social media

Social Media Content Strategy – Basic Steps For Newbies

Do you know that any content you post on social media directly affects your brand? It can either build or destroy it. For content to convert your followers into your fans, it must be a product of a strong social media strategy.

Creating effective social media content strategy and building a Social media community involves identifying specific objectives, creating and distributing high-quality posts on the right social media platforms. As time goes, you should measure the results to help fine-tune your strategy, and if your business grows even bigger, its time to consider the help of virtual assistant on your social media.

Down below you will find some basic steps you can follow to create a successful social media strategy.

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Set Specific Goals

Setting specific goals is the first and the most important step in building a strong social media content strategy. It is only with these goals in mind that you can come up with content that promotes your brand.

Setting goals involves researching what your audience prefers and identifying your brand values. Please, get your marketing goals clear and specific, then align your marketing strategy to those goals.

For example, if one of your goals is to get conversions from social media, then you need to come up with a strategy that can move people from your social media profile to a part of your marketing funnel, such as your landing page.

Plan the Social Media Content

The next step after setting goals is to audit the content you’ve been creating. Look at the pieces that performed well, and the ones that didn’t. A social media management tool, like Sprout Social, can help you check all your social media analytics and data in one place.

Of the posts that performed well, identify the ones that lead to new followers, and build on them. Also, look at the posts that didn’t perform well, and find out why, so you can correct your mistakes.

From then on, you can work on only posting content that aligns with your goals, and brings in more followers. We can help you come up with content that aligns with your set goals.

social media content

Build Your Content Calendar

Now you know the type of content that can drive traffic to your social media profile and, in turn, your website. The next step is to come up with a posting calendar. Such a calendar will guide you on what content to post, and on which profile: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn Business, or Pinterest Business accounts. It also guides you on the frequency of posting, so your content can have a greater impact. Remember, there is the best time to post, so you don’t need to post content any time you have a piece ready.

Distribute and Promote Your Content

Setting goals, planning, and posting content are just a small portion of a social media content strategy. After you post an article, the real work begins. Your content will not reach a wide audience if it’s not distributed across several media channels. Come up with a content distribution strategy that helps you to determine which content goes to which platform.

That’s not the end. After posting any content, you’ll expect some reactions from your readers. How do you plan to respond to them? The responses you give on social media should be professional, and well-thought-out. Don’t be in a hurry to respond to any comment that comes up, but take your time to think first.

Some social media platforms have a way of promoting content after you pay some amount. You can take advantage of this to make your content prominent on social media. Joining many groups and using hashtags is a good way of content distribution. Check out paid advertising channels on Facebook, Instagram, or Google.

social media

Measure Results

This is the last, but very important step in a social media content strategy. It is at this stage that you will determine whether your efforts have borne fruits or not. To measure the success of your strategy, you need to go back to the goals and ask yourself whether they have been achieved or not.

Some of the performance indicators or metrics you can use to measure results include:

Awareness – This is the number of times your followers saw the content you posted. It is shown by reach and impressions.
Engagements – This is the number of shares, clicks, comments, and reactions your post gets.
Return on investment – It measures how much you gained against what you invested. It can be shown by the number of referrals and conversions.

Ideally, you need to analyze your data every month to keep track of how your content is performing and then make necessary changes before it is too late. Look at each content piece and compare its performance with the goals you set.

Final words

Coming up with an effective social media content strategy isn’t a one-off affair. It is something that goes in a cycle. You have to keep coming up with new ideas, change your goals, and also your strategies. Follow the current trends, and try to find out what is working for your competitors so you can also use them. Otherwise, if you still feel confuse we would love to help you!

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Mary J.

Author

I am a passionate blogger and the chief editor at my own content marketing company PRable. Since college, I was interested in break-through technology and technical writing about innovative products and services that change our everyday lives for the better. I am also interested in web design and photography.