Things to Contemplate Before Creating Your Social Media Strategy

by Manon Leroux

There are a lot of companies doing well with their social media activities, but there are also a lot of companies that are not doing so well. The difference, often between the two comes down to strategy, or lack thereof.

When you have a solid social media strategy you are more likely to succeed and be able to meet your goals and objectives. This doesn’t mean that you have to plan every tweet, status update and post, but just that you have an overall strategy that your business is working towards accomplishing. A strategy is a high level plan that your business puts in place to help you meet your overall goals and objectives. Without one you are just a ship without a sail floundering in the open waters. You may get lucky and do really well in one particular area, but more often than not – floundering means failure.

When working on your social media strategy, it is important to think out every angle.

Here are 4 areas you might want to consider paying attention to:

• Resources
• Budget
• Tactics
• Platforms

You wouldn’t go on a long road trip without planning your route, budgeting for gas, bringing snacks, and packing things to do for the passengers in your car. Similarly, you don’t just want to dive into social media without a strategy.

Each business and culture is different, so what works for your company may not necessarily be what works for another. Before you plan your strategy, do your homework.

• Where is your audience?
• What do they like?
• What sites do they prefer to spend time on?

Focus your attention there.

Next, determine what your overall goals will be:

• Build brand awareness, generate traffic, improve customer service, etc.
• Establish the duration of your social strategy  (i.e. 6 months, 1 year)
• As well what your success metrics will be (i.e. 20% lift on Twitter)

Make sure that your social strategy involves more than just plugging your product or service, because that just isn’t going to cut it. No matter what you do or sell, your product features and benefits alone are not enough to entice people into spending time engaging with you online.

Make it interesting for them by appealing to their personalities, hobbies, and habits. A simple listening exercise will tell you a lot about your target audience and avoid you making assumptions that could turn out to be incorrect and cost you money and time.

Take your time when planning out your strategy, don’t rush into it and if you aren’t sure you can always seek help from the social media community.