How to Make a Social Media Strategy

Let's Talk About How To Make A Social Media Strategy.

The reason why I want to have this conversation is much like the reason I have all my conversations with you.

Something happened this week in the course of doing what it is I do, and it makes sense to get it out to you because it’s just good information.

One of my long time website clients called to have a chit chat about social media.

Most of what we’ve done in the past was website and SEO stuff. 

But, I’m her resident geek and what she wanted to talk about was the company she had hired to do her social media stuff.

Seems she was a little dissatisfied with the stuff they were putting on her timeline.

It’s the stuff that you see all over the place these days.

Mostly photo posts with some funny phrases or inspiration quotes on them.

She said, “It’s stuff that I would never have put on my timeline myself.”

Well, there’s a couple of layers to that conversation.  I’ll save you the long drawn-out blah, blah, blah.

What I will tell you is that, we eventually got around to the subject of social media strategy. What it is and how you create one.

How Do You Create A Social Media Strategy?

 This was an easy conversation because what she was going through was the very definition of what not having a social media strategy looks like.

Filling up your timeline with no particular rhyme or reason isn’t really a recipe for success.

Doing social media for the heck of social media is much like marching in place in the military.  You look like you’re doing something, but you’re not exactly getting anywhere.

Here’s the interesting thing, my may not know exactly what a social media strategy looks like, but she knew that whatever she was seeing on her Facebook feed wasn’t it.

So we started our conversation at the beginning.

Why Do You Need A Social Media Strategy?

If you’re going to put your business on social, you should have some sort of plan.  This whole social media thing isn’t new anymore.  You don’t get points just for showing up.

The only reason to have your business on social is to help accomplish one of your business goals.

• You need people to know that your business exists?  Cool, you can use social media for that.

• Got a product or service that needs a little more traction? You can use social for that as well.

• You want people to feel some kind of way about your business?  You guessed it.  You can use social media for that too.

Just about any marketing thing you’re trying to do in your business, social media can help you get there.

But, just like everything else in your marketing toolbox, it doesn’t just happen.

You need a goal, you need a plan and then you’ve got to do the darn thing.  You’ve got to execute that plan. 

So let’s run through what goes into your plan. 

What Goes Into Your Social Media Strategy Template?

Your social media strategy is the handrail you’ll be using as you craft your social voice.

We’ve already hit the first thing you need for your strategy: your goal.

1. What is it that you’re trying to accomplish out there?

If we’re doing the 5 Ws that would be the Why.  What we need to hit next is the Who.

2. Who exactly is it that you’re trying to talk to?

This gets back to that avatar, we talk about from time to time.  That fictional representative of your ideal customer.

Now before we start getting busy “doing stuff…”

3. We need to turn on the scoreboard.

You’ve got to be able to measure your efforts.   Otherwise, you don’t know if what you’re doing is working?

If you don’t measure what you’re doing, you’re back to doing social media for the sake of doing social media.  The nice thing about most of these social platforms. They’ve got a back office where you can actually see what’s going on.

• You can see your engagement.

• You can see your impressions.

• You can see how people are reacting to what you’re doing.

• What are they liking?

• What are they commenting on?

• What are they sharing?

From there you can decide to stay the course or change things up a little bit.

The next question for crafting your social media strategy template is kind of a biggie.

4. What is the best platform for you to be on and how much should you post?

Now you may be one of those folks that likes to spread the goodness across as many platforms as you can, but do me a favor.  Don’t.

That’s a recipe for disaster.  You’re going to dilute your efforts. You can’t be everywhere.  Well you can, but you can’t do it well.

Even if you hire somebody to do the heavy lifting, you’re going to be spending quite a bit of cheddar for them to be everywhere.

Of course if you absolutely have to be omnipresent, I don’t want to slow you down.  You do you boo.

Just make sure you’ve got the scoreboard turned on, so you see how much bang for the buck you’re getting or should I say not getting.

Besides, there are different strokes for different folks, different platforms for different demographics.

I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure your granny’s probably not hanging out on TikTok.

Your niece might.  Where you decide to hang out depends on where you’re trying to be and who you’re trying to talk to.

Which platform is most popular with your target audience is the one you need to have as your primary.

Okay. We’ve covered a lot of ground.  Now we need to dig into the weeds a little.

5. What kind of content are you going to be putting out?

This gets back to, what you’re trying to accomplish.  Some pieces of content are better suited for different types of approaches.

In my book, everything always comes back to know like, and trust.  If you want people to spend cheddar with you, they need to be able to know like, and trust you.

So, is your social media strategy primarily shooting for the Know, the Like or the Trust?

If you’re going for know, send them back office stuff. 

Image posts, stories, video posts whatever.  Show what’s going on in the store, what you actually do on your day to day. Show em how the gumbo’s made.  So they can get to know you

We absolutely love reality TV.  So show them some reality.  It may be boring to you, but you’ll find it’s fascinating to your audience.

If you’re going for the Like, you can put the little fluffy stuff up there and make someone smile.

Let them see your sense of humor.  Of course, you might want to make sure your sense of humor matches your target audience otherwise this particular strategy could go off the rails fast.

Finally, if you’re going for Trust, then you’ve got to educate them.

Word posts with helpful tips or link posts pointing to an article on your website or someplace else online.  The bottom line is you’re shooting to get them a little bit smarter than they were when they first came across that post.

Whichever goal means the most for where you business is right now, that’s the one that you want to lean on the heaviest. That is going to drive the train on what you’re going to do with your social

So you got your social media strategy template and you know, what kind of things go into it?

1. Who are you talking to

2. What platform are you going to do it on

3. What is it you’re trying to get done

4. And how are you going to measure that bad boy.

Those are the things that you need to consider before you start wandering around all over the social media platforms of the world.

How To Build A List With Social Media

Now, you know me, before I let you out of here we’ve got to talk “the asset”.  And by the asset, I mean your list.

If you’re having a hard time coming up with a goal for your social media, then by all means use list building as the focus of your social media strategy. Even if you have other goals in mind, add this to the list anyway.

You can use Facebook or any of these other platforms to help build your list.

It all starts with curiosity.

Create content that your audience wants on the channel of your choice.  You’ll have very little space on these platforms to put out content.

So hook your audience with a taste of really good content on social media and leave the rest of that tender morsel on your website.

Or you could use the same concept with a Facebook or Instagram ad.

Create curiosity about something that they’re interested in and in order to get access to it, they’ve got to go back over to your website.

But don’t send them to the home page, instead, send them to a landing page with an opt-in form.

Ask what email address they want the rest of the content sent to.

Do that little thing on a regular basis, and then you will have a pretty good chance of increasing the people on your list.

Conclusion

Take a look at your social media,.  Step back and take a big 5000 foot overview look.

Can you see a goal there that you were trying to accomplish with it?   Does the content you’re putting out make sense for what you need?

If you’re not quite sure, you might want to take the time to back up, regroup, and come at it again.

If you need some help with taking a look at the best way for you to reengage, with your social media, just give me a call (702) 582-6 708 or go to https://chriscarter.net/appointments to set up a Zoom call.

I looking forward to talking with you. This is always a cool conversation.  Until next time. I appreciate your attention. Talk to you later.