How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy

Many businesses admit to finding social media one of the hardest elements of digital marketing to conquer. We get it – in a world where number of likes and shares defines how popular a business is, brands understandably want to avoid a public hanging. But if you invest in creating a good social media marketing strategy, you can make a success of this.


Understand Your Objectives

Ask yourself - what do you want to achieve? Is it an uptake in sales for a particular product? Is it brand awareness? Is it sign ups to your marketing database? Work back from these goals and you can design your social media activity around this.


Know Your Target Market

If you have an existing digital marketing strategy, you should already know who you are targeting. This might be a few different demographics. Find out which social media networks are most used by these target demographics and design individual campaigns for each demographic on these platforms.


Nail your content

Your content should resonate with the demographic you are targeting. Personalise your content and keep it social for a better chance at engagement. Social media platforms are not the place for overly salesy posts. Aim to connect with followers on an informal level. Ensure your posts have a purpose – what do you want people to do? Make this clear.


Grow your followers

This won’t happen overnight, but you should be looking to steadily increase this over time. If you’re new to social media, make an announcement to your database in a newsletter or in some email marketing correspondence. Once set up, you can start following other relevant users, who may follow you back. Start with previous and existing clients and then follow users who show an interest in your industry (those who belong to social media groups etc). Post content worthy of being shared to reach wider audiences. Consider paid social media ads if you have a budget.


Exercise brand integrity

Invest time in managing engagement. Acknowledging posts and interacting shows you’re current and builds rapport. React to any negative posts with respect. Don’t delete them, but rather offer solutions, even if it’s to discuss their issue offline. It shows others that you care about good customer service.


Measure your performance

Social media metrics are good for showing you what’s working and what’s not. A tool like Google Analytics helps to show what traffic you have from social media and what they are doing when they land on your site. Tools like Hootsuite give you data and stats on social media activity by individual user.


Make It Easy for Yourself

Social media management is time-consuming, but you can make things easier. Tools like Buffer allow you to schedule your posts throughout the week, so you can set everything up on a Monday and let the posts go automatically at random times. You will still need to engage with posts, but you can set a promise to users, for e.g. ‘typically responds within 2 hours’ or ‘a business day’.


Need help with your social media marketing strategy? Whitefish Marketing agency in Kent work with businesses in the south east to improve their online visibility with expert digital marketing strategies. Call us on 01303 720 288.