One of the key steps in social media management is to develop a strategy. It sets the vector for the further activities of the specialist, both in relation to the formation of content for organic channels, and the format of advertising publications. The first thing that is important while creating a strategy is a close interaction with the client, negotiation of all the details, and minimizing of “gray areas”.
Social media marketing is not about standard strategies, you need to be creative and keep in touch with modern culture. Sometimes it’s not enough to add music to a video or change the theme color. You can use a rather simple solution by picking a completed template design or creating one by yourself using Crello Unlimited. A competently planned strategy involves the following steps below.
1. Defining of Goals
The first step is to specify what rate of increase in efficiency is considered optimal by your client. Also, there’s a need to specify the desired number of new subscribers per month, estimated reach, the number of completed applications (depending on the purpose of promotion). If the client is poorly guided in this issue or gives vague answers (kind of ‘the more, the better), evaluate the probable predictions on your own and voice them to the client.
In this step, it is important to convey to the client the role of social networks in promotion, to focus on the communication function as the main one. Popularization of the brand, active interaction with the final consumer, recognition – this is the primary role of social networks, attracting conversions is just a “bonus” of SMM marketing.
2. Determining the Target Audience
When the goals are outlined, it’s time to decide on the target audience. Even if the target audience seems to be very wide, it is necessary to identify the most “typical” consumers in this niche and create several main audiences. Make the portrait of the target audience as clear as possible. It will allow you to effectively spend the budget on advertising campaigns and formulate messages that resonate with a specific category of people.
Portraits of the target audience, the main messages for each of them, and a description of the problem that the promoted product or service covers should also be included in the strategy. There may be several groups, but it is important to check the degree of their intersection. If this indicator is high, then it would be more rational to combine several overlapping audiences into one.
3. Competitors Analysis
Analysis of competitors – both direct and potential – is important during a strategy formulation. As a professional marketing manager you need to determine which companies can attract clients in this area and answer the following questions:
- What unique services can we offer to the client? (which competitors don’t have)
- What is better in your client’s brand than in the competitors’ one (for example, a longer working time, the availability of special discounts and programs, the presence of a certain specific category of goods in the general assortment, etc.)
Only then analyze the pumping of social networks by competitors. Particular attention should be paid to:
- The number of subscribers.
- The average number of likes for a single post.
- The number of publications per month.
- The style of texts, their average volume, tone.
- The quality of visual components, their format, general style.
- Brand corporate identity, logo, colors.
Don’t forget to note the strengths and advantages over competitors in your conclusions, as well as those indicators that need to be improved to remain competitive in the market.
4. Planning of Content
Identical content for all social networks is a solution lacking flexibility, and therefore not optimal. Let’s talk about the features of the strategy for such social media sites and apps as Facebook and Instagram.
Instagram. Focusing on the visual is what you should start from when creating a strategy for Instagram. An abundance of text in photographs, poor-quality images, a mismatched color scheme is unacceptable here. Therefore, the strategy should prescribe the nature of the images, their style, color tone – everything to the smallest detail. All the texts for Instagram should be as laconic as possible, but at the same time cover the main idea and message to the client.
Facebook. This social media does not place a bright emphasis on the visual component as Instagram (although keep in mind the quality of the published images) but on the information component. The text can be quite long but avoid unnecessary pathos. There should be no aimless publications, only informational content is a must. FB also offers a wide range of publishing formats for your use.
Situational content
It’s important to mention the need for situational content in your strategy. New popular challenges appear on the network every now and then, highlighting the high-profile world events. Sometimes reflecting this in your feed is useful in terms of grabbing attention and increasing reach. Moreover, it is better to adapt the challenge or news to your area. The only exception may be purely informative and highly specialized pages with a serious syllable, where this kind of hype would be inappropriate.
Features of Publications
When you create a strategy it is important to segment publication on the subject and the semantic load. The main types of posts include:
- This type requires you to acquaint a potential client with a product or service, answer possible questions, and cover important news.
- The main purpose of such posts is to focus on the advantages of the promoted products, both in general and in comparison (including implicitly) with competitors.
- Entertaining content. Serious, information-laden publications should be diluted from time to time with something entertaining, easy to understand. These include posts with humor, various polls, quizzes, jokes.
- Viral posts. This item can include various challenges, flash mobs, etc.
5. Making Adjustments
It is not enough just to create a strategy; over time, it must be adjusted over time, taking into account the indicators that were prescribed for the purposes. Changes are typically formulated and introduced at the end of each reporting period. A great piece of advice is constantly monitoring various innovations in social networks.
