Factors to consider when creating a Social Media Strategy – Guide to a successful Social Media Strategy

Social Media Marketing provides the unique opportunity to reach millions of people instantaneously at little or no cost. However, not every social media strategy is also successful! What are the factors to consider when creating a social media strategy? This article will provide you with a guide to a successful social media strategy.

Importance of successful Social Media Strategies

Tapping into the power of social media marketing means tapping into a free and effective way to reach millions of people in very short time. In today’s digital age, businesses that are not taking advantage of social media marketing are losing out! The reason is that social media marketing, if done properly, can skyrocket your business off the ground.

Statistics published by marketing experts from HubSpot, Social Media Examiner and eMarketer reveal the enormous potential of social media marketing:

• About 30% of total US internet time is spent on social networking sites
• More than 90% of marketers indicate that investing in social media dramatically increases exposure for their businesses
• More than 30% of consumers discover new brands, products and services on social media
• About 50% of online users rely on social media when making a purchase decision

And of course, these numbers are growing continuously! What does this mean? Social Media should and must be a component of every marketing strategy in today’s digital age.

This makes it even more necessary to obtain insights on important factors to consider when creating a social media strategy! We will in the following learn how to create and implement successful social media strategies.

Factors to consider when creating a Social Media Strategy

The key to being successful on social media lies in having the right strategy: suited to your business and the market you are trying to reach. The following factors to consider when creating a social media strategy provide a clear guide to achieving exactly this: a successful social media strategy.

Factors to consider when creating a Social Media Strategy – Guide to a successful Social Media Strategy

1. Define your goals.

What do you want to achieve using social media marketing? Whether you design a strategy for a large business or a startup, you can leverage the power of social media to:

• Build brand awareness. By strategically posting, engaging and interacting with your market, you will naturally get your name out there.
• Show your products. By posting content about your products and services you show people what you can bring to the table. What can you do that will solve their problems? Creating quality content people care about will make them want to share your content which increases your exposure. That results in other people advertising for you – could it be better?
• Build trust. Building a relationship with users is crucial to your business. Especially as a new business that does not have strong relationships yet, you need to build trust with users. By interacting personally with people, this can be achieved: it puts a humanly aspect to your business!
• Get more business. After having raised brand awareness, solved a problem people have, built a relationship, it is the logical consequence to increase business next. This is the point social media becomes really powerful – as a way to get more customers and to increase their spending.

2. Choose your social media platform.

The social media platform should fit your objectives. Use the platform that your target market uses. But be sure not to spread your presence out too thin: start with one to three platforms and initially focus on those. Finally, quality goes over quantity. The following platforms are most likely to be of value to you:

• Facebook. If you are not sure where to start, Facebook will always be the best option to reach a great number of people. Share blog posts, photos, advertise using targeted ads and interact with users all in one place. All credible businesses use Facebook – you should do, too.
• Instagram. Here, users can only share photos and because of this, Instagram is a highly visual platform. Therefore, you should use beautiful visuals to entertain, engage, and spread your content.
• Twitter. A great platform for more personalized interactions with users. Certainly, Twitter is also a great place for content distribution. For bloggers, Twitter represents the ideal opportunity as it is very link-friendly.
• YouTube. If you can create high quality videos that can capture a lot of attention, YouTube is the platform to go for. YouTube is a great way to build brand awareness, since people love high-quality and visually stimulating content.
• LinkedIn. As the more professional social media platform, it is great for global and business-to-business (B2B) marketing and networking.

3. Choose your voice. Before you reach out to people, think about the way you want to be perceived. Do you want to appear funny, serious, laid-back?
4. Know the current trends. Is it Super Bowl season? Is it close to Christmas? Or Halloween? Knowing the current trends and being up to date helps to understand whether there is something big going on that many people are interested in at the moment. This, in turn, helps you to tailor your content to what people want to see and read at the moment. So take advantage of trends to create content that relates to them.
5. Actively interact with people. Many brands make the mistake of using their social media to only promote their products and services. This is definitely not the way to go as social media marketing should be about the customer and you – not you all the time! So interact actively! Encourage two-way communication! Stimulate discussions and ask for feedback! Put a face to your brand! When someone asks a question, respond as quickly as you can. When someone shows appreciation for your product or service, respond with genuine gratitude. Also, use social media to actively build a community around your brand. Giving the people a voice in your company will make them feel special – which will turn out to be profitable for you.
6. Be aware of your image. Always keep in mind the voice of your brand. Are you consistent in using it? For instance, in terms of social media platforms that show “followers” and who you follow, always be sure to keep the number of “followers” more than the number of “following”. Having a higher “following” count than “followers” makes your brand come off as unprofessional. In addition, do not spam your content all at once! Be careful of unsolicited messaging – this can quickly become annoying and have adverse effects on your consumers’ attitudes to your brand. Finally, double check the quality of the content you are posting.
7. Look at what your competitors are doing. Of course, you should not copy what your competitors are doing. However, you should spend effort on analysing what they are doing right and finding out how you could implement that into your own social media strategy. Likewise, observe what they are doing wrong and understand how you could leverage what they are missing.

These factors to consider when creating a social media strategy should help you to leverage your business potentials and lead to a successful social media strategy. Always keep in mind: Social media marketing, if done properly, can skyrocket your business off the ground.