A social media strategy

Step 1: Situational analysis

• Your company social profile requires some planning, and your first step is to see ‘where you are at’. Ask yourself these questions

Step1: Situational Analysis

1. Who is my audience?2. Have we the skills and resources to create

compelling and useful content?3. Is there enough content for people to want

to stick around and view our website?4. Do we know which social networks our

customers use?5. Is everyone in our organisation committed?

Step 2: Setting Goals

• You need goals because they help stakeholders visualise your strategy

• Goals can be based on variety of factors, from traffic received to the engagement (re-tweets, likes etc.) you gain

• Use metrics to measure goal achievement

Step 3: The Strategy

• Choose the channel (s) you want to use• Be cautious. Facebook isn’t always the best for

B2B, for example• Always ask yourself ‘why this?’ when you

create new content. If it isn’t linked to those original goals, get rid of it

Step 4: SMART objectives

• Specific – generate 2000 Twitter followers• Measurable – metrics, and only metrics• Achievable – realistic goals (2000 followers not 200 million)

• Relevant – objectives should have a direct and obvious impact on your goals

• Time-bound – give it all a date

Step 5: Tactics

• The content you create is what you will send out to each channel, so create lots for each one

• Create ‘big stuff’ like whitepapers, eBooks etc, and then break these down into blog posts, PowerPoint presentations etc.

Step 5: Tactics - continued

• Blog regularly, and use it as your content hub• All your other content, like eBooks, can be

published in part form here• Use it to curate other content that is relevant

to your readers• From an SEO point of view, Google loves blogs

Step 5: Tactics - continued

• Use Google+/Facebook/Linkedin/Twitter• Different audiences/tone/• Consider how you will position your company

(will it be formal/informal?)• Don’t establish your company on these

platforms until you understand the platforms

Step 5: Strategy - continued

• YouTube/ Pinterest/SlideShare/Prezi are all great for spreading your message visually

• These sites have vast communities, and are therefore worth hosting content on before placing that content on your own site/blog

Further Reading – target360 Simple Guides…

Content Marketing

Email Marketing

Marketing Automation

Digital Marketing Planning