How to Create a Social Media Strategy for Your Small Business
Ever since the social media’s evolution from being a platform for people to socialize and connect, share content like pictures, videos, ideas, etc. to being something else, something revolutionary has permanently changed how people do business. All businesses, both small and large, can benefit from using social media as it has proven to be a successful tool for marketing. But then, as with every other task or activity that becomes successful, there has to be a plan or strategy. In this case, we will call it a social media marketing strategy for small businesses.
Let us start with the first question anybody new in business or to this concept will ask; “what is social media marketing?” well, it is a branch of digital marketing that makes use of the social media and its resources to create awareness about your brand, its products and services. proceeding to create a strategy that will work for you, the following points are guides you should follow
Set realistic social media marketing goals
Though the social media and the internet can sometimes be unpredictable when it comes to the marketing strategy that eventually works, most successful results still follow the normal procedure. The first on the list is to set a realistic goal that you know is achievable and quantifiable. For example, since you are a small business, you most certainly will be dealing with awareness issues so you can set a goal of increasing your brand awareness on a platform or niche by a certain percentage.
Do target audience research
The audience research has a lot to do with which platform you want to focus on, and it depends on the demographics on which your audience falls. For example, if the content you will be posting is video-based, the audience you intend to reach is mostly video viewers. You would opt for YouTube, while if you are seeking an audience drawn to high-quality content in terms of graphics and representation, you should look no further than Instagram. And that is only one part of the audience research. When you start narrowing things down based on the niche characteristic, it gets more complex.
Get your statistics right
In creating realistic and quantifiable goals, you need to keep your eyes on certain indicators: the various results you can get from your social media marketing plan’s execution and the inferences you can draw from those results. Some of those indicators are impressions, which shows an estimate of users your posts or ads reached deep enough to raise an eyebrow or pause their scrolling for some seconds before moving on; clicks, which shows the number or percentage of increase of clicks from the audience on that post or ad. Engagement is also another indicator. It shows the audience’s fraction that went a bit further to like or make comments in reaction to your posts.
Learn from your competition
Avoid seeing your competition as the enemy and start learning from their successes and mistakes when creating your social media marketing plan. You do not have to create a replica of their plans or content; all you have to do here is know what works for them and how you can make it work for you.
Content and consistency
As with almost all the digital marketing strategies out there, your content is the core aspect that serves as the ignition to spreading the word about your brand. When creating your content, you should ensure that your content has features like uniquely representing your brand in terms of quality and style or design, passing the right information and intent. As much as possible, it creates an avenue for interaction with your audience. The consistency aspect is where you create posts routine or schedule; you must follow to organize your posts.
There are many aspects to treat when it comes to creating a social media marketing strategy. The above steps are more of an overview of the real work, which requires more time, effort, and accuracy to yield positive results. For an in-depth walkthrough on setting up a social media marketing strategy for your small business, click here to reach our marketing team.
Would You Need Help With Your Social Media Strategy? I Can Help You!