How do you put together a social media strategy?

If you're like most entrepreneurs, you're currently using social media without a well-thought-out plan or strategy.

And you're certainly not alone - most entrepreneurs try their hand at their company page.

But trying has never been a good strategy. It is also unrealistic to expect that random posting on social media will yield results, let alone the results you want to achieve.

Using a well-thought-out social media strategy allows you to:

Spend your time more efficiently

Achieve significantly better results (more visibility, more sales, etc.)

Measure those results, allowing you to optimize your efforts

As a self-employed person, your options - both time and money - are limited. You don't want to implement a complicated strategy that takes forever to understand, let alone execute.

The great thing about social media is that you don't have to. It would help if you had a strategy or plan to work efficiently, but it doesn't have to be complicated.

The simpler and more concise the plan, the better.

To draw up an effective social media plan, you will have to ask yourself the following questions:

• What business goals do I hope to achieve?
• Who is my ideal customer, and what platform do they use?
• What metrics will I use to measure my success?
• Am I going to create content, manage it, or do both?
• How much time can I spend on social media each day/week?
• Which activities will give me the fastest results?

By putting together a simple plan that addresses each of these points, you'll be well on your way to social media success and reach your goals faster.

Here's a detailed look at each of these points and what the answers might look like with a simple social media strategy.

How will I use social media to achieve my goals?

Before developing a social media strategy, you must know what you want to achieve.

In that respect, social media is no different from other marketing options.

Start by determining what your overall goals are. Think about what goals you want to set for your company. Goals that you can achieve using social media are:

• Increase brand awareness
• Increasing authority on a certain subject
• Build loyal community
• Attract new leads and potential customers
• Build a relationship with customers
• Maintain relationships with existing customers
• Improve Customer Service
• Get more sales

To start with, it is best to select three main goals. Also, remember that you don't have a large following on your social media yet, so start with the first three goals on our list. That way, people get to know you better and start trusting you.

Who is your ideal customer, and where can you reach them?

The second part of the plan should emphasize understanding who your ideal customers are.

So ask yourself the following questions:

• Which specific customer is your ideal customer?
• What job or position do they hold?
• What is the typical language of their company, industry or organization?
• What kind of problems/challenges do they face?

Once you have determined what you want to achieve on social media and who your ideal customer is, you should research each of the available social media platforms to determine the following:

• Which platform does your ideal customer use?
• What business goals can each platform help you with?
• On which platform will you best reach your ideal customer?

If a platform isn't used by your ideal customer and can't help you achieve your goals, you can't spend time and money on it.

For example: If you are a Hairdresser for business people and company executives, you should not spend hours on Facebook. LinkedIn, on the other hand, would be a great place to find and build relationships with business people and executives.

How will you measure your success?

After you have determined which platform(s) is best for you to be active on, you should list the goals you want to achieve for each platform.

For example, on LinkedIn, you can go for:

Generate three new leads per month

Build your authority on a particular topic

You now have specific goals for each platform. Then you will now also have to determine how you will measure each goal.

A goal with a metric that is less obvious will take a little more work. For example, suppose you are building your authority on LinkedIn on a certain topic. In that case, you could look at metrics such as the number of likes, shares, and comments on your content and the number of new connection requests you get after posting that content.

Here are some examples of the different sales-related metrics you could track on social media:

• Number of leads generated from social media activities
• Many appointments have been booked.
• The contract value of deals made through social media
• Income generated from social media activity

Statistics that measure brand awareness and are therefore not sales-oriented but do provide insight into the success of social media are:

• Number of views for posts or shared content
• Engagement with shared content (likes, comments, shares, etc.)
• Visits to your website from social media
• Number of followers or network size (connections, followers, page likes)
• What are you going to post on social media?

If you're using social media for your business, you need to use content marketing - whether you're sharing content from others, creating your own content, or combining both.

Curating and sharing content from others is the best solution when you're just starting out or aren't confident enough to post your own content.

Sharing content from others can help you with the following:

• Build credibility and trust
• Position yourself as an authority in your field
• Create top-of-mind awareness in your network
• Expand your sales funnel

But there is a right and wrong way to curate other people's content. Act like a good family man, and remember:

Adding your perspective: Don't share other people's content as it is, but add your take on the matter.

Engaging Your Followers: Ask questions, reply to comments, and engage in conversation.

Adding a CTA (Call-To-Action) - Sharing other people's content without a CTA is a missed opportunity to encourage your connections to take a certain action. Your CTA can be as simple as asking your followers to comment, share, or like.

How much time will you spend on your social media activities?

Every company is different. No one-size-fits-all approach dictates how often you post on each platform or how much time you should spend on social media.

However, consistency is important, regardless of the frequency and amount of time you spend on your social media strategy. Consistency delivers results. Also, remember that the more aggressive your target is, the more time you will have to invest in your social media marketing.

It is also important to remember that despite the time you invest in social media daily or weekly, it takes time to build a following and see results.

Building a relationship online is just like building a relationship offline - it takes time, effort and a lot of work.

Save time by scheduling messages.

Most platforms allow you to schedule your posts in advance. You can save time and work more efficiently by scheduling all your messages once a week.

This gives you more time to focus on what matters: involvement.

Where should you start?

Once you've put together your social media strategy, choose one goal to work on first. This should be the easiest goal, something you can see results in relatively quickly.

This is important because rapid progress can help you build momentum and develop the consistency you need to be successful with other goals.

Don't put off creating and implementing your social media strategy!

Today's customers are digitally connected and expect companies they deal with to have a professional online presence.

To thrive in today's market, you need to have a social presence on your ideal customers' platforms. With a well-thought-out social media strategy, you can maximize you results. Would you still like professional support? Please feel free to NJ Graphica team.