Social media has become an integral part of any modern marketing strategy. Executing an effective social media marketing strategy takes more than creating a content calendar and posting scheduled posts on social media.

It requires careful planning, commitment, and optimization over time. 

This no-fluff guide provides small business owners and marketers with a starting point to craft a robust social media marketing strategy.

Developing a Social Strategy

Effective social media strategies begin with well-defined business goals and objectives. Before diving into tactics, setting goals for what you wish to accomplish is essential.

Common business objectives:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Growing share of voice
• Expanding social support 
• Achieving content distribution
• Scaling digital marketing
• Monitoring real-time trends

Aside from amplifying marketing efforts, social media enhances customer support, accelerates product innovation, and improves talent acquisition. It’s also a goldmine of market intelligence.

We suggest focusing on no more than a couple of business goals. Spreading yourself too thin may hinder your effectiveness. Start with one and expand as needed. 

Setting goals

With clear goals established, the next step is conducting a social media audit of your existing social media presence. This includes taking stock of all current social media accounts, followers and content engagement rates, and competitors. The audit will reveal areas to improve and strengths to double down on.

The audit provides you with historical social media analytics. These social media metrics help you understand clickthrough rates, engagement rates, and audience demographics. 

With this data, you can set achievable social media marketing goals. 

Audience pain points

Before venturing too far into content planning, get deep into your target audience’s psyche. 

Buyer personas can help here, but you should go a bit deeper in basing your audience’s content needs on actual statements and behaviors—not theoretical ones.

Where to uncover customer pain points:

• Recorded sales calls
• Customer support tickets
• Customer surveys
• Customer reviews
• Social media comments
• Competitors’ online reviews

With this data, real content formats emerge. Here’s how I’d approach these content themes.

• If prospective customers ask many questions, consider investing more in information-based content, such as blogs.
• If they ask for relatable examples of customers (references), you could ramp up customer case studies and testimonials.
• If your sales team isn’t having as many conversations, you should invest more in brand-building activities like influencers, partnerships, and more.

From here, you can map out these types of content and which social networks and strategies are effective. For example, Instagram and TikTok attract younger audiences, while LinkedIn attracts professionals.

Measurement and KPIs

You need clearly defined benchmarks to know if your social media strategy is effective. Key performance indicators (KPIs) help you focus on the metrics that matter. If audience growth is vital, then followers are more relevant. But if engagement is critical, then engagement rates are better. 

Common social media performance metrics:

• Follower growth
• Engagement rate
• Impressions and reach
• Attributed pipeline and revenue
• Attributed website traffic
• Brand mentions and share of voice

Having this strategic framework established, you can develop an effective social media marketing plan. And you can report on it to executives without drowning them in too much data. 

Developing your content strategy

Content fuels all social media marketing. Map out the types of content you will create and share on each platform. 

Anyone can create content, but only you can distribute it effectively. One approach to work with your social strategy is the atomization of content. This means taking a major piece of content like a case study and creating a wide array of smaller content assets from it. 

Align content types with buyer journey stages like awareness, consideration, and decision.* 

You can improve your business or brand awareness by following these steps:

• Blog posts or articles: Provide detailed, informative content to help your audience accomplish their goals or share long-form stories and insights. 
• Educational videos: Show, don’t tell. Share videos and screencasts to spark curiosity about your brand and build authority. This kind of content should appeal to both prospective and existing customers.
• Case studies: Provide specific examples of how your ideal customer achieves their goals with your product or service. It establishes social proof and builds trust.
• User-generated content: Share photos and videos of customers showing authentic brand experiences. It could be as simple as testimonials, wearing swag, or co-hosted webinars. 
• Polls and surveys: Engage followers and collect valuable audience insights. The more provocative, the better. 
• Memes or humor: Use for low-effort, high-engagement social media posts that reflect your brand voice. Don’t take yourself too seriously, but monitor your engagement rates. 

* People don’t make decisions linearly. Nevertheless, people must discover your brand (awareness), think about what it can do for them (consideration), and talk to sales or buy your product (decision). Ensure your social media content reflects this reality. 

