How To Plan An Effective Social Media Strategy

Know what you want to measure, how you will determine “effective” then set some goals.

Here are a few things to consider before you put your social strategy into practice:

• Who are you writing to? More importantly, who do you want to reach? If you’re writing to “everyone” you’re writing to “no one.” Know your target audience, your ideal client, and aim your social updates toward that person. Build a persona or two and write content to those personas — make it feel personal.
•  What social platforms make sense for your business? Where are your ideal clients congregating online? If you don’t know, you need to find out before you start spending time and money on every platform. Although, just because you’re not going to use a channel, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t grab your business’s name. Find out where your ideal clients are then get really good at one or two platforms. Expand as you have time and money.
• What kind of content will you be able to post? Memes? Videos? Word-filled status updates? A mix? What is your bandwidth for creating this content? Do you have access to a designer or a stock photo site where you can grab images? It’s no secret that posts with images receive more clicks than posts without.
• What is your competition doing? You certainly don’t want to plagerize anyone’s content, but you can learn from what the competition is doing that is working and what isn’t.
• How much time do you have to devote to getting the results you want? Know what results you’re seeking then allocate your resources.

If social media isn’t your forte — you may need to outsource it so you can focus on your core competency. Work with the social media professional you’re hiring so you’re both heading down the same path for your social media success.