How to Be Successful on Social Media
A social media marketing strategy is a blueprint to achieve a specific goal, such as increased brand awareness or lead generation. But having a strategy is not enough. You must execute on it ─ and this takes planning.
Creating a social media marketing roadmap will make the process of building your presence on social media more manageable and less time-consuming. It will help you delegate tasks effectively, stay on track, create content that attracts an audience, and measure results.
In this article, we take you through the nine steps to developing a roadmap for successful social media marketing strategy execution.
Step #1: Define your target audience
You cannot create content that converts if you don’t know who your target audience is. Get detailed about who you wish to engage with as you:
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Determine demographic, psychographic, and geographic factors
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Create buyer personas
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Identify the issue they wish to have solved
Step #2: Select social media channels
You’ll also need to determine where your audience ‘hangs out’. Will you find them on Facebook, locate them on LinkedIn, or uncover them on Instagram? Be aware, too, that the same target audience may inhabit several different social media platforms, using each to access distinct types of content.
Overall, your aim should be to publish the type of content that your tribe wants to view and read on the social media channels that attract most of your target audience.
Step #3: Define your strategic plan
This piece of the puzzle is all about determining your approach. Think about the needs and interests of your target audience, where you will find them, and then develop your approach to meet these.
Step #4: Determine your tactics
There are many social media tactics that you can employ in your roadmap social media marketing strategy. These include commenting on posts; using hashtags; responding to comments and questions from social media users; interacting with influencers from the industry you represent, and so on.
When considering your tactics, also consider the technologies you can adopt to make your life easier when using social media. There are many tools available that will reduce the amount of work, effort, and time you need to spend on social media success.
Step #5: Choose your tools
What specific tools will you use to efficiently monitor, communicate, create, and promote social content? It’s important to have the right tools to take advantage of social content efficiently. This includes social media channels to promote your work and engage with groups of people in your subject area. It also includes which automation tools you will use, and choosing the right social media planning app for your business.
Step #6: Set social media goals and KPIs
Now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty and set goals for your social media strategy, including your key performance indicators (KPIs). Commonly used KPIs include:
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Number of website visitors
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Number of likes, comments on your posts, and social media shares
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Number of new followers on social media
Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) goals. These help to keep you on track and motivated. Read our article ‘How to set SMART social media goals’ for more info.
Step #7: Create content for your social media audience
One of the best ways to start creating content for social media is by following the social media platforms of your target audience. This will help you understand what type of content they like and what their needs are. There are five keys to generating the content that will encourage engagement and increase traffic to your social media accounts and your website. You must make your content:
Step #8: Build community
Social media is all about building a community. To do so, you must:
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Go where your audience is
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Continually assess your content to remove that which doesn’t work and create more of that which does
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Figure out the ‘rules of engagement’ with your community (when to post, how fast to respond, what to do with trolls, etc.)
Step #9: Start the conversation
Social media marketing is all about engagement with your customers and building relationships with them. It can help you build a community, increase customer loyalty, and make your brand more visible in the market. To reach out, it will be necessary to engage people in conversation. Comment on their comments. Share their posts. Ask questions related to what you do and trending topics.
You can also implement quizzes or polls, contribute to other conversations around your industry, and ‘chat’ with commenters who are sharers.
The bottom line ─ Get your free social media roadmap template
In today’s digital world, social media marketing is one of the most important parts of a company’s marketing strategy. This is because social media has become the main source of information for most people and therefore it has become a platform that can be used to reach out to potential customers.
It is important to have a roadmap because it provides guidance and direction for your social media marketing efforts. Without one, it might be difficult to measure your success or know what you are accomplishing with your time on social media.
You can build your own roadmap using the nine steps above as your social media marketing roadmap example. Or you can simplify the process by using our social media roadmap template. It’s going to save you time and will help you avoid costly mistakes.
Download our free Social Media Roadmap template.