social media strategy

So, what’s a Plumb Digital Social Media Strategy?

A social media strategy is sometimes referred to as a social media marketing strategy too. Basically it defines how your business will use social media to achieve its marketing and communication to customers.

If you don’t define your strategy, you run the risk of doing too little on too many channels and not providing what your prospective customer wants.

There are 7 key steps to defining a social media strategy with Plumb.Digital

1 Understand your business

Plumb.Digital will work with you to understand your business and your brand personality. We need to know what your business goals are so we can align your social media goals with that.  Your brand tone of voice is important and we can help you develop that.

2 Social media audit

We need to assess which social media platforms you are on and collate information about each one. We can then see what is working and what isn’t working.

3 Competitor analysis

The competitor analysis will analyse three competitors. The analysis will include which social media platforms they are using and what is working really well and what isn’t working too well. It can be useful to have one competitor which is considered to be aspirational. It is also helpful to understand why someone is performing well in the sector.

4 Understand your audience

We will produce detailed user personas for your customers. Who are they? What are their interests? These allow us to think of your potential fans, followers, and customers as real people with real wants and needs. And that will allow us to think more clearly about what to offer them.

5. Define the social media channels

Nailing the user personas and understanding who the audience are and what they are looking for is the largest driver for deciding which social media channels to concentrate on. The type of business and the type of content available from the business can also be a factor in choosing which channels are best suited.

We usually choose two social media channels to concentrate on as primary platforms. For some brands, more channels might be appropriate.

6 Define SMART objectives

These are goals that align to your business goals and are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The goals could be:

• Increase Brand Awareness
• Build an Engaged Community
• Drive Website Traffic
• Increase Email Signups

We work with the business to decided on the appropriate goal and then put the time period and the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) along with the goals. For example, it would be Increase Brand Awareness over an 8 week period using a competition as a hook. The KPIs would be a percentage increase in interactions, reach and impressions.

6 Social media content schedule

A  content schedule will be based on your user personas and the social media platforms we have chosen. A content pie chart will be created listing the key content subjects (segments) that will be used to generate interest and engage your customers.  The percentage of curated vs created content and the drivers for that content will be defined, e.g. if we are using content to drive customers to an e-commerce website.

The schedule will also include the optimum posting times of the day to reach your customers and the level of posting to keep engagement.

Type of content best suited to the business, audience, and target audience will be defined. Types of content can include video or static images.

Any key dates for your business and your industry will also be noted.

7 Define influencers

Influencers have always been important when marketing brands but influencer marketing can be key on social media too. Both content influencers and amplifier influencers will be identified on both of the strategic social media platforms.

What’s next after defining the social media strategy?

The social media marketing strategy will give your business the way forward with using social media to drive results for your business.

It’s up to you to decide the best way to implement and get the best out of that strategy,

There is no right or wrong way and it depends on your business, how much time you have and your comfort level with social media.

• Implement yourself
  If you are up to speed with social media and pretty confident on using the defined platforms then use the social media strategy to set up or update the channels yourself and then post the appropriate content at the defined times. You will be able to monitor the KPIs too via the platform analytics.
• Get up to speed
  Have some 1:1 or group training or online coaching with Plumb.Digital to get you up to speed with the relevant social media channels and then implement the strategy yourself.
• Kick start
  Plumb.Digital sets up and manages by the channels for 6 weeks and as a result he channels can be then handed over up and running. You can also add in training or coaching to this solution to get you up to speed.
• Full social media management
  Plumb.Digital implements the strategy and manages your social media channels. This can also include content sourcing and creating.

Don’t forget to test, evaluate, adapt

Whether you manage the strategy yourself or outsource it, you will need to evaluate everything and adapt the strategy based on findings.

Sometimes things work better than you expected (in which case do more!) and sometimes they are just not met with the enthusiasm that everyone expected – that’s just life! Certainly it’s all about adapting your strategy.