Social media marketing is an effective way to promote a business and reach a wider audience. However, it is difficult to effectively utilize social media in a marketing strategy. Many businesses are leveraging the remarkable capabilities of social media, but they are not able to get the results they desire from their campaigns. The reason is that these businesses just create accounts on various social media platforms without creating a solid social media marketing strategy.

Creating accounts on various social media accounts without a solid social media marketing strategy is a recipe for disaster. Therefore, marketers should first create a solid social media strategy and then start marketing their business through social media. In this article, we will show how marketers can create a solid social media marketing strategy.

1. Discover Where Your Target Audience Is

Marketers should be active on the networks that are mostly used by their target audience. Publishing content and creating engaging posts on social media platforms where the audience of a business is not active is useless. Generally, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are considered as the most popular social media platforms. The target audience of a marketer is bound to be active on one of these platforms. Marketers should research to determine the platforms where their target audience is active and then create a social media strategy to target those platforms.

2. Leverage Paid Promotions

Marketers can use paid promotions to find their audience. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter all offer targeting options to help marketers share their social media content with their target audience.

In order to find their audience, marketers should set up social media accounts on networks they think their audience is most active on and then target their audience with paid promotions. The results of paid advertisements will allow marketers to determine the platforms that are mostly used by their audience.

You’ll find Facebook ads cost to be practically free because of their very low costs! The main reason behind the increasing number of Facebook ads is that organic activity is no longer yielding results on social media. With Facebook ads usually costing a small fraction of what most other online marketing channels would be priced at, it surely pays to run long Facebook campaigns; especially if you are running low on your budget

3. Research the Social Networks of Competitors

In order to create a solid social media marketing strategy, a marketer should research the social networks of their competitors as they are targeting the same audience. Marketers should choose at least five competitors and search them on all major social networking platforms. Then, they should monitor the social engagement of their competitors. This will help a marketer determine the type of content that is working best for their competitors. A marketer can then create similar posts to capture the attention of the audience.

4. Create a Content Plan

Marketers should create a detailed content plan that outlines the kind of content they intend to use, where and when they will share content and how often they will post new updates. Furthermore, marketers should aim to include different types of content like memes, videos, motion graphics, link posts, guides, and infographics. The purpose of the content should be to inform, engage, entertain or persuade the social media audience.

5. Establish Metrics

As part of a social media marketing strategy, marketers should establish engagement metrics to track the effectiveness of their social media campaigns. A few engagement metrics that should be established by marketers include:

• Reach

Reach refers to the number of users who saw a social media post.

• Hashtag Performance

This metric can be used to track the performance of hashtags on Twitter and Instagram. It helps marketers to determine the hashtags that create the most engagement.

• Clicks

Marketers should also pay attention to the number of clicks on their content across social media. Tracking clicks can help marketers determine the type of content that drives curiosity.

6. Create and Share Quality Content

Quality content is an essential part of a solid social media marketing strategy. If a marketer doesn’t create quality content to share on social media, all the steps highlighted above would be in vain.

Marketers should never bombard their audience with tons of promotional message and posts. They should focus on providing informative and engaging social media content to pique the interest of followers.

7. Engage, Monitor and Analyse

The social media marketing strategy of a company should incorporate when and how social media accounts will be monitored and who will respond to questions and comments of the audience. Responding to feedback or questions of the audience is essential to ensure engagement with social media accounts.

Marketers should also monitor and analyze data regularly to track their performance across different social media platforms. Social media tools like Social Booster can help marketers analyze the performance of their social media campaigns.

EDITOR'S PICKS

A Step-by-step Guide to Migrate to a Hybrid Cloud 5 Strategies to Optimize Your Online Store for Organic Traffic The 10 Biggest Mistakes To Avoid When Furnishing Your Office Another Step Towards Success: 5 Ways to Grow Your Business Building a Better Business 3 Ways Your Phone Can Help You Say Goodbye To Paperwork What’s it Like to Be the Boss or Be Your Own Boss? 5 Tips To Getting Authentic Online Reviews 6 Powerful Email Tactics For A Successful Campaign Queue-Busting Techniques For Your Retail Business 5 Healthy Ways to Manage Your Investment Portfolio Improving the Customer Experience: 8 Ways Every Small Business Owner Can Make the Customers Happy