Social Media Strategy Checklist
Build a plan to engage an audience or find new customers online
- Use social media to help grow a business
- Build a social media strategy
- Learn some tips and look at some tools
Social Media is all about being social. You should shape your voice and presence around your audience. To do this, you should get to know them. In addition, you should pay attention to content, timing, and conversation.
The best thing about social media is that it lets you interact with almost anyone from everywhere!
How Social Media Can Help Grow A Business
A: Generate more sales
- Reach new audiences
- Create new opportunities
- Target specific types of customer
- Build relationships and networks
B: Improve your marketing
- Help you get noticed on search
- Attract more people to your site
- Gain valuable customer insights
- Keep an eye on competitors
Ask yourself…
- Are my posts on social media driving people to my website?
- What kind of updates should I post?
- Who are my most influential followers?
- When is the best time to engage with my audience?
And remember…
- Attention spans are short
- There is lots of competition
- It’s not always free
- Once it’s public. it's public
How To Build A Social Media Strategy
Five steps to creating a social media strategy
- Audience
- Business goals
- Social platforms
- Tone of voice
- What is success?
Step one: Define your audience
- Who are they?
- What are they into?
- Who/what influences them?
- When are they usually online?
- Which social media do they use?
How to define your audience
- Speak to real people to understand their needs and interests
- Identify groups and segments that can be most attracted to your offering
- Build an online survey for customers to complete
- Find your insights from platforms like Google Analytics, Facebook & Instagram Analytics, Twitter Analytics
Step two: Define your goals
- Give better customer service
- Grow brand awareness
- Generate more sales
- Get more people on your site
- Connect with influencers
Set one social media goal
- Discover: What the goal is and how it helps your business
- Define: Identify any barriers
- Develop: List what you need to achieve the goal
- Deliver: Work out how to mitigate
Step three: Choose channels carefully
- Business focus or lifestyle focus?
- Start with one. Test it. Learn. Try another.
- Different channels need different strategies
Twitter: Good for quick-fire conversations and as a PR tool.
- Create a professional-looking profile, header image and @name.
- Get noticed and join conversations by using relevant hashtags.
- Ask questions and run polls.
- Retweet and engage with content your customers would like.
- Use pinned tweets to display important messages/offers/etc.
Facebook: Helps customers find you and see what your business is about.
- Link it to your main website.
- Add opening hours, contact details, etc.
- Change the call to action button (eg. Shop now, Contact, Buy now, etc.).
- Use GIFs and videos to generate interest and shares.
Instagram: A place to share photos and videos of anything, from new products to a day at the beach.
- Use your photo caption to tell a story and get people interested.
- Go easy on the hashtags.
- Follow influencers, brands, or people you find interesting.
LinkedIn: Great for recruitment, building a professional network or connecting with peers.
- Create a personal or company page, and add a profile.
- Encourage your employees to become brand advocates.
- Make your company page search engine friendly.
- Generate interest by creating special showcase pages.
- Share product news and thought-leadership content.
YouTube: The most popular video-sharing site. Show anything — from product reviews to your latest ad.
- Be a thought leader and create shareable content.
- Think about creating useful videos for your audience.
- Look for potential collaborators to help grow your channel.
Step four: Your brand’s social voice
- Brand guidelines
- Logo use
- Fonts and colours
- The tone of voice (personality): Friendly, Fun, Serious, Provocative, Formal and Casual
- Do’s and don’ts
- Style of images
Step five: Define success
- Growth in Sales, traffic, influencers?
- Improvement in customer service, calls answered, star ratings?
- Increase in brand awareness, reach and number of mentions?
Consider paying
- More reach and audience
- Important across all platforms
- Especially if your goal is more sales and growth
What sort of content should we share?
- Announcements (eg. new product)
- Non-promotional (eg. behind scenes insights)
- Product or brand-related (eg. product tips or tricks)
- Responses (eg. engaging with a customer or influencer)
- Operational (eg. job openings)
- Recurring content (eg. seasonal sales)
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