How to Create a Social Media Marketing Content Strategy That is Proven to Work For Your Business
Social media marketing is the most effective way to get your business out in front of potential customers. It allows for a direct relationship with people and enables you to grow your customer base quickly, but it also has its challenges.
How do companies that don’t have social media marketing teams create compelling content?
This episode and post will cover everything you need to know about creating a social media strategy, including channels, platforms, and content ideas.
- How to Create a Social Media Marketing Content Strategy That is Proven to Work For Your Business
- What is a social media marketing content strategy, and why should businesses create one that works for them?
- Why is a social media marketing content strategy important?
- What is a social media marketing strategy?
- Why is it important to design your content right for social media?
- Why craft a social media marketing content strategy?
- How to solve recurring social media content marketing issues?
- How to create a social media marketing strategy in 9 steps
- Step 1. Choose social media marketing goals that align with business objectives
- Step 2. Learn everything you can about your audience
- Step 3. Get to know your competition
- Step 4. Do a social media audit
- Step 5. Set up accounts and improve profiles
- Step 6. Find inspiration
- Step 7. Create a social media content calendar
- Step 8. Create compelling content
- Step 9. Track performance and adjust your social media strategy accordingly
- How to plan your social content and create it
- Build a content calendar
- Promote and distribute your content
- Track and measure performance
- Putting it all together
- What makes for a successful social media marketing team?
- Finalizing your social media strategy
- Fueling growth with a social media marketing content strategy
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- What are the steps involved in creating a social media marketing content strategy?
- What essential things do you need to consider when creating a social media marketing content strategy?
- What types of content should be included in a social media marketing content strategy?
- How often should businesses post new content on social media as part of their content strategy?
- How can businesses measure the success of their social media marketing content strategy?
- What common mistakes do businesses make regarding their social media marketing content strategy?
- How can businesses ensure their social media marketing content strategy is aligned with their overall business goals?
- What tools or resources help businesses with their social media marketing content strategies?
- What are some tips for creating successful and engaging social media posts as part of a broader social media strategy?
- How highly regulated industries can best make use of social media marketing content without harming their brand
- Why responsiveness cannot be ignored in your social media marketing content strategy
- Listen to the episode with Thibaud Clément
- Some topics we discussed include:
- Related links and resources
- Connect with Thibaud
- Subscribe to and Review the Predictable B2B Success Podcast
What is a social media marketing content strategy, and why should businesses create one that works for them?
There are many reasons why businesses should create a social media marketing content strategy. To begin with, it helps define business objectives and who their target audience is. Additionally, it establishes what kind of content to share weekly or monthly to help meet marketing goals. Finally, a social media content calendar also guides what and how often things should be posted across different social media platforms.
Of course, coming up with your own social media marketing content strategy can be daunting- especially if you’re unfamiliar with all the tools that can help make the process easier (like Google Sheets, Trello, or HubSpot). But don’t worry! We’ve put together a handy template that you can use as a starting point when creating your own social media marketing content strategy.
Why is a social media marketing content strategy important?
The popularity of social networks has meant that businesses wanting to engage their audiences on these platforms now must contend with multiple and interactive content formats like carousel ads on Facebook.
If people are the engine of social media, then the content is fuel. Your content is what your audience sees and responds to, which can communicate your message and values.
Consider the following questions:
- What content works best on a specific platform?
- How do you plan what to talk about, on which platforms, and in what formats?
Simply producing and sharing of the content does not guarantee success. Smart businesses and marketers understand the need to align their social media marketing content strategy with all their social media channels. Why? To ensure their communication:
- Is being driven by a plan rather than a mad scramble to find something to share
- Style is consistent
What is a social media marketing strategy?
A social media marketing strategy is a document that outlines goals, strategies, and metrics for social media platforms. It should align with your digital strategy and be specific to each platform. A good social strategy has roles as well as reporting cadence.
Social media marketing is an effective method of online marketing and advertising. The best social media platforms are Facebook and Instagram, but other platforms can also be useful depending on your target market. Social media courses can offer helpful information for beginners or people looking to further their careers in this field. Social media KPIs are important to determine if your social media marketing strategy is successful and include engagement rate and reach in your target group. Choose the most important KPIs to your brand and track them regularly.
A social media strategy is not limited to just social media – it can play a significant role in a company’s overall marketing strategy. A strong social presence can help businesses succeed online by increasing velocity and engagement.
Why is it important to design your content right for social media?
Most people use social media for personal reasons, to connect with friends and family, or to be part of conversations that interest them or have a passion. Content not serving this purpose can turn your target audience off or be overwhelming. To avoid such scenarios, you need to take the time to learn what people want to read/watch and make it digestible via the formats and channels they find most useful.
Why craft a social media marketing content strategy?
Starting with a communication plan that aligns with your business goals is essential if your messaging influences your business and provides an ROI. This is not social-specific. Your plan should govern how you communicate with customers and future customers across all channels.
Your social media marketing content strategy can then be based on the communication plan and adapted to suit specific channels. For example, you may have a campaign launching a new detailed guide, and social media is used to seed snippets from the guide over X weeks with a hook to download the full content. The overarching plan guides what is discussed and when, and then the social media plan decides how to tell the story to a social audience based on content format, style, and execution.
Questions that help you create a social media marketing content strategy include the following:
- What are we trying to achieve on social media, and how does this align with core business goals/objectives/targets?
- What stories do we want to tell, and how can we make them relevant to our social audience?
