Social Media Digital Strategy is almost mandatory

The most used digital marketing tool is now becoming Social Media Marketing. It is basically the use of social media platforms to connect with desired prospects. You can connect with your audience to build a brand. As well as increase sales, and if it is the case, also drives website traffic. The main social media platforms at the moment are TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn. The consumer is going to the internet before going to the yellow pages. The consumer is going to Facebook before calling the better business bureau.

Nowadays, digital marketing is an essential aspect of the business. Think of digital marketing as your virtual storefront. Still, just like everything else, it constantly changes and evolves. It was so using different strategies that take advantage of all the new tools available. So just as your store changes you must change and adapt to the moving target of consumer attention.

Some benefits of using digital marketing are:

• You can save more money than with traditional methods
• You can get to know your audience
• You can track responses
• You can reach a global marketplace
• You can interact with your prospects

Need for a Social Media Plan / Strategy

The list of reasons why an effective social media marketing strategy or plan is necessary is endless and keeps growing daily, but let’s mention just some of them:

1. Customers are active on social media: The most you connect with your audience, the more likely you are to have new customers. Technology has developed an atmosphere of easy access and use for people. Allowing them to exchange information on their own terms and conditions. Letting them decide how to contact you.
2. Build Brand Awareness: Social media accounts for your brand will be helpful for your brand when used daily, being able to generate a large audience for your business in no time. This kind of channel makes it easier for a customer to find you and communicate with you. And secondly, increases their satisfaction and they’re royalty.
3. Give room for innovation: A plan that’s consistent with the objectives of your business will make easier the process of building and creating content. It will resonate with your audience, giving you the chance to refine the quality of the material and think in a creative yet effective social post. You can include interactive resources available to generate more engagement with your audience.
4. Engagement: Social media opens a dialogue for quick relationship building and customer loyalty. It’s critical to design and establishes new ways to communicate with your audience, so they get to feel more and more involved.

Content Calendar for your Social Media Plan / Strategy

The content calendar is the most common, used, and effective tool that can help you when you are creating or establishing a strategy.

This will help you plan ahead of the content and the post you will be publishing on social media. It may sound a bit overwhelming at first, but organizing your content is key when designing a social media marketing strategy, and will bring you tons of benefits. Let’s not freak out planning your content does not have to be rocket science and you can do it from the easiest way, which is through the use of templates available online or designing from scratch.

One of the benefits of using a content calendar for your brand is that it’ll help to post constantly. There’s no other option to growing organically on social media than being constant, keeping your brand giving the customers content they can consume and interact with. As obvious as it may seem, another perk is the time you’ll be saving when defining things in advance; this will also allow you to post better content on your accounts since you’ll have the time to talk and don’t miss out on important events.

But most importantly, a content calendar will help you check the content and quality of the information you’re constantly giving to the people, so you can make sure it fits and helps your brand to accomplish the desired goal, matching with the social media strategy you’ve designed.

Planning is a necessity.

Planning is a necessity

There are multiple reasons why you need a social media marketing plan. Still, it’s important to mention that, without it, you and your team will find themselves posting information with no particular order, giving a messy first impression of your business.

A huge part of designing and defining your marketing strategy on social media is to know which platforms you’re going to be using, according to the results you want for your brand. It’s important to know this because a brand can have a presence on every platform, or either you can define and select just a few of them.

Whether you are just starting out your business or you want to expand and grow, you must have a plan. Your marketing calendar, digital plan, your campaign strategy are your blueprint for success. You must be willing to have a plan that is either 3 months or 6 months or 12 months. Then you need to evaluate those plan’s success. By having a plan you are creating goals that you can achieve.

A massive part of designing and defining your marketing strategy on social media is knowing which platforms you will use according to the results you want for your brand. It’s important to know this because a brand can have a presence on every platform, or you can define and select just a few. There used to be just one dominant social planner, Hootsuite, and it was free, now that the planning business has become very lucrative. So if you manage one account, and your platform is Facebook and Instagram, use the Facebook Business planner. It is easy and FREE. If you are like me and managing multiple accounts and platforms, you must choose one that fits your style and needs. I like Social Pilot and it works for what I need, and yes they all have their flaws.

Set your goals out of reach but not out of sight.

By Edwin Gerace