Integrating Social Media Outside of Marketing

An integrated social media plan addresses all aspects of social media to improve business.

Here are some business functions to include in your plan: 

• Customer support: Personalized customer care based on incoming mentions and direct messages.
• Product development: Gather real-world insights based on customer and market reactions. 
• Talent acquisition: Attract top-notch candidates based on a high-value employer brand.

Social customer support

Customer support via social media is now more crucial than ever for small and mid-market businesses. It is a powerful tool to engage with customers, solve their problems promptly, and foster stronger relationships. 

Here are some essential tips for efficient social customer support: 

• Monitor conversations: Keep a close eye on your social media channels. Respond promptly to comments, messages, and mentions to deliver effective customer service.
• Use social media management tools: Use social media software to track customer interactions and ensure every request is answered.
• Train your team: Ensure your team is well-versed/trained in the social media platforms you use. Train them to provide helpful, courteous responses. It’ll also help you handle criticism with grace. 

Let’s illustrate this by comparing traditional and social media-based customer support.

Function	Traditional Customer Support	Social Media-Based Support
Response Time	Instant or up to 72 hours	Often instant or within a few hours
Engagement	Limited to one-on-one interactions	Public responses and one-on-one direct messages
Channels	Email, phone, live chat, and online requests	Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp
Privacy	High	Limited

Product innovation and development

Social media marketing tools provide product teams with invaluable insights into customer feedback and can monitor competitors.

The following are two practical ways product teams can leverage social media for product innovation: 

1. Customer feedback: New customers often share their experiences with products on social media openly and candidly. Product managers gain perspective on what customers want to do with their products and how they make them feel. This information can be used to improve how solutions fit into user’s lives.
2. Social listening: Tracking mentions of competitors and product names is a smart way to uncover potential product opportunities. It also provides a glimpse at potential risks and obstacles customers face. It also aids in market research into possible product features. 

Talent acquisition

Social media has transformed the way companies connect with potential employees. In particular, it helps organizations become a top employer brand that attracts top candidates. 

The following are specific ways social media can enhance your talent acquisition process: 

1. Employer brand: Showcase your company’s culture, mission, and values, making it more attractive to potential employees. This increases your brand visibility and creates a positive employer brand.
2. Employees as advocates: Social media channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook make it intuitive for employees to build buzz for their employer from diverse voices and personal testimonies about joining the team.
3. Job advertising: With an impressive employer brand and enthusiastic employee engagement, recruitment marketing campaigns can be more effective with fewer ghosts and better candidates.

Tips to build a top employer brand

As much as the company can curate a professional online profile, your brand is in your employees’ hands. 

Some tips for building a top employer brand are as follows:

• Educate on what’s public vs. private: Develop a sensible policy for protecting sensitive/confidential company information. Disclose what’s shareable vs. not in company meetings. Ambiguity results in mistakes and fear of posting updates.
• Encourage honest employee reviews: Make it a habit to share what you’re doing to make the workplace enjoyable and flexible for employee needs. Have a meaningful check-in with new team members after their first month, and suggest they share their experience with others on Glassdoor, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter. 
• Respond to employee reviews in meaningful ways: Respond warmly and professionally to all reviews. Be mindful not to debate; acknowledge, thank, and emphasize the upside when possible. Identify trends and bring them to the attention of the senior leadership team to improve the workplace. 

Stay Focused With a Durable Social Media Strategy

Change is the one word that’s synonymous with social media management. New social media platforms, content types, and consumer behaviors—it moves quickly. 

With a successful social media marketing strategy, you can creatively inspire your audience to action and improve your business from the inside out.

You’re going to face social media crises; you’ll have 15 minutes of fame—are you ready? 

No matter how good your plan is, execution matters. Focus on the outcomes; ask yourself if you are helping your target audience or just posting social media updates.

At the end of the day, social media should help the business to strengthen across the board: customer service, marketing, recruiting, and brand. It has incredible reach if you place your bets on the table and pair it with ruthless execution (and patience). 

With proper planning and commitment, a social media strategy gives small and medium-sized businesses a competitive edge.