- What is our social customer profile, and what types of content do they respond best to?
- What is the current state of the market – how do competitors and comparators perform socially, and what content works for them?
- Who needs to be involved in content production and marketing?
- How will we measure the success of social content?
- How will we optimize and improve what we are doing?
As you start to answer these questions, you draw up your social content plan based on audience needs and market context
This process should not be overly complicated; it needs to provide simple guidelines to help focus social marketers on the what/why/when of content marketing. The content strategy need not be complex, but without a content strategy and editorial calendar, it will be much harder to gain engagement and momentum around brand awareness with your audiences. A content strategy that answers the Why, What, Who, and How you will be in a position that makes you more adaptable and proactive with your content.
How to solve recurring social media content marketing issues?
Most tools are good at scheduling the content you have already created. This works well in cases where you have 30 or so LinkedIn or Facebook posts lined up. These can be dropped into one of the social media post-scheduling services, which will automatically go out on the assigned dates and times.
The challenge for agencies and larger organizations is with everything that needs to happen:
- Before you schedule posts
- After you schedule posts
In other words, the issues that pose a challenge are:
- How do you develop 10 or 50 content ideas for your communication to tell your story online at the beginning of the month?
- How do you consolidate all your ideas and assets in one place?
- How do you improve the way you are creating your posts?
- How do you gain approvals from other people, whether in-house or external, to your business in a way that minimizes delays and unnecessary back-and-forth discussions?
Even today, all these processes are handled through spreadsheets in some organizations or multiple tools. Invariably the process looks something like this –
- Take an Excel spreadsheet; put the list of posts inside it
- You try to send it and share it with everyone. In the best-case scenario, you are using Google Sheets, so you have a layer of collaboration, but none of this is designed for that specific use case.
Thibaud attempted to solve the issue by creating a simple tool (which grew into what Loomly is today) that covered this process. They were able to upload content, preview it, generate some mockups, and then get approval from everyone.
Based on feedback since those early days, Loomly has grown in its feature set to perform other functions, including:
- Publishing content that has received approvals
- Asset management
- Moderating comments
- Consolidating analytics from various platforms for organic posts and paid advertising
Loomly has blog content and other forms of content on its product roadmap because it noticed two things.
- Most users who use social media and advertising also use other forms of content.
- The actual workflow and processes can also be replicated for other forms of content.
How to create a social media marketing strategy in 9 steps
Step 1. Choose social media marketing goals that align with business objectives
One of the first steps in creating a social media marketing strategy is to choose goals that align with your overall business objectives. This way, you can be sure that your time and resources are being put towards activities that will impact your bottom line.
Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for social media marketing is essential. Vanity metrics like the number of followers and likes are easy to track, but it’s hard to prove their actual value. Instead, try focusing on engagement metrics like comments or shares.
With social media marketing, it’s important to have goals that align with your business objectives. This will help you create a successful strategy and avoid dismissing your social media efforts as ineffective. Here are nine social media goals that can be used as a starting point:
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate leads
- Create customer loyalty
- Drive website traffic
- Foster engagement with customers or followers
- Increase revenue from social channels
- Collect feedback from customers or followers
- Support other business objectives
- Gain insights into how customers interact with your brand online
Keep your goals simple so you can easily track them and make changes when needed, and list two to three goals most aligned with what your business needs right now.
For example, you might have different goals for each stage of the process, such as Awareness, Consideration, and Purchase, or other platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Once you know what you want to achieve, ensure your social media marketing goals align with your overall marketing objectives.
You should also write down at least three social media goals for a successful plan.
Remember setting your content goals is the first step toward a long-term social media marketing content strategy. Therefore you should know how your content marketing strategy could fulfill your overall business marketing goals. Keep in mind that your goals will determine the kinds of content you need to publish.
The chart below shows paid social media campaigns’ goals from marketers who participated in a Social Media Today survey.
For example, let’s say your marketing goals are to convert more sales from social media. Then your strategy should incorporate posts that move audience segments to specific landing pages tailored to their interests or some other part of your marketing funnel. This process initially will involve research and getting to know your audience, listening to their conversations on specific platforms, as well as knowing your brand values.
Step 2. Learn everything you can about your audience
Creating personas is one of the most important steps in social media marketing. It allows you to create content that will appeal to your target audience.
You must gather data about your followers and customers to create a persona. This information can include:
- Demographics (age, gender, location)
- Interests
- Behavioral data (what they like and share on social media)
Once you have this data, you can use it to personalize your social media marketing strategy.
Define your target audience
Your target audience is the group of people you want to reach with your marketing message. For your business to be successful, it’s essential to know who you’re trying to sell to and what content will resonate with them.
One way to figure out your target audience is by creating personas. A persona is a fictional, descriptive profile of an individual who belongs to your target market. Personas help define the type of content that resonates with your audience based on what they talk about with their friends and family members.
Demographic information (e.g., age, gender, income) can help you understand the basic characteristics of your target market, but psychographic data (e.g., interests, values) is essential to create relatable personas. Additionally, understanding customer needs allows you to create content that provides value for them.
Buyer personas are made up of demographic, psychographic, and needs information. By understanding these three factors, brands can make the most out of their target demographics and deliver relevant messages that speak directly to them. Personas also remind everyone involved in creating or executing marketing campaigns – from strategy development through execution – that there are real humans behind the data. This helps to ensure that content is tailored specifically for them.
