WHY, WHEN AND HOW: BASIC SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
There are a ton of different approaches to social media strategy. Some people consider strategy a simple formula of how often you post daily per week; others will tell you to plan out your ideal amount of monthly posts, divide by 4, and post that many times a week. Some may recommend breaking down your social goals (conversion and engagement, for example), creating batch content that matches those goals, doing some hashtag research, and just posting daily until you see results! Many people's strategy begins and stops at when you're posting and how much you're posting. Once you look deeper into your brand, content, and strategy, you'll realize that approach leaves many things behind.
I LIKE TO BREAKDOWN WHY, WHEN, AND HOW.
This can be broken down into EXTREME detail (like paragraphs of info), or if you want to do a quick business refresh, do 3-6 bullet points per each topic!
Why: Why are you posting anything on social in the first place. What are you hoping to achieve? Brand recognition? Sales? Engagement? Building a community? What is your purpose for being here?
Once you know WHY you're posting, it will be 20x times easier to develop content ideas that convert. Do you want to focus on building a community? Posts that are conversation starters and ask questions will work better for you than general photos and short captions. Or maybe you want to sell, sell, sell, then the bulk of your content should be showcasing your product and WHY somebody should purchase.
When: When is it most likely your audience will see your content? And this isn't limited to just time of day. Think hard about your audience and what you're trying to sell, show, teach, etc. Are they likely to be seeking your type of product out during a specific time of year? If you're a catering company, do you see an uptick in business around graduation time? Or during wedding season?
If so, ideally, you should be posting MORE in the months leading up to those busy seasons. If you want bookings in July, don't post in the middle of June; START posting in May and keep it consistent until July!
THERE'S A REASON HOLIDAY POSTS START RIGHT AFTER HALLOWEEN, YALL. YOU WANT TO BE AHEAD OF THE CURVE.
How: Now you know WHY you're posting, and you know WHEN you're posting, now HOW do you post? What type of content should you post? What platforms should you be using?
If you're a chef, then videos of food prep, finished meals, and pretty presentation would likely perform well. Hairstylist? Show some videos of hair flips, product applications, and finished styles.
Choosing a platform is a lot simpler than people make it:
GO. WHERE. YOUR. AUDIENCE. IS.
Period.
Why are you trying to market hair products on LinkedIn? Why are you trying to sell to Generation Z on Facebook?
Your audience has preferences for everything they do. What they eat, drink, buy, and most importantly, where they spend their digital time. Take the time to figure out your customer and your audience and meet them where they are.
OH, BONUS TIP, NONE OF THE ABOVE WORKS, IF YOU DON’T DO IT CONSISTENTLY.
Seriously. When has doing something for a week and then stopping for two and then starting again EVER yielded results? It won’t. I know it won’t. You know it won’t. We know it won’t. So cut it out.
If you're finding yourself overwhelmed by your strategy, it's not the right one FOR YOU. There is no one-way approach that fits all to social strategy. What works for one brand and brand manager may not work for another. Before taking these steps, take the time to decide how much time you can dedicate to creating content and managing social pages! Then using that knowledge, determine your Why, When, and How.
If you’re curious about running your own social pages read more on that here!