Related: Building an Online Presence: How to Achieve Digital Dominance

To stay relevant on social media, you need a good strategy that caters to your target audience. It’s tempting to automate your social media content strategy, but the problem is that you must figure out what will work and when it will work.

A solid content plan can help you reach your marketing goals and business objectives. Also, it can amplify your brand’s voice and drive traffic to your website.

We’ll take you step by step through creating a social media marketing plan that helps you achieve your business goals.

Understanding the Importance of a Social Media Plan

Every business should create a marketing plan to boost its social media presence. 

A social media marketing plan is no longer a luxury but a necessity. This roadmap helps to align your social network activities, such as social posts, with your business goals.

Planning out your social strategy is more than having social media accounts on various platforms. These social media channels allow you to resonate with your ideal customers and engage them effectively.

And while social media is primarily used to advance digital marketing efforts, it’s common to involve other departments like customer service and product development. Doing so ensures that you’re not pigeonholed into merely posting tweets. 

So why do you need a social media plan? Perhaps this research from Content Marketing Institute (CMI) will describe why it’s critical for small businesses to invest in planning and operating their social media usage.

Given that social media and content strategy are hard to separate, businesses with well-defined content plans generally outperform those that do not have them. 

It’s ideal to commit resources who can brainstorm scroll-stopping campaigns and give input on content creation to stay out front. 

Before you scope out the types of content and formats, you need to think about your ideal customer and your business objectives.

Unlike traditional marketing, the interactions are bidirectional. This introduces risk to some organizations. Your social media plan should anticipate customer pain points and define internal workflows. 

Social media plan checklist

What should you include in your social media strategy template? Here’s a quick checklist of what it should entail.

• Current reality (SWOT)
• Brand voice and positioning
• Ideal customer research
• Top performing content
• Competitive examples
• Analytics and KPIs
• Business goals/workflows
• Budget and resources

Leveraging social media to achieve marketing goals

Social media has reshaped how businesses connect with customers. Companies can use it to communicate with customers, build relationships, and create a community.

Businesses can learn a lot about their customers through social listening. They can discover what customers like, what they need, and their pain points. They can then use this information to improve their products, services, and social media campaigns for customers.

Moreover, social media platforms have become a key source of information for consumers. People turn to social media to discover new products, read reviews, and seek recommendations from their peers.

Benefits of a Detailed Social Media Plan

A well-structured social media marketing plan affords many benefits. It allows you to focus on outcomes, address internal and external challenges, and ensure your team understands your priorities and needs regarding social media. 

Here are some of the noteworthy benefits of a robust social strategy. 

Business integration

Social media functions aren’t on an island. They roll up to broader business objectives such as customer support, marketing, and product development. Clearly outline your social media goals to fit your business strategy. A social media marketing plan helps you to advance goals like brand awareness, website traffic, leads, and sales.

Effective posting schedule

A well-structured social media plan allows you to maintain a consistent posting schedule. Consistency is crucial in social media marketing, as it helps build brand recognition and keeps your audience engaged. With a social media content calendar, you can plan and schedule your social posts ahead of time.

Performance evaluation

Lastly, a social media plan helps you to analyze and track your performance on social media. Track engagement rate, reach, and click-throughs to see if your social media marketing is effective. Reach and post engagement are also quantifiable, even if it’s not about driving traffic to your site. 

It helps to perform brand social media audits to see what kind of content is doing well and the type that falls flat. Apply these insights to tighten your publishing workflow. 

Steps to Make an Effective Social Media Plan

With a clear understanding of the importance of a well-structured social media strategy, let’s delve into the essential steps required to create an effective social media plan.

Step 1. Define your social media goals

Defining social media goals and objectives is essential to having a clear strategy. Articulating your social media goals helps you to focus on social media and measure success or find improvement areas. 

When brainstorming social media goals, consider the overall purpose of your business. Avoid vanity metrics or simply growing followers. People quickly tune out brands that don’t give them a reason to listen. 

Social media goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For instance, instead of saying “grow followers,” a SMART goal might be “increase Instagram engagement by 15% over the next three months.”

