How To Create a Social Media Strategy In 8 Easy Steps

A social media strategy is a summary of everything you plan to do and hope to achieve on social media. It guides your actions and lets you know whether you’re succeeding or failing.

The more specific your plan is, the more effective it will be. Keep it concise. Don’t make it so lofty and broad that it’s unattainable or impossible to measure.

In this post, we’ll walk you through an eight-step plan to create a winning social media marketing strategy of your own.

Learn everything You Can About Your Audience

Create Audience Personas

Knowing who your audience is and what they want to see on social media is key. That way you can create content that they will like, comment on, and share. It’s also critical if you want to turn social media followers into customers for your business.

When it comes to your target customer, you should know things like:

• Age
• Location
• average income
• Typical job title or industry
• Interests
• Etc.

Here’s a Simple Guide And Template For Creating Audience/Buyer Personas

Get to know your fans, followers, and customers as real people with real wants and needs, and you will know how to target and engage them on social media.

Gather Data

Don’t make assumptions. Think Facebook is a better network for reaching Baby Boomers than Millennials? Well, the numbers show that Millennials still outnumber Boomers on the platform.

Social media analytics can also provide a ton of valuable information about who your followers are, where they live, and how they interact with your brand on social media. These insights allow you to refine your strategy and better target your audience.

Jugnoo, an Uber-like service for auto-rickshaws in India, used Facebook Analytics to learn that 90% of their users who referred other customers were between 18- and 34-years-old, and 65% of that group was using Android. They used that information to target their ads, resulting in a 40% lower cost per referral.

Check out our guide to using social media analytics and the tools you need to track them.

Know Your Competition

Odds are your competitors are already using social media, and that means you can learn from what they’re doing.

Conduct a Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis allows you to understand who the competition is and what they’re doing well (and not so well). You’ll get a good sense of what’s expected in your industry, which will help you set social media targets of your own.

It Will Also Help You Spot Opportunities

Maybe one of your competitors is dominant on Facebook, for example, but has put little effort into Twitter or Instagram. You might want to focus on the networks where your audience is underserved, rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player.

Use Social Media Listening

Social listening is another way to keep an eye on your competitors.

Do searches of the competition’s company name, account handles, and other relevant keywords on social media. Find out what they’re sharing and what other people are saying about them.

Pro tip: Use a social media management tool like Hootsuite to set up listening streams to monitor relevant keywords and accounts in real-time. 

As you track, you may notice shifts in the way channels are used. Or, you might spot a specific post or campaign that really hits the mark—or totally bombs.

Use this kind of intel to inform your own social media marketing strategy.

Do a Social Media Audit

If you’re already using social media, take stock of your efforts so far. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What’s working, and what’s not?
• Who is engaging with your?
• Which networks does your target audience use?
• How does your social media presence compare to the competition?

Once you collect that information, you’ll be ready to start thinking about ways to improve.

We’ve created an easy-to-follow social media audit guide and template to walk you through each step of this process.

Your audit should give you a clear picture of what purpose each of your social accounts serves. If the purpose of an account isn’t clear, think about whether it’s worth keeping.

To help you decide, ask yourself the following questions

• Is my audience here?
• If so, how are they using this platform?
• Can I use this account to help achieve my goals?
• Asking these tough questions will keep your strategy focused.

Look For Impostor Accounts

During the audit you may discover fake accounts using your business name or the names of your products.

These imposters can be harmful to your brand—never mind capturing followers that should be yours.

You may want to get your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts verified to ensure your fans know they are dealing with the real you.

Set Up Accounts And Improve Profiles

Decide Which Networks To Use

As you decide which social networks to use, you will also need to define your strategy for each.

For reference, here’s how other small and medium-sized businesses are using social tools to communicate with customers. Notice that Facebook and Instagram outrank even email for this purpose.

Pro tip: Write out a mission statement for each network. A one-sentence declaration to keep you focused on a specific goal.

Example: “We will use Twitter for customer support to keep email and call volumes down.”

One more: “We will use LinkedIn for promoting and sharing our company culture to help with recruitment and employee advocacy.”

If you can’t create a solid mission statement for a particular social media channel, you may want to ask yourself if it’s worth it.

Set Up Your Profiles

Once you’ve decided which networks to focus on, it’s time to create your profiles. Or improve existing ones so they align with your strategy.

Make sure you fill out all profile fields

Include keywords people would use to search for your business

Use consistent branding (logos, images, etc.) across networks so your profiles are easily recognizable

Pro tip: Use high-quality images that follow the recommended dimensions for each network. Check out our always-up-to-date social media image size cheat sheet for quick reference.

We’ve also got step-by-step guides for each network to walk you through the process:

• Create a Facebook business page
• Create an Instagram business account
• Create a Twitter business account
• Create a Snapchat account
• Create a LinkedIn Company Page
• Create a Pinterest business account

Create a YouTube channel

Don’t let this list overwhelm you. Remember, it’s better to use fewer channels well than to stretch yourself thin trying to maintain a presence on every network.

Find Inspiration

While it’s important that your brand be unique, you can still draw inspiration from other businesses that are great on social.

Social Media Success Stories

You can usually find these on the business section of the social network’s website. Case studies can offer valuable insights that you can apply to your own social media plan.

Award-Winning Accounts And Campaigns

You could also check out the winners of The Facebook Awards or The Shorty Awards for examples of brands that are at the top of their social media game.