Trying to build your brand on social media without a strategy is like going food shopping without a list. You'll probably miss a bunch of things you need, buy items just because they're on offer or you're hungry and most likely spend way over what you initially wanted to spend.
Now we've pictured that analogy ... let me dive into why you need a social media marketing strategy to enable you to properly succeed on social media.
🚴♀️ REASON #1 - DIRECTION 🚴♀️
Much like my grocery shop analogy, if you don't have a structure to guide you then you are "hoping" that what you are doing aligns with the rest of your marketing and "hopes" it pays off.... would you do that with the other areas of your marketing? So, why would you do that with your social media marketing?
With a tailored social strategy you will know exactly which platforms to be active and post on, what content to share that will resonate with your target audience, how often to share this content, the type of content to share and even to how to brand yourself on social media and how you want people to see you.
Everything you do in any area of marketing, including social media marketing, should align to a measurable goal. A strategy gives you the direction and footing to structure your social media content to be measurable and attainable.
📲 REASON #2 - PRESENCE 📲
Tying very much in with my first point, once you know where, when, what and how to post, you can create and maintain a consistent social media posting schedule. Consistency is crucial to growing your brand's organic social presence.
Failing to post consistently or not being realistic in how often you can post, is the number one reason a brand will stop growing on social media.
🏆 REASON #3 - MEASURABLE GOALS & SUCCESS METRICS 🏆
You would never run anything in marketing or any campaign for that matter without having a goal to achieve and to be able to measure against.
Whether that's how many attendees register for your event, how many customers request a free demo or how many e-book downloads you get... the exact same stands for measuring goals with social media marketing.
Understandably these goals will need to be relevant to the type of marketing you are doing on social media and the stage of the journey you are marketing at. For example, if you send an email marketing campaign out to individuals you already know are interested in your events, your goals and KPI metrics for this will be vastly different to sharing the event on your social media platforms.
Understanding the right KPI measurements to look at, how to find them and at what stages to change them is absolutely crucial to being able to understand the success of anything you do on social media. Even though my example previously was conversion tactics, this takes into account all tactics on social media including brand awareness, brand affinity, engagement, user journeys etc.
📈 REASON #4 - UNDERSTANDING THE BIGGER PICTURE 📈
Often brands will look at what they want to share on social media and look at the vanity metrics of these to decide what is performing well on the face of it. Whilst it is important to understand these metrics, you need to be able to look at the bigger picture.
Let's say you are sending someone to a new blog post you've created... you want that user to spend enough time on that page to read your blog and then if you've got related content linked or a request a demo/enquiry button you will also want them to click on that to get in touch with you. Say you have ran a social media campaign that has brought 1000 users to your blog page. Success, right?
Well... what if I was to ask you what did they do once they clicked? Did they bounce off the site after it loaded? Did they stay on the page long enough to read the blog? Did they click on the links you added to your blog? Did they go somewhere else on the website after?
You need to have "bigger picture" goals and metrics past those of the campaign itself and a social strategy will align where social media plays a pivotal part, but not be all and end all part, of your overall business goal/s.
✏️ REASON #5 - OPTIMISED CONTENT ✏️
As a final point in this blog... a social strategy will define the content pillars you need to utilise as a brand to resonate and stimulate your target audience.
It's all well and good doing points 1 - 4 but if your content you are sending out isn't the best content and right content for your audience then you are potentially wasting a lot of time and resources here.
Content pillars provide a structure to follow covering 3 - 4 key areas for your brand. They will allow you to keep a purpose for all of your content and will allow you to align what you are sharing on your social platforms to any keywords that you are ranking for in your wider digital marketing.
The best content pillars will always provide a core foundation for your brand whether that's to become a thought leader or to become a problem solver. With this you will be able to focus your key messages to your target audiences whilst also determining what content should go out across which platforms.
One thing to note is that content pillars should be an extension of and grow off of your core brand pillars, addressing the needs and value of your target audience. They shouldn't be overly specific and as such should act as a river that can have many streams coming off of it.
📩 Ready to gain all of the above and more from your very own social media strategy? Get in touch and let's get it going! 💥
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