With so many businesses offering the same services or products as you, we can say that social media marketing is like a war. There is a constant battle for attention and engagement from the audience. How do you stand out from all the noise? Well, as with all “wars,” strategy is important. You need a plan to guide your success.
But how do you build out your strategy for your social media content? What should it look like? If you have no idea where to begin, you can start with this template below. Download our free social media content strategy template to help you get started.
So why do you need a social media content strategy?
Content is power. It can turn your brand into a household name and turn your audience into brand ambassadors. This kind of impact is only possible if you have a consistent and well-thought-out social media content strategy. It’s not enough to just show up on your audience’s feeds randomly when you have the time. That’s not really going to make you memorable and relevant.
Keep in mind that there isn’t one cookie-cutter social media strategy for every business that will guarantee success. Your strategy will depend on your business, your audience and what your goals are. It won’t be perfect at first, so you need to analyse the results and fine-tune your strategy over time.
How do you develop a winning social media content strategy?
1. Set goals
What do you hope to achieve, and how will you achieve them? You need to have goals and create relevant posts that align with those goals. Be SMART about them. They need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Having a SMART framework will guide your actions and ensure that you can get real results. The more particular you are about your goals, the better. This will help you tailor your social media content more easily.
2. Get to know your audience
Who is your audience, and what do they want to see? Remember, your content is not for you but your audience. To create relevant content, you need to get to know your audience to know what they need and want. Understanding your audience will help you create engaging content that they will like, comment and share.
As such, when targeting customers, get to know their:
- Age
- Sex
- Location
- Average Income
- Job
- Etc.
It all depends on what your industry is and which information you think can help you reach out to them better.
3. Do a social media audit
Which social media channels are you on? Maybe you have accounts that you forgot about. It’s good to lay them out to know which you should keep and remove. Moreover, you should also analyse if this is where your audience is. You don’t have to keep every social media platform. Your target audience may not be in some of them, so you’ll just be wasting precious time and resources that could’ve been better spent on other things.
When doing a social media audit, you also need to ask yourself these:
- What’s working with my current content? What’s not?
- Who is engaging with me? What platforms are they using?
- How does my social media presence compare to my competitors?
Once you answer these questions, you can figure out ways on how to improve.
Putting it all together
We understand that building a solid social media content strategy isn’t easy. You need to spend time and effort in planning and implementing it. It’s a never-ending process. Hopefully, the template we’ve given you above can help you map out what you have and where you want to go. Don’t stress too much. Just enjoy the process!
Good luck!
