You thought that if you decide to enter the world of social media marketing you will just need to rely on your creativity? Creativity is indeed one of the most important aspects when it comes to social media, but so is strategizing and making the right moves at the right time. 

As you presumed, this is much easier said than done, and crafting a perfect strategy takes time and goes much beyond ¡®¡¯playing with Facebook posts¡¯¡¯ as most ordinary people perceive social media marketing. 

Social media marketing is about knowing your audience, doing research regularly, unleashing your creativity, and measuring the results constantly. If you are trying to convince people that you got the right recipe for their success on social media, you might be having a hard time. 

Viral post, zero impact

Let¡¯s look at a simple example. You or your potential client may by chance made your post go viral- it might be one of these images when everyone is trying to solve a math problem. You were amazed by the numbers and the reach but did you get any calls and leads afterward? No? It happens because posts like that don¡¯t give enough value to your audience nor do they represent your products and services. Social media posts need to be customized and tailored for your audience specifically. You are there to inform, entertain and inspire discussions and hear real-time feedback from your clients. 

Lucky for you we created this step-by-step guide for creating a strategy that will indeed bring some positive changes to your business. If you are a freelancer struggling with convincing potential clients that social media can do wonders for you- this will be your cheat sheet.

With competition reaching new highs, we will make sure that you present your strategy clearly. That way, your potential customers will get your ideas behind these posts.

Winning social media strategy

What is the definition of social media strategy? It is a master plan of your activities on your social media channels. 

Social media strategy is a summary of everything - what you want to achieve during which period, with all important steps about how you are going to achieve it. How many posts, how frequently will you post them? What time of the day works the best for your target audience? All these things indeed matter for crafting the best social media strategy that will drive leads and inspire engagement.

You need to keep it concise. Try not to think too broadly and be as specific as possible. Try for a brief moment to look through the eyes of your average customer. What do you see now?

Social media strategy can help you establish a better online reputation

Many business owners had a chance to witness how important social media marketing is for their business. Everything happens there and if done right - you can enjoy some significant benefits for your business. Yet if you don¡¯t have a social media marketing expert to advise you, you¡¯ll find this process extremely overwhelming. Too many channels and too many rules. You need to find the balance between your goals and your resources. 

Social media marketing strategy can help you with the following so it is great to present these steps to your potential client:

• You will increase your brand's awareness much easier.
• Building communities around your business will help you establish a better reputation. 
• You will sell your products and services much easier.
• You will use the right social media channel to advertise your products and services. 
• Your customer service will improve because the potential buyers will feel like you are listening and understanding their specific needs.
• Drive traffic to your website. 

Which steps are crucial to take?

Having a concise and bulletproof social media marketing strategy will help you drive traffic and engagement. 

Setting your goals right

Without setting the right goals, you will keep wandering around and wondering what went wrong. Your goals need to be measurable and as specific as possible. Also, you need to think about the period of time that would be enough to reach these goals.

You also need to think about the metrics - how you will measure the success of your social media strategy. Which metrics are important?

In most cases, the most important metrics of your social media strategy are reach, engagement, click-through rate, organic and paid clicks.

Reach - it is about the following how many people have seen your posts. Engagement refers to the equation between impressions and interactions of your clients. You need to locate what inspires clicks and drives the curiosity of your clients. 

Some of the most common goals that can be achieved with a meticulously written social media strategy include:

• Brand awareness - if you want your brand name to pop up everywhere you don¡¯t need to write it everywhere. It is enough to create meaningful posts emphasizing your expertise, your brand values, and your personality as well. When a brand gets a friendly face, it will be easier for your audience to be familiar with what you do.
• Generate more sales and leads - you think that some businesses are in luck to drive so many sales online? Well, it is not a case, it is about crafting a strategy and about notifying your potential buyers that the brand new product is here.
• Drive traffic to your eCommerce store - along with your SEO efforts- social media can back you up in this mission.
• Build a strong community - you want to engage with your audience better, organize giveaways and reward their loyalty? Social media can make it happen. 

It is also important to choose the right social media channel that will work for your business just fine.

Twitter is there to spark engagement. LinkedIn will make you appear as a serious business with innovative ideas that are ready to be shared across the expert communities. Facebook is both educational and entertaining and Instagram and TikTok are mostly about amazing visuals and more attractive to younger audiences. All this information will be even more important for the next step.

Know your demography

Once you are familiar with your goals and the timeline of your brand new social media strategy, it is time to get more familiar with your target audience. You need to reach the right demography. What is your ideal buyer persona? This part is critical and you need to determine: their age, location, gender, what they do for a living, their primary interests.

Focus on gathering the data and don¡¯t make assumptions. Make use of social media analytics tools.

We already mentioned that personalization matters. This need grew tremendously due to the covid-19 pandemic. Social media was everything to us during that time and we were insecure about our complex feelings. That is where the more personalized posts gained traction that is still going. 

Competitors can help you detect some hidden opportunities

You can actually learn a lot from your competitors. Try finding who your main competitors are and do a thorough competitor analysis. Which channels are they using to reach the audiences? Which hashtags work the best for them? Which keywords are they using? What type of posts work the best for them. Once you know the answers to these questions, you will craft your very own social media strategy much easier. 

Utilize social listening and you will be amazed what you can hear about your competitors if you listen carefully. 

Keep improving and adjusting your strategy constantly

There is no universal recipe for success but you need to follow the impulse and adjust your winning strategy accordingly. Your strategy needs to remain in a state of constant evolution. Evaluate, measure and test what works the best for you.

Sometimes some small tweaks work really well. It is about monitoring everything in real-time.

Improve your social media profiles and try locating impostor accounts

Your social media profiles need to be as detailed as possible. Your working hours, contact information, website, short description...everything needs to be in place. It will spark trust among your customers because your business will have more credibility. Remember to answer all the questions and requests from clients contacting your page.

Also, you need to locate if there is someone impersonating your brand and remove that obstacle in order to save your reputation. 

Know your content

Content needs to be easy to digest. It needs to show your human side, to be personalized and entertaining. Remember that your customers often have a shorter attention span so make sure to provide just the right amount of information.

Stories are short in length yet they leave lasting impressions. TikTok is about short videos packed with many interesting hacks and stuff. Blog posts are always a great idea but remember not to copy-paste large chunks of text.

Determine the posting frequency. Try being as humane as possible. Be personal and witty and measure your results.

Conclusion

When presenting your strategy, honesty is always the best policy. You need to be realistic about results and numbers and try learning proactively.

When results show up (and if you follow our steps, they certainly will) just keep a steady course. Evolve and evaluate. Try different channels. Once you get that first client, the others will come much easier when they see the results.