11 Jan 10 Ways to Kick Your Social Media Strategy into Shape in 2017
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Ever heard this saying before? Probably a few thousand times every new year.
This saying applies to all of our New Year’s resolutions – getting in shape, becoming financially stable, and yes, your social media strategy, too.
In need of some planning tips? Map out in writing the next 10 steps to get your social media on track this year, and you’ll be reaping that ROI before you know it.
1. Prioritize
Like with every check list, you have to prioritize what goals are most important.
- What are your social media goals? Long-term goals? Short-term/immediate goals?
- Where do you want to be in a month, a year, two years (you can’t plan too far out with technology anymore!)?
Outline your specific goals and make a momentum map/timeline for 2017 to keep you and your team on pace.
2. Know your business objectives.
What are you trying to accomplish with your social media? Are you wanting to build a community, create awareness or drive sales? Honing in on your big-picture goal will shape exactly how you use and what you put out on social media. For example, if you’re wanting to drive sales but push image-heavy content with no easy click-through option, users will drop off and you will fall short of accomplishing your website traffic & sales quota.
3. Write down your strategy.
In essence, outline exactly how you will get there.
- What channels are priority (where does your audience spend the most time?) & what cadence should you use to stay active & relevant?
- What tactics need to be put in place?
- How does your team need to be organized to achieve these goals?
- How will you measure performance and optimize accordingly?
4. Tell your story, don’t just PUSH your brand.
Inspire, don’t sell. Showcase the lifestyle your product affords; not just product benefits. Give value to your audience (a recipe that you can make with your product; a dreamy vacation you can take with your spouse because of savings from your product; the confident feeling a woman gets when putting on an outfit that fits her body), don’t just chest-thump.
5. Have a call-to-action.
Per your business goal(s) you outlined in step 2, you’ll want to outline a clear action you want your fans to take when visiting your page or consuming your content (watch a video, click-through to shop, “like” a post, etc.). This can change from channel to channel or even post to post, but it should always ladder up to your overall business objectives.
6. Know your channel algorithms and media formats.
Use media formats that will make you successful on that platform. For instance, Facebook prioritizes native video and will place this type of content (over any other content formats) higher on the newsfeed for fans to see.
What media formats work better per channel?
- Instagram: Beautiful imagery, videos & GIF’s
- Twitter: Videos & GIF’s, polls & how-to/educational tweets with links
- Facebook: Video, GIF’s, link posts (posts that link off to another website for more info, shopping, etc.) that include a call-to-action
One brand to take significant advantage of knowing Facebook loves video? Buzzfeed’s TASTY. A recipe-focused brand, TASTY uses almost 100% video to communicate, generating a huge jump in engagement & several million views per video. The top post though? The “Slider 4 Ways” clip that garnered a jaw-dropping 170 million views, 4.4 million shares and 1.2 million likes.
7. Use influencers for notoriety and credibility.
The idea is to drive awareness and traffic to your social media channels. Sometimes you preaching your word & putting paid behind your message to mass disseminate it isn’t enough. Having third parties, like influencers, photographers, celebrities, media outlets & other well-known personalities, that advocate for your brand and/or product not only widens your reach, visibility and discoverability, but it also gives people a reason to immediately follow, trust and look into your company.
8. Host contests, giveaways and surprise and delights.
Sweepstakes, contests, giveaways & surprise and delights are increasingly popular among brands who are vying for the attention of their social media audiences. They often allow you to inexpensively and effortlessly grow your brand on social media while also engaging your audience in a personal and playful way. These specific types of promotions often give fans the feeling of exclusivity, making them feel heard, wanted & special. If executed properly, they will prompt fans into action, allowing you to build brand advocates, extend reach behind your initial social circle & accomplish your business objectives of awareness, sign-ups, sales, engagement, referrals or any other goals you’re reaching for.
9. Leverage user-generated content (UGC) to tell your story.
We already established that you shouldn’t “push your brand” in #4. So, who better to promote your product or company than the very people who adore, use & share your product already? You can preach about your product until you’re blue in the face, but it likely will be wasted energy. Showing REAL people using and benefiting from your product is a better use of your time – it’s a walking testimonial and powerful, not to mention FREE, marketing tool. Don’t know how to find UGC? Simply search your brand’s name or hashtag in the search tool – you’ll be surprised at what you find.
10. Give your users an experience.
Create a community that they want to be a part of. Find out what your audience is passionate about and harp on those “passion points” in every single marketing effort. This is the most important and likely one of the simplest tactics a brand can do to attract the success they desire, yet most companies fall short at actually accomplishing it.
A great example of providing value based on audience passion points and creating a strong and engaged community that now works on its own to extend visibility, build advocacy and achieve business goals: the empire known as Kayla Itsines #BBG.
Talk about getting in shape…physically & socially 😉
Need a trainer to whip your social media into shape in 2017? Lean on none other than yours truly. For a free consultation, give us a ring.
