When you’re first starting off with your shiny, new social media strategy, you’re likely to often refer to it when planning content. Since this strategy should contain details about what goes into each post and how those components align with your overall marketing strategy, there’s a lot to consider and remembering all of that can prove challenging. As you get more comfortable, you’ll probably look at the pages of your strategy less and less.

After six months or so, it’s a good exercise to look at the strategy and compare it to the current state of your social channels. Do they match up pretty well? Great! If not, you may be tempted to alter the strategy, but we recommend sticking to it. Give yourself a full year as building/maintaining a strong social presence requires a lot of work.

Once you’ve been following your strategy for twelve months, time to dust off (well, hopefully you haven’t let dust accumulate) the strategy and play a game of start, stop, keep. Look at what’s been successfully implemented, what hasn’t worked as well as planned, and what sort of new things you can add to the mix whether through new technology, adding more resources, or your own comfort on social. Also keep in mind any non-social media marketing changes your company may have for the coming year. Remember, they need to play well together!

TL;DR: While it may be tempting to tinker with your social media strategy throughout the year, we recommend revisiting and revising it about once per year. This will give you time to fully implement and measure the performance of your strategy. Of course, there’s always a chance for a seismic shift in one or more social channels that throws everyone for a loop. If any of those happen, or you’re looking for a hand in revisiting your social strategy, we’d love to help.