Your amazing content on the web is doing nothing if you’re not promoting it! With the right social media marketing strategy, you can make people aware of your business, generate media attention and turn followers into customers. This article will provide a step-by-step blueprint so that you can craft yours without any trouble.
What is Social Media Strategy?
As the use of social media has become increasingly widespread, so has the need for companies to develop formal social media strategies. A social media strategy is a plan of action that delineates how a company will use social media platforms to achieve its marketing and business objectives.
Your strategy should include a mix of different types of content, including blog posts, articles, images, and videos. You should also create content that appeals to different segments of your audience. For example, if you are trying to reach millennials, you might create content that is more informal and uses slang.
Crafting a social media strategy requires taking a number of factors into consideration, such as which platforms to use, what content to post, and how often to post. It’s also important to consider what goals you’re hoping to achieve with your social media strategy, as this will help dictate the rest of your decisions.
A social media campaign strategy plan is more powerful when it is detailed and outlined well.
Why You Need A Social Media Strategy For Your startup?
Before jumping into the strategy you need to know what you will get by investing your time into it.
- Social media marketing is by far the best form of advertising that exists. Not only does it work well for brands and entrepreneurs, but it’s also cost-effective and can bring your business exposure without having to put in much time or money.
- Social media allows you to target specific audiences with laser precision. When you create targeted content for specific audiences on social media, you are more likely to reach people who are interested in what you have to offer. This is because you can use demographic information such as location, age, gender, interests, and even purchase history to target your ads and organic posts.
- Marketing on social media is not just another marketing channel; social media has turned into a fast-moving, high-potential medium. If you establish a positive customer sentiment, word will spread quickly.
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Step by Step to the Perfect Social Media Marketing Strategy for your Startup:
1. Make sure you have the basic requirements with you before you start:
You have to make sure your grounds are clear before moving on to the next step. By that, we mean a well-planned ready product or service that you can sell and promote; having good knowledge, or hiring a team of professionals who will help you with various social media aspects like graphic designing, copywriting, and video editing; having enough budget for tools or social media campaigns.
2. Define your mission:
Your social media strategy should have a clear mission that aligns with your overall business goals. What are you hoping to get out of your social media presence?
To help you to understand here are Some possible missions for a startup’s social media presence could be:
- Creating awareness for your company and its products or services.
- Positioning the company as a leader in its industry.
- Driving traffic to the company’s website or blog.
- Building relationships with potential and current customers.
- Promoting special events or product launches.
3. Outline your goal and objectives:
Outline your goals by defining exactly what you plan to do in order to achieve your mission. To get started, list the steps that need to be taken. Whatever your objectives may be, make sure at least three to four steps are SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound).
Some things to keep in mind as you’re deciding and outlining your social media marketing goals include:
- What are your overall business objectives?
- Who is your target audience?
- What type of content do they enjoy reading?
- What platforms are they most active on?
Once you have a good understanding of these factors, you can start to narrow down your options and decide which goals make the most sense for your brand.
4. Define your target audience:
Your target audience is important because it defines how you should create your content. Who are they? What are their demographics? What do they like and dislike? What problem are they trying to solve? Answering these questions will give you a good starting point for creating targeted content.
One way to understand your audience is to create buyer personas. These are fictional characters that embody the traits of your most typical clients.
To create buyer personas, you’ll need to gather information about your current and potential customers. Market research, surveys, and interviews are all useful methods for getting more data about your target market. Once you have this information, you can start to create profiles for each persona.
Each persona should include demographic information, such as age, gender, location, and job title. Additionally, you should also consider their needs and pain points. What are they trying to accomplish? What are their challenges?
Once you understand your buyer personas well, you can start creating targeted content that resonates with them.
5. Mark your competitors:
Checking your competitors will not only help you make an outline but also your creative brain will give you an idea of how you can suppress them.
Here’s how you can do it.
- Do a simple Google search using relevant keywords for your industry.
- Look up their website and see what social media platforms they are active on.
- Check out their social media profiles to see what kind of content they are posting and how often they are posting it.
- Read through their blog posts to get an understanding of their overall mission/message.
By taking the time to understand who your competition is and what they are doing well, you can better position yourself for success with your social media marketing strategy.
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6. Choose your Social Platforms:
Every social media platform has different features and benefits, so you may need to think about which is the best fit for your brand and target audience. Look at the platforms your target market prefers, then list the social media platforms that would work for your business.
Here are some popular social media platforms and their key features:
Facebook: Is one of the largest social networks with a diverse user base. Famous for both personal and business use. Requires little financial investment to get started.
Twitter: A microblogging platform that is fast-paced and great for sharing short snippets of information or real-time updates. Free to use but paid advertisement options are available.
Instagram: a visual platform that is popular for sharing photos and videos. Especially popular among younger users. Free to use but paid advertisement options are available.
LinkedIn: a professional networking site that is great for B2B marketing and thought leadership content. Free to use but paid advertisement options are available.
Here are some examples of businesses using various social media platforms effectively:
- Tumbleweed Tiny Houses uses Instagram to share beautiful photos and videos of their tiny homes. This visually-focused platform is perfect for showing off its product.
- Burger chain Shake Shack relies on Twitter for quick customer service. When people tweet about their positive (or negative) experiences, Shake Shack is there to respond quickly and help resolve any issues.
- Casper, an online mattress retailer, uses Snapchat to give people a behind-the-scenes look at their business. From factory tours to office pranks, Snapchat is the perfect platform for Casper’s fun and quirky brand personality
7. Use social media tools:
Using tools will not only do the work for you but also will save you a hefty amount of time.
There are a number of social media tools available that can help you to effectively market your startup. Here are some examples:
- Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a platform that helps you easily manage your social media channels. Use it to track any and all of the social networks you use in one place. This can be extremely useful for startups, as it can help you to effectively monitor and engage with your target audience across all platforms.
- Sprout Social: Sprout Social is another social media management platform that provides users with powerful tools for managing their social media accounts. With Sprout Social, you can schedule posts, track analytics, and more.
- Buffer: A buffer is a tool that allows users to schedule posts and track analytics for their social media accounts. Buffer also has a handy “Suggestions” feature that provides users with content ideas based on their interests.
- Canva: Canva is a great way to easily create professional-looking images for your social media accounts. With Canva, you can create custom graphics, covers, and posts – perfect for giving your startup’s social media presence a boost.
8. Measure your performance:
Rely on analytics to measure your social media performance. This allows you to have a more complete look at your brand’s social media presence.
There are a number of ways to measure your social media marketing performance with analytics. Here are a few key metrics to track:
- Engagement: This measures the level of interaction between your brand and its audience. It includes things like likes, comments, shares, and other forms of interactions. Keep an eye on your engagement rate to see how well your content is performing.
- Reach: This tool will measure how many people are seeing your content. If you have a large reach, it means that your content is being seen by more people.
- Virality: This metric measures how often your content is being shared. If your content is going viral, it means that people are sharing it with their networks, which can help to increase your reach even further.
- Click-through rate (CTR): This metric measures how often people are clicking on links in your content. A high CTR indicates that people are interested in what you have to say and are more likely to take action after reading your content.
- Lead generated: This measures how many leads you’ve generated from your social media marketing efforts. If you’re generating a lot of leads, it means that your strategy is working well and that you’re reaching the right people with your message
9. Revise the strategy:
The last step to ensure your social media strategy is successful is checking your goals against your mission. Did you manage or succeed in what you set out to do? If not, tweak the content or format you’re using, the platforms you’re focusing on, or your goals in order to make progress and get closer to achieving them. Remember that your strategy will have to adjust as you learn more and gain new insights.