Typical social media goals to consider include:

• Increasing engagement
• Scaling product and brand awareness
• Website traffic growth
• Speeding up social support response times
• Growing attributed sales leads and pipeline

However, you have to present them in the SMART manner.

Step 2. Research your target audience’s social media platforms

Choosing your company’s social media channels is vital for reaching individuals in your target audience. But which social networks do they use? 

Go beyond simple demographics. By developing a few buyer personas, you can segment your social media content around a few archetypes in your customer base. 

Consider interviewing those who appear to be your typical customers. Seek to learn how they consume social media, where they get trustworthy recommendations, and the top publishers and brands they follow. 

Begin with some hypotheses and test them. Find your future customers and the content around your industry, including that of competitors. You might need to adjust your plan if you can’t find real-world examples.

Here are some considerations for each of the top social networks.

We recommend using Instagram and TikTok for consumer brands; there are some cases when B2B brands can excel on them, but it’s more difficult. 

If you serve professionals or B2B clients, LinkedIn is your best bet. It’s great for long-form content and for engaging with others, and it skews heavily on sales and marketing. You can network, share industry insights, and establish your business as a leader. 

Twitter is generally an effective channel for sharing company updates, but true brand-building tends to revolve around individual personalities rather than corporate brands. 

Step 3. Creating engaging social media content

When you plan your social media strategy, focus on creating exciting content that people will want to share because the content is vital in social media marketing. But what exactly does engaging content look like? 

Let’s explore some types of content that you can share on social media to captivate your audience.

Types of social media content

Format	Description	Benefits and Tips
Images	High-quality visuals catch the audience’s eye and convey emotions or messages	Spark interest, stop scrolling, and evoke emotions; select/edit images aligning with the brand and audience
Videos	Short, engaging videos tell stories, showcase products/services, and connect personally with the audience	Capture attention, engage viewers, and provide tutorials or testimonials; optimize for mobile and add captions
Blog Posts	Share in-depth articles to drive traffic and position the brand as an industry thought leader	Showcase expertise, provide insights, and establish credibility; craft intriguing captions for higher clicks
Infographics	Visual representations of complex data or information that captivates the viewer’s attention	Easily digestible insights perform well on visual platforms
Customer Media	Share user-generated content to build trust and create a sense of community	Humanize the brand, show social proof, and encourage sharing

Now, let’s dive into greater detail.

• Images: High-quality images can spark interest and increase engagement. An appealing image can catch the eye of your audience and make them stop scrolling. Images of a beautiful landscape or a delicious dish can convey a message and evoke emotions. Take the time to select and edit your pictures to ensure they align with your brand and resonate with your target audience.
• Videos: With mobile video consumption rising, creating short, engaging videos can help you reach a larger audience. Videos allow you to tell a story, showcase your products or services, and connect personally with your audience. 

Videos can capture attention and keep your audience engaged. They can show behind the scenes of your business, provide tutorials, or share customer testimonials. Remember to optimize your video content for mobile viewing and include captions for those who prefer to watch without sound.

• Blog Posts: Sharing blog posts from your website can drive traffic and position your brand as a thought leader in your industry. Blog posts provide an opportunity to dive deeper into topics that are relevant to your audience. They allow you to showcase your expertise, provide valuable insights, and establish credibility. 

When you share blog posts on social media, create interesting captions that make people want to click and read the entire article. Consider adding a captivating excerpt or a thought-provoking story to build interest and curiosity.

• Infographics: Infographics condense complex information into easily digestible, visually engaging formats. They can communicate insights, data, processes, and more in a manner that holds the viewer’s attention. Infographics perform incredibly well on visual platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
• Customer Media: Build trust by showing user-generated content and social proof. This will create a sense of community and give your brand a more authentic, human voice. Make it easy for fans to tag and share their experiences with your brand on social media.

When you’re posting on social media, here are some tips to bear in mind.

