Over the past year, most successful businesses have upped their game on social media. It simply made sense. The lack of face to face meetings over coffee and cake, the distant memories of a full-bodied Rioja at an evening networking event or, less frivolously – and on a very sobering note, a closed shop or fractured business that’s been unable to run or has operated within severe restrictions… These are just a few of the reasons many business owners have focused more on their online presence.
Have you?
You may have increased the time you spend on LinkedIn or opened a Facebook shop, created an Instagram account or carefully targeted your tweets – or you may have done zilch. And that’s ok – a lot of people didn’t have the enthusiasm, health or mindset for marketing last year; but it’s time to change that.
Let’s take a quick look at some key factors to consider in setting out your new social media marketing strategy.
What is a social media marketing strategy?
- Your strategy should be part of your overall marketing plan.
- It must set out clearly what you hope to achieve: your objective.
- It should contain smart goals – ones that you can measure.
What should you consider when creating your strategy?
- Think about your audience – who are you targeting?
- Which social media platforms is your target audience likely to be using?
- Are you clear on the demographics of your potential clients – age, gender, location, things they like, things they need?
What’s your investment?
- Social media marketing is a double-pronged investment; it takes time and/or a budget.
- Be realistic about how long you can spend on social media each day.
- Allow a financial investment – think about whether you’ll be advertising on Facebook, boosting posts on Instagram, upgrading your LinkedIn profile, paying a content writer, using third-party posting platforms, engaging a social media manager… You may not need to do any of these things, but allow for them in your strategy in case you do.
Review your profiles
- If you haven’t updated your LinkedIn profile in a while, now is an excellent time to review it.
- Be consistent with your imagery: your profile pics, logos and cover pic graphics should reflect you and your business well across all platforms.
- Keep all your social media platforms up-to-date and in line with your website.
Plan what to post
- Think about how often you’ll share interesting and relevant content with your audience. Will you write your own content and create fabulous images yourself, outsource your blogs and articles, or share directly from the press and industry pieces?
- Don’t be shy! Share testimonials, celebrations, news about new contracts – anything positive is fantastic to tell the world!!
- Don’t forget about keywords, SEO-friendliness and calls to action…
So there you have it – a few steps to a manageable social media strategy. If you think a template would be helpful, let me know and I’ll send you one.
Remember also… Stay true to your brand values, stick to your plan and leave yourself enough time to actually run your business!
I hope that’s useful. If you need any guidance, give me a call or get in touch via any of my social media channels.
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