How to Build a Social Media Marketing Strategy for My Business

Digital marketing is an ever-evolving industry. With new technologies emerging every day and consumer preferences constantly changing, it can be challenging to stay ahead of the competition in digital marketing. Social media is one component of most companies’ larger digital marketing plans. However, when social media marketing strategies are done well, they can be highly effective.

When successful, these strategies can help companies connect directly with clients, foster loyalty, and create additional interest in the brand and products. But implementing a good social marketing strategy requires planning to ensure your messaging resonates with the intended audience.

Building a great social media marketing strategy can be done by completing the following steps:

• Identify your goals: As with any marketing plan, your strategy is guided by your goals. Common goals for social media marketing may include increasing brand awareness, providing customer support, selling products or services, and increasing traffic to your website. In addition to these goals, you may have some unique to your company or industry. Identifying these goals upfront can make the rest of the process much easier.
• Select the right channel(s): It’s no secret that different social media platforms are more popular with different demographic groups. Most everyone recognizes that TikTok and Snapchat are more popular with younger audiences, and Facebook and LinkedIn are more popular with older groups. Additionally, you cannot tailor a strategy that will work the same on all channels. For instance, Snapchat features more visual content, TikTok is heavy with video content, and Twitter requires short text passages that may include visual or video content. Keeping this information in mind, you will want to identify the best platforms to help you connect with the right groups of consumers.
• Identify the right metrics: Any marketing professional will tell you that determining the efficacy of your marketing strategies requires collecting and analyzing data. But different data sets will tell different stories. Therefore, you need to think about which metrics will help you determine how successful your social media marketing strategies are. Common metrics may include the number of clicks, your content’s reach, impressions, engagement, and posts. 
• Create content and develop a schedule: Finding the right mix of content to publish in the right amount can be challenging. Too many posts can alienate your audience or prompt them to ignore your messages, while too few can hinder achieving your goals. But once again, the guidelines can change depending on the platform. For instance, recommendations on the frequency of Twitter posts range from 1-5 times a day, while Instagram posts are only recommended between 3 and 7 times a week. Additionally, you may want to consider how much of your content is educational, promotional, and customer-centered. Unfortunately, this is no magic formula; it often depends on your company and industry.
• Keep an eye on your competitors: Staying ahead of the competition requires knowing what they are doing. It’s worth the time to periodically check in on the social media accounts of your competitors. This process can give you a clear picture of industry norms and tell you how you stack up in comparison. If you aren’t meeting or exceeding their accounts, it may be time to re-evaluate your strategies and make changes.  
• Engage with your audience: One of the unique features of social media is the ability to communicate directly with customers on a micro level. This is not an element found in many other digital marketing methods. But it’s only a benefit if you can leverage it to enhance your relationships with existing and future customers. And ignoring consumers on social media can cost you dearly since it has been shown that customers who brands ignore are more likely to visit a competitor’s site.
• Analyze your performance: This step is where the metrics you identified earlier come into play. Once you begin aggregating key data points, you can start to determine whether or not your existing strategies are working. If they aren’t helping you reach your goals, it may be time to stop and try something new. Effectively reaching the right audiences means you must grow and change over time.

As you can see, there are many steps in creating an effective social media marketing strategy, and the process can become confusing quickly. Consulting with a digital marketing service provider can be highly effective in helping you launch a social media campaign that will have a strong performance right out of the gate. For more information about digital marketing services and social media marketing strategies, contact eGlobal Web Solutions today!

eGlobal Web Solutions specializes in marketing your business via the digital marketplace. We use search engine optimization, social and review promotion, and Email marketing for all types of businesses, from local to global. We utilize various digital marketing techniques to increase your internet presence, optimize your traffic and generate new business.