• Keep it simple. Short and clear messages work best because people’s attention spans are really short these days. Make sure you focus on one main point in each post.
• Call to action. Don’t forget to ask people to do something after they read your post, like asking them to comment or share. This is known as a “call to action.” Just give them a little nudge to get involved.
• Hashtags can be tricky. They were once a staple of social media to reach and connect you with more people, but hashtags aren’t as helpful anymore. Hashtags tend to reduce reach and engagement on Twitter. Proceed with caution when using hashtags, and be aware of less flattering interpretations.

Related: 10 Ways to Spark Social Media Conversations (with Examples)

Step 4. Scheduling and posting your social media content

At a tactical level, knowing your publishing schedule allows you and your team to make decisions faster. You will know the volume of the content, the tools, and the resources you’ll need. 

But it’s not just about randomly throwing your content out there. Think through when and what you’ll post to stand out to your target audience. 

When is the best time to post on different platforms? 

Well, it’s not a one-size-fits-all answer. The ideal posting time can vary depending on the platform and your specific audience. However, here are some pointers to get started.

Best times to publish on social media

Social Media Platform	Best Time	Best Day(s)	Worst Day
Facebook	9 a.m. – 11 a.m.	Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday	Saturday
Twitter	9 a.m. – 12 p.m.	Wednesday	Saturday
Instagram	11 a.m. – 2 p.m.	Tuesday	Sunday
LinkedIn	9 a.m. – 2 p.m.	Wednesday and Thursday	Sunday

• Weekday mornings and afternoons are the best times to post on Facebook. Most people take a break from work or school and scroll through their newsfeeds between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
• Weekday mornings and afternoons are the best times to post on Twitter. This is likely when people take lunch or quick work breaks.
• People are most active on Instagram weekdays in the late afternoon and early evening. Posting between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. can help you get more likes and comments on your social media posts.
• Posting content on LinkedIn during business hours performs better than on weekends. The best times to post are usually between 9 a.m. and early afternoon until 2 p.m. Only post on weekends or late evenings when professionals are less active.

Related: Noteworthy Social Media Trends for Business Growth in 2023

Step 5. Using social media management tools

As a part of a well-rounded social media plan, consider the following elements and workflows.

1. Feedback Handling

• Negative Feedback: Have negative response templates ready to respond to unhappy customers. Keep feedback polite and try to resolve issues.
• Positive Feedback: Acknowledge and thank people for their kind words. These positive response templates boost your online image.
• Crisis Management: Prepare a plan for handling unexpected issues or controversies. Swift and transparent communication is key.
• Escalation: Identify who should deal with serious matters. If something needs urgent attention, know who to bring it to.

2. Reporting and Analytics

• What to Measure: Define the social media metrics to be tracked, such as engagement (likes, shares, comments), reach, and click-through rates. These show how well your content is performing.
• Sharing Results: Share these analytics with your team regularly, as they help everyone to understand what’s working and what might need tweaking. It might be helpful to share with other business leaders as well. 

3. Access and Content Removal

• Access Control: Limit who can post on social media from your team. Not everyone needs access.
• New Content: Provide a pathway for internal team members to request or suggest new content to be sent out. Rather than operating like an order taker, consider these as a starting point to collaborate with them to create a successful campaign. 
• Content Removal: Have a clear protocol for removing inappropriate or outdated content. Quick action helps uphold a positive image. Juggling different social media sites can feel like a lot, especially without a proper workflow. That’s where social media management tools like Nextiva come in handy.

These tools can make scheduling and posting content on many social media channels easier. You can make a calendar for your social media content, then schedule your posts in advance and automatically dispatch them at the best times for more reach and engagement.

In addition, these tools provide valuable data and information to track audience growth, engagement rates, and which types of content perform best. This data can steer your future social media marketing strategy and help you make data-driven decisions.

Related: Social Media Management: What It Is and How to Do It Well

Step 6. Measuring and adjusting your social media plan

Reviewing your social media performance can help you meet your objectives. When setting goals, think about the key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your dreams. To generate leads, track click-through rate, conversion rate, and cost per lead.

Monitor and use this data to tweak and adjust your social media marketing plan. To see if your strategies work, compare your social media metrics to benchmarks. To improve your social media marketing, track KPIs and compare them to your goals.

