What is (ACTUALLY) in a Social Media Strategy

Posting to social media without a social media strategy is like taking a road trip without a map. Yet so many businesses do this. They think “I’m posting. Nothing is happening. It’s a huge waste of time.” I see this SO often.

It’s not a waste of time. I promise. You’re just not thinking about the bigger picture. Your social media strategy fits into the overall marketing and business strategy as a supporting figure. What you do on social media, or how many followers you have are NOT your strategy. Well, lie, what you do CONTENT wise is a part of your strategy. But the likes you get on a post? That’s NOT your strategy - likes do not equal sales and Followers do not equal clients.

Here’s what an actual strategy covers:

Set your objectives

What are you looking to do with your social? Here’s the deal - social media for me, is great at brand awareness, engagement, and generating leads. Lead gen, especially through paid ads, and brand awareness by building your audience. Social media will likely NOT be the sole revenue maker for you, but it should absolutely be a part of the strategy. Businesses that aren’t on social are missing out on building new audiences and potentially new customers.

Your Target Audience

WHO are you marketing to? Who is your ideal customer? What are their demographics, what do you do for them, what problems do you solve, how do you make them feel or alleviate those pain points? How old are they? Married? Kids? Do they work? I’ve heard businesses say “I want to market to all women.” No. You want women who are Y age, married, older kids… (For example, not referring to anyone specifically here - I just happen to work with a lot of women-owned service providers who market to other women). You don’t market to 20-year-olds on Facebook. Knowing who you’re marketing to is key in crafting the message and to finding them in the right places online.

Competitor / Market Analysis

Who are you up against? A good strategy knows what’s going on in your industry. Look at the competitors to see what they’re doing well and what they’re not. That way you can find the market gaps. Are they not on social? Do they have 10k followers? What are they doing? How’s their website? Do they have a blog? Do they have regular content OFF of social media? We want to know these things about your top competitors.

Audit

Any social strategy has to have a starting point. Similar to the road trip analysis you have to know where you’re starting to really know where you’re going. We look at your profiles, your content, and all that jazz to see where you can better optimize profiles and content. It’s like doing the 10 point inspection on your car. You want to make sure you have a solid foundation and if you don’t via the audit, we go in and fix it so we know we’re running on all cylinders.

Content Strategy/Pillars

Finally the meat and bones of the social strategy - what the HECK do we actually post about? We create content pillars so we have our overall topics to post about, along with some ideas. We look at calls to action that will help drive followers into that marketing funnel (awareness, engagement, conversion). Content ideas are often keyword-driven (keywords matter even on social!), and help touch on your audience’s emotions (i.e. what do you want them to FEEL) and pain-points. Content in 2024 isn’t JUST about pain-point marketing but is real, emotional, and builds connection. DON"T be afraid to share the emotions that you have, the behind-the-scenes and the sometimes messy of owning your business and managing your team. Celebrate and mourn. Again - connections.

Need a strategy or want some clarity on if what you’re doing is actually working? Get in touch to set up a strategy session where I can help give you insights on the tactics and content that will work best based on your goals.