Did you know that there are over 4.2 billion active social media accounts worldwide? With such a hefty percentage of the population browsing social sites, your business simply can’t afford to be absent on these platforms.

Of course, just being present on social media doesn’t necessarily lead to social success. Like any other digital marketing avenue, you’ll need a solid social media marketing strategy to succeed.

From expanding your reach online to establishing trust and authority, social media marketing is so much more than posting pictures and publishing ads. Lucky for you, we’ve got everything you need to know to develop your strategy for social media marketing and excel on these platforms.

Follow along to discover our step-by-step social media marketing plan to help you transform your online presence today.

Establish Goals

Before you can dive into your social media marketing strategy, you’ll first need to decide what your social media goals are. Are you using social media to develop your brand? Expand your audience and reach? Drive customers to your website?

No matter what your primary goals are, knowing these objectives will help you form your strategy and plan. This will influence what kind of content you post, who you target, and even what platforms to utilize.

Understand Your Audience

Next, you’ll need to dive into your target audience’s shoes to understand where they are and what they want to see.Â

To start with, you’ll want to get a feel for the demographic, location, and interests of your audience. This will help you target these accounts more specifically with your ads and posts.

Of course, to fully benefit from social media marketing, you’ll need to get to know your customers on a more personal level. A great way to do this is to develop a customer persona. This persona is a fictional character that helps you understand more intimate details such as job titles, lifestyle, family, etc.

The more you know about your consumers, the better you can relate to them to establish strong, loyal relationships.

Check-in on Competitors

Gain insights on what is and isn’t working for your competition to help shape your social media marketing approach.

Take note of the advertisements they put out, the content your target audience is engaging with, and even the keywords they use in their profile and posts. While these may not all be exactly right for your business, keeping a pulse on your competitors can help you get a leg up by leveraging what they’ve already tried.

Choose Your Platforms

Now that you know who your audience is and what your competitors are doing to reach them, it’s time to choose your platforms.

Each social media platform provides different advantages and audiences for your business. This means that some may be more suited to your brand than others.

For example, if you are trying to reach a young audience to build brand presence, you may see more benefit to marketing on Tiktok over Twitter. Whichever platforms you choose, remember that you’ll need a consistent and active presence on each one. This may reduce the number of platforms you target.

Audit and Optimize your Profiles

If you’re already active on social media, now’s the time to do a social audit.

Take some time to understand how your past social efforts have been received by your audience. Look into engagement insights, understand when your audience is online, and get a feel for what your followers are enjoying.

Use this information to guide your content creation in the next step.

Along with your audit, you’ll need to ensure your profile is optimized to perfection. Use target keywords, ensure your contact information is up to date, and complete all fields including website links and CTA buttons.

Create Your Calendar

Finally, it’s time to get your content creation on. Use what you know about your audience and your own unique brand to determine your theme and the type of content you’ll share.

Create a calendar to keep yourself on track with an average of one post per day on each platform. Depending on your chosen platform and its specific features, this number may be higher to include stories, reels, and more. Leverage your analytics to determine when to publish each post and take advantage of your primary keywords by including them in caption and hashtags where applicable.

Experiment with your captions to discover the best format and style for your brand and audience. A mix of short and long captions provides variety for your followers, however, you’ll likely find one style promotes engagement more than the other. And of course, don’t forget to integrate a solid CTA and a healthy dose of added value for your consumers.

Start Engaging

Believe it or not, posting isn’t all you’ll need to do on social media. Outside of your posts, you’ll need to invest time and energy into engaging with your audience both on and off your page.

We suggest messaging, commenting, and interacting with consumers about an hour before your posts go live. This ensures more people will see your post by sending signals to the algorithm that key accounts are interested and engaged with your brand.

Leverage Paid Advertising

Breaking through social media algorithms organically can be a tricky task. This is why we recommend boosting your visibility on these platforms with paid advertising.

To get the most out of your social ads, consider partnering with trustworthy social media management services to develop a data-driven strategy for success.

Measure, Analyze, and AdjustÂ

Last but certainly not least, you’ll need to continually monitor, measure, and make adjustments to your strategy based on your unique goals and needs.

Keep up to date with trends, update your content and captions to appeal to your audience, and improve engagement strategies with built-in insights for each platform.

Building Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Now that you know how to develop your social media marketing strategy for success, it’s time to set to work. From setting your goals to making data-driven adjustments, we’re confident you’ll see the results your brand deserves in no time.

Ready to make a splash on socials but need a little help along the way? Get in touch with us today to discover how we can transform your online presence and help you reach your goals in record time.