How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy: The Definitive Guide

A social media marketing strategy is a vital part of any digital marketing plan. It is the process of developing and implementing a long-term plan for social media. A successful social media strategy can help you generate awareness, increase traffic, and lead your business.

This guide will teach you how to develop a comprehensive social media campaign. We’ll start with identifying your goals and setting up the foundation for success by selecting the right social networks for you. Then we’ll cover creating a content calendar, using analytics data to measure your ROI, and more.

Identify Your Goals and Develop a Social Media Marketing Strategy:

Understanding what you want to reach will help you determine the best platform to achieve those goals. Shown in the following examples are social media platforms you should consider when creating a marketing strategy.

The Facebook page allows you to showcase your business and other promotional materials to a target audience.

Facebook Business Pages can increase traffic to your website as well. Since they've launched the Ads Manager, it's been easier than ever to target specific groups of people, giving you a better chance of converting them into customers.

Select the Right Social Networks for You:

Let’s start with your first social network – LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn strategy should be focused on building your professional profile, integrating a professional network of people, and contributing to important discussion groups.

Marketers have found the best way to drive traffic to your LinkedIn account is through groups. If you’re struggling to find relevant groups to join, LinkedIn users are searching for discussions they can join. We recommend subscribing to relevant groups to drive traffic to your profile.

Which networks to use

Since most marketers start on Facebook, an overwhelming number of marketers will end up on Facebook.

Don’t get caught up with which social media network you should use. Preferably, concentrate on identifying the channels that are right for your business. Facebook is great for creating a mass audience, and most businesses cannot create a broad audience on Facebook. LinkedIn is a more targeted platform for B2B marketers since LinkedIn is the most popular professional networking platform. It's also a great place for marketers to gain insights and insights into the minds of their target audience.

How to choose the right social networks for you

You need to tailor your social media strategy to fit your unique business. You'll need to understand your current network's strengths, weaknesses, and behaviors.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube, and Tumblr are the most popular social networks.

To help you decide, check out this social media marketing list to get a sense of which networks your business is already using and their most engaged audience members.

Create a Content Calendar and Optimize Your Posts:

You should create a content calendar to plan out your posts for the next 30 to 90 days to expand your content and maximize its reach. This is when you use analytics to create a content calendar to promote your social media campaign.

The main purpose of a calendar is to produce content that will help you stand out and boost your social media marketing campaign.

Content marketing also allows you to connect with an audience outside your target audience and turn them into brand advocates. This enables you to reach a broader audience and promote your business.

The importance of content on social media

Content drives a social media strategy. This is one of the many facts you’ll learn through this guide. Take, for example, Apple. Without their dedicated app store, there is no iPhone. The mobile apps you use daily make Apple a multi-billion dollar company. It would be impossible for Apple to sustain such a business without the continuous supply of great apps.

Not only does Apple have a huge audience, but it has also built a reputation for quality, cutting-edge apps. Thus, they are able to easily attain a very broad audience. And people like to share their positive experiences with other Apple users. Your objective with a content marketing strategy is to create a feed of your customers who enjoy your products.

Creating a content calendar

One of the first steps in creating a social media marketing strategy is creating a content calendar. This will help you establish the rhythm for your social media posts and allow you to stay on track. There are several ways to make a content calendar, but one of the simplest is through a Google Calendar.

This is a great way to avoid scheduling posts for certain times of the day, which can limit your reach. You can create a calendar by scheduling each post individually or all together.

If you have access to a team of social media managers, this is one way to help everyone work towards a common goal.

Once you’ve created your calendar, you can add the posts that have been scheduled in the “Pre-Post Content” section.

Use Analytics Data To Measure Your ROI and Evaluate Performance:

Analytics data plays a vital role in social media marketing. It is the basis for any measurement or evaluation of performance. By collecting and analyzing analytics data, you can clearly understand how well your campaign is working.

If you’re just getting started with analytics, you can get started by installing Google Analytics. It's free and easy to use. After that, use the Google Analytics tools to get a sense of how you're doing and how to improve.

In social media marketing, live streaming offers a novel way to engage with your followers.

If you’re looking for more digital marketing resources, you should take a look at our entire collection of digital marketing resources.