Struggling with Social Media? You are not alone in this. Most businesses today know the inherent value of using social media platforms in their branding and marketing plans, but because they don’t have the right strategy in place, they don’t get the right results.

As with most things in the business, with the aid of a little preparation and concentration, your social media solution can become instantly more successful. A strategy for social media marketing will help you take advantage of an active, committed network of potential customers and clients. After all, of the 7.2 billion people around the world, 3 billion have Internet access, and 2.1 billion are active on social media.

In fact, we should see around 2.5 billion social media users online by next year!

So, why do you need to use a Social Media Marketing Strategy at all? Why not just jump head-first into Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn?

Most businesses feel that while the content they produce is fantastic and they exchange links via social media, there does not seem to be any change in viewer interaction. You can get a few shares and the occasional retweet-but that ‘s it.  As a result, companies are left to scratch their heads–or worse, dump their social media program into the garbage.

The reality is there’s more to a plan for social media marketing than to publish content on a website and wait for the results to roll in. You need to consider whether your audience uses the right medium, how you portray your brand, and whether your sound suits the audience. Consistency, timetable and the mix of value-oriented and marketed candidates must be considered. 

If you’re handling your social media marketing campaign alone, or outsourcing your needs to a communications agency like Fabrik, we’ll help you understand what social media marketing is all about, and how you can really make it work for your company. 

The Benefits of a Social Media Marketing Strategy

Most of you will already know what social media marketing offers. It leads to stronger interactions, greater interaction and extra traffic with your target audience. But what are the benefits of a marketing campaign for social media? 

A social media marketing plan defines, in basic terms, how the company can use social media to achieve its external communication objectives. The strategy will detail the tools you intend to use, the targets you strive for and the strategies that you want to tackle. When done correctly, a marketing plan for the social media can:

Drive crucial traffic

Traffic creates leads, leads create conversions, and conversions create profits.

To get traffic you need to reach out to your target market and connect with them. Part of this would include updating your website on a daily basis but you might not be able to update several times a day. That’s where social media comes in, keeping your customers up-to – date with what’s going on within your company, building brand identity and increasing brand awareness.

Help you build the right relationships

We’ve already discussed that social media will help you create relationships. But a social media marketing strategy will help you create the right connections on the right channels for your company, by making sure you find the right followers. This means less time and a lack of expenditure on potential leads that might not be useful or profitable for your company.

Maintain brand image

Being active on social media can help you rate online as a trustworthy and authoritative source. Though, if you deal with several people posting through different sites it can be easy to lose control of your brand identity. Since it is important to retain a brand identity, a social media marketing campaign will help to keep your reputation strong from one place to the next.

Outshine your competitors

Communicating on social media with your clients is a smart way to push the competition forward. You can take this to the next level with a social media marketing campaign by analyzing what your rivals are doing, and finding opportunities that you can take advantage of. You should work out exactly what groups to talk for in order to get more traffic, and what you need to do better than your competitors to steal their customers.

Improve ROI

Finally, posting on social media is awesome but when you don’t see any true ROI, it’s hard to help your efforts. A social media marketing plan will help you decide which aspects of your social networks you need to assess to determine success. If you don’t achieve your goals then you can also build on or adapt parts of your strategy to improve your results accordingly.

Key steps to a social media marketing strategy

So, you know why building a social media marketing strategy is important. Now you need to figure out how you can design the right plan for your business. 

Like for other things in the marketing world, you’ll find your social media marketing campaign begins with a clear understanding of your priorities and objectives. Such targets will help you assess the outcomes of your social activities, and boost ROI. Ensure your goals are consistent with your overall marketing plan. 

Other key steps to follow when building a social media marketing strategy include:

Characterizing your customers

Social media marketing tactics will give you an idea of where you are heading, while your customers’ comprehension will show you how to get there. Using user personas to describe your potential users can help you decide the sites you need to post on, and what sort of voice you need to adopt in order to appeal to the right people. Think about what motivates your customers, clients, employees and stakeholders, who they are, and what they like or dislike.

Considering the competition

Once it comes to developing a successful marketing campaign for social media, your competition is able to tell you a lot about what’s successful in your industry. Such people target the same people as you, after all. Choose any of the biggest rivals and take a look at what they do on social media. Choose any of the biggest rivals and take a look at what they do on social media.

Developing your message

Once you have a better understanding of your competition, and your customers, you can start formulating and creating your messages. In other words, think about the key messages that you want to come across in most of your posts, to resonate with your audiences based on the personas you’ve created.

 Creating a calendar

Having a calendar that tells you when and how to share content is a great way to ensure you’re successful on social media. After all, when it comes to making your brand shine online – consistency is key. Your content marketing calendar should help you to define what types of content you’re going to post on social media, and how often you’re going to post.