How to Plan a Successful Social Media Content Strategy

The content that you post on your social media accounts is a truly powerful asset, having the ability to drastically transform your brand’s popularity.

You can only reach such an ability to improve your social media presence through a well-planned social media content strategy that will allow you to create high-value posts which perfectly align with your goals.

Not all strategies are created equal. It is very important to understand how you should be molding your strategy, taking into consideration the industry you activate in and your target audience. However, what is similar in every strategy are the steps you should follow to create a long-lasting plan that will bring you success with the expansion of your business.

Step 1: Determine Your Strengths and Weaknesses 

It is vital to take a good look at your social media situation before putting together any strategy. You should know what to add to your plan, what to keep, and what to discard. 

A good way to start your analysis on weak and strong points is to research what social media channels are the best for your brand and to be more active on those while discarding the channels that are not useful for you and your consumer, as they may only distract you from what is truly powerful. 

Another significant element is the content that you post and the source of it. You have to know if you have the necessary resources for the type of content creation that you may choose, and you also know which is the best channel to spread your content.

Step 2: Know Your Objectives

You can have two types of goals: marketing and social goals. While marketing goals are targeted toward what you can do through your social media accounts to advertise and inform the public about your brand, social goals are only targeted towards the growth of your social media channels. It is essential to know what both these objectives are and to make sure you don’t neglect one over another, as they complete each other’s purpose.

You should first establish your marketing goals, as they will let you know how to approach your social goals, and how to balance the allocated time for analyzing your social media channels, versus creating content for those channels.

Step 3: Know the Competition

Social media has made it very easy to find and analyze the competition. You can see their exact marketing strategies and the number of followers, as well as follower responses, on their public accounts. This is where you should start, as it exposes a big part of their successes, as well as some failures, which you can learn from.

Not everything you want to know about your competition can be found on social media, though. Your best guess here would be to do outside research, to find the best ways you can get a higher reach for your audience. A great example is keyword research, as it can help you optimize your reach, but also find other potential competitors.

Finally, you must gain knowledge from your competitors, know their mistakes, so you can avoid them yourself, know what to imitate and what to do differently from their strategy, things that will certainly bring you a lot of success in overcoming your competition.

Step 4: Have Your Target Audience in Mind

When you have created a good analysis of your objectives and competition, it is time to focus on the most important part, which is your audience analysis. A good social media content strategy can not exist without good knowledge of what the right audience is, so conducting research on your audience and getting to know them very well is necessary.

The best way to find the right audience is to develop a simple persona, which will lead you into making the right decision about who you are targeting. Using the analytical tools of each social media channel is the best tool you have at hand to help you create the persona you are looking for. 

Step 5: Establish Your Tone of Voice

Once you have created your persona, you have to find the best way to address it. Having a steady brand voice is necessary for delivering your speech the right way, and making your brand stand out through a specific and unique aura. 

To establish that perfect tone, you first have to observe your audience’s discussions and match your approach with the contexts that are engaging for them. You will also have to summarize your brand by using the right words, and to keep an eye on the competition’s tone, choosing if you should learn from them, or avoid their mistakes.

Finally, a step that should not be overlooked is to observe the way highly acclaimed brands project their tone and apply their techniques to your brand, especially if you share a similar target audience with them.

Step 6: Create High-Quality Content

Your message can only be delivered through your content, so make sure that you offer value through your posts, but also make them attractive. This can be done by making sure you know how to add certain touches to your posts, which will make everything perfect. Those changes can be:

• The ideal copy length for each social media channel
• The ideal resolution of your image posts
• Specific image types that you should create
• Video content that is right for each social media channel 

You don’t need to know any special techniques or rules about how to do everything perfectly. It is enough that you keep researching how to make each channel work for you at maximum capacity. You can simply do that by observing other successful brands, and how they create and administer their social media posts. 

Step 7: Keep Track of Your Results 

Always be aware of how your actions impact your success. A very important part of your strategy is making sure that you know the effect that your posts have on your audience. Knowing the effects that your posts have on your audience is a very powerful asset, so make sure you are always on the look. 

Just like establishing your persona, analytical tools are the best item at hand for measuring your results, so make sure you use them because they will save you a lot of effort.

Conclusion

Although creating the perfect content strategy is a very meticulous process, it doesn’t have to be difficult and extremely demanding. With the right social media tools, knowledge, and ideas, you will be able to create a perfect strategy that will bring you closer to your goals. 

With this being said, never forget to keep a positive mindset. Everything has its ups and downs, so if you encounter any difficulties, make sure you are following the right steps and keep your work steady.

Featured image by Mimi Thian on Unsplash