Getting Started with a Social Media Strategy

Even thinking about creating a social media strategy can be a daunting task. If you aren’t familiar with social media, than how can you be expected to build a strategy on how your business can use it effectively? Very valid points, but the good thing is a social media strategy is really no different then any other type of business strategy or marketing strategy that you end up creating for your business.  As with most strategies, a social media strategy starts with asking yourself a series of questions. Some of these you may already have defined in your existing business or marketing strategy and others may be new for you to think about.

Your Offerings

These questions focus on your products and/or services, how you are going to sell them and what the benefits are for your customers. Examples of what you want to ask yourself about your offerings include:

• What product/service are we providing?
• How are we packaging and delivering this product/service?
• What are the key benefits of this product/service?
• What is the major problem we are solving with this product/service?

Importance to Your Social Media Strategy Besides having a clear focus as to what you are doing with your business, knowing your offerings will help you to figure out what use cases you should be using on social media. It also may help you to identify what social networks you are interested in working with. If you provide film or photography services then Youtube and Instagram might be perfect platforms for you.

Your Key Audience

These questions all come down to the main group of people who will be interested in your products and/or services. You want to know their demographical information (age, gender, location) and also their psychographic information (lifestyle, interests) so that you can properly focus your advertising and connect with them.

• Is there a particular age range you are looking to offer your product/service to?
• Is there a particular gender you are looking to offer your product/service to?
• Do people you are trying to sell to have similar interests or hobbies?
• Is your product/service geared towards people who work in a specific industry or career?

Importance to Your Social Media Strategy Your Key Audience will most likely turn into the main people that make up your social media communities. By knowing who you are looking to connect with you can focus your content efforts, social advertising and even target your posts towards these areas.

Your Marketing Interests

What ways outside of social media will you be marketing your products and/or services? What are you interested in exploring as an option for getting your business out there?

• Are you going to or do you already use direct mail outs?
• Are you going to or do you already use radio ads?
• Can you use any of the existing print, audio or video content you have as content for your social media efforts?
• Can you time the release of your other ads to match the release of your social advertising?

Importance to Your Social Media Strategy The left hand needs to know what the right hand is doing, so make sure that you keep everything in line by building your social media strategy with all of your existing marketing efforts in mind. Also, your existing efforts is a perfect place to pull together artwork, content and ideas for your social media efforts.

Your Use Cases

What are you actually trying to do with social media? What is the main reason you are using it for your business? Importance to Your Social Media Strategy This one is probably the most important thing to think about when it comes to your overall strategy. If you are only on social media just because it’s what you are supposed to do or because every other business is doing it, well you probably aren’t achieving the goals that might be possible for your business. If you are looking for some ideas on what use cases have a look at this great article that covers some of the main areas that social media can help your business. Lastly, keep in mind that a social media strategy is always evolving as your business grows and changes, so don’t try to make your first draft perfect. Start by asking yourself questions like these and be open to change as you build your social media strategy.