Social media allows companies to reach their target audience in the place they use every single day. As of 2022, the average user is on social media 147 minutes per day, up from 145 minutes in the previous year. During this time, your company’s social media posts could show up on their timeline and increase the chances of people making a purchase. 

However, companies need to know that posting on social media is not enough. They need to craft a strategy that will become a road map to their success. Our Austin social media management team is here to share a guide to creating an effective social media strategy. 

Creating an effective social media strategy

Goal setting 

The first step to creating a social media strategy is figuring out your goals. You want to make sure the content you are creating on social media aligns with your overall marketing goals. These goals need to be measurable so that your team can make sure you stay on track. Some common social media marketing goals to set are:

1. Increase brand awareness

2. Drive traffic to your website

3. Improve user engagement 

4. Boost sales 

5. Deliver customer service

Target audience identification 

Next, you want to move on to identifying your target audience. This group of people should be those most interested in buying your product or service. Create a buyer persona if you have not already done so. Your buyer personas should include their demographics, interests, shopping habits and pain points.

Content planning 

Once you have identified who your target audience is, it is time to plan content. This content should align with your overall marketing goals and resonate with your audience. Do some research about the kind of social media content your audience is interacting with online. You should also check out what your competitors are posting too. Some content marketing ideas for social media include:

• How-tos

• User-generated content

• Trends

• Behind-the-scenes material

• Polls 

Platform selection 

In today’s digital world, there are so many social media platforms available for users and businesses to use. As a business, you want to be active where you know your audience spends most of their time. In the long run, this can save you money and time. Some things to consider when choosing social media platforms are age, gender and interests outside of your products and services. 

Engagement techniques 

One important thing to remember about social media is that you need to be social. Your company should interact with other accounts and customers. A report found that 24% of American Internet users over the age of 12 who have contacted a social media brand expect a reply within 30 minutes. You want to make sure your company is doing regular social media engagement, such as answering comments, liking posts you are tagged in and replying to direct messages.

Performance measurements

As you are posting and interacting with your followers, you want to make sure that you are keeping track of those metrics. Measuring your post performance will help you better understand your audience and make changes accordingly. You can keep track of your analytics on the social media platforms themselves or use third-party software like Monstrous. Digital or Sprout Social. 

Develop a successful social media strategy with the best Austin social media management!

At OMG Austin, let our social media experts create a social media strategy tailored to your company’s goals. We can oversee your social media so you can focus your efforts on running your business, while we focus your social media management to scale your organization globally. Contact us to get started!