For someone who doesn’t have experience with social media it can be quite a daunting task to develop a yearly strategy. However, it doesn’t have to be. By following these five easy steps you can put together a social media strategy that will be effective and enticing the entire year.
The first step is to identify what your organizational goals and objectives are for the year. Being the first month of the new year, this is a great time to regroup and redefine. Your social media strategy should be a natural extension of your organization’s goals and objectives. For example, if your goal is to generate “x amount of leads” then you should ask yourself does this post drive followers to take action?
The second step is to determine what your current social media looks like. Furthermore, this means deep diving into who you are currently following and who follows you. You’ll also want to pay attention to who your competitors are following and what they are saying on social media. Oftentimes, this is referred to as a social media listening for the purposes of an audit. A social media audit can provide valuable insight and showcase to you what you could be doing better.
The third step is to create a social media content calendar. Your social media calendar will include the specific dates and times you wish to post content on various platforms. Content should consist of text, images, videos, and links. You can easily create this calendar in a Google doc or sheet. This way you can share it with other members of your team and get their feedback. An easy principal to follow when creating content is the 80-20 rule. Furthermore, 80 percent of content should educate your audience whereas 20 percent should directly promote your organization.
The fourth step is to schedule your messages in advance. Depending how many social accounts you are working with, there are some scheduling products that are free up to a certain number. For example, Buffer allows you to manage three social accounts for free. For only $10 they will allow you to manage and schedule for 10 accounts.
The final step is to test your social media strategy. You can do this through a variety of ways by measuring the success of your strategy. Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you to track page visits driven by social media. In addition, there are other social media analytics tools out there that you can utilize to track and measure the reach of your success. Most social platforms nowadays like Facebook have an “Insights” tab that allows you to see who among your audience is the most engaged.
With these five easy steps you can be on your way to creating and executing a social media strategy that aligns with your organizational goals and objectives for 2018.