In order to be successful in anything in life you need to have a strategy. The same is true with social media. If you want to have any meaningful engagement and impact in the social media world you need to develop a social media strategy.
It might seem daunting at first. But with these 10 easy steps I’m about to share with you, you’ll be able to create and implement a social media strategy for your business in no time. So without further ado, let’s get to it.
How To Create Your Social Media Strategy
1. Develop Your Proposition
First things first, you need to know what your product or service is. And when I say you need to know what it is, you need to really, really know what it is. This is the first step to your social media strategy success.
Think about what makes your product and service different, unique and valuable. Think about why people need your product or service. Think about what problems it solves and why every single person with that particular problem needs you. Through your brainstorming you’ll probably come up with a lot of different things. This is a good thing as it will help you in your messaging strategy down the road.
2. Identify Your Audience
The key to social media success is really your ability to deliver the right message in the right context at the right time to the right audience. You need to know who your audience is like the back of your hand. You need to know where they hang out online, what they do online and other behaviors that can give you insight into the life of your customer.
It’s a good idea to create a customer avatar. By creating this avatar you’ll be able to personify your ideal customer and the types of clients and customers you want to attract. http://ampandpivot.com/customer-avatar/
3. Find Your Voice
This is about figuring how you want to be perceived online. Is it funny, happy, serious, informative, mean (I hope not), snarky? To make things easier on you, your voice, more times than not, should be the same voice as your customer avatar. People like to connect with those who are like them. By creating your voice to coincide with the voice of your customer your chances of connecting and resonating will be much higher.
4. Monitor Your Competitors
Your competitors are already out there on social media. A little research into what they are currently doing socially will help you figure out the direction in which you’d like to take. Anthony Robbins says, “If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results. This may be a good start for your social media strategy. However, by monitoring your competitors you can also determine what you don’t want to do and develop something different.
In addition to monitoring your competitors, you’ll also want to monitor your competitors influencers to see what they like and dislike. This right here is valuable intelligence.
5. Engage Your Influencers
Now that you know who your competitors influencers are, it’s time to find your own. A little social media listening can go a long way. Social listening is simply listening to other conversations happening on the web. If you have been in business for a while and have existing customers and clients it is likely that they are already talking about you and your business. This is your time to show them that you exist. Connect with them and engage them. You’ll need them in the future.
6. Build Your Social Media Homes
Your social media home is your social presence on the different networks. Once you do your research and find where your audience hangs out online you’ll want to create social profiles there. While I don’t recommend going crazy and burning yourself out by creating a profile on every social network out there. There’s hundreds. I do recommend you get yourself on the Big 5 — LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. If you are visual brand and Instagram profile might be worth looking into as well.
7. Create Your Messaging Strategy
Now for the fun part. Your messaging. Think about how you want to deliver your message. You should have a different messaging strategy on every network. Because context is really important when it comes to social media you have to treat each network differently. You wouldn’t show up to a pool party in a black tie gown, right? So why would you show up to Pinterest with a G+ mentality. Your messaging is crucial and it should be tailored to the networks you plan to share on.
8. Dominate Your Key Networks
People use key words to search on both social networks as well as search engines. You want to be found for the relevant terms. This means defining them first and foremost, but also using them as if they are your own. One person who uses keywords effectively is Rachel Zoe. She makes them up even. But guess what, they work and when I search for things like I DIE and MAJJ, Rachel Zoe’s brand is the first to come up. You want to take the same approach.
9. Build Your Blog Presence
In social media, your success relies on the things you share. At ConvertWithContent, we think the best thing to share is your own blog. It not only gives you things to share from your own website, but it also gives others things to share from your website. When you share from your website and others share from your website, you’re going to get traffic. It’s that simple.
So build a blog and blog often. If you don’t have time or don’t like writing, talk to us. We’re the pros!
10. Share, Share, Share
Now that you have all your ducks in a row, it’s time to start sharing. Remember to keep your voice consistent, work within the context of the networks and share with meaning. Sharing is the backbone of social media. Sharing is what being social is all about.
Congratulations! You’ve completed your social media strategy in just 10 steps. You are now ready to create a complete social media campaign for your business!
Now, what questions do you have about creating a social media strategy? I’m happy to help!
