Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2022
Looking to fine-tune your social media marketing strategy for 2022?
Good! Now’s the perfect time to make it happen.
In a landscape with more competition, content and networks than ever, a succinct strategy gives you the focus needed to say “no” to efforts that don’t serve your goals.
That’s why we put together a comprehensive guide to creating a social media marketing plan from scratch.
Whether you’re totally new to social or want to double-check your priorities in 2022, this guide has you covered.
Set goals that make sense for your business Take time to research your target audience Establish your most important metrics and KPIs Create (and curate) engaging social content Make your social presence as timely as possible Assess what’s working, what isn’t and how to keep improving Bring other departments into the mix.
Source: sproutsocial.com
What is social media marketing?
Social media marketing is the process of creating content for social media platforms to promote your products and/or services, build community with your target audience, and drive traffic to your business. With new features and platforms emerging every day, social media marketing is constantly evolving.
Social media marketing is all about meeting your target audience and customers where they are and as they socially interact with each other and your brand.
While social media marketing as a whole is incredibly valuable and beneficial to your business growth (as you'll see in the following section), your strategy will differ based on which social networks your audience spends their time on.
Before we dig deeper into social media marketing, let's segment the strategy by platform.
Source:
blog.hubspot.com
Set social media marketing goals that align with business objectives
The more specific your strategy is, the more effective the execution will be. Set SMART goals and track the right metrics to set yourself up for success.
The first step to creating a social media marketing strategy is to establish your objectives and goals. Without goals, you have no way to measure your success or your social media return on investment (ROI).
Each of your goals should be:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound
An example of a SMART goal for your business might be “Grow our Instagram audience by 50 new followers per week.”
With SMART goals, you’ll make sure your goals actually lead to real business results, rather than just lofty ideals.
Source: hootsuite.com
Identify the right social media platforms
Once you are clear about your audience, find out the most used and suitable social media platforms, and focus on your efforts accordingly.
This is important. Do you know why?
Rather than posting on every social media, it is advisable to use 3-4 social platforms to market your nonprofit endeavors.
I have enumerated the benefits of four major social platforms- Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Using these social platforms, a non-profit agency can amass more followers and audience.
Source: socialpilot.co
Establish your most important metrics and KPIs
No matter your goals or industry, your social media strategy should be data-driven.
That means focusing on the social media metrics that matter. Rather than focus on vanity metrics, dig into data that aligns directly with your goals.
What metrics are we talking about? Check out the breakdown below:
Reach. Post reach is the number of unique users who saw your post. How much of your content actually reaches users’ feeds?
Clicks. This is the number of clicks on your content or account. Tracking clicks per campaign is essential to understand what drives curiosity or encourages people to buy.
Engagement. The total number of social interactions divided by the number of impressions. This sheds light on how well your audience perceives you and their willingness to interact.
Hashtag performance. What were your most-used hashtags? Which hashtags were most associated with your brand? Having these answers can help shape the focus of your content going forward.
Organic and paid likes: Beyond a standard Like count, these interactions are attributed to paid or organic content. Given how much harder organic engagement is to gain, many brands turn to ads. Knowing these differences can help you budget both your ad spend and the time you invest in different formats.
Sentiment. This is the measurement of how users react to your content, brand or hashtag. Did customers find your recent campaign offensive? What type of sentiment do people associate with your campaign hashtag? It’s always better to dig deeper and find out how people talk or feel about your brand.
An effective social media marketing strategy is rooted in numbers. That said, those numbers need to be put into a context that aligns with your original goals.
Source: sproutsocial.com
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How often to share
Posting on Facebook doesn’t have a limit for businesses, but dominating your followers’ feeds is a social media marketing mistake you’ll want to avoid. In a study by Socialbakers, engagement rates per post dropped significantly for businesses posting more than twice per day and for businesses posting only once per week.
So if you post too much, you run the risk of people un-liking your account. If you post too little, you risk your engagement metrics. Take into account how much content you have to promote, and then post accordingly. About one update each day is an optimal rate for most businesses.
Source: wordstream.com
Tips to boost engagement
People scrolling through Facebook will see your business posts alongside photos of their new-born niece and cake decorating videos (just me?), so don’t take your social posts too seriously. Stay casual, but be sure to continue to provide value.
This store uses local jokes to caption their product in an organic Facebook post.
These people followed your business for a reason—make sure you’re posting relevant content for them to consume and ultimately get a little closer to your brand.
Source: wordstream.com
Understand your analytics.
As with any form of marketing, it’s essential that you understand how your social media marketing is performing. Is it delivering the outcomes you identified in step one above, and are you consistently growing your reach, followers and mentions?
Again, there are social media analytics tools (from basic to advanced) to help you with tracking your social metrics – the Victorian Business Government website has a helpful guide to choosing the right monitoring and measurement tools for your business.
Source: squareup.com
Start prioritizing your social media marketing strategy
Using social media in marketing does more than improve site traffic and increase your reach. It turns your business into a personality that your audience can communicate and connect with on a deeper level.
Regardless of which platforms you use or how you use them, the most important thing to remember is that social media is not a platform to pitch your business. It’s a community for you to express your personality, demonstrate your values, share useful information, and build up those around you. With people naturally following you and promoting your content, there will be no need for pitching. And with this approach, you’ll achieve not just your business goals but all of the other intangibles that translate to gratification and fulfillment.
Source: wordstream.com
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