3 Great Reasons Why You Need a Social Media Strategy

Simply existing on social media is not enough to take your brand to the next level. However, many small and midsize businesses jump onto social media without a clearly defined strategy. The problem with this casual approach is that you have no direction – no purpose. You could end up posting content for the sake of it and not seeing much return from your actions. To be successful in social media, you need a strategy that includes your objectives and how you plan to reach them.

Below are three great ways that your brand can benefit from having a well-organized social media strategy.

1. Build Your Organic Presence

Promoting your brand on various channels supports your visibility. As your audience uses the internet, they will naturally run into your brand along the way, improving trust and credibility.

As you plan out your strategy, consider these questions. How does your audience view your products and services? How do you want customers to view them? What is the tone and voice that you plan to use?

Consistency is key, so take the time to plan out a dependable schedule that your followers will enjoy. Include a mix of content, such as links to informative blog posts, fun facts about your products and even contests to win something for free. The more relevant content you post, the more your organic presence will grow.

2. Meet Your Short- and Long-Term Goals

Having a solid social media strategy ensures that you are actively working toward your goals. What is the purpose of being on social media? Do you plan to increase your number of followers? Grow blog subscribers? Generate sales?

When you define your objectives, you can create a social media content strategy that meets these goals. You can also track your efforts and determine what is working for your audience. For example, if your goal is to increase blog subscribers, your strategy would include the following:

• Links to some of your blog posts
• Call to actions such as “Subscribe” or “Follow”
• Incentives for signing up for the blog
• Exclusive content for subscribers

Some of the things you could test and measure would be the CTAs and incentives. Which seem to work best for your audience?

3. Effectively Target Your Audience

Another way that you can benefit from a clear social media strategy is by targeting the right people. Buyer personas are fictional representations of your customers. By developing personas, you can create social media content that appeals to the right audiences. A company that sells business software will have very different buyer personas from a company that sells baby gear.

Even if you’ve studied the demographics of your audience, know that they can change at any time. Being active on social media allows you to grow with your customers. As you build your strategy, leave room to ask open-ended questions, gather feedback and take customer polls. This keeps the dialogue open and allows you to keep learning more about your customers, their pain points and their expectations for your products.

There is no substitute to being present and active on social media. If you need help creating a successful, organized social media strategy, call WSI Star Web Solutions today!