Creating personas can seem daunting, but plenty of resources can help you get started. Of course, the best way to learn is by example, so check out some great examples from companies that have nailed it.
Step 3. Get to know your competition
To create an effective social media marketing strategy, you must understand your competition and what they’re doing. This section of the guide will help you do just that.
Start by conducting a competitive analysis to understand what other companies are doing on social media. This includes looking at their:
- Social media channels and presence
- The tone of voice and messaging
- Target audience(s)
- Type of content being shared
- Level of engagement with followers/customers
Once you have a good idea of what your competitors are doing, you can start to think about how you can encourage them into different platforms like Facebook or Instagram, which may be easier than trying to compete on their more dominant platform (like Twitter).
Step 4. Do a social media audit
It’s important to do a social media audit to determine what is and isn’t working. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Who is engaging with me?
- Which networks does my target audience use?
- How does my social media presence compare to the competition?
This will help you determine your strengths and weaknesses, so you can focus on activities that are most likely to succeed.
Identify the best platforms for your business
There is no point in attempting to have and maintain a presence on all platforms, as it would mean stretching yourself too thin. Choosing the best social media platforms to focus on can seem overwhelming, given the many factors to consider.
Some factors to consider when choosing the best platforms can be viewed in the image below from Accion:
When choosing the best platform, be sure to:
- Identify the social sites where your target audience spends their time
- Use Google Analytics to determine the demographics of your targeted audience and the platforms where they are most engaged.
You need to research keywords because the chances are that your competitors are using certain keywords that are helping them increase traction. You need to research what keywords they use across their channels to increase engagement and sales. This article can help with your research. Once you have answers to those questions, you can invest your time on those platforms.
Step 5. Set up accounts and improve profiles
Once you’ve defined your social media marketing strategy, it’s time to set up accounts and improve profiles. This will help people find you easily across different networks and help build trust with your audience.
Some best practices include:
- Using the same username and profile picture across all networks
- Make sure your bio is complete and consists of a link to your website or landing page
- Including high-quality images and videos in your posts
Hootsuite recommends using the Instagram feed to post infographics, product announcements, and live events. You can also use Facebook Live to broadcast your company’s interviews, events, or behind-the-scenes footage.
Step 6. Find inspiration
There are many social media success stories that you can find on the business section of a social network’s website. In addition, you can check out award-winning accounts and campaigns to see what works best for your brand.
You could also look at Facebook Awards or Shorty Awards winners to see how others have succeeded in their respective industries. Some of the best brands on social media are National Geographic and Shopify. Instagram is an excellent social media platform for National Geographic and Shopify. Lush Cosmetics is a great example of good customer service on social media. The brand uses Facebook to sell itself by showcasing customers’ stories and case studies.
Having a consistent voice and tone is essential for marketing on social media. People are more likely to follow you when they know what to expect from your content and brand. To create a social media marketing strategy, you can ask your followers for ideas.
Chat to your customers: Why Thibaud chats to at least 100 customers a day
In the early days of Loomly, Thibaud and a developer were building out the product. As they kept growing, they were also asking themselves the question of how they can scale the process so that the product team would generate direct feedback from customers. This need got Thibaud chatting to at least 100 customers daily on different channels. Every time they receive a bug report, a feature request, a general comment, or an idea, they update their product roadmap accordingly. Such chats also feed your content strategy while making it relevant and valuable to your audience.
Plan your social content
A coherent editorial calendar is crucial because it will help you map out, outline your projects, and maintain consistency. To maintain consistency, your editorial calendar should consist of content creation and content curation strategy, enabling you to create and curate epic social media content consistently for each social channel.
It will also make it possible for you to map out the frequency of your posts. Thus, when creating your content calendar, concentrate on the following areas:
- How frequently will I be posting to each social site?
- At what times will I be sharing content for maximum engagement?
- What types of content will resonate with my target audience?
- What topics will my readers love to engage with, etc.?
After successfully creating and/or curating your content, use automation or social media management tools to schedule your posts across channels. Also, ensure that you have put analytics in place to monitor the metrics you have to measure and the results you intend to generate.
Step 7. Create a social media content calendar
One way to help with your social media marketing strategy is to create a content calendar. This will allow you to plan when to share content and give you control over when to share content. Of course, it’s important to interact with an audience, but it’s also important to have a plan in place so you don’t post too often or too little.
Your calendar is the perfect place to plan your social media activities – including blog posts, graphics, and videos. You can create a content plan for different types of posts and get suggested best times to post based on past engagement data from Hootsuite.
Your timeline includes both day-to-day posting and content for campaigns. A campaign might be a product launch or a Black Friday sale. Your calendar should be tailored around your business goals – what do you want your social media marketing strategy to achieve?
The content mix is an essential part of any social media marketing strategy. Try aiming for 50% traffic driving, 25% curated, and 20% lead generation posts. That way, you’ll maximize reach while generating leads from your social media efforts.
One-third of your content should consist of thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses who can offer valuable insights and information. One-third of your content should be personal interactions with your audience, and one-third should help promote the business.
Posting too much can lead to annoyance, but posting too little can also be a problem getting followers. So if you’re running a campaign, you should post more on Instagram at least three times per week.
Scheduling your posts in advance using a social media calendar like Hootsuite’s can help you stay organized. In addition, Hootsuite offers a post-scheduling tool to help you find the best times to publish on social media, so you don’t have to worry about when to hit “publish.”
