Creating A Social Media Strategy That Works
For any business, nothing beats successfully accomplishing your set marketing plans and enjoying the business growth journey as a result. For sustained growth, marketers and entrepreneurs need to be strategic about where, how, when and whom to communicate value. This is what Social Media Marketing Strategy is about, in a chat with Barrack Onyango (Kenya): Brand Strategist, Founder at Sparks Corporates & Africa Tweet Chat, he gladly explained the importance of a social media strategy;
“A social media strategy outlines your business’ goals and sets measurable objectives for the desired outcomes… With the introduction of social media, we have a powerful tool at our fingertips that can share pieces of content all over the world in seconds.”
Social media tools, like most marketing platforms can be overwhelming. For many of us, it is hard to figure out where to start; so many users, traffic, information and platforms, where does one begin? How do we make our objectives and strategy well aligned?
“Where to start? First, determine your social media goals. Are you looking to grow your following? Do you want to increase ROI? When you start with your goals, it’s easier to determine your strategy.
You must first put together what you want to accomplish (The “What”) then the “How” (strategy) comes next.
The two align easily because one (objective) drives the other (strategy), whatever goals you choose need to align with various metrics/strategy that you can use to measure your success later on. Let your strategy be born out of what you want to achieve.” Says Barrack
Part of this strategy involves two very critical points to take into account: The Consumer Persona profile (Fig.1) and thereafter, knowing the right platforms for your social media marketing. Once you have carefully noted down your ideal customer, we ought to know when and how to share content.
“This varies from one account to another. Not all content needs to be shared everywhere. And not all content is suitable for every social media platforms. Learn what your audience likes consuming and when they engage with your content more, that gives you an opportunity to determine what to post and when to post.” He says.
The idea seems to be very simple, put your customer first and connect with them by building consistent relatable content that will make measuring your strategy successes more opportune and favorable for your brand.
After all the consideration and planning taken into account, the implement ion should equally be taken into careful deliberation. Social Media marketing at the heart of everything, requires authenticity, consistency and knowing your value proposition.
The SM plan, according to Mr. Onyango, requires:
· Time,
· Effort and most importantly,
· Support from you and your managers.
Persist with these steps long enough, your brand strategy goals will highly turn out great results based on analytics and listening tools. While for brands looking to change up their strategies for 2020, making sure followers and consumers do not get confused could be challenging, we ought to take note of a few steps:
“The first step is to determine where you stand in the marketplace and to understand who your customer is, then take your customers on your branding journey and let them dictate the pace, by that, you’re not only making them aware of the change in your brand identity but letting them own it. “ says Barrack.
Implementing the best social media strategy for your business is a great way to all the goals you have for 2020 are well reached for increased customer retention. In all of this, make sure to carefully outline; objectives, goals and metrics to see just well you’ve been performing for your business.
For an affordable social media strategy, email my team on osmiumlesotho@gmail.com
