Updated 29/05/2024
Social Media Strategy as part of Your Marketing Mix
Social media marketing is a cornerstone of any successful online presence. It allows businesses to connect and engage with customers in a way that was unimaginable before the rise of social media platforms. However, simply having a Facebook page or tweeting occasionally won’t cut it. To be truly effective, you need a well-defined social media marketing strategy.
In this article, we’ll delve into the importance of social media strategy and provide a framework to get you started. We’ll also reference the insightful podcast, The Power and Pitfalls of Content Marketing: Building Relationships and Boosting Sales, which dives deeper into content creation for social media. (LISTEN BELOW)
While content marketing and social media offers undeniable benefits, it’s crucial to dispel common myths that can hinder your success. Corporate communications are the way in which businesses and organizations communicate with internal and external audiences. In this talk, Ehsan Khodarahmi and Nathaniel Schooler discuss this key topic.
The High Cost of Low Strategy
Many businesses waste significant resources – time and money – on social media without a clear direction. With the average person spending over 3 hours daily on social media platforms, it’s crucial to have a strategy to maximize your investment.
Conducting a Social Media Audit
Before diving headfirst into social media marketing, take a step back and conduct a thorough social media audit. This audit will help you understand your current standing and identify areas for improvement.
Here are 10 key questions to consider during your audit:
- Platform Presence: Which social media platforms are you currently using?
- Posting Frequency: How often are you actively posting on each platform?
- Engagement Level: Are you simply broadcasting messages, or are you actively interacting with your audience?
- Growth Metrics: How many mentions, shares, retweets, and connections are you generating?
- Website Traffic: How many website visits are you driving from each platform, and what’s the ROI?
- Lead Generation: How many email signups or mobile app downloads are you getting from each platform?
- Conversion Rates: What is your conversion rate per platform (i.e., how many leads convert into sales)?
- Cost per Lead: How much does it cost you to acquire a lead through each platform?
- Lead Conversion: How many leads are you successfully converting into paying customers?
- Profit Generation: What’s the overall profit generated from your social media efforts?
By answering these questions, you gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your social media presence. You can then analyze factors like content type, posting times, platform demographics, and promotion methods to determine if your paid advertising and time investment are yielding a positive return.
Alternative Approaches
The audit might reveal that social media marketing isn’t the most profitable avenue for your business. You might be better suited for Google Ads management or even a telesales team, depending on your goals.
Brand Communication and Consistency
Social media is a powerful tool for communicating your brand values and essence. However, outsourcing social media marketing can sometimes lead to a disconnect between your brand identity and the content being created. This is because some agencies might focus on generic social media tactics rather than tailoring their approach to your specific brand.
Conclusion: Strategic Social Media for Success
Social media is a crucial component of your overall marketing strategy. By integrating it seamlessly with your brand and marketing plan, you can leverage its power to connect with your audience and achieve your business objectives. Conducting a social media audit allows you to identify the platforms that deliver the highest ROI and tailor your content strategy accordingly.
Let us know in the comments below!
- Which social media platform has been most successful in generating leads for your business?
- What challenges have you faced in your social media marketing efforts?
We encourage you to listen to the podcast, “[The Power and Pitfalls of Content Marketing: Building Relationships and Boosting Sales](link to podcast)” for further insights on creating compelling content for social media.