Why use a social media strategy template
A social media strategy template is a great way to track the progress of your social media marketing plan. In addition, it can be beneficial if you use a tool like Hootsuite to help manage your posts across all networks.
Hootsuite’s easy-to-use platform makes it simple to create plans and schedules for posts ahead of time, so you can stay on top of engagement and avoid overlap. You can also use their universal inbox to keep an eye on all conversations across your networks simultaneously. Plus, their detailed performance reports make it easy to see where your plan could use some improvement.
To get started, define your audience and how they interact with your brand. Then do a social media content audit to understand what you need to create for each network. Next, use this template as an outline when creating content for each network, and set your social media posting schedule accordingly.
Then list all the content curation sources you’ll be using, along with repurposing guidelines and how best to utilize them. Finally, manage everything on a calendar so you can always stay up-to-date on what’s coming next!
It’s essential to measure the success of your social media strategy. Typical metrics include reach and engagement and an overall view of how each platform performs against other platforms. You should also monitor any changes in your niche audience over time and compare them with similar audiences on different channels. This will help you see which platforms are most effective for reaching your target audience.
Step 8. Create compelling content
Now that you’ve defined your social media channels and goals, creating content is time. This is where having a content calendar will come in handy.
Posting content that aligns with the mission of each social media channel. For example, on LinkedIn, your goal might be to share thought-leadership pieces or post updates about your company.
You might share short and snappy bits of information, links to blog posts, or photos of your company culture on Twitter. They are showing other stakeholders what kind of content they can expect to see on each social media channel. It’s essential to create a social media strategy that allows for flexibility in content so that you can test which types of posts work best for each network. Not all networks are alike – what works on Facebook might not work as well on LinkedIn, and vice versa.
It’s also important to keep an eye out for updates in this section over time; platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are constantly changing their algorithms, so ensure you’re staying up-to-date on how best to reach your audience there.
Step 9. Track performance and adjust your social media strategy accordingly
Just as a business should continually strive to improve its website, it’s also important to constantly tweak and adjust your social media marketing strategy.
Businesses may find that some strategies work better than others, so tracking progress and adapting accordingly is important. Social media marketing doesn’t happen overnight; it takes time and effort to see results.
You can use UTM parameters to track social visitors as they move through your website and what effect your content has had on them. (Ensure you’re correctly using utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, and utm_term.) Then take that data and re-evaluate, test, and do it all again based on performance metrics you’ve collected from each network. Constant testing is vital for a social media marketing strategy – after all, what works today might not work tomorrow.
Make sure to check the performance of all your channels at least once a week, and get familiar with social media reporting so you can track your growth over time. Hootsuite is great for checking analytics in one place; it allows different reports to be customized over different periods. You can monitor every post’s performance and make changes as needed.
Social media marketing surveys can be a great way to determine how well your strategy works. So send them out regularly (at least once a quarter), and make sure to deliver on what you hear from the people you surveyed. Gauging customer sentiment is important in any social media marketing strategy, so listening to feedback is critical.
How to plan your social content and create it
When creating social media content, it’s important to have a strategy. This will help ensure that your posts are aligned with your audience and the purpose of each social platform. Here are some tips on how to create a social media content strategy that works for your business:
1) Understand your audience. Who are you trying to reach with your social media content? What challenges do they face that you can help solve? Understanding your audience is key to creating compelling content.
2) Align your content with the purpose of each social platform. Not all platforms are created equal – what works on one might not work well on another. Make sure you’re using the right tone and format for each platform, and always be mindful of who you’re trying to reach.
3) Focus on helping buyers achieve their objectives. When you create social media content, think about how you can help buyers overcome their challenges and achieve their goals. Your posts should always be relevant and helpful – not just self-promotional.
4) Use visuals whenever possible. Posts with visuals get more engagement than those without, so make sure to use images, videos, infographics, etc., whenever possible.
5) Schedule time for planning and creating social media content. A content calendar will help you plan and organize your posts, saving you time. Use these tips to create a social media content strategy that works for your business.
Why original content is the only way forward for a social media marketing content strategy
Thibaud and his business partner Noemie, who is also his wife, have been working in digital marketing for the last ten years and have noticed a pattern replicating from search engines to social media. Social networking sites first needed content. They then reached a point where the challenge was no longer finding content but prioritizing it. For example, in the early days of Facebook, you could publish something and have a great organic reach.
Since then, everyone has seen that kind of organic reach decrease. Now because the platforms cannot show all the content to all users, they must prioritize it for engagement. What we see now is that the platforms prioritize original organic content. Twitter, for example, now suspends accounts that publish either the same tweet multiple times on the same account or different accounts. If you go to Facebook and look at the publisher’s guidelines, they say our audience wants authentic content. Again, from 10 years ago, with search engines and looking at where we are now, there is this clear trend of how original content is being promoted and prioritized on these platforms.
Original content is the way forward. To address this, you should not seek to automate content creation. To Thibaud, the real issue is more about finding ways to streamline the process of developing original content.
Producing original content is time-consuming, but are there simpler ways to produce it?
Before founding Loomly, running their agency, Thibaud and his team were helping clients create content for famous brands like L’Oréal, the cosmetic company. To hasten the process, they wanted to hasten the process of generating ideas so they did not have to start from scratch every time. The answer to that came in the form of Loomly, which also addresses other pain points they experienced like:
- Managing all your assets in one place so that you do not have to look for your images and videos
- Providing you tips to improve your posts
- Being able to schedule posts on multiple accounts
- Being able to manage all the comments in one place
As part of the product evolution, they will be implementing more ways that Loomly improves the process of creating original content for you in a cost-efficient way and in a way that will prove the value of the content.
