What is a social media strategy, and how do I make one?

You've probably heard (far too many times by now) about social media strategy, and its importance to your overall marketing strategy. When you search "social media strategy," you may find yourself instantly lost in the sheer magnitude of information. There are articles, blog posts, infographics, and videos from many sources, which you don't know the credibility of. What is a social media strategy, exactly, and how can you create one that works for you?

Welcome to social media strategy, stripped down and simplified.

What is social media strategy?

Put simply, a social media strategy is the way in which you use various social media channels to engage with your audience, in hopes of increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, and ultimately drawing in more business. This can be done in a variety of ways, using a myriad of tools and mediums. The trick with social media is to have a goal, and work toward achieving that goal. Posting willy-nilly will make you active on social media, yes, but it may not bring you much closer to the aforementioned goals.

Create a Strategy in 4 Steps

Every social media strategy will be different. No two companies or organizations are alike. There's no cookie cutter strategy for you to follow. Instead, follow these steps to creating a personalized strategy that works for your business or organization.

1. What's your goal?

What exactly do you want to accomplish with social media? Is your goal to promote new products, show off your work, or just increase brand awareness? Once you have some specific goals in place, it'll be easier to piece together the rest of your strategy. You can even have some numbers in mind here. How much traffic do you want to drive to your site using social media in your first couple months? Tailor your strategy to work toward those specific goals.

2. Who's your audience?

You've most likely already identified an audience for your current marketing efforts. Do that same thing for social media platforms. Who are you trying to reach? Your audience should very heavily influence your posts. For instance, you probably wouldn't make all very serious, non-playful posts if your audience is women in their 20s. The same rules across other marketing mediums apply here. Determine your audience for each platform you're on - Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, etc. For more help here, read Social Media + Ideal Prospects = Love & More Sales!

3. What's your brand image?

What do you want your social media profiles to say about your company? How do you want to appear to your followers? A good way to think about this is to dream up a list of adjectives about how you want your company to be perceived. Are you cutting-edge, fun, and intelligent? Or are you professional, trustworthy, and a little bit witty? Once you've created that list, you'll be able to make your posts match that image.

4. What will you post about?

This is often the snag that people get stuck on when thinking about social media strategy. "Everything I post should be directly related to me, right?" Actually, that's not necessary for every post. In general, people on Facebook and other platforms will "Like" or "Follow" you at first because, well, they like you. They've had a positive experience with you, or like what you do or stand for. Now your posts will show up in their feeds. So, success! Yes? Again, not really. Now, you want to engage them. You want their likes, their comments, their retweets, their shares, etc. If you post only about yourselves and use your platforms solely to advertise for your business or brand, you won't hit your social media goals because your followers will get bored, and possibly un-follow or un-like you. Get inside your followers' heads: What else are they interested in? What are they reading? Where are they going? In general, try to post a mixture of stories, images, statuses, and videos in these areas:

• Company/product news, promotions, and tidbits
• Industry news & updates
• Fan stories/posts/reviews
• Local news (if you're a local company, to establish yourself in the community)
• The occasional "just for fun" things (if this aligns with your image)

Bonus: Dos & Don'ts of Social Media Strategy

Don't auto post: It's been found that using an automated posting platform decreases the amount of time that your post will stay in your followers' news feeds. Also, fans don't want to interact with the robot version of you.

Do consider the time of day: More people are online in the afternoon and evening. That doesn't mean you can't post in the morning, but it might not get seen by as many people. Just use common sense and experiment a bit - are your friends online on a Friday at 5 p.m., or are they out at happy hour?

Don't have discussions online: Did a fan post a question on your wall? If it's "bad" in some way, don't delete it, but take the conversation offline. For instance, if a customer complains about your product, apologize, explain that you'd like to help in any way possible, and give a phone number or email address to contact instead.

Do post images: People want to see your face. Social media is more personal than other marketing channels, and your fans want to interact with you (and your business) on a personal level. So, post pictures from around the office, the job site, the warehouse - wherever. Make those at your company the social media faces of your company!

Need help with your social media strategy? My fellow web marketers and I here at ArcStone would love to provide some guidance! While these 4 steps will help you get started, there are many more aspects that we can think about when creating your unique social media strategy. Contact us to get started.