Social Media Marketing | Till 2020 most of the businesses have set up their presence in digital world. And now in 2021 it would be rare not seeing a business using social media platforms to grow their business. Most of the businesses are now using Facebook, Instagram and other social networks to grow their following and fan base. No  doubt this will bring leads and generate sales.
Since almost every business is doing social media marketing then it becomes difficult for new start-ups and small businesses to grow well on social media. So the questions is which social media plan or strategy should you use and How to plan the best social media strategy for your business?
Well it’s so overwhelming to plan a strategy, and it fails then gain plan and do the same. So here are some tips from experts to develop a social media strategy. With the help of these tips you can achieve social goals, increase engagements and also can optimize the strategy for results.
1. Set up your goals
The first step in promoting your brand is to set a goal. One goal is to find out what your brand is about and how it helps people. You should make a list of goals to achieve while doing social media marketing. Each of your social media strategy goals should be SMART. Below are a few important goals you should plan to achieve:
- First you should be increasing traffic to your website or A specific page
- Second you Should be generating lead and sale through social media marketing
- The Third goal should be to increase audience so that more and more traffic could reach you. Website
- Fourth goal to achieve should be increasing followers and earning their loyalty.
- Improving social media engagement to create a bond between brand and the audience.
Below are a few important goals you should plan to achieve:
- First you should be increasing traffic to your website or A specific page
- Second you Should be generating lead and sale through social media marketing
- Third goal should be to increase audience so that more and more traffic could reach your Website
- Fourth goal to achieve should be increasing followers and earning their loyalty.
- Improving social media engagement to create a bond between brand and the audience.
2. Target your preferred audience
After establishing your goals, the next step is to wisely identify the audience. This will be your target audience. Once you’ve established your goals, it’s time to look into your audience.Â
Establishing your target audience will help you decide about what your audience wants to see and what you should be sharing with them. In this way you can create  best content that audience will engage with. And this is the trick to turn your followers at social media to potential customers.Â
While choosing your target audience you should keep the following points in mind:
- Age
- Location
- Job title or industry
- Interests
3. Choose the platform
Where you should do social media marketing. With insights from a targeted audience it would be easy for you to choose a platform. Whilst your audience may be on Facebook, if you are selling a B2B service, consider whether people are likely to convert on work related content on their personal platforms, outside work hours. Is LinkedIn a better platform? This will also enable you to start mapping out your strategy for each network.
4. Competitor’s research
It’s the best strategy to exactly copy your competitors. This demands doing research on your competitors. Like what they are doing, how they are engaging with their audience etc. There are more chances that they are already on social media, and you can get ideas of what they are doing. Things to take note on:
- What content do they share?
- How often do they post?
- What times or days do they post?
- How often do they engage with others?
- What industry hashtags do they use?
5. Plan a schedule of posting
Now all the data have been gathered, and we have reached the stage when we will start to post things about our brand. Now our audience will start to notice the presence! When you’re going to post it and let your creative juices flow. Here is our overall process alongside any relevant tactics:
Use themed content
While posting content create themed content. Creating content and posting as every one knows is challenging and time-consuming. So you should be posting weekly themed content. Your theme could be based on upcoming blog post, new campaign or upcoming event and the list goes on….
Create a content calendar
In the hustle of managing business creating social media content can make you move away from the track. It is easy to lose track and things can slip through cracks. Planning content for weeks in advance can also feel overwhelming, which is why a content calendar is your saving grace! Tools like Trello or Sprout Social, or create good old trusty spreadsheets on Excel. You Can use these tools to:
• Determine social schedule timings.
• Plan custom posts for each channel.
• Plan our content objectives.
• Keep track of blog posts, articles and other resources
Engaging content
After establishing the theme and creating a content calendar the next step is to create and design engaging content to attract an audience. You should follow any of the two rules to create and share content.
The rule of thirds
• ⅓ of posts to promote business
• ⅓ are posts of ideas from influencers in
• ⅓ are posts of personal stories to build your brand
The 80/20 rule
• 80% posts created should educate or inform about the product or services
• 20% posts should promote the brand.
The content you create should be a quality content like good quality videos pictures and posts. As every one knows Content is King. So work to create content that can rule on your target audience. New, quality content will keep your audience informed and interested, which means they’re more likely to engage with your posts. A few examples of content you could create are:
1. Videos –Video content is dominating because now the user prefers to watch over reading.
2. Images –Routine work photos, photos of products help the audience to build trust in the brand itself.
3. Company news –You should personalize the company news like jobs news exciting news
4. Blog posts You should write blog posts either daily or weekly basis. Blog posts are mostly informative and the audience will know about you.
5. Free resources – because who doesn’t love something for free? Whether it’s an e-book or an infographic, your audience will appreciate a free resource.
6. Hire social media mangers or use Softwares
To manage multiple social media accounts and to post daily on every platform you can use a social media manager software. The software – such as HubSpot or Hot-suite will allow you to optimize your social media planning and schedule posts before time. With these tools you can have an eye over your social mentions that engage with you
7. Analyze andimprovise
The Most important And non-negotiable step is to assess and analyze your social media strategy. This is important to know who well your strategy is performing and how much value is your strategy is it adding to your business.
The data from analyzing the strategy can be used to optimize the site for better results. This  re-evaluation of your data will help you understand what works good for you and what doesn’t.
Bonus Tip
Consistency is the key to success. Doesn’t matter which social media platform are you using, just post consistently and observe when your posts have maximum reach.
If you want to know more about social media marketing, You can consult with us. the Amble Media Group is a social media marketing agency in Frederick Maryland. We have a team of professionals to serve you as your social media marketer.
