Succeeding on social media is, all said and done, a tough nut to crack. Crafting a social media strategy that works without needing your attention at every moment can seem nigh impossible. Add to this the numerous social media networks available today, and it can become truly challenging to stay on top of them and integrate them into your plan. Being spoilt for choice is a real problem in the world of social media today!
However, the reality is that your ability to grab and hold users’ attention is largely determined by having a practical and uncomplicated strategy that aligns with your objectives and resources. This is where a social media agency worth its salt can be a true game changer for your brand.
Why Should You Care About Having a Solid Social Media Strategy?
When it comes to social media, brands find themselves stumped by three challenges in particular: reaching their audience, measuring returns, and reaching their business goals. A strong social media strategy can become a one-stop-shop solution for all these concerns. The benefits of creating a social media strategy in partnership with a good social media agency include:
• Setting goals and expectations: A social media agency will outline clear expectations and goals for your business’s social media marketing efforts. Whether you want to increase brand awareness or promote a special event, a clear strategy works as a blueprint to keep your marketing consistent, relevant, and targeted to your audience.
• Tracking goal performance: Having a goal for your social media marketing is not enough; you must also monitor your progress towards achieving that goal. A social media agency establishes and tracks key performance indicators that will allow you to note your progress and adjust your approach as needed.
• Adjusting benchmarks over time: Benchmarking your social media marketing performance enables you to monitor social media metrics, and compare your performance against industry standards, your competitors’ performance, and your past performance. Evaluating your performance against benchmarks helps a social media agency assist you in narrowing down areas that need improvement to achieve your marketing goals.
The Building Blocks: Creating A Strong Social Media Strategy
With a strategy in place, you can set goals and expectations, track performance, and adjust benchmarks as needed over time. It’s no accident that 90% of responding social media marketers used at least one social media network to promote their business. Here’s how to create a fantastic social media strategy for your brand.
1. Chart Out Who Your Audience Is — What Do They Want?
It’s essential to first identify and document your buyer personas by defining their key demographics, such as age, gender, occupation, income, hobbies, and interests. After all, if you’re selling cakes, it makes no sense to market to someone who is looking to buy a car, right?
Understanding your target audience — which a social media agency can help you do — will enable you to create advertising that addresses their unique challenges and wants.
2. Chart Out Your Own Goals — What Are You Doing on Social Media?
Before you get a social media agency onboard, it is essential to chart out your own goals. Understand what your objective is for being on social media. Are you looking to promote your products, drive traffic to your website, or provide customer service?
Once you have clarity about your goals, a social media agency will help you implement your social media strategy. Your goals can include anything from increasing brand awareness and getting more website traffic to generating more sales and boosting brand engagement.
It’s natural to have more than one social media goal; however, a social media agency will help you prioritize a few key objectives so you’re putting your time and money where it matters most.
3. Choose A Few Platforms to Focus On
It’s not necessary to be present on every platform; in fact, it can prove to be distracting in the long run. A social media agency will help you focus on the right social media channels: the ones where your target audience spends their time and money.
Choosing the right network based on your brand and products is crucial to allocate your time and resources wisely. While it may seem tempting to have multiple active social media accounts, a social media agency will help you identify the most suitable ones for your customers. Understanding the differences between various platforms can assist you in budgeting your ad spend and time effectively, leading to much better returns in the long run.
4. Just Get Started!
It can be very easy to spend all your time planning, but at some point, you’ll need to just jump in the fray and start getting your hands dirty with creating and posting content. The caveat: you must consistently create engaging content. Quality is central to any social and content strategy.
A social media agency will help you conceptualize and create content that reflects your brand’s personality and is centered around a theme to create consistent and visually appealing content. A social media agency will also bring experience in many types of content, such as memes, photos, videos, and podcasts, and create content on your behalf that people will enjoy and engage with.
5. Track Your Performance — And Course Correct Accordingly
To effectively monitor your social media performance, a social media agency will also spend lots of time tracking the traffic your social media accounts are driving to your website or blog. Social media platforms provide various tools to help businesses track their analytics. Once you have established an average traffic and post-performance, a social media agency will also help you set targets for key metrics and keep track of your progress through careful monitoring.
The Upshot
Building a successful social media presence takes time and effort, and it’s far from a go-viral-quick scheme for your brand. In other words, it won’t happen overnight. An experienced and trusted social media agency like AdLift, however, will help you work with different channels, content, and messaging to find what resonates most with your audience.
