Building Your Social Media Strategy

As an organization focused on either B2C or B2B, it’s important to determine what your Social Media strategy should be.

While we all know it’s important for businesses to be on social media, it’s equally vital to first understand what you’re trying to solve for. Do you have a need to respond to customer issues and complaints, promote new product or service offerings, conduct polls and surveys to obtain data, build a community, etc?

Once it’s determined what you’re trying to solve for. It becomes easier to build the strategy and tactics to execute on each objective.

While social media marketing might mean something different to you, here are some of the tasks and goals that may be beneficial.

Determine which social media sites/apps are best suited for your business.
While paid social can help spread the news of your brand and/or promotion, count on organic as your long-term approach.
Define your communications calendar and determine your communications cadence.
Post consistently.
Listen across all social media and communications platforms to understand impacts to your brand and business.
Respond rapidly, but diplomatically to any negative content and posts. Remember the spotlight is on you.
Sometimes intervention is needed. Ensure you have a mechanism for determining when a post/comment deserves a more ‘intimate’ response away from all the public eyes on social media.
Engage consumers when they post positive feedback about your product or service. This allows you to build a relationship with them.
Review your performance and optimize your creative, messaging, campaigns, etc.
Use targeting to ensure your message meets the appropriate audience.
Evaluate the numerous social technology tools that are available so that you can adequately build your social infrastructure.

Building a social media strategy takes a lot of reflection and knowledge. Managing the day-to-day communications and engagement takes a lot of proactive work. Ensure that you understand your organization’s limitations and strengths when it comes to planning and executing on social. During the initial stages, it may be wise to enlist the expertise of a social media agency to steer you in the right direction.

Social media marketing can work for any organization if the right strategy is in place.