Posted 5th Dec 2018 by Jo
How to plan a Social Media Strategy
This article was also published on The Outsourcing Way.
Developing a social media strategy seems like a huge project which presents more questions than answers. Why should I post? Where? When? And a common fear is that I’m not sure I have enough content to merit social media – what can I post that is interesting? At Seeing Social, we start our relationship with you by getting the answers to the below in the initial discovery call to ensure that our platform management meets your brand’s needs:
Firstly, why? Like it or not, social media is the way that the worlds of communication, socialising, business, campaigning, existing… are going. There are 3.19 billion users of social media in the world, and this figure is projected to grow. Your customers are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc, and it is the easiest way for them to recommend you to friends, find out more about you (let’s face it, they’re going onto their Facebook page more than your website!) and even make appointments. 80% of customers will look for a form of social proof before opting to buy from a company, so it is really worth putting your time and effort into your social media appearance.
There are lots of social platforms out there, and it is best to choose a couple and work with them really well rather than trying to use loads and spread yourself too thin. When deciding where you will post, it is worth looking at your product/service and deciding where best to ‘display’. Do you have a visual product (perhaps you make things)? In this case, a platform like Pinterest or Instagram is a great way to show off your designs. (Instagram can also be linked through to Facebook, which can save you time when posting to both platforms). Or maybe your service is more wordy, and so somewhere you can describe what you do, e.g. Twitter and Facebook, will be more suited to your digital display.
When is the best time to post on social media – who is your target market and when do they pay attention? Before work on the commute? At lunch? After lunch when they’re trying to get into afternoon mode? Where in the world are they? All of these questions will indicate which platforms are best to use and the optimal times for when you should be posting. A lot of platform insight tools will show you when your followers are online, and this is the easiest way to gauge when the majority will see and react to your content.
What to post – do you have regular content updates or is your website static? Where is the movement in your business? Followers need to be told about new things as they happen and reminded about things that are happening. Your customers also like to see related content and things they can interact with, either by leaving a comment or watching a video.
Access – when we create your content, we’ll make sure that everyone from screenreader users to the people who need watch videos in silence can understand your message, by ensuring that hashtags #MakeSenseToScreenreaders, (i.e. each word in the hashtag should be capitalised so the screen reader will read it as a series of words and not dismiss it as gobbledegook), pictures have image descriptions (will also help your search engine optimisation!) and videos have subtitles.
If you would like to save time by outsourcing this, I would be delighted to have a chat about planning your social media marketing strategy. Just send me an email and we can schedule a time. As part of this discovery call, I will to create a social media blueprint for you, with suggestions of how Seeing Social can help if you would prefer me to do this work. Do you want to script the content or can we advise and suggest? Do you need images created to go with your inspiring words? We can do that too, and size them correctly for your chosen platforms. We are also able to provide regular metrics reporting, so you can see how digital communication with your customers is working for you.