Today, social media is much more competitive than it used to be, as thousands of new accounts appear daily. Nevertheless, you still can make a successful presence on the web if creating your efficient social media strategy for 2021.

Check this step-by-step guide to make a well-considered and robust social media marketing plan from scratch. Draw users’ attention to your brand and establish a strong connection with your followers.  

Why Do You Need a Social Media Strategy?

A social media strategy is a summary of the goals you want to achieve on social media platforms. The more specifically you plan your actions, the more influential the design will be. So, once you define the specific purposes you are planning to work on, you can create a plan. But why is it crucial to think out your social media strategy? 

A good social media plan can help you to define the roles and responsibilities within your team. Moreover, it allows you to guide your actions, meaning you can achieve better results with less time and effort. A well-planned social media strategy is a key to efficient brand promotion and products or services sales. 

1. Define Your Social Media Goals

The first step to building a winning social media strategy is defining your goals. Make sure each of your objectives meet the S.M.A.R.T. goal framework: 

• Specific;
• Measurable;
• Attainable;
• Relevant;
• Time-bound.

Social media goals should align with your overall marketing objectives to ensure effective business functioning.   

2. Identify and Analyze Your Target Audience

Social media is an excellent source for analyzing your target audience. Different platforms attract various users. Thus, Facebook and YouTube boast impressive high-earning user bases, meaning they both are perfect for promoting ads. As for Instagram and TikTok, they are popular among millennials or Gen Z mainly; therefore, you should focus on eye-popping content if creating your business there. Besides, you can use Instagram poll ideas for stories to get to know your audience’s opinion about specific questions. 

3. Optimize Accounts for Better Users Engagement

 Social media optimization is a critical part of the development of your accounts. Profiles can be optimized by filling out your account data and through keywords and images. Here is how you can optimize your social media presence quickly and easily:

• add relevant keywords and hashtags in your account;
• connect with popular accounts in your industry;
• share content related to your industry.

If you are developing your Facebook profile, consider that its complete optimization can help you get a better Google ranking.

4. Focus on Creating Content People Actually Need

Once you define your brand’s goals and figure out your target audience, you need to start building strong content. If you are running an account on Instagram, you can focus on creating engaging posts and stories. Check out the latest trends in infographics and make your own creative Instagram templates for posts and stories to stand out from competitive profiles. 

5. Check Out Your Competitors Activity

Competitive analysis may help you to avoid mistakes your competitors have already made while using social media. Look through their profiles to understand what they are doing well and what is not, to get a clear idea of what to expect from a picked industry. 

6. Find Inspiration to Look Trendy and Recognizable

If you don’t know how to attract attention to your brand, draw inspiration from other businesses that have already gained success on the social platform. Do a brief competitive analysis to obtain valuable insights that you can apply to your own social media strategy. However, don’t copy someone’s style, be unique! 

7. Assess the Potential of Your Accounts

Do a social media audit to check out your current achievements. Ask yourself questions like:

• What social networks does your audience most often use?
• What do you do good and what bad, compared to your competitors?
• Who is engaging with your brand?

This is an excellent way to assess your accounts’ potential and get a clear understanding of what purpose each of your social media accounts serves.

8. Evaluate and Adjust Your Strategy

As soon as you start to put your plan into action and track your first results, you can notice some distinctions between your expectations and reality. However, it doesn’t mean your social media strategy works not as well as you’d anticipated. 

Check out performance metrics to track your accounts’ visitors so that you could see which social posts or stories drive the most traffic to your profile. Use this data to re-evaluate your strategy from time to time, thus, tracking your growth. 

Conclusion

Summing up, meeting each of the steps mentioned above, you’ll establish a solid online presence for your brand or business. Whether your goal or audience is, a well-considered social media strategy will provide you with everything necessary for efficient growth and development.