How to identify the types of content that will produce a positive ROI
To identify the types of content that will produce a positive ROI, Thibaud recommends using a combination of approaches, which could include:
- Examine your analytics for indicators of the past performance of your content. In other words, look for data that will indicate the type of results you want to see from your content
- Looking at your competitors and what content they are doing well for inspiration
- Soliciting ideas from completely different industries. Although you may be in the B2B SaaS space, you could find inspiration in the B2C space.
Build a content calendar
Creating a social media marketing content strategy can be overwhelming. There are many things to think about:
- what content to create
- when to post it
- how to target your audience… the list goes on.
But don’t worry, we’re here to help!
First, you need to build a content calendar. This will be your hub for all social media posting and help you visualize ideas and organize them in a way that makes the strategy easy to execute. To maximize effectiveness, schedule posts across different platforms (e.g., post on Facebook one day and Twitter the next).
Sprout helps you find the best dates to post by collecting data from your followers. It also provides reports which tell you when your posts are most likely to get the most reach–so you can plan and make sure as many people see your message as possible.
A content calendar makes it easier to collaborate on social media posts with different departments in your company. In addition, it’s helpful to have a variety of voices contributing so you can create a more well-rounded plan.
Collaborate to build a social media marketing content calendar/editorial calendar
Once you have a clear social media marketing content strategy, you need to conduct an audit. The audit will help you discover which posts performed well, which ones did not, and on which platforms. You could use Loomly or other tools to acquire the insights you are looking for. However, you do not necessarily need a tool to analyze your data. You could instead export the post and page analytics from each platform into a spreadsheet.
The information you obtain from your audit should align with your content goals. For example, if one of the goals is to improve brand awareness, then look for which posts resulted in new followers because those posts will help expose your brand to future customers.
You may notice a disconnect between posts you think should do well and the ones that do. If so, look at the specific posts. Note the tone and voice you use in the posts you thought should do well but do not. Also, determine whether those posts are relevant to your audience. After all, irrelevant posts are the second largest reason consumers unfollow brands on social media.
Promote and distribute your content
Creating content is only a small part of your social media content strategy. It should go way beyond what you post on your social channels. A good content strategy should also involve distributing your content actively so that as many individuals as possible see it, thereby increasing your reach.
A few other things you could do to increase engagement include:
- Encouraging your audience to engage with your content by asking a question or sharing their answers on social media or in the blog post comments
- When they do respond and or repost their answers
- Network with bloggers and content creators in your niche; other brands are more likely to share your content with their audience if you have a relationship and will return the favor.
- Discover the best time to post when most of your audience is online and engaging with content
- Using appropriate hashtags on certain platforms can also extend your reach
- Join groups related to your niche
Now that you’ve created some great content, it’s time to promote and distribute it! Here are a few tips on how to do that:
- Make sure to include social media share buttons in your blog posts so people can easily share them with their followers.
- You can also encourage your audience to share and engage with your content by asking questions.
- Posting at the right time can help you reach more people. For example, if you’re targeting North American audiences, post later in the evening when people are winding down for the day.
- Another way to reach more people is by using hashtags. Hashtags help share your content with people who are not following you but following a trend or interest.
- Join groups related to your industry and share relevant content when it comes up in conversation. You can also find relevant groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Content creators in your niche may be a good option for promoting and distributing content – they’ll likely be happy to help if they like what you’re doing!
- But most importantly, ensure your content is valuable to your audience – that will keep them coming back for more.
Track and measure performance
To be successful, tracking and measuring your content’s performance is essential. This will help you determine which pieces of content resonate with your audience and which don’t. You can use various metrics to track this information, such as views, shares, and conversions.
Reach is a metric that can be used to measure how many people have read your blog post or article. It’s determined by multiplying the number of unique viewers by the number of impressions. The Click-through rate is a way to track the effectiveness of social media messages and links. It’s calculated by dividing the number of clicks on a link by the number of impressions it received.
Buffer integrates analytics into all its social media platforms so you can track referrals from social media and your website traffic through Google Analytics (GA). GA is a free web-based interface and app that provides detailed information about website traffic. It tracks data such as the number of sessions, page views, and unique visitors to your website. You can also see where your traffic is coming from (e.g., social media, organic search, etc.), how long people stay on your site, and which pages they visit.
Google’s list of five meaningful reports for managing your social media marketing plan is available on the web-based interface or in the Analytics app. The five reports are Acquisition Overview, Social Media Channels, Conversions Overview, Behaviour Flow, and Real-Time Events.
This approach will ensure that your strategy is working for the long term and allows for adjustments during the course. As you did with the content audit, ensure you relate the analytics to your overall marketing goals.
Use your goals as a compass to help you adjust your strategy accurately. You can monitor the analytics each month. That way, you will need to make small tweaks to optimize your social media content strategy. A few important metrics to measure include:
- Awareness – The number of times people saw your content as told by impressions and reach
- Engagements – The number of reactions, comments, clicks, and shares your content gets
- ROI – Conversions and referrals from external sources
Other considerations to keep in mind are that you should:
- Take a top-level view of your content over some time when analyzing your results/data
- Look at how each piece of content performed and what variables it had working with it
- Assess how well the content contributed to the overall content goals that you set
Putting it all together
Now that you know the basics of creating a social media marketing content strategy, it’s time to put it together. Here are the steps you need to take:
1) Figure out your specific content mix. What kind of content will you share on social media? This could include blog posts, images, infographics, videos, or podcasts.
