Social media platforms have seen astonishing increases in usage time from individuals since the Covid-19 pandemic began. There are many opportunities available for businesses on social media and different platforms offer different benefits. In this blog, we’re telling you how to create a solid social media strategy.
How can I use social media?
Social media platforms provide a wide range of opportunities for businesses to promote themselves in a professional way. Social media can be used to share information regarding products and services, display business achievements and create a sense of community between your brand and consumers.
Users on social media like to see variety in the content they are exposed to and therefore it’s important that you switch up your content regularly. Social media provides brands with a platform to be more casual with customers. Adopting a tone of voice for your brand is important and social media allows brands to share a more humorous side to the business.
Why should I use social media?
Social media has been growing at a fast rate since it was first introduced and the pandemic has only accelerated that. According to Statista, in January 2021, the UK had 53 million active social media users. That’s a lot of potential customers for your brand and just by having access to a social media business page, you could gain access to those users. Of course it’s down to you to promote your products and services but having a presence on social media is certainly a good place to start.
How can I create a solid social media strategy?
Creating a solid social media strategy is important and allows you to utilise the features that are available to a high standard. In order to be successful on social media, you do not need to have accounts on all platforms, instead you need to find out the best place to reach your potential clients.
Establishing the audience
The first step to creating a social media strategy is to determine your target audience. Once you have established who your target audience is, you can begin researching the platforms that they are using the most. There’s plenty of research and statistics available to make this step easier for you. Following this, you can create business profiles on the platforms that you think will work best for your business.
Setting goals
The next step is to establish some goals that you would like to reach through your social media. These goals can include making more sales, increasing brand awareness, building a community around your brand and many more. Each goal will be specific to your business. When setting goals you should remember that building a brand is not a speedy process and it requires time and effort, so don’t expect instant results.
Content creation
Once you have clearly outlined your goals, you can begin to create content that’s in line with your brand. A huge benefit of social media is that it allows you to post various styles of content, whether you want to share an image, a text post, a video or a link to a page of your website, social media platforms have got you covered.
Checking back
Once you’ve created some potential content, it’s time to check back and ensure that the posts will have a positive impact on your brand and help you reach your goals. Remember that you don’t always need to be sharing content that sells your products and services, sometimes people use social media to escape therefore humorous content can go down well.
Scheduling content
You’ll then need to decide how often you will be releasing your content. There is no correct number of times to post in a week and it can be impacted by how much your audience is engaging with your content. It’s good to update your social media content at least 3 times a week so that users are frequently reminded of your brand but it’s not too much.
Sharing content
The final step is to publish your content, you can do this yourself or you can use a social media planning tool to schedule your posts in advance. A positive of using a scheduling tool is that you can set a specific amount of time aside each week to schedule all of your posts for the week, however they are not available for free.
Creating a social media strategy doesn’t need to be hard work, you just need to be clear with your goals and ensure that your content is of high quality. If you need any assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us.