Whether your brand is new or established, developing a social media marketing strategy is of prime importance to your marketing efforts.

As a social media marketing and influencer agency, the first steps we take in the development of a social media strategy for our clients is to review all of their existing assets; brand guidelines, photography, logos, previous social media campaigns and marketing efforts, paid advertising and website along with their target audiences. We will then sit down with the client and outline their social media goals. These typically range from brand awareness and engagement to brand resonance, lead generation and conversions (sales or other).

Identifying Goals For Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Based on the social media marketing goals determined in this initial meeting, a comprehensive plan can be put in place, starting with the overall vision for the brand. It is essential here to ensure everyone is on the same page regarding the social media marketing strategy and positioning.

If you’re a beauty brand offering products at an average price point of $20 and you believe your primary competitor is Chanel, we will work together to define real competitors. Following a review of the landscape, we determine where your brand can gain a competitive edge in the market.

Writing A Social Media Strategy

An initial brainstorm around campaign ideas can help set the pace of the plan you put in place. You will want an overarching campaign combined with support campaigns for a launch (or relaunch) of your brand. Here is where your social media strategy plan will come in handy. If you are a new-to-market brand, community building and engagement focused campaigns are essential to identify your audience. It’s important to consider what value you can provide your potential audience(s).

Building A Social Media Strategy

Influencer marketing campaigns can be an effective way of increasing word-of-mouth around your brand. Including a branded hashtag in influencer posts encourages UGC for your brand. Influencer marketing is crucial as 92 percent of people say they rely on recommendations from others when making purchase decisions, and 49 percent rely on influencers.

In addition to influencer campaigns, you will want to have a paid media strategy in place to ensure that your audiences are seeing all of your amazing content. Organic reach no longer exists on social media, with algorithms and oversaturation, you need to pay-to-play in the space. This starts with setting up advertising campaigns based on your goals. Whether they are community building, engagement focused, website traffic, lead generation or video views, a paid media strategy makes all the difference on social.

Social Media Strategy For Business

In 2017, Facebook ran out of advertising space for brands on the platform. This resulted in the need for new ad placements (think audience network, the rollout of native, banner, interstitial, in-stream video ads, rewarded videos and messenger ads, all of which have been rolled out this year). This is a flooded marketplace for consumers where a more competitive offer is just a click away. You are competing for space against millions of other brands, so make sure you are offering something new and valuable.

Executing Your Strategy

To summarize, the steps you want to take when building a social media strategy are as follows:

1. Define your goals and audience(s)
2. Review your existing assets
3. Analyze your industry and competitive positioning
4. Create overarching and supporting campaigns
5. Develop a strategy for individual platforms
6. Utilize influencers and user-generated content
7. Have a paid media strategy to promote your content

Social media is extremely competitive, but with a combination of strategic thinking and tactical execution, success is just a follow away.