2) Create an editorial calendar. This will help you plan your content and ensure everything is consistent across all channels.
3) Establish clear guidelines for social media content types. For example, what kind of content will be shared on each platform? For instance, Facebook statuses can be up to 280 characters, while Twitter tweets are limited to 140 characters.
What makes for a successful social media marketing team?
A successful social media marketing team is no longer the domain of a single individual. Successful social media marketing teams can now encompass several team members and other teams depending on the business objectives and what messaging needs to go out. In light of this, there are a few key aspects to a successful social media marketing content strategy:
1. Collaboration
Collaboration in teams is what makes such organizations derive more value. In such organizations, you could have one person who may be creating the content and another reviewing it, and then when the content is published, you could have a third person reporting on how the content performs.
2. Catering to cross-functional teams
Loomly has also seen an increasing trend of cross-functional teams involved with social media marketing content strategies. In such instances, it is not only the marketing teams that are in charge of content but other teams are involved.
For example, the sales team could be involved, solicit feedback from the field, or involve the product team to generate some interesting facts about the product itself. That way, you could share other less well-known features. In other cases, like in regulated industries or large publicly traded corporations, there is a huge need for brand compliance. In those cases, you could have the HR department or the legal department involved to ensure that anything that goes out has been approved internally and is compliant with the company protocols, thereby avoiding issues that Tesla experienced in 2018.
3. Facilitate the sharing of stories
Having a conversation on social media as a brand is all about telling your story and sharing things that resonate with your audience. When you involve different persons inside a company in the marketing process, you start to have different perspectives. For instance, if you involve sales, you can include feedback that you would not have had as a marketing team.
One of the things that Loomly does is that whenever their success team speaks with their customers, and there is some interesting feedback, they convert that feedback into a post so that they can share some of the love they receive. This would not be possible if it was just one team working on marketing without considering the information and experiences that other teams possess. Content that incorporates the views of other teams and their stories generally tends to drive higher engagement because it gives a broader picture of the company and not just a product-focused or sales-focused perspective.
Finalizing your social media strategy
Creating a social media marketing strategy can be overwhelming. This is because there are many factors to consider: What platforms should you use? What content should you share? How often should you post?
But don’t worry, we’re here to help. Just follow these simple steps, and you’ll be on your way to a successful social media marketing strategy that works for your business.
1. Choose the right social media platforms
Not all social media platforms are created equal. You need to choose the ones that will work best for your business. For example, if you sell products online, then you’ll want to focus on using Facebook and Instagram. On the other hand, LinkedIn might be a better option for you if you provide services.
2. Know your audience
Before creating any content, it’s important to know your target audience. What are their interests? What kind of content do they like to consume? Once you have this information, you can create content that appeals specifically to them.
3. Create a content calendar
One of the most critical aspects of social media marketing is consistency. You need to be posting regularly if you want to keep followers engaged and attract new ones. That’s why it’s helpful to create a Content Calendar where you can plan your posts ahead of time.
4. Make sure everyone on your team is on board
One of the biggest challenges with social media marketing is ensuring that everyone on your team is on board. Having a unified voice across all channels is important, so your followers know what to expect from you.
Fueling growth with a social media marketing content strategy
There are many ways to develop a social media marketing content strategy to grow your business. However, with billions of social media users, you have lots of challenges and competitors in the marketplace. However, with a sustainable social media-marketing plan—a framework for your business—you can easily stand out from the noise and grow your business. Which steps have you used to develop your social media marketing content plan?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the steps involved in creating a social media marketing content strategy?
Creating a social media marketing content strategy can seem daunting, but it’s not as complicated as it looks. First, you need to take a few basic steps to create a roadmap that works for your business and helps you achieve your goals.
1) Start by creating a plan for your social media marketing. This document puts structure around your efforts, so you can measure success and make sure you spend resources wisely.
2) Choose the platforms best suited to your audience and industry and how many platforms you can manage effectively. Trying to be on too many platforms will spread you thin and likely result in them not receiving the attention they deserve.
3) Set simple goals for yourself to track progress over time. Maintaining a rhythm allows you to set more specific and strategic goals down the line, but starting with some attainable objectives is vital.
4) Identify what posts are most popular on each social platform and use this information to understand better who your audience is. Knowing what content people want more of from you makes it easier to produce material they’ll enjoy while meeting your business needs at the same time
What essential things do you need to consider when creating a social media marketing content strategy?
When creating a social media marketing content strategy, there are some important things to remember. The first is to choose the platforms you want to use based on who you want to reach. After that, you should be able to be active on all the platforms you decide to use, so it doesn’t become overwhelming.
Your social media marketing plan should also be created so that it is clear what success looks like. This will make it measurable, so you’ll know if your efforts are paying off. When starting, it’s best to set simple goals and objectives.
Once your goals are established, gather insights from your social media marketing content to set more specific, strategic goals. Adjust and report regularly based on these insights; this will help ensure your social media marketing content strategy is effective over time. Use analytics to identify the most engaging posts and how your audience changes over time. This information can help guide future decisions about what type of content to produce and share on social media channels.