Generally, measuring engagement, follower, and click-through rates can show how well you’re doing on social media. These metrics show how well your social media marketing works to catch and keep your audience’s attention.

• Engagement rate. This metric gauges audience interaction with your content, including likes, comments, shares, and clicks. It reflects the content’s resonance and interaction.
• Follower growth. This signifies growth in your social media reach, indicating the effectiveness of your strategy in attracting new followers and expanding reach. SocialInsider benchmarked the average engagement across the top four social media platforms. TikTok had the highest engagement rate at 4.25%. The rate is more than 400% higher than other platforms.

• The click-through rate (CTR). It measures call-to-action clicks in social media posts, indicating successful traffic redirection. Monitoring the CTR enables evaluation of the call-to-action effectiveness and aids in optimization for improved outcomes. As a tip, not every social media post must drive clicks—it’s best to optimize your message on social media platforms. 

Luckily, social media analytics tools make it easier to report on these metrics. 

These tools show how well your social media is doing and let you efficiently study your data. They provide reports and visuals that help you see trends, find opportunities, and track progress.

Related: Best Brands on Social Media: 10 Inspiring Examples to Follow

Charting Your Own Path to Social Media Success

Now that you know how to make a good social media plan, you can create a strong brand that stands out from your competitors. It’s a lot of work — from creating great content, planning out publishing, and setting goals to connecting with your audience. 

The fusion of creativity and data-driven insights paves the way for sustainable growth. Remember, social media is ever-changing, so stay innovative, fresh, and willing to learn. 

Ready for a social media workflow tune-up? See how our social media management tool helps nimble marketing and support teams stay on top of social media. Check it out today!

Social media is much more than posting Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn updates.

Before it was dubbed “social media,” it was known as “community management.” As an expert who led social media for small businesses in 2008, I’ll break down everything you should know about effective social media management. 

I’ve crafted this guide for small business owners and new marketing staffers who need to develop a social media strategy and get their organization firing on all eight cylinders with respect to social media channels.

What Is Social Media Management? 

Social media management is the process of planning, creating, and publishing content across social networks to grow a brand’s online presence. Managing social media involves educating stakeholders, developing a marketing strategy, and establishing governance to ensure a brand’s voice and customer experience are conveyed across social media channels. 

Included as essential parts of social media management are the following functions: 

• Social media and marketing integration
• Business and platform-specific content plan
• Social media performance analysis
• Planning and creating content across multiple platforms
• Website content promotion
• Personalized customer support
• Brand and review monitoring
• Overseeing training and social workflows

Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? This is why social media responsibilities are often split among several members. As a small business or startup, this might be one person (or the business owner). 

The two primary reasons you need social media management are to guide the organization through social media and reach a targeted audience with engaging content and personalized support. 

Unlike 15 years ago, you shouldn’t automate your social media campaigns. It’s a bad look and ineffective at persuading your audience to care about your brand and take action.

👉 Real talk: Your business should be on social media because your customers want you there, and there’s a specific business objective behind it. If neither of these is true, you probably don’t need social media management. 

Elements of a Social Media Marketing Strategy

An effective social media strategy aligns with the brand’s overall marketing objectives and business goals.

Here are some key elements to consider for your social media marketing strategy:

Target audiences and personas

Analyze your existing customer demographics and create detailed buyer personas to determine your ideal customers on social media. Identify their age, location, gender, interests, pain points, and motivations.

It’s imperative to understand your audience’s media consumption habits. Refrain from making big bets based on hypotheticals (I’ve been burned before). Talk to your customers on the phone, get to know them as people, how they research brands, and why they use social media. 

With this knowledge in hand, you’ll be ahead of 75% of others in the industry. 

Relevant social media platforms

Research each social media platform and select the ones where your target audience is most active. Top platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok. Consider emerging platforms as well.

By default, you might feel you need to be everywhere. You don’t need to. If nothing else, claim your brand before someone squats on your name.

Follow the money and the market. Where are your prospects? Where do customers spend most of their time? If it’s Twitter or Instagram, great. But if they primarily use LinkedIn, tailor your social media content plan around that platform. 

