Steps towards an effective social media strategy
Author: Joseph Neusu
We are living in a digital economy where the rules of marketing have shifted dramatically and customer obsession is the norm. Brand-customer relationships and transactions are based on trust and without it, the chances of success are minimal.
In order to get the anticipated results from your social marketing campaigns on platforms like Yookos, Twitter and Facebook, you should create a well-thought strategy to guide your initiatives.
Step 1: Aims/ Objectives
The first stage of a good strategy is to be clear about what you want to achieve via social media. Clarity brings purpose and it makes the marketing activities to be more focused and easier to coordinate.
Different sets of objectives require different kinds of actions and this will be outlined in the road map. The aims should be specific, realistic and measurable.
Step 2: Background
The next step is to conduct an audit of your current social media status. Check out all the social pages that represent your brand and determine whether they are customised to match your brand positioning. Assess the numbers and identities of those who form part of your social media community.
Another key thing to track is the frequency of the posting.
It is at this stage that you must also conduct a competitor analysis. Visit your competitors' pages and discover what they are doing right and the opportunities that come from their failures.
However, if you do not have a social media presence at all then you have to figure out which social media platforms can be profitable to you. This exercise is made simpler when you know the profile of your audience.
Step 3: Content Strategy
Content is key to social media marketing success. It is important for you to note that engaging your customers through content in social media campaigns requires strategic thinking. Social media is all about conversations and you are advised not to treat these new media tools as megaphones.
Social media content should fundamentally be digestible, engaging and visual in nature.
A winning social media content strategy is characterised by the following:
- An understanding of the type of content to be posted
- The frequency of posting
- Knowledge of the target audience
- Selection of distribution channels
A content calendar is the proper tool that actualises the content strategy.
Step 4: Analytics
One of the major advantages of digital marketing is its ability to produce trackable metrics of the users' online behaviour. This then enables youto confirm whether their campaigns are producing the desired profitable responses from their customers.
Most social media platforms have onboard dashboards that display important customer intelligence. You can use these in conjunction with Google Analytics.
In order for the metrics to make sense, they must be tied to your overall business goals.
Step 5: Refine Your Strategy
After evaluating your metrics and discovering any troughs in the marketing campaigns, you can refine your campaign to scale up your efforts. Re-work your content strategy constantly in alignment to the new thinking.
Conclusion
A good strategy guarantees the success of a social media marketing campaign. Its core pillars are clearly defined goals, content strategy and analytics. However, nothing should be cast in stone as each process can be fine tuned in light of new insights.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/steps-towards-an-effective-social-media-strategy-7213513.html
About the Author
Joseph Neusu is a SEO/ SEM specialist with Yookos, one of Africa's leading social networking sites. His articles focus on how brands can use digital marketing strategies and tactics to increase their sales
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