What types of content should be included in a social media marketing content strategy?
A social media marketing content strategy should include a variety of different types of content to be successful. This way, you can reach more people with your message and better engage with them. Some popular content types are videos, blogs, images, and infographics.
However, don’t feel limited by these ideas! There are many other possibilities out there that could work well for your business. The key is to experiment and see what gets the best response from your audience. Mailchimp’s social media management tools make it easy for you to try new things and see what works best. So go ahead and be creative! You may be surprised at how well your efforts pay off.
How often should businesses post new content on social media as part of their content strategy?
Determining how often to post on social media can be tricky. You don’t want to spam your followers, but you also don’t want them to forget about you. The best way to find out what works for your business is to look at what competitors are doing and see what their audience expects.
You can also use tools like ReQueue to help automate posting content across all major networks. This way, you can ensure that new content is posted as often as possible.
However, it’s important to remember that not all content is created equal. Therefore, you should create specific social media posts with features in mind for each social media network. For example, Twitter posts should be shorter than Facebook posts, which should be shorter than LinkedIn posts.
Ensure the content supports your business goals–you don’t want to waste time creating and posting irrelevant content! Once you’ve identified those goals, it’ll be much easier to create a plan for social media marketing that works for your business.
How can businesses measure the success of their social media marketing content strategy?
One of the main challenges businesses face when it comes to social media marketing is measuring the success of their content strategy. Without proper measurements, it’s difficult to know if you’re reaching your target audience and generating leads.
There are a few different ways businesses can measure the success of their social media marketing content strategy:
- Use Google Analytics to track website traffic from social media sources. This will give you an idea of how many people visit your website due to your social media campaigns.
- Attach tracking tags to your links to see how many people click through them. This will help you determine which content resonates with your audience and generate the most clicks.
- Use engagement metrics (e.g., likes, shares, comments) to gauge how well your content performs on various platforms. This will give you an idea of which topics interest your audience most and what type of content they prefer.
What common mistakes do businesses make regarding their social media marketing content strategy?
When it comes to social media marketing, many businesses make the same mistakes. They post without a real strategy or focus too much on what they will post instead of how they will get there. Not only that, but businesses also need to think about why they’re using social media in the first place- and how their goals for social media tie into their overall business goals.
If you want your social media marketing content strategy to be successful, you need to plan it out well and make sure all your bases are covered. Failing to do so can lead to much wasted time and effort- not to mention poor results.
How can businesses ensure their social media marketing content strategy is aligned with their overall business goals?
Businesses should set specific goals that can be measured and assessed to determine their success level. These goals need to be SMART, meaning they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This will help businesses focus on the most important metrics which can prove their value.
Regarding social media marketing content strategy, tracking conversion rates, engagement levels, and click-throughs across different platforms are essential. Doing so will help you see how each platform compares with the others in generating leads or sales.
To create a successful social media marketing plan, businesses should start by writing down at least three goals. Having tangible objectives will help secure buy-in from management and ensure that the social media marketing content strategy is aligned with overall business goals.
What tools or resources help businesses with their social media marketing content strategies?
Businesses can use several tools and resources regarding social media marketing content strategies. For example, automation tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social can help with tasks like scheduling posts, analyzing competitors, and generating reports. Additionally, businesses do not have to use every social media platform available- they can choose the ones that make the most sense for their target audience and goals.
For example, if your audience is active on TikTok, it might be a good idea to start creating content for that platform. Similarly, Facebook is an incredibly effective social media platform for B2B and B2C brands. It has a variety of formats to support posts, ad targeting options, and users. Twitter is also great for customer service but may not be the best tool for every business. LinkedIn is perfect for B2B brands with expertise who want to talk about their thoughts on topics related to their industry.
Social media marketing is a process that involves different platforms, tools, and techniques to reach your target audience. It’s important to remember that not all platforms will be suitable for every business- so you need to find the ones that work best for you. Additionally, companies should consider using educational resources like the video marketing crash course to help them produce engaging content regularly.
What are some tips for creating successful and engaging social media posts as part of a broader social media strategy?
Regarding social media, you can do a few things to increase your post’s chances of success. First, post at least once weekly; this will keep your account active and ensure your followers don’t forget about you. Second, target one of the global top two sites–Facebook or Instagram–to start with as part of your content strategy. Finally, Facebook Groups are also great for building a digital community around your brand or product.
Third, create engaging content that will get people talking. This could include interesting facts, images, or videos about your business or industry. And finally, be sure to respond to all comments and messages to engage with followers and other users on the platform.
How highly regulated industries can best make use of social media marketing content without harming their brand
In regulated industries where social media has not always been part of the equation, it is harder to use social media marketing content. It is not as easy as traditional PR, where you could talk to a reporter and say this is on the record and off the record. With social media, things are a lot murkier with personal accounts and brand accounts and not necessarily being able to manage all the published content.
Brand compliance is needed in such instances, where content can be submitted for vetting or approval and allow for collaboration. Thibaud says a French client of Loomly, a publicly-traded company, has each post created by their social media manager. Each post is then approved by not only the CMO but also the CFO.
He says there is no clear answer to the issue as the needs are industry-specific, but it does not hurt to involve more people in the loop to ensure you have the green light to publish something that meets brand guidelines. A tool like Loomly can help implement this sort of collaborative process and place safeguards around your social media publishing process while removing delays in sharing information.
