A social media strategy maps out your objectives and your tactics to achieve them on social media.
It should also dovetail straight into your 2019 Digital Marketing Strategy. Here’s how.
Why Do You Need A Social Media Strategy In 2019?
Upon review it lets you know whether you’re achieving your objective. You still need convincing?
Every piece of content produced, from that image on a social post and every blog plus all your engagements, click-throughs and video views, should serve a purpose that aligns with your objectives.
Another reason you need a Social Media Strategy is 30% of millennials say they engage with a brand on social about once a month & approximately 79% of adults use Facebook. Social Media is not something you can ignore.
You must have a planned social media strategy in 2019 otherwise you’ll struggle to compete with other brands who are engaging with your prospects and customers.
How To Write A Social Media Strategy For 2019
The more clearly defined your strategy is, the more effective the implementation will be but still keep in mind it needs to be succinct and all tactics should be informed by data.
Here is our outline of how to create a social media strategy for 2019.
1. Create SMART Objectives
Outline and understand your 2019 business goals and include them for reference.
SMART objectives are:
- Specific – Your objectives should not be vague
- Measurable – Your objectives needs to be quantifiable. Start thinking about the measurement tools you will need. Hint: Digivizer
- Achievable – Avoid making your objectives too complex and unable to be completed in a reasonable amount of time
- Realistic – We’re all for stretch targets but they can’t be unrealistic
- Time-bound – Make sure you include an end date
Here are some examples of SMART objectives:
- Achieve a 15% increase in website traffic from social media within 12 months
- Increase social media engagements by 30% by 30 June 2019
- Achieve a 20-minute response time to all social media inquiries on weekdays in 2019
Digivizer provides data on all key social media metrics and allows you to compare across platforms. Sign up for free and learn more.
2. Create Personas for your target audience
Firstly, understand your target audience. What are your target ages, genders, relationship status, average income, location, level of education? Once you know that, group them into personas that give them a character or personality you can talk to with key messaging. Be as detailed as you like.
Personas could detail the following information:
- Demographics
- Goals for the persona
- Key Challenges / Pain Points
- Common Objections about similar products
- Hobbies & Interests
- Biggest Fears
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3. Sneak A Peek At What Your Competitors Are Doing
Regardless of which industry you’re in, you’re always competing for the market share, ad and newsfeed placement, website traffic and social engagement, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your competitors.
Follow their social media accounts, take a look at the ads they are running on Facebook now it’s available and see what they’re doing on their website to attract traffic.
Don’t focus too much on their follower counts as this will lead you to focusing on the wrong objectives. Stay focussed on your current objectives.
4. Consider the Conversion Funnel & Your Paid, Owned, Earned Strategy (From Your Digital Marketing Strategy)
What is a conversion funnel? Read about it in detail in this article.
A conversion funnel takes many shapes but in simple terms follows a consumer’s journey from Awareness stage through to Consideration stage through to Conversion. It allows you to think about what type of content you want to serve to people at the different levels.
RELATED ARTICLE: 5 Strategies That Should Underpin Every Digital Marketing Plan
You also need to consider how social media relates to Paid, Owned & Earned. What is this? Read about it in detail in this article. Understanding “Paid, Owned and Earned” is crucial for digital marketers and is a vital component of every marketing strategy.
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5. Know & Select the Platforms That Are Most Relevant To Your Product & Audience
Not all social-media platforms are the same. Not all consumers use social media platforms in the same way. You need to choose the right ones for the products you’re selling and the consumers you’re selling to.
For instance, LinkedIn is a good platform for B2B while Instagram would be better if you’re in the fashion, food or lifestyle space. Twitter generally performs well for business, sports and celebrities.
RELATED ARTICLE: How to Successfully Sell on LinkedIn
6. Develop Key Messages & Content Themes For Each Persona & Level Of Your Conversion Funnel
These will help everyone in your business who is working on the implementation of this strategy. Connecting messaging to the person and funnel stage will ensure everyone regardless of their stage receives content specifically for them.
RELATED ARTICLE: How to build a successful digital sales funnel & customer journey
7. Build A Content Plan For Each Persona & Level Of Your Conversion Funnel Based On Your Content Themes
Will it be blogs, images or video? It depends on your objective and level of the conversion funnel but most likely you are going to need all three. Allocate responsibilities within your team for who will produce what.
If you are resource-poor, this is where you will need to consider a mix of your own and curated content. Curated content is an acceptable way of keeping your audience engaged.
8. Define Your Tone Of Voice & How Often You’ll Post On Each Platform
I like to call these rules of engagement that should be closely aligned to your brand identity. Think of your tone of voice as your brand personality.
Your tone of voice will be shared through your writing, be it on your website, social media platforms, blog posts, instant messaging and so on. Essentially, anywhere that you are speaking to your target audience, you want your tone of voice to be engaging for that audience.
Your tone of voice would generally be different for B2B and B2C audiences.
9. Write The Objective And Rules For Your Chat-bot & Message Platforms
We’ve included this one in the list as thought-provoking more than anything but it is important. If your social media strategy doesn’t include automated messaging or marketing automation, it’s not the end of the world but it should definitely be on your radar to be considered for 2019. If you are looking to get scale to your prospect engagement and nurturing then it definitely should already be in your plans for 2019.
10. List Roles & Responsibilities For Content Within Your Business
Who is responsible for producing blogs, social content, video and social posts? Who is responsible for approvals and what is the approval path? Who is responsible for maintaining your website content and for your various social platforms? Who will be responding to inquiries, in what time-frame, on which days? Who will they escalate issues to?
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11. List The Tools You Will Use To Implement & Analyse Your Progress
This includes things like:
- Which publishing tools you will use. Sprout Social? Hootsuite? Buffer? In-platform scheduling?
- Which tools for Internal and external communication tools will you use to collaborate with your teams? Slack? Email? Workplace by Facebook? WhatsApp?
- Which Task Management and Content Approval Tools will you use? Trello? Asana? Basecamp? PageProof?
- Which data and analytics platforms will you use? Google Analytics? Digivizer?
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12. List A Timeline Of Next Steps.
This list should include things like:
- Set-up of social accounts – header images, bios, links (don’t forget to use UTM codes or other tracking codes specific to your platforms and placements)
- When the content strategy will be finalized
- When internal or external approvals are required
- When video or photographic shoots will take place and when production will be completed by
What Are The Next Steps With Your Social Media Strategy For 2019?
- Share the strategy with the business.
- Get buy-in and approval on the strategy
- Implement, Experiment, A-B test, push the envelope, review, optimize
- Share your progress with the business
Digivizer’s Platform
We’re working to ensure the best of our technology is made available for the lowest per month price so it can be available to all businesses. For US$89 per month, you’ll have all your owned, earned and paid social and search media data and insights at your fingertips.
You deserve to get the best out of your digital spend and we have the tools that remove the stress and pain from the process!
We remain committed to serving all businesses. Allow us to serve you!
Find out more about Plans and Pricing for Digivizer.
Author: Brian Gibson / Head of Digital Strategy & Partnerships at Digivizer