Social media platforms are your soldiers that will work tirelessly to attain your goals. They are fast, inexpensive (sometimes free), and effective in putting your business on the map. Similar to chess, it is about strategizing your moves to maximize each step’s potential.
A social media strategy is the plan overview you develop to achieve your online goals. The outline will provide clarity on how you should move forward and gain social credits. These credits are commonly known as likes, shares, comments, etc. They aid as metrics that assist you in understanding if you are optimizing your content’s potential.
All it takes 7 steps to map a winning game plan.
Step 1: Pen down S.M.A.R.T Goals
This is your plan of action roadmap to the outcomes of your initiatives.
Questions such as:
What do I want to achieve with each platform?
Does my goal apply uniformly across all channels?
Do I hope to attain different outcomes for each channel?
When creating a social media campaign in Singapore, you should repeatedly flash in your mind as you pen each Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound goal. (Pro-tip: Capitalize it on the top of your paper to keep you in check.)
An example of a S.M.A.R.T goal reads like this:
We will use our Instagram channel and increase our overall account engagement to 20% from the current 18% by end of Q3.
For the given S.M.A.R.T goal example, you will be focusing on figures from comments, likes, and shares. You may even have insights into conversion rates that are practical business proofs of a working approach. Discount codes are a straightforward method of telling you if your ad placement is worth the dollar. In the social media world, they are frequently used in conjunction with a Key Opinion Leader a.k.a Influencer, to find out if the engaged party has the power to successfully convert their following into your brand’s advocates.
Step 2: Understand your target audience
Knowing where your bullseye is at, is half the battle won. The bullseye here is your audience. Understanding their likes, dislikes and general quirks will assist you to create content that resonates. After all, in the digital realm, nothing is really erased and what you want to do is to optimize every pixel’s lifespan.
General things like age, location, and gender may tell you the type of audience that gravitates towards the channel. More specific points such as income, career, interests will propel your content narratives and enable you to properly invest your efforts in engaging the group you want as your account’s followers.
Tip: Rely on factual data that are usually provided free for business accounts. Trusting in stereotypes can deter you from making sensible decisions.
Step 3: Keep your Team close and your competitors closer.
Lucky you if your identified competitions are already on the social platform! This simply means you will be able to study and observe what is working and not. This competitive analysis lays out their methodologies on how they reacted / pre-empted certain market trends, especially important in Singapore where competition is stiff. Bonus: It may reveal opportunities that your business can take advantage of.
Eg. You could observe that their engagement is highly robotic. Thus, focusing on providing a more fluid way of interaction might be an option to grow organically and connect with your following. This could mean showing bloopers or working with niche micro-influencers to associate a character with your brand.
Next up, Social Listening. An effortless way to eavesdrop on what everyone is “whispering” about your competition and possibly reveal what their future strategy might be like. All you will need to do is key in the relevant hashtags or do a quick Google keywords search. It is that simple, really. Best of all, it is useful in gathering insights for tweaks in your strategy.
Step 4: Recognize the core function of each platform.
Every platform is birth with a fundamental purpose. Respecting this will allow you to be aware of how the audience consumes within the realm and plan for content that achieves maximum results. One such example is the fame spillover from TikTok onto Instagram.
The beauty of TikTok is its intimate 20s experience of a slice of life from the seemingly “IT” girl / boy that reminds everyone that he / she is pretty much an everyday Joe. At the heart of Instagram, is to showcase a curated visual feed that is easily digestible in a split second. Used concurrently, growth figures can grow exponentially in a short timeframe. Just look at TikTok influencers’ Instagram account.
To realize this potential, simply define a short and sweet mission statement for each social media account that will guide your content plan.
Eg.
Instagram will be curated to show the polished side of the end product
TikTok will display the raw and unfiltered process of attaining the end product
Voila, you have just outlined your content strategy.
Step 6: Plot your releases.
Now, you will need to display your fabulous details boldly for the world. With a tactful study of your audience and competitors, you would have figured an optimum time period to “live” your post. However, you want to avoid overwhelming your audience. Instead of deciding to post everyday, balance your frequency among your platforms to keep things fresh. This could very well mean, 2 primary posts for Instagram per week, a single post every alternate day for Facebook, engaging a micro-influencer to shout out 2x monthly, and a set ad budget of $50 for 2 weeks. There, you have just set your schedule.
Most platforms these days provide the option to schedule ahead, which means you are able to focus on the next thing.
Step 7: Review.
No strategy is complete without conducting reviews after each major step. This gives you leeway to rethink your current strategy before any costly commitments. Being honest here is crucial in finding out if all your blind spots, obstacles are identified and properly managed.
1. Is my desired audience group following my account?
2. Are the current results enough to substantiate my effort input?
3. Are my competitors edging over me? If so, what may I observe from their current strategy that will improve my social standing?
Remember, the more critical you are here, the better your odds are in optimizing your future efforts.
There you have it, a cheat book on the essential steps in creating a powerful social media strategy. The key is to always be flexible and maneuver in the digital world like water. There is no textbook way to win the heart of anyone in real life, so why should your strategy be rigid?
