8 Elements Behind Every Successful Social Media Strategy

18 Apr 8 Elements Behind Every Successful Social Media Strategy

Every brand and business requires a custom social media strategy based on their current social media standing, goals, and resources available to them. Although everything in social media tends to hinge on a bunch of independent factors there are basic building blocks to ensure your business gets the most out of its social media initiatives. In this post I’ll review 8 elements of every successful social media strategy.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDITS

A great social media strategy is built on big picture mentality. Beyond thinking about what you want each individual post to do, you need to look at the overall state of your social media presence before you can move forward. Make it a habit of conducting a social media audit on your channels periodically. A self audit can help you catch inconsistencies across channels, what campaigns worked (or not) review benchmarks, and maybe even set new goals, allowing you to consistently improve your social media strategy. Read more about conducting your own social media audit.

2. CLEAR GOALS

Defining clear goals before you begin any campaign or building a strategy can help you keep track of progress and identify points at which you may need to ramp up efforts. Focusing on clear goals will give you and your team direction on where to concentrate your energy.

3. CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF THE BRAND’S AUDIENCE

Get to know your audience in the most in-depth way possible is key to creating social media content that truly resonates with your potential followers and customers. Ask them what their pain points are, find out what publications they read, and where they hang out, how much they make – the more you know and the clearer the picture of your target audience the better. Figuring out these details will help you come up with ways to connect with and build an engaged community.

4. THE RIGHT PLATFORMS

Here, I am referring to the right social media network(s) for your business, and becoming well versed in how the social networks work. You should also know that just because a network is popular does not mean it will be right for your audience or your capabilities.

5. A CONTENT BANK AND SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT SCHEDULE

At the core of every successful social media strategy is a solid plan and editorial calendar. Knowing what tasks and important dates are coming up keeps your team on the same page, and gives you the freedom to spend time on interacting with your audience, doing some social listening or taking advantage of spontaneous opportunities to push your initiative. Your schedule should be based on supporting your social media objectives, and any offline marketing efforts as well. Learn how to create a social media content schedule here.

Creating a content bank is the second part of having a social media strategy and schedule set in place. An organized content bank will help you keep inventory of older content you can repurpose, where there might be content gaps, and allow you to fill those in.

6. SOCIAL TOOLS

Without tools, all us social media marketers would be going nuts! Effective social media strategies are built on using a mix of automation and more timely engagement. Tools can also refer to network specific tools (Like Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, etc.) that you can integrate to increase your growth on each social media channels.

7. ANALYSIS & MEASUREMENT

Every social media strategy should include the measurement and analyzing of efforts. Not every part of your strategy will be a winner, but analyzing and measuring will allow you to stop doing what’s not working and to repeat the parts that work.

8. TIME FOR ENGAGEMENT

We are at a point in social media where engagement with your audience is a key element in growing your network. With so many accounts, posts, and messages being thrown at us every day, we must make the extra effort to truly take part of the community and put the social into social media. A good social media strategy will always include time for interacting, asking questions and truly connecting with the people we are trying to reach. Plus, algorithms take into account your level of interaction when showing your posts to your audience.

Social media is an ever changing world, but sticking to core tactics that work will deliver results. I hope this collection of tips give you a good base and clarity to get started on creating a social media strategy.

<3

DhariLo

P.S. If you want a little more insight into algorithms and social media strategy join on Tuesday April 24th for a live webinar: 7 Steps To An Algorithm Proof Social Media Strategy. Click here for more details.