Lastly, try to enjoy how a social network functions as a user before going full throttle with marketing messages. There’s a little truth to marketers ruining everything.

Social listening and customer support

It’s crucial to set up listening tools to be responsive to inbound questions from customers and prospects. Connect every social media profile you have into one management tool.

Prepare a plan for how you’ll handle complaints and compliments. A smart strategy is to go from public to direct messages to provide customer service.

Over time, report on the number of brand mentions and specific campaigns stemming from your marketing efforts. Social media management tools can notify you of the growth or decline across your social media presence.

Setting measurable goals

Depending on your use case or stage of your business, you might not need metrics.

Hear me out for a second.

It’s okay to explore and experiment on social media. There’s not a sure-fire template or benchmark you need to hit to prove value in your business. 

Figure out what makes some brands more attractive than a pack of Double Stuffed Oreos. What are the underlying dynamics — is it the graphics, the advice, or are prominent influencers juicing up the algorithm?

Without a big audience to start with, you will need to be creative. You will likely need to make a sizable investment in promoting your social media channels. And you will need to leverage platforms such as email, video, and even your phone system. 

With that said, you’ll want to consider the industry and competitors when it comes to setting targets for your social media marketing program. With defined business goals and KPIs in mind, you can analyze the effectiveness of your social media efforts. 

For instance, followers matter when your audience matches your ideal customer profile, but don’t do anything unnatural to play the system.

Consider tracking engagement, traffic, and even share of voice (market share) on a given social network. 

Content strategy and posting schedule

At this point, you should know a few key items: your ideal customers, what they consume on social media, and your overarching business goals. These help you craft a well-rounded content strategy for your business on social media. 

🛑 Now is the time to hit the brakes and think about the purpose behind your social media content.

It should not be to generate leads or sales. Yes, you read that right. 

The goal behind your content is to be memorable and helpful to your audience. You don’t do that with gated webinars and whitepapers. Instead, focus on understanding the core reasons why people are interested in your product or service. 

Trusted marketing advisor Gaetano DiNardi draws a line in the sand regarding “demand capture” and “demand creation.” You need both, but social media should be utilized to build genuine interest, trust, and affinity for your brand. 

Digital marketing has transitioned from direct response, lead generation-focused marketing campaigns to a demand generation approach that covers brand awareness, demand creation, and demand capturing across the entire sales funnel. 

Gaetano DiNardi on Demand Generation

Having that said, here are the types of social media content to post: 

• Hot takes on what’s happening in the industry
• Tips and tutorials to solve specific pain points
• Videos showing your solution or product at work
• Casual interviews with top industry voices
• Carousels and slides with original research and points of view
• Customer stories and case studies with real faces and logos
• Sneak peeks of your most recent email newsletter
• Takeaways from conferences and industry events
• Polls and genuine questions to ask your target audience
• Unexpected moments of brilliance and creativity
• Memes, newsjacking, and divisive topics, but proceed with caution

The content to post shouldn’t deviate much from your current content strategy. 

Keep in mind that the goal is to earn trust and be memorable. When prospects realize they have a need, they’ll come back to you.

With a rough list of content ideas, map them out for each platform. Give yourself the flexibility not to post every day, but try to stick to a consistent cadence.

Pro tip: Each blog post you publish can be atomized or broken down into smaller assets so you can share various components that fit each social platform. You ought to ensure each post is optimized for your target audience so they can consume it easily without a high commitment. 

Video-first social media content

Video is so important; you need to be proactive with ideation, production, and distribution. Social media platforms are increasingly rewarding video content. Whether you’re building up your audience, educating your customers, or posting Stories and Shorts, video is no longer optional. 

Invest in building out your video team agencies alike. Align your video creation with your brand identity with a high-quality video. Focus on being valuable, authentic, and visually appealing.

While videos don’t have to be the center of your social media plan, they should still be a key component of it. 

Utilizing paid social ads

Another area to consider is paid or performance marketing campaigns across social media. Most companies that want to grow will need additional social media advertising to distribute content to their audience. 

