ID3AS Blog
How to Develop an Effective Social Media Content Strategy
The content that you post on social media has the power to turn your followers into fans, and your brand into a recognizable, household name. This impact only comes from tailoring your brand’s content and having a solid social media strategy, not just sporadically updating your platforms when you have the time.
Social media strategies are not “one-size-fits-all”, and your strategy will differ depending on your industry and audience. However, there are specific steps that you should follow to build out a plan that has longevity and helps your brand grow. Allow the Social Media Gurus at D3 to guide you through boosting your social media content!
Identify and Set Goals
One of the first questions that business owners ask is, “What should I be posting?” It’s a valid question, but to answer you must first identify and set your social media goals. Having goals and aligning your content around them will help you to meet your goals. Identify the purpose of your posts and stick to one! Is it to increase engagement or brand awareness? Or are you interested in generating leads, or increasing sales?
Then, define your target audience, and dig deep into your social media analytics to find out your current followers’ demographics. Understanding who you want to engage with your posts, allows you to tailor your content to fit their likes and interests, which in turn, can promote more engagement on your posts.
Plan Your Social Content
Once you’ve chosen your goals, it’s time to create your social content. Tailor your content and visuals around your goals to achieve the best results on each post. Remember that having a consistent brand voice will help you achieve a better understanding of what your audience enjoys. While you’re planning, take note of which social channels your content has performed the best on. Allocating your resources to the platforms that best serve your brand and audience will help you customize your content to meet the needs and requirements of that platform.
It’s important to identify the best time for your company to post. Not only do you want to optimize engagement, but the more traffic your post gets in the first couple of hours, the more it will be shown to the rest of your audience. Social media algorithms can be tricky, so it’s vital to do your research and utilize the information that you have to maximize your post’s performance.
You know your audience, the best time to post, and have planned your content - now when should you boost your post? It’s important that you only boost posts that are performing well organically, as this image may be the first piece an unfamiliar user sees from your brand. When you boost a post from your business page on Facebook, you’re paying to get your content seen by more people. You can pay any amount you want, and for each budget level and target audience set, Facebook will provide you with an estimated reach. A Facebook boost has the power to help you reach thousands of people that otherwise would never see your content.
Conduct a social media audit to find what’s working, and what’s not. Reviewing high-performing content will help when planning for future content and what your viewers are looking for and engaging in. Review your social media metrics to give you a good starting point for planning ahead.
Plan with Design in Mind
Cultivating relationships and bringing a designer onto your team can elevate your content in ways that you wouldn’t expect. Effective graphic design across your social media accounts creates consistent branding, which heightens brand recognition and connects your audience to your business. A well-designed post that reflects well on the interests of your audience will help to maximize your engagement rates.
Effective visuals are more than just a nice image. Depending on the purpose of the post, it’s important to use certain color schemes, graphic layouts, and font types. For example, a typeface that is irrelevant to the main message of the image can make it look confusing and inconsistent. Working with a designer can help you stay on brand while creating visuals that resonate with your audience. Click here to see how D3 did just that!
Ready to put it all together? Effectively planning a social media strategy is an ongoing cycle. Work with the experts at D3 for more information, and start maximizing your social media content today.