How to improve your social media strategy image

Improve your social media strategy

Marissa Pick, social media director at CFA Institute, shares four actionable ways you can boost social media results

Have you ever wondered why some businesses succeed at social media while others fail? The difference is a solid social media strategy. Social media was once seen as the wild child of the marketing department but times have changed and the industry has matured. It’s a great place for brands to have a little fun but it also has a real and measurable impact on the bottom line. Whether you’re looking to reinvent your current strategy or you’re just starting, the four steps below will help you get results.

Define business objectives and goals

The first order of business with developing a social media strategy is clearly defining your goals. They are the fuel propelling your online efforts and goals give context and purpose to what otherwise would be a random one-off social media tactic.

Surveying key business stakeholders and asking questions is essential. Asking the right the questions can help you understand business obstacles, which can facilitate the development of the right social objectives. Some questions to help you get started:

  • Who are you looking to connect with?

  • What are your goals of using social media?

  • How much time can you commit to managing your social media?

  • Who will be responsible for running your social media?

  • What does success look like?

Understand and know your audience and focus on networks that add value

As you’re posting and sharing on social media, have you taken time to determine if you have a defined focus? Do you really understand the needs of your target market?  The better you can describe your audience and potential clients or consumers the more likely that your message will capture their attention. Knowing exactly what your audience needs and ways to find and meet them is important while providing content or engagement in a real and specific ways.

Each social network has its own strengths and weaknesses and each social media marketer should carefully pick and choose which networks they wish to leverage.

Stand out online

In a busy and crowded social media world where a cookie-cutter approach is the norm, showing how you’re different is a must. The average attention span of a human is eight seconds – a goldfish is believed to have an attention span just one second longer. (Source: National Center for Biotechnology Information.) 

In order to use social media to its best, start by examining what your company means to your customers. You must determine not only what is unique about your business, but also how that uniqueness compels customer to keep coming back. It’s important to review your messaging matrix daily to understand whether your message is beneficial and valuable or just contributing to the online noise.  Using social media effectively helps you stand out from the crowd. Understanding what makes your company, your culture and your customers unique will help you make your messages unique, too.

Track, measure and adjust along the way

Tracking and measuring your social media efforts should be the backbone of your social media strategy. It’s sometimes difficult to measure and track social media success, however setting clear KPI’s and updating often and along the way is crucial. Social media is useful is useful in many ways, however it can turn into a tremendous time-suck if you’re not paying close enough attention to where your time and effort is best spent.

That’s where analytics and analysis come into play. Leveraging information available within your analytics dashboard to learn as much as possible about what content and actions are making the biggest splash across your social channels is key. Evaluate how and why some content works and why some may fall short.

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