5 Questions to Ask for Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

The most important component of successful social media marketing is the development of a strategy. If you do not have a strategy, you may find yourself posting on social media platforms simply for the sake of posting. It will be difficult to get results on social media unless you first understand your objectives, who your target audience is, and what they want from your brand.

The development of a social media marketing plan is critical whether your goal is to expand your business through social media or to advance your professional status as a social media marketer.

Related: Why Should You Care About Social Commerce? 

What is Social Media Marketing?

A social media plan is a precise blueprint that answers the questions of what, when, how, and why for all of the content you post on your company’s social media accounts. It is also known as a content calendar.

Yes, social media strategy is more than merely sending tweets and like photos on social media platforms. Behind whatever you post, there should be a well-thought-out strategy, as well as a goal that you hope to achieve as a result of it.

A social media marketing plan, like any other strategy, should be developed long before you begin publishing content on social media platforms. It is a strategy, a collection of ideas, a goal, and the path that you are attempting to follow in order to attain your objective.

Consider the moment you made the decision to start your own small business. A lot of thought and planning goes into opening a business, and the same is true for each new step you take in the process of growing your company.

So, what exactly is a social media strategy, and how can it help you improve your marketing results?

When it comes to social media marketing, a strategy is really essential. To do so, you must first gain a thorough grasp of your target audience, including what they’re seeking for, how their demands coincide with your objectives, and, finally, how you can entice them with an offer that will encourage them to become customers of your company.

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy?

A number of similarities can be found between a social media marketing strategy and a social media marketing plan, which is fascinating to consider. You may think of it this way: A strategy is a road map that shows where you’re going. A plan outlines how you intend to get there.

In order to develop your social media marketing plan, one of the most straightforward methods is to ask yourself the 5Ws:

• What motivates you to be active on social media?
• Who do you want to reach with your message?
• What information are you planning to divulge?
• What location are you planning to share?
• When are you going to share your thoughts?

I’ve created a simple social media marketing strategy template to assist you in the development of your strategy. Please feel free to use, adapt, or alter it in any way you deem appropriate (after making a copy of it).

Here’s something else to think about when it comes to strategy (or strategies): Another option is to develop a strategy for each of your social media platforms, such as a Facebook marketing strategy or an Instagram marketing strategy, for example. These strategies should all contribute to your overall social media marketing strategy.

See also: How to Increase Web Traffic?

Why Do You Want to Be On Social Media?

The Why is the very first question that needs to be addressed. This has anything to do with your social media objectives. Utilizing social media to sell your items is something you should consider. To increase the amount of traffic to your website? Or do you want to service your customers?

In general, there are nine different social media objectives you can pursue:

1. Increase your company’s brand recognition.
2. Draw more visitors to your website and generate new leads.
3. Increase your revenue (by increasing sign ups or sales).
4. Increase consumer interest in your brand.
5. Create a sense of community around your company.
6. Provide social customer service to your customers.
7. Increase the number of press mentions.
8. Keep an ear out for conversations regarding your brand.
9. It’s possible that you’ll have more than one social media goal, and that’s perfectly great.

In general, it’s best to concentrate on a small number of goals unless you’re working as part of a team, in which case different persons or groups within the team can take on different goals.

Who is Your Target Audience?

After you’ve determined your Why, the next thing to consider is who you want to reach with your message. Understanding your target audience will make it easier for you to answer the following questions about what, where, and when you plan to communicate your information with them.

For example, if a travel and leisure brand (such as Away) knows that its target audience enjoys reading about new places and travel ideas, it may choose to share such material on its social media accounts. A useful exercise to do in this situation is the creation of marketing personas.

• Who exactly are they? (For example, work title, age, gender, salary, location, and so forth).
• What exactly is it that they are looking for that you can provide? Among other things, they can provide entertainment, educational content, case studies, and information on new products.
• What websites do they frequent on a regular basis? (For example, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and others, as well as specialist platforms).
• Do people look for the type of content you can supply while they are looking for it? (For example, weekends, during their daily commute, and so on).
• What motivates them to absorb the content? In order to improve in their job, to become healthier, to keep up with the latest developments in a particular field, and so on.
• What method do they use to consume the content? (For example, you could read social media posts or watch videos).

What Will You Share?

This question may cause you to consider the types of content that you want to share when you see it. For example, do you wish to share films or photographs with your friends and family? But hang on a second, please!

We’re talking about your social media marketing plan here, so let’s take a step back and think about it from a different perspective. Instead of referring to the many forms of information to be shared, “theme” might be a more appropriate term.

This is where having a clear understanding of your target audience will be quite beneficial to you. Take a look at your marketing personas and ask yourself the following questions:

• What are their objectives and what are their challenges?
• What can you do to assist in their resolution?

The desire to keep up with the latest exercise gear could be an aim of a fitness apparel and accessories firm (such as Gymshark) for its target demographic. In that situation, it can post updates on its social media profiles about the latest products.

Where Will You Share? 

This is another instance in which understanding your target audience will be advantageous. Which social media channels are the most popular among your target audience? What is it that prompts people to visit that platform? In order to keep up with what their friends are up to or to see if their favorite brands have new products, teenagers and young adults may like browsing through Instagram when they are bored.

The “X factor” of your brand is another important component to consider, but on a lesser scale. Do you have a talent for photography, videography, or writing? Particular sorts of material are more suited to certain platforms than others. For example, photographs on Instagram, long-form videos on YouTube, and articles on Medium are all excellent choices. 

However, this is a minor concern because social media platforms are evolving to give practically any type of material these days, making this a moot point.

Related: What is a TikTok Shop?

When Will You Share?

The final critical component of your approach is determining when you want to distribute your information. Perhaps you’ll be enticed to start looking into the optimum time(s) to publish your piece.

Let’s take a step back and look at this from a different perspective once more. Consider the habits of your target audience before deciding on a specific time of day and day of the week for your posts to be published. In order to find the type of content that you’ll share, when do they often use social media to do so?

Here are a few illustrations to consider:

• Sports enthusiasts are likely to be on social media soon before, during, and immediately after sporting events in order to search and interact with content related to the event in question.
• While athletes are cooling down after their morning or nighttime workouts, they may be scrolling through their Instagram feeds.
• People who enjoy traveling may be more active on social media on the weekends, especially if they are planning their next vacation or vacation destination (or during their work breaks when they are dreaming about their next trip).
• When mothers of newborns are breastfeeding in the middle of the night, it is possible that they are scrolling through social media.
• You might have guessed from these few instances that there isn’t a single optimal time to post to every social media platform. It is extremely dependent on your target audience. As a result, during this phase, pay attention to the general patterns of behavior of your target audience.

When you have developed your social media marketing strategy, you can then experiment to determine the most effective time for your brand to publish on social media.

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