A social media strategy is one of the most important parts of a broader marketing plan for any type and size of business in today’s world. Unquestionably, social media has become a powerful medium that allows business owners to connect with prospects and customers, but as this medium is quite new for us, we are just unaware of how to effectively market our business using this medium.
If you are applying for a loan to start a business, then the first thing the bank manager will ask is that you have your business plan. Likewise, if you are venturing into social media for your business, then the first essential thing you need to make is a strategy. It is necessary to have one or more strategies before you enter into the big world of social media will assist you in gaining clarity and direction for your business. Even the world’s top athletes don’t start their race without a strategy. So anyone who is serious about achieving success and great results in any field always knows they need to have an effective plan and strategy prior to starting their venture, event, etc.
When one needs to make a strategy, the marketing principles remain the same, but the way these principles are applied within the social space vary, and it entirely depends on the platform that you are using in order to market your business. The most famous and widely used social media platforms are YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Each social media platform offers businesses to target the audiences and prospects in a different way.
Lets’ understand how to effectively target the audience using these platforms. If you are a B2B business and want to market your services and products to other business owners, then you should use the LinkedIn platform. Likewise, if your interest is to educate customers and prospects in a short, easy to understand, and quick way, then you should use YouTube. And if you are interested in engaging with your fans and creating a community of enthusiastic fans, then Facebook is the best platform to utilize.
A strategy is a simple yet effective method or easy steps that must be followed if one is interested in achieving a certain outcome. If you want to create a social strategy, then you need to analyze in detail who you would like to target and how you will target them in the most effective way. There is a list of a few important questions that you should ask yourself in order to formulate your social media strategy. These questions are as follows:
- Who is my target audience?
- Which audience do I really need to target?
- What are the buying motivators of my target customers?
- What is the best method to target my customers and prospects?
- Who are my competitors?
- What are the primary concerns or questions that my target audience think of prior to purchasing my products or services?
- What are my end goals? Do I need to just receive more new business leads, receive referrals from existing customers, build trust and relationship with customers, create a community who is interested in buying my products/services, or build my database?
And when you need to create your social marketing campaign, then you need to ask these questions to yourself:
- What unique will do I give to the customers that no one else is giving?
- How can I display or present my offerings in a different way?
- Will the prospects or customers instantly buy, or will the campaign just begin the buying process?
- If I were my own customer, then what would be the thing that can motivate me to take action and purchase the thing?
- If this campaign doesn’t work, then what will work?
- What are the things that can keep my customers sticking to my business?
- Will my new customers buy from me once or will they come back?
- What testimonials will be useful and effective for my target audience?
While creating an effective social media strategy, it is necessary for you to ask these questions throughout the formulation of your strategy.