This is essentially a plan to map out your social media goals, who you want to reach, what you want to say to them, and how you plan to do it using social media platforms and tools. As well as planning out some measurable goals to make sure you’re having the effect you want on your audience.
Your social media strategy will help your social activity feed into your wider business goals. You won’t waste precious man hours churning out lots of social content that doesn’t deliver any real business benefits, and you’ll have more time to work collaboratively with your wider marketing or PR team on delivering great results across the board.
Understanding who you are trying to reach will inform which social channels and tools you employ, and how you get their attention. With the right approach, customers will engage with your social posts – sharing, commenting on and ‘liking’ your content – meaning that more and more people will see it and become part of a growing online fanbase.
Having a focussed social strategy and a clear target audience who are genuinely interested in your product or service equals a more engaged audience who are much more likely to convert.
Sunday 23rd June is the brilliant @manc_day parade! You might have noticed the arches at Mayfield have been buzzing for weeks – with creative crafters from @walktheplank making colourful floats and costumes! Take a look…
#ManchesterDay pic.twitter.com/E52IKlskmh— Mayfield Manchester (@MayfieldMCR) June 20, 2019
Social media is not just a platform to broadcast from, it’s a conversational space where you can engage directly with your target audience. Proper planning means your social media ‘persona’ and content will completely align with your wider brand, giving a cohesive feel, and building customer confidence in your brand values and offering.
Whether you’re after increased brand awareness, website visits, purchases, event attendees etc you’ll be able to track results. Planning social activity with a strategy in place, and regular reviews of the results will help you tweak and tailor your approach to get the best possible outcome for your efforts.
You might think you’ve got it all figured out in your head, and if you’re a one-man team then that might be working for you. However, it always helps to have your strategy mapped out in a document so that anyone else can refer to it if you’re not around, or if you have a larger team working on your brand social accounts.
Having no strategy in place at all can end up being very counterproductive and inefficient with time and resources, leaving you little time to think and work creatively.
You run the risk of tarnishing your brand reputation, driving away your potential target customers and giving the brand a ‘split personality’ feel across different comms strands if your posts aren’t mapped out.
You may also think you’re seeing great results in terms of reach and engagement on social media, but for all the wrong reasons. You could be pushing out content or using an ‘online voice’ that attracts entirely the wrong audience – who won’t convert or help you achieve your business goals.
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