Up

Social media is growing constantly as more users find the platforms accessible through their smartphones. With this, your chances of connecting with your potential customers also increase. 

So, whether you are trying to reach your audience on existing platforms or building one with a social media app development company, you need a strong marketing strategy. 

The tips discussed in this article will help you define your goals and build a strategy for social media that can help you generate maximum ROI for your business.