In this digital age, you can rarely find a business that doesn’t know the importance of Social Media Strategy. But that’s not to say that they all know how to take advantage of it. More often than not, you’ll find companies who just create a social media account to feel good that they are ‘doing social media marketing’.
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that. It’s not just about posting random things sometimes regularly and other times, occasionally. It’s not about impulsiveness.
To get the most out of social media marketing, you need to have a solid plan beforehand. In other words, you need to have a social media strategy. If you are still not sure as to why this is important, here are a few reasons:
Why You Need A Social Media Strategy
1- Sense Of Direction
Yes, you may have some idea and a vague goal as to where you want your marketing efforts to go but without a well-thought-out strategy, you may be shooting arrows in the dark.
When you are investing in other media marketing, you don’t show this kind of recklessness, why do it with such a strong marketing channel?
Social media is one of the, if not the most important marketing channel right now and you need to be very careful about how you go about it.
When you have a solid strategy in place, you can then direct every one of your efforts to the goals that you’ve set. This way, you’ll get the results you want instead of wasting a lot of time and money. And that brings us to our next point.
2- Save Time And Money
Social media marketing can be very, VERY time-consuming. But, if you have a social media strategy in place, you can save up all the time that you would have otherwise spent thinking about your next step. You can then use that extra time in whatever way you like, be it personal or professional.
You may be wondering how this is possible. It’s simple. You have already sorted out what kind of posts you’ll be making for the next month thus, reducing your time spent scrambling for a good idea and creating a post each day.
A good use for that extra time would be to analyze your progress to figure out your strategy for the future. Let’s look at that in the following point.
3- You Can Track And Analyze Your Progress
When you have set up a social media strategy, you know what you’re looking for when you are putting in your efforts. This way, you’ll be able to track as well as measure your progress along the way.
Not to mention that you now have that extra time as well that you saved up by building a month’s strategy and post plans beforehand.
The best advantage of tracking your progress on social media channels is that you get to know your audiences better. You can figure out whether or not your followers want to see the stuff you post by tracking the response it gets.
If it’s positive feedback, you can continue to post that kind of content but if your posts get negative or no feedback, it means that it’s time to change a few things.
You can adapt your social media strategy to what your target audiences want and you will definitely see better results this way.
4- You Will Be More Authentic
When you have everything in order and you know what you are doing instead of just scrambling to get more post ideas or being inconsistent with the type of content you regularly post, it makes you more efficient.
And when you are efficient and in control of what is going on with your business instead of seeming desperate, that’s when you are building your authenticity. On social media, which is filled with phoney brands and celebs, it’s very important to set your business apart by getting people to look up to you as an authentic figure.
5- Stay Ahead Of The Competition
When you don’t have a strategy in place, it automatically gives an edge to your competitors. Why? Because they will most likely have a framework in place that can help them plan and execute better content, measure the results as well as optimize their social media strategy if needed.
You, on the other hand, will always be a step behind if you don’t have that same kind of framework in place.
So, to have a good chance of staying ahead of your rival companies and brands, you need to have a social media strategy in place that can guide you along the way.
I work at Likes Geek as a marketing researcher and journalist with over 5 years of experience in media and content marketing. With a demonstrated history of working in the international news and financial technology publishing industries. I manage content and the editorial team at Likes Geek.