Having a clear social media strategy and a well-defined process may not seem like a big deal – but not having them could mean your social media marketing doesn’t work out the way you want it to.
However, if you spend enough time doing things right, you can quickly set and reach your goals. You can also do what most businesses do and hire a social media agency in Ottawa to help run and manage your platforms.
5 Important Steps to Creating a Social Media Strategy
Set Goals
Setting SMART goals is the first step in creating a social media strategy. You need to be very clear about what you want to achieve.
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
Your goals are unique to your company and work with your overall goals. However, there are some common types of social media goals to think about:
- Increasing your brand awareness: Social media is a great way to build a brand voice, raise awareness about the issues you care about, and promote your brand’s morals and values (among other things).
- Increasing the size of your audience: When it comes to social media success, the size of your audience (and how quickly it grows) are usually the most important things to look at. The more people who see your content, the more likely you will get leads, sales, and a long-term customer base.
- Boosting community engagement: As important as it is for influencers to have many followers, the number of people who visit your social media page and provide likes, comments and shares is more important – even with social media algorithms.
- Driving traffic to your website: While having many people interested in your business is great, social media should be used to get people to your website and ultimately make more sales.
- Increasing the number of leads and sales: The best thing you can accomplish for your social media strategy is seeing more leads and sales come from it.
Define Your Audience
In social media, a common mistake is to think that all your followers are good for your business. However, it doesn’t make sense to have a lot of followers if they don’t lead to sales.
First, look at who your content resonates with the most; then determine if this group is the right fit for your company. Qualified leads will quickly turn your audience into customers.
The best way to get a better sense of your audience is to read recent surveys and data. Create a few sample people who are like your ideal customer. If you know what kind of person your typical followers are, you can make sure your social media campaigns will meet their needs.
Create High-Quality Engaging Content
When it comes to making content, having a goal is everything. There’s no room for random posts here and there, especially if they don’t make sense to your audience – so don’t bother.
This means that your content should fall into one of these four groups:
- Inspirational: This content should make your audience want to learn more about your brand, or feel like they need to know more. It’s important to show off your company’s morals, values and charitable work.
- Educational: When you tell people what you’re all about, they’ll understand why you’re important. Why are you better than the competition? There are a lot of things they need.
- Promotional: Describe the deals and discounts your company offers with simple text and clear calls to action that are easy for people to follow.
- Entertaining: Your target audience will be happy if you post fun and interesting content to them. This content has a lot to offer, from memes and quotes to polls about the most recent social debates.
Posting Strategy
Even though you could post all of your social media content manually, this would take a lot of time and may not be the best way for you to get the most out of it. Most social media platforms now use some kind of algorithm to ensure the information they show to people is the best that it can be. This means that if you post at a time when your target audience isn’t online, your material might not be seen by them.
To help you plan and schedule your posts, you’ll need to use one of the many social scheduling tools available. Most of the time, tools show you the best time to post on each platform, based on when your audience is most active.
Utilize Video Content
Videos are the most popular content on social media right now, and this is true across the board. People want to be able to see and hear dynamic things as they scroll through their feeds.
The success of TikTok has made other platforms like Instagram and YouTube adjust their short videos to the point: Instagram has Reels, and YouTube has Shorts. There is a lot of talk about this, but video content is the most important thing right now. It used to be that only single images and carousels would show up on people’s feeds. Now, video content is at the top of everyone’s feeds instead.
So if you want to have a good social media strategy in this day and age, you should make a lot of videos.
Conclusion
Social media is a fast-paced place. There are constantly new platforms, and some of them change all the time, with new features coming out every week. This means you should always look at (and change) your social media marketing strategy. You should do this as often as you can. To stay on track, look at it often, but don’t be afraid to make changes to better reflect new goals, tools, plans and trends.
Why Choose Mediaforce
We produce long-term results. When we work together, we help you change your business by using analytics, AI, and other technologies and services to come up with new ideas and practical solutions that change your business for the better. All of this is done through digital marketing services like SEO, paid media, social media and website design.
To learn more about social media strategy in Ottawa, visit mediaforce.ca or call us at (613) 729-0500 today.
