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How to get the most out of your social media strategy

09/03/2021
Content marketing for brands is especially competitive. Here’s our tips, techniques, and marketing approach to help your business stand out.

What a time to be alive, right!?

Putting all the current uncertainty aside, 2020 set a fork in the road for many Brisbane businesses. It was a fight or flight scenario as companies upended their digital marketing strategies almost overnight.

The strategies identified before March wouldn’t be effective in the new pandemic world. With brick-and-mortar stores forced to shut their doors and rely heavily on the digital landscape, 2020 put social media strategies at the top of the business to-do list.

Unfortunately, it quickly became an exercise in executing something out of necessity rather than as a result of clinical and defined research.

Subsequently, an abundance of social media campaigns flooded the market because what else could businesses do? The problem was that many companies ran social media campaigns simply because their competitors were as well.

It’s all well and good to have a presence on social media; in fact, it’s basically essential in today’s world. But it’s not enough to simply exist online and hope for the best.

You need a social media strategy built on outcomes.

So, before we bore you with more “2020… pandemic… blah blah blah…”, let’s dig into the essential elements and considerations for devising a successful social media strategy built to deliver legitimate results.

The three ‘W’s’

First and foremost, why?

Why are you looking to promote yourself through social channels? Are you looking for brand exposure? Do you have a specific service or product that you want people to purchase? Do you want more traffic or to generate leads through your accounts? Before doing anything, you need to know the ‘why’.

Second is the what’,

Which in many ways will stem directly from the ‘why’, but not in every case. Depending on your business, you may operate across many industries and deliver just as many different products or services. So again, think about the ‘what’ and be realistic with your capabilities. It’s much better to focus on a few things and do them well rather than try and tick every box, which can lead to a scattergun approach with little to no cut through.

Finally, you may have guessed it; it’s the who’.

Not the British rock band, but the target audience you wish to encapsulate with your fantastic social media strategy. Ideally you want to know your target audience inside and out. That way, you can generate content that they’re going to engage with and share. The better you know your audience, the more likely you are to turn them from followers into customers.

Identify specific, measurable, and attainable goals

The next step is to map out precisely what you want to achieve from your social media strategy. The key here is to be 100% realistic with yourself. Here are a few things to consider:

  • BE SPECIFIC – with everything, from the process to the audience and outcomes.
  • MAKE THEM MEASURABLE – and simple enough to analyse. You need to be able to track and compare over time.
  • ATTAINABLE AND TIME SENSITIVE – is a must. There needs to be a start and end date, and your goals must be within the capabilities of your team.

If it all sounds a little confusing, think of it like this, “let’s develop three blog posts targeting this industry with these topics over six weeks to increase website traffic by 20%.” It’s specific, it’s measurable, and it’s attainable over a particular period of time.

Check out what your competitors are doing

By analysing what other businesses in the Brisbane market post, you can cherry-pick off their wins and losses for your own gain. It’s all publicly available information so, why not!?

Pick a selection of companies that you feel will provide tangible evidence that can help guide your own social media strategy. Here are a few things to consider:

  • What are they posting? – blogs, how-to guides, product comparisons, thought leadership?
  • How are they developing their content? – what is the tone, messaging and advice?

Remember that nobody likes a copycat and staying true to your core business values first and foremost.

Identify your no.1 platform

This is a simple one. Run your eyes over all the metrics across the social media platforms you are active on and decide which basket to put most of your eggs in. What platform you choose should directly indicate your primary goals set out at the beginning of planning.

Develop a content pipeline and calendar

We’ve all learnt how quickly things can change and the power disruption can have on the day-to-day functionality of your business. So having a stockpile of content ready to publish is, in many ways, your social media strategy’s insurance plan.

Additionally, using a calendar can help you strategically leverage that pipeline to take advantage of specific days and events that offer unique content opportunities.

Be comfortable making adjustments on the fly

The world of social media is an ever-evolving organism. One day everyone is zigging, and the next, they’re zagging. It’s essential to understand this and employ a fluid approach to your strategy. Over time you will work out what works and what doesn’t, but occasionally a trend will emerge that will explode, and you’ll want your resources to have the agility to adapt.

Data, data, data, and more data

Your business’s most valuable currency, right? No good social media strategy is complete without data-driven metrics to help your evaluation. Metrics you should consider include:

  • REACH – this is the number of user’s or followers that see your content.
  • CLICKS – the number of times a user clicks on your content.
  • ENGAGEMENT – the total number of interactions divided by the total number of impressions.
  • HASHTAGS – which hashtags worked the best?

Creating the right social media strategy for digital marketing Brisbane companies is an essential undertaking in today’s market. It requires thorough planning with a sprinkle of creativity.

Just remember, there is little point in doing it purely because your competitors are. Instead, make it outcome-focused, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results

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