How To Develop Your First-Ever Social Media Strategy

As a small business owner, you make sure your business is in order. You have social media as a major component of your marketing strategy, and you have all the time and resources to manage, build and nurture your relationship with social media platforms. However, you might not be focusing on the most important strategy for your SMM (social media marketing), which is developing your first-ever social media strategy.

If you're thinking about developing your first social media strategy, the process can seem more difficult than it is. There are plenty of tools to help you in your endeavors, and by following the tips below, you'll be able to create your unique strategy that will work specifically for your business.

Developing your first social media strategy can be easy when you follow these steps

Figure out your goals

One of your first steps is to figure out exactly what you're hoping to achieve. If your business has a strong social media presence already, or if you feel like your goals are pretty clear, skip to figuring out who you're targeting. But if that isn't quite clear yet, take some time in step one—the goals part—and think through why you want a social media strategy and what kind of outcomes you want from it. 

Knowing these things will help keep your strategy focused and effective. The more specific and thoughtful you can be in step one when it comes time for step two—figuring out who/what/where/why exactly  targeting—the better off your whole strategy will be.

Identify Your Audience

Start by identifying your audience. You can narrow down your audience based on location or demographics. For example, if you own a bakery shop in California, you should target people from California interested in baking and cooking. If you own an online store that sells clothing and accessories, you should target people interested in fashion and beauty products.

Identify The Kind Of Content To Deliver

The first step in developing a social media strategy is identifying what kind of content you want to deliver. It's important not to focus too much on the channel itself but rather on the content delivered through it.

For example, if your brand sells shoes and clothing, you're going to want to create content that provides value and entertainment for people interested in fashion. This might include interviews with designers, trend forecasts, or how-to videos where you teach people how to put together outfits without spending too much money.

You can also use social media to connect with influencers and other key players in your industry. This could mean reaching out to someone who has thousands of followers and asking them if they'd like to do some type of collaboration with your brand.

Having your goals in line with a set plan and identifying your target audience can get quite complicated and take a long time. To expedite this process, consider hiring a social media marketing team such as Raging Websites to guide you through this with skilled professionals to ensure that you have the right strategies to reach your properly targeted audience and boost sales FAST through social media marketing.

Align Your Social Media Goals With Your Business Goals

First and foremost, you must align your goals with your business's. Suppose the purpose of your business is to sell products or services. In that case, there's no point in trying to attract new customers through social media channels if you aren't going to offer them something in return for their attention and engagement. For example, if you're running an eCommerce site that sells jewelry and watches, offering discounts on jewelry might not be enough of an incentive for people to follow your account on Instagram or Facebook because they already have access to discounts through their retail channels like Amazon or eBay. Instead, it might be more beneficial for a business owner or marketer to focus on providing value by posting engaging content (like photos) instead of offering discounts.

Where do you find the time?

As a new business owner, you will have to make time for social media—yes, it is possible. It may seem impossible with your growing workload and your ever-expanding to-do list. But you don't have to spend hours on social media every day (though some businesses certainly do). You just need a few minutes dedicated solely to maintaining your social presence every day. Use that precious time wisely, and you can build an engaged community of followers who will hopefully turn into customers one day soon.

Decide which social channels you'll be active on

You don't have to be on every network. Instead, choose which ones are most important for your business. For example, If you're a B2B company that sells software products, LinkedIn is likely the best option because it's where professionals hang out online. If you sell products directly to consumers, Facebook will make more sense because it has more users than any other social network.

What you need in your toolbox

There are many tools out there to help you implement your social media strategy. Some companies have taken a more comprehensive approach (think Buffer, for example), but when it comes down to it, you just need three things: analytics software, a scheduling tool, and one or two professional photos (It's also helpful if they're free). 

Which tools you choose will depend on how many social platforms you plan to post on and your budget. For example, Agorapulse is well-suited for agencies that manage multiple social accounts because of its reporting functionality; Hootsuite has been around forever and may be suitable for your business if all of your posts go through one personal account.

Develop A Posting Schedule

A good rule of thumb is once per day on each platform, except Facebook, which should be twice daily (once during the morning and once during the evening). This is because Facebook shows more recent posts at the top of users' feeds than any other network does, so having two posts per day means that more people will see them. However, one post per day works well on other platforms like Twitter and Instagram because they don't show older content as frequently in users' feeds as Facebook does.

Stay consistent

No matter which platform you choose, consistency is key. Your social media following will grow if you commit to posting content regularly. However, if you become active for a few days and then disappear for weeks at a time, no one will remember who you are when you show up again. 

Try scheduling your social media posts in advance so that new followers know what to expect from your page. Additionally, make sure that when you post something online, it stays online permanently. You can save all of your photos with a free photo hosting website or by using an app like Buffer or Hootsuite that allows you to schedule posts ahead of time and has built-in analytics tools that track likes and shares.

Keep up with trends.

When social media is going through constant change and new platforms are emerging, it's more important than ever to keep up with trends. An effective social media strategy can be an excellent tool for capturing new customers and keeping existing ones happy. There are two ways to keep up: The first is simple—just read industry news sites or follow influential people on Twitter.

Be honest about what is working and what isn't.

Take a step back and make sure that your strategy isn’t built around vanity metrics like likes, shares, or followers—these aren’t always clear indicators of success. Be honest about what is working and what isn’t. If it doesn’t work, kill it! It might be painful in the short term but will pay off in spades in the long run.

Want to grow your business’s social media? Then you need a skilled social media manager like Raging Websites.

We use first-in-class tools to ensure you’ll maximize your ROI on social media- like scheduling posts at the perfect time and writing to unique audiences on different networks. We provide all of the social media promotion and management services you’ll need for your business, making it simple to strengthen your online presence and reach more customers.

Our team of experts is highly skilled in Facebook and Instagram management and content creation and has a robust reporting system that is easy to comprehend and has all the answers. Get in touch with us today by our contact form or schedule a call: https://ragingwebsites.com/pages/contact.