How to avoid the danger of paralysis by analysis when collaborating and seeking approvals
Thibaud says yes, that is a possibility, especially when starting. As in going from one person creating and publishing content to involving more people and gaining approval from multiple parties before content gets published. These can be eliminated or reduced considerably with time and learning from experiences. However, there is an upside for the person who creates the content.
Say that you are responsible for developing content ideas and creating them. Once you have the approval of someone else to publish your post, you are protecting your job. Because you can say yes, I suggested this idea, but other people in the company have approved it.
There have been countless examples where a social media manager with all the good intentions in the world published something that turned out to be bad buzz and put his or her job at risk. Once you improve this process, maybe some of your ideas do not make it out, which is a probability. However, what goes out will be safer, even for you, so that is worth looking at, and there is a good upside to that process.
Why responsiveness cannot be ignored in your social media marketing content strategy
Thibaud says that trends are showing that there are rising expectations of consumers in the B2C and B2B space. People want to find out about the company, contact others, and expect a response when they reach out or inquire. Not all companies can afford to provide 24/7 support. There are, however, a couple of things you can do, including:
- Setting up notifications to send every time someone is reaching out
- Note that even if you do not reply immediately, you can just let them know that you will reconnect with them within a set time frame, say, 6 hours, 24 hours, or 2 business days—it does not matter.
- Remember that it is all about setting expectations. Once you set the expectation, you need to keep your promise. I would say this is what I would recommend being as clear as you can, as transparent as you can, and keep your promises.
Between one minute and seven days, there is a reasonable amount of time in which you can expect to get back to a customer or prospect. This timeframe matters because it shows that the company cares about your business and that they are willing to help you. Strategically, I reduce the chances of someone going and shopping elsewhere.
Another area in which it can make a big difference is customer service. Let us say you have a current customer or user, whether they are paying for your service or not, and they reach out to you and have an issue. Thibaud says that they have seen that if you can reply within minutes, the level of satisfaction regardless of the problem is usually amplified with a short response time and then decays relatively quickly.
If you reply within one minute, usually, people will be amazed. Even if you reply within 15 minutes, you will still have a good impact. One hour is expected. If it takes a day to respond, people might be ok with it. However, beyond that point, it just becomes poor customer service. Thus, providing responsive customer service greatly impacts customer satisfaction and retention.
What is a content strategy, and why is it important?
Content strategy is a term used to describe content creation with a specific goal in mind. This could be anything from raising brand awareness to increasing sales. However, simply creating content and posting it on social media is not enough – you need to have a broader plan in place to see any real results.
The bigger picture is important when creating content and staying on track. You need to think about who your target audience is, what type of content they would find most valuable, and how you can differentiate yourself from the competition. Without a solid content marketing strategy, social media pages will not attract many views or followers.
Creating quality content takes time and effort, but it’s ultimately worth it. Social media allows companies to engage with their customers in real time and provide valuable feedback that can be used in the future. By taking advantage of social media, businesses can create successful content strategies to help them reach their goals.
How do you want your future customers to feel when viewing your content?
When creating content for your social media marketing strategy, it’s essential to remember how you want your audience to feel. For example, do you want them to feel confident and accomplished? Or do you want them to feel like they need to take action?
If you want to inspire confidence and a sense of accomplishment in your viewers, consider using knowledge as the focus of your content. This could mean providing information or tips that help people understand what they’re doing. When people feel knowledgeable and capable, they’ll be more likely to trust your brand and take the recommended actions.
On the other hand, if you want your viewers to feel like they need to take action, then use a “call-to-action” (CTA) as the focus of your content. A CTA is a message that encourages people to do something–usually buy a product or service, sign up for a mailing list, or visit a website. Viewers who see a clear call-to-action in your content will be more likely to respond!
Remember when creating social media marketing content to align with how you want viewers to feel. It’s important to think about what we say and how we say it.
How do you write a good social media post?
Regarding social media, there’s one golden rule: posts should be interesting and relevant to followers. But how do you make sure your posts stand out from the rest?
One way is to have a unique angle that sets your brand apart from others. This could be a special offer, a new product release, or even a contest. Whatever it is, make sure it’s something followers will want to see!
Once you’ve got your content strategy in place, the next step is to create an agreement between team members as to who is responsible for what during the execution of the plan. This will help ensure that everyone knows their role and can work together smoothly.
The most important element of a good social media post is engagement. The best way to engage an audience is by using stories–a type of content marketing strategy for social media posts. Stories are eye-catching and emotionally charged, which makes them perfect for capturing attention on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Listen to the episode with Thibaud Clément
In this episode, Thibaud Clement, CEO of Loomly shares how to fuel growth with a social media marketing content strategy. Insights he shares include:
Some topics we discussed include:
- Why Thibaud chats to at least 100 customers a day.
- How to make sense of all the information and requests customers send your way
- Why Thibaud launched Loomly despite the intense competition in the social media marketing space.
- What makes for a successful social media marketing team
- Why original content is the only way forward for a social media marketing content strategy
- How to identify the types of content that will produce a positive ROI
- How highly regulated industries can best make use of social media marketing content without harming their brand.
- Why responsiveness cannot be ignored in your social media marketing content strategy
- How to enter and scale advertising on social media?
- Loomly’s north star metric?
- How Loomly deals with churn
- How to determine whether you should invest in customizing content for client acquisition
Related links and resources
- Check out Loomly
Connect with Thibaud
- Connect with Thibaud on LinkedIn