Take all your insights about your current customers and channel them into your paid social strategy. You don’t want to burn your budget on reaching “anyone in the U.S. 18+” as you’ll get nowhere. To be cost-effective, narrow your audience and set a daily budget.

Consider starting with a remarketed audience first until you nail down your brand’s social media campaigns. 

Type of content to use for paid social:

• Insightful case studies and customer testimonials
• Video-based product tours with helpful context
• Deep dives into how to do something faster or easier with your brand
• Atomized blog content with a call to action to continue reading
• Recycle previously successful organic (unpaid) social media content

Social Media Management Best Practices

Setting up profiles is just the start. Actively managing your accounts and interacting with your followers is crucial for social media success.

• Monitor notifications: Stay on top of all mentions, comments, shares, and direct messages to identify opportunities for engagement.
• Post consistently: Follow your content calendar to post regularly across your social media networks without long gaps between updates.
• Implement a workflow: Develop processes between team members to streamline community management.
• Use content creation tools: Social media management tools like Nextiva or Hootsuite help teams schedule posts, engage with followers, and monitor brand mentions.
• Analyze past content: Identify post content that resonated well on social media platforms and recycle it in your scheduling tool.

By following thoughtful content marketing practices, your small team can actively manage growing social media communities as you expand your reach.

Remember that social media interactions are public, and potential customers are watching. Be cordial, prompt, and direct. The last thing you want is to copy and paste responses to people.

Types of Social Media Analytics

There are a plethora of built-in and third-party analytics tools to help track the performance of your social media efforts. Monitoring key metrics and optimizing based on insights is crucial. 

• Audience growth — Are your follower numbers consistently increasing? Does the audience resemble your ideal customer? 
• Engagement rate — Is your audience reacting to the content you post? This metric is expressed as a percentage of your reach.
• Impressions — Was your content seen in your audience’s news feeds? 
• Reach — How many unique people could your social media content reach?
• Website clicks — How much traffic is being driven to your site from social media? This metric isn’t always a good measure of success — think about your campaign objectives. 
• Conversions — When creating demand, you’ll begin attracting higher-intent leads. How many resulted in leads, pipelines, or sales from social media?

Look at performance trends over time and optimize your strategy accordingly. Consider analytics capabilities within your social media management software like Nextiva. Set up automated reports and dedicate time each month or look back at past data to achieve social media ROI.

Social Media Management Tools

Managing multiple social media accounts, engaging consistently with your community, and tracking performance is difficult without utilizing specialized social media management tools.

The primary benefit of a social media management tool is that it’s engineered to work with each social network for analytics, publishing, and even removals. It helps your team work from one dashboard instead of several distinct workflows.

We recommend budgeting approximately $300 per month for the best social media management tools and services. Plan for roughly $100 per month per user as your team grows. 

Here are a few top picks:

• Nextiva — In addition to its highly rated cloud communications platform, Nextiva has a social media management solution for customer service and marketing teams. It includes a ton of advanced features for a flat-rate price each month. 
• AgoraPulse — Ideal for businesses, especially those working with a lot of paid media and having to do content moderation. Like Nextiva, it also offers a unified social inbox, social listening, and reporting tools.
• Sprout Social — Best for larger organizations and agencies with a rigorous approval workflow. Includes employee advocacy and brand monitoring capabilities. 

The right social media management tool will optimize workflows, engagement, and analysis for an effective social media strategy. Consider both your budget and social media scheduling needs.

Final Thoughts on Social Media Management

A strategic approach to social media management is key for small businesses looking to drive brand awareness, website traffic, leads, and sales.

Social media has evolved a lot over the last 15 years. It’s crucial that your social media strategy endures and has room to adapt to changes in the market. Pay attention to the changes in the platforms, user feedback, and the pressing needs in your business. 

Set relevant and attainable goals, invest in high-quality content, set up the proper workflows internally so you can support customers, and weather the storm when crises emerge. 

Managing social media effectively is one of the top ways to bring your marketing strategy to life and scale your brand.

Related: How to Build a Successful Social Media Customer Service Program