Social Media Strategy

Transcription

1 7 STEPS TO YOUR BRAND S Social Media Strategy HONEST TREES CREATIVE

2 STEP 1: ESTABLISH YOUR GOALS & OBJECTIVES STEP 2: PICK YOUR PLATFORMS What are you using social media for? The answer to this question will guide the rest of your brand's social media strategy. These goals should align with your larger marketing goals, but apply specifically to the advantages that social media offers. Here are a few examples of social media goals to get you started. Add your own and circle no more than 3 that you want to focus on! BUILD READERSHIP DRIVE TRAFFIC TO WEBSITE COLLECT LEADS CREATE BRAND AWARENESS SHARE PROMOTIONS CUSTOMER SERVICE IMPROVE SEARCH RANKING According to a quick and dirty Internet search, there are now over eight hundred social media platforms. Who has time for that? The good news is, you don't need to be on eight hundred platforms. You don't even need to be on the top seven platforms. To use social media effectively, it's important to know who you are trying to reach, where to find them, and how they're using specific platforms. If you re not sure what each platform is used for or who is using them, this infographic from DIgital Information World might help. With your target audience in mind, ask yourself the following questions for each platform you are considering. Use the results to decide whether your business should be on it. IS MY TARGET AUDIENCE IS USING (PLATFORM)? WHAT PERCENTAGE? HOW FREQUENTLY DO THEY USE (PLATFORM)? OBJECTIVES ARE SPECIFIC, TANGIBLE WAYS of measuring the success of your goals. Have you heard of the concept of SMART goals? The concept was initially in the '80s developed for a management magazine by George T. Doran, but are now commonly applied to any goal- (or objective-) setting practice. Guess what? It works perfectly for your social media strategy. Each one of your objectives should be: ARE THEY USING (PLATFORM) TO FIND BUSINESSES LIKE MINE? HOW MANY OF THEM ARE USING IT FOR THAT PURPOSE? DO I HAVE THE RIGHT CONTENT TO SHARE ON (PLATFORM)? IF NOT, DO I HAVE THE TIME AND RESOURCES TO CREATE THE RIGHT CONTENT? You can set a goal to reach a certain number of followers on Instagram, get a particular number of signups, or opt for a specific number of leads, but make sure you decide when you want to achieve it by and how you plan to do so. ex. "Generate 50 new leads by May 31, 2015 via weekly Facebook posts with a link to contact page." ex. Reach 350 blog views a day by June 15, 2015 by participating in weekly Twitter chats. THINK ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF TIME you can realistically commit to curating or creating content for all of these outlets. Sure, you can put up the same blog post on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. But each of those requires different character limits, timing and image sizes. As you use social media more and become more familiar with your tools and platforms, you can always ramp up your output.

3 STEP 3: DEFINE YOUR VOICE STEP 4: CHOOSE YOUR TOOLS This is one (of so many places) where a deep understanding of your brand comes in handy. Your brand's voice is what will set you apart from all the clutter in an endlessly scrolling feed. Keep in mind: this may align with your personal voice, but that's not a given. Consider the values that you associate with your brand. Do you want your ideal client to think of you fun, approachable and bubbly? Authoritative, educational and innovative? Take the time to decide how you want your business to be perceived online. Ready to make your life way easier? Use scheduling tools! There are plenty of free and paid options out there. Not only does this save you time, it also helps you avoid getting sucked into your Facebook or Pinterest feeds when you want to be working. (I recommend Buffer, especially now that they offer scheduled pins for Pinterest.) Check out these options, take some notes, and determine what works best for you: Try answering the following questions: WHAT SETS YOUR BRAND APART FROM COMPETITORS? WHAT IS YOUR BRAND'S MISSION? WHO IS YOUR BRAND SPEAKING TO? WHAT TRAITS WOULD YOUR IDEAL CLIENT LOOK FOR FROM SOMEONE PROVIDING YOUR SERVICES OR PRODUCTS? WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR IDEAL CLIENT TO FEEL WHEN THEY READ YOUR CONTENT? WHAT ARE 3 PERSONALITY TRAITS YOU WANT YOUR IDEAL CLIENT TO ASSOCIATE WITH YOUR BRAND? Imagine your brand as an individual with a personality that aligns with your chosen values. How would that individual speak to your ideal client in a one-on-one conversation? That's how each of your posts should sound.

