How can social media marketing benefit your business bit? All social media marketing activity needs to start with a strategy. What do you want your social media marketing to achieve.
#1 Set your objectives
These objectives will vary business to business, so start by writing a list of everything you want to get out of your social media marketing activity, and then prioritise them in terms of value for your business.
#2 Outline your audience
This will help to determine which social channels will be most effective for your objectives. For example, 72% of teenagers are on Instagram, whereas the majority of Twitter users are aged 18-29. Depending who your target demographic is, you might decide to prioritise a certain social network over another.
Outline your audience demographic, with as much detail as possible: age, gender, location, hobbies, interests, challenges they face, where they hang out, what other brands they like etc. Determining these characteristics will ensure you use the best social networks to reach them, and also cater your content to best reach your objectives!
#3 Market research
Analysing your competitors’ social media marketing activity is an important and valuable part of your strategy. After all, their target audience is your target audience.
Taking the time to do this social media marketing analysis will put you in a good position to decide which platforms are best for your audience and objectives, as well as help you get to know your target demographics’ behaviour on social media.
#4 Prioritise social networks
With all of the above strategising, you should now have a pretty good idea of which social networks are most valuable to your business. All social channels can benefit all businesses in some ways, but don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to be highly active on all of them.
Prioritise which networks are the most effective for your audience and business objectives, and focus on producing different kinds of content to maximise results.
#5 Set brand guidelines
This an important step for any social media marketing strategy, particularly if you’re working in a team. Brand guidelines should cover all details regarding brand activity on social media – and should be clear and accessible to everyone with access to the social accounts. Outlining these details early on in your social media marketing strategy will ensure everyone is on the same page, and help you create a consistent and recognisable brand persona on social media.
