Did you know that there are over 65 different types of social media sites?
With all of the different social media channels available in today’s social media industry, developing a social media marketing strategy can be overwhelming.
Not only do you have to understand which social media network is the most effective for you to reach your target audience, but you also have to decide how much of your budget you’re willing to allocate towards marketing.
If you’re a small business owner and aren’t sure how to develop a social media marketing strategy, we’ve created a complete guide to help you better understand the process and take it on yourself. Keep reading to learn more!
What Is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is where businesses use social media platforms to connect with their target audience, which helps increase brand awareness, build trust with the target audience, and increase the amount of traffic to your website.
Social media marketing involves developing high-quality content to post on your social media profiles, interacting with your followers, running advertisements on social media, and analyzing the success of your results.
Some of the most common social media platforms for businesses are Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, Tik-Tok, Facebook, and Linkedin.
Developing a social media marketing strategy will allow your business to make the most out of the time and budget currently allocated for your social media marketing plans.
How to Develop a Social Media Marketing Strategy
Developing a social media marketing strategy can be an overwhelming process. It doesn’t have to be though.
Try following our list of tips to help smooth out the process of designing and implementing a social media marketing strategy that works for your business.
Understand Who Your Target Audience Is
By having a solid understanding of who your target audience is, you’ll have an idea of what social media platforms they spend the most time on, what they want to see on social media, and what types of posts they are most likely to interact with when spending time on social media.
Utilizing all this information makes it easier for you to create content that targets your ideal audience and create content that they will want to share, like, and comment on.
Take a Look at Your Competition
Before you begin developing a social media marketing strategy, you should also perform a competitor analysis.
Competitor analysis allows you to understand which organizations are your direct competition, within your specific market, and what their presence is like on social media as it relates to your target audience.
When you take a look at your competitors and their social media accounts, you’ll have a better understanding of what type of content development is expected in your industry.
You will also develop a stronger understanding of what types of social media content are most prevalent, and thus most likely to be effective, in your industry and which types don’t perform as well.
In addition, you’ll also be able to get a better understanding of what opportunities your company might be able to use to its advantage.
As an example, if you noticed that one of your direct competitors has a strong audience on Instagram but doesn’t have a large Facebook following, you can focus on developing a larger network on a platform where your audience is being underserved (i.e., Facebook in this instance).
This process allows you to develop strong outreach efforts with your target audience on social media platforms, even ones that are being dominated by your competition.
Conduct a Social Media Audit
If you’ve been active on social media for a little while, before you begin developing a social media marketing plan, you need to conduct a social media audit.
This will allow you to take a step back and look at the current social media marketing tools that you’re using and understanding what’s working and what isn’t. It also serves as a way to make sure you’re being consistent in your approach across platforms.
Some of the questions that you should consider asking yourself are:
-What tools are you currently using that are working for your business?
-What tools are you currently using that isn’t working?
-Which social media platforms does your target audience use?
-What types of social media users are connecting with you on your current platforms?
-How large is your presence on social media when you’re comparing yourself to your competition?
Once you have a better understanding of where your business currently stands in the world of social media, you can begin taking the next steps in improving your social media marketing strategy.
Develop Fun Content
No matter what niche you’re selling in, people on social media respond to fun videos, captivating pictures, and exciting campaigns.
Take the time to develop high-quality content for your social media accounts.
You will help your business’ social media profiles stand out from your competitors by posting exciting content.
While you’re working on developing fun content, you can also find ways to encourage your followers to interact with what you’re posting.
Some of the ways that you can get your audience to begin interacting with your content are:
-Asking your followers to interact with your posts by asking for likes or shares
-Liking the content that your followers are posting, instead of just depending on them to like what you’re posting
-Sharing sales, giveaways, shoutouts with users’ social media handles, or any number of other types of services that’ll get your audience excited and want to interact online
-Ask your audience questions
By experimenting with the above-listed ideas, you’ll be able to get a better understanding of what makes your audience excited to interact with you!
Understanding the Importance of Social Media Marketing
By taking a closer look at your current social media marketing strategy and getting an idea of what’s working for your company, you can begin to develop a successful social media marketing strategy that works for your business and your budget!
Are you interested in learning more about how to improve your current social media marketing strategy?
We’re here to help.