4 STEP 5: DEVELOP A CONTENT PLAN STEP 6: CREATE A CONTENT RATIO & SCHEDULE Okay, this one could - and should! - take you a solid block of time. Content is what will bring potential customers in, and content is what will keep them engaged. To make your content plan easy to reference, designate 3-5 broad topics that relate back to your brand. For example, say you run a small design shop that targets creative entrepreneurs. Your content topics may be "Graphic Design Tips + Tricks", "Wrangling the Web", "Design Inspiration", and "Client Features". Jot down at least ten ideas for content topics: If there is one thing your consumers will look for after content, it's consistency. Consistency among the type of content you're posting, and when you're posting it. A CONTENT RATIO defines what percent of your content is dedicated to what types of posts. Generally, self-promotion gets a bad rap. Many social media experts advise creating a ratio that puts self-promotion on the lower end. Think about the brands whose accounts you haven't hidden or unfollowed. Odds are, they are putting out meaningful posts that aren't a constant sales pitch. For example, Rallyverse's Golden Ratio: 30 percent owned, 60 percent curated, 10 percent promotional However, you can share your own content without it coming off slimy. Buffer leans heavily toward sharing their own content, favoring a 90:10 ratio (90% their content, 10% outside content). They've got valid reasoning for their seemingly lopsided sharing ratio. They put value first and self-promotion second. By providing consistent, high-quality content, their sharing doesn't have that ugly shadow of self-promotion. It's how they share their brand's values and their work and engage with their audience. Now it s time to curate the best topics! Ask yourself the following questions for each idea, and cross out any that get a no : DOES IT FIT MY BRAND? DOES IT ALIGN WITH THE SERVICES OR PRODUCTS I OFFER? WILL THIS CONTENT BENEFIT MY IDEAL CLIENT? IS THIS TOPIC BROAD ENOUGH TO COME UP WITH CONSISTENT CONTENT FOR IT? Try coming up with a number of article ideas. If you can't, it may not be the best content topic. THESE THREE OBJECTIVES ARE THE KEY to content marketing that keeps people coming back (according to Jeff Bullas). If you know your audience and aim for each post to fall into at least one of these categories, you're on the right track. WHEN CREATING YOUR INITIAL SCHEDULE, take advice from the interwebs into consideration, but don't get too hung up on it. Yes, there are optimal times and days to post on different platforms, but your ideal schedule will depend on your business and audience. Use analytics from your chosen scheduling platform to determine when your audience is the most responsive and edit your schedule accordingly. IF YOU'RE FEELING UNINSPIRED, check out business's or industry leaders you admire. This is important to remember: look outside your industry! Pick individuals and companies from a variety, so that you can pull inspiration to come up with unique content for your industry. Pay attention to which of their posts receive the most attention, and peruse the comments to see the kinds of questions people are asking. Keep track of it all in a document to reference when you're in need of ideas!

5 STEP 7: TRACK & ANALYZE At this point, you should be feeling pretty good about your new social media strategy! Just skipping ahead? That's okay, you still deserve a pat on the back. THE FINAL STEP IN CREATING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY is implementing it, then tracking and analyzing your results. A concrete strategy is dependent on your unique brand and audience. You can make predictions based on other marketing efforts or similar business's, but really knowing what works is only possible through trial and error. There will be new, hot platforms that take over the market, your business will grow and scale back, your audience will evolve. Your document should be living and responsive to change. Keep track of what methods work best and take time every few months to evaluate what you could do better. YOU RE DONE! Questions? Feedback? Just want to drop a line? Hit me up! [email protected]