5 Steps to a Social Media Strategy

By Claudia Young, Writing Intern

 

If you feel constantly overwhelmed keeping up with your company’s social media or don’t even know where to start, you’re not alone. Having a specific plan in mind to reach your goals is hard. What exactly is going to bring your business, and what social media is going to benefit your business the most? While every business is different, here are five steps towards improving your social media strategy.

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Find your niche

Which social media platforms are your customers gravitating towards? If you’re not sure, check out this article from Copy Blogger. If you figure this out first, it’ll save you time since you’ll know which platforms to focus on rather than aimlessly posting and hoping something will work.

Use a scheduler

If you’re like most people, you simply don’t have time to devote to social media. Luckily, people have created programs to help you with that! Upload media, create captions, and schedule posts for as long as you want.

Generally, it’s best to schedule a month in advance. Even though this might take a few hours to do, it’ll save you time in the long run and will keep your social media afloat. Think of it as meal prepping before a busy week. Yes, it’ll take a while, but you won’t be able to say, “Eh. I don’t have the time or energy to cook,” since it’ll already be ready for you.

Many social media third-party schedulers have a free but limited option. Check their limitations when making your decision.

Here are a few suggestions:

  • For all social media, try Hootsuite or Buffer.
  • For just Instagram, try Planoly.
  • For just Facebook, take advantage of Facebook’s built in scheduling feature.

Be active…be social!

Nothing will kill your social media faster than inactivity. Since you know about social media schedulers now, plan on scheduling three or four posts a week. Not everyone who follows you will see your posts because of algorithms, so posting several times a week will increase your chances of popping up on someone’s feed.

Change up your wording on different platforms

Since each social media platform has different audiences, it’s important to switch up your wording to suit your readers. For example, Facebook and LinkedIn are more formal while Twitter and Instagram can be a little more relaxed. Most importantly though, just make sure your company’s personality comes out.

Switch up your hashtags

Did you know that on Instagram there’s something known as a “shadow ban?”

While there are many reasons that you can be shadow banned, one of the most common reasons is for overusing hashtags. If you’re just copying and pasting the same hashtags, you’re likely to fall victim to the shadow ban. This means that you won’t show up on those hashtags, and only your followers will see your post. That kind of defeats the purpose of a social media strategy, doesn’t it?

Don’t know what hashtags to use? You can start with basic hashtags that pertain to your business and even look at businesses like yours to find common hashtags.

Above all, make sure to track what is working and what isn’t, and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Do you have other suggestions for a successful social media strategy? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

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