Why You Need a Social Media Strategy
When working in social media, one thing to note is the importance of having a plan! You may have the ideas that you want to incorporate, but that plan will make it better.
What Is A Strategic Plan?
Simply put, think of a strategic plan as your roadmap. A document to outline your goals, define your purpose and mission, and much more.
In essence, “a strategic plan is a systematic, thorough, and aligned document that outlines from start to finish what a brand, individual, or organization wants to accomplish to address a problem, take advantage of an opportunity or explore potential new possibilities through experimentation (Freberg, pg.114, 2019).” To break this down a little more, your plan is an “overview of the goals of your marketing efforts and the actions you intend to follow in order to successfully achieve those goals (Brandi, 2019).”
You need to have this strategy to avoid posting content on social media just to post it. Doing that will likely do you no good and provide no return on investment. “Trying to build a brand on social media without a defined strategy can be totally counterproductive (Lozano, 2018).” This plan will also help with keeping a consistent posting schedule and save yourself some time by knowing what your purpose of posting is for.
The Make Up of a Strategic Plan
A strategic plan is made up of quite a few components. As listed by Freberg, the document includes:
- Background Information
- Brand Voice
- Vision and Mission
- Environmental Scan Analysis
- Client or Company Focus
- Social Media Audit
- Situational Analysis
- SWOT
- Goals
- Objectives
- Key Audience Members
- Strategies and Tactics
- Evaluation
- Budget
- Calendar
Benefits
Again, this whole plan is meant to be your roadmap and will make implementing your social media easier and more efficient. Rather than throwing content onto your social media channels and hoping for your intended response, the document will give you evidence of what has and has not been working.
With all of this, you have the time to analyze your posts. Additionally, “the strategy itself acts as a framework and reference point, so if you see a pattern among the posts that work well and those that flop, you can hold it up to the wider plan and make adjustments at the source (Birnie, 2018).”
By knowing what has worked and what your goals are, you can create content that will be successful.
One thing to note is that creating this strategic plan is going to be hard and take plenty of time and energy. Once this document is done, you’ll be able to better use social media channels and implement social media campaigns.
Sources and Additional Resources
https://www.adllinsmedia.com.au/what-makes-a-good-social-media-strategy/
Freberg, K. (2019). Social Media for Strategic Communication: Creative Strategies and Research-Based Applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/effective-social-media-marketing-strategy/
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/7-advantages-of-a-having-social-media-strategy/525861/
