How To Create A Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy

The S.M.A.R.T goal format is good to follow when setting out what you’re planning to aim for. S.M.A.R.T stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. These will help you clearly set out a plan for each goal you have. 

 

When you have your goals set out, you need to keep tracking your metrics to ensure they align with the goal you set and are hitting your targets. Measuring what your metrics are saying is an important thing when it comes to your marketing, as they give you an insight into what is and isn’t working, and if your goals and objectives are being met. 

 

 

Knowing exactly who your audience is can help you to form your marketing strategy. If you’re creating your strategy without knowing who you’re trying to target, then you may end up creating a strategy that doesn’t work for you or the audience. 

 

You need to know such things as their age, location, gender, interests, hobbies, income, job title – anything you can find, you need to know. It’d help to create audience personas here - they act as a snapshot of who your typical audience member is and what they’re likely to engage with. Doing this will give you the opportunity to create content that speaks to them and makes them want to engage with you. 

 

 

You should know who you’re competing against. Do a competitor analysis so you can really get to grips with where your competitors may be weaker, what your audience expects from content and how often they expect that content to be delivered. 

 

You can also use social media listening. This is where you can find out how others view their business, what kind of campaigns they’re running and look at things such as the key words that they’re using. You should stay aware of how your competitors are operating their businesses as this can help you continuously invigorate the content you’re putting out. However, it’s best to ensure you’re not constantly checking your competition out, as this could pose as a distraction away from your own content. 

 

 

Carry out a social media audit on your own business pages. This will show you: 

 

• What’s working 

• Who is engaging with your social media 

• The sites your target audience use most 

• Your presence online 

 

Regularly running an audit will be helpful if you need to make any modifications to your business’s strategy. You can find areas for improvement, and can even become aware of any issues with impersonation accounts. You can then ensure they’re taken down, so people know that they’re interacting with the authentic business and not a fake one. 

 

 

Making sure your social media counts are optimised will help you to grow your platform. You must make sure your social media profile has all the correct information included within it, such as how followers can contact you, where you’re located and your availability to respond to enquiries. 

 

Use keywords in your profile that people who are your potential audience would use if they were searching for a business like yours. 

 

Across your social media, you should make sure your branding is consistent, so that you can be easily recognised by followers. This includes username, logo’s, any cover photos – the audience need to know it’s you they’re interacting with on other platforms. 

 

 

Your social media content should be mapped out so you know what to post, and when. Your content calendar will list when content will be going out, and will allow you to work out how to space content so your audience isn’t being hit with the same thing all the time. 

 

You can also use this calendar to decide what content you want to post and promote. Businesses should also make sure they’re not posting too much or too little. Too much content can overwhelm the audience, but too little content can lose their interest and engagement. Find your balance – different social media requires different amounts of content. Hootsuite research has found that this is how much you should be aiming to post on social media: 

 

Instagram: 3-7 times per week 

Facebook: 1-2 times per day 

Twitter: 1-5 times per day 

LinkedIn: 1-5 times per day 

 

Your content needs to be compelling – remember to consider the audience persona you created when you post. It needs to be inline with your branding and your style, and should provide value for you and your audience. You can schedule content using sceduling tools to ensure everything will be put out on platforms at the right times. 

 

Tracking your analytics will help you work out the best strategy for you going forward. At first, you’ll be trying and testing methods, so tracking your analytics so you know what works the best for your business will help you form your social media marketing strategy that is a success. 

 

Analytics will allow you to see what days and times work best, when your audience are online, who exactly is interacting with you and which posts are performing the best. This will then give you the opportunity to modify your content output so that it’s hitting all your goals and targets. 

 

Your social media strategy should be known to all of your team so that they can follow the right format, know what the goals are and what they should be aiming for. This will help you turn your social media into a success. Follow these tips and get creating your strategy today! 

 

Get in touch to discuss your specific requirements and see how we can help you grow your social media presence 

 

Tel: 07963216248 

Email: chris@chrislondononline.co.uk 

 

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