6 fundamentals of building a social media strategy

An increasing number of companies are now reaping the benefits of adding social media to the marketing mix, but developing a social media strategy from scratch can be a daunting prospect.

Once implemented, effective social marketing offers the potential to richly engage with your audience, but the first step is thorough planning. We found a useful resource over at Clickz.com, so here follows six steps to developing a social media strategy:

1. Explore online conversations

Go online to determine your audience and what they are saying about your brand. Blogs are a great starting point, so consider using Technorati or Twitter’s search function to find where relevant subject matter is being discussed.

Take note of key influencers who drive online debates, and consider how their opinions and needs fit with your core value proposition.

2. Establish objectives

Think carefully about your goals, whether they be to drive traffic to your site, gain followers or simply boost your online brand presence.

Also be mindful of your audience’s needs and wants – the joy of social media marketing is that once you’ve offered something of value, you’ve earned the right to plug your brand a little. Cickz.com stresses the importance of getting the balance right here: think 90% valuable content to 10% self-promotion.

3. Develop your plan and content timing

Once you’ve established what content to deliver, think carefully about a delivery timeline. Keep events, promotions and product launches in mind and align your plan with offline efforts. The next big decision is which social platform to use to deliver content. Will you choose Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or a combination . According to Clickz.com, the best bet is to develop a solid presence on one site before progressing to another.

4. Develop your content

Using your timeline, build your content armed with extensive keyword research. Content should be optimised with targeted keywords and really resonate with your audience – you may want to consider hiring an outsourced content writer to ensure consistence of quality.

5. Engage

Armed with clear objectives, a precise timeline, top content and the best social media sites, it’s now time to deliver your plan. Once yo’ve kicked off a conversation, be sure to respond to any feedback to keep it going.

6. Measure

As with any marketing activity, effective measurement is critical to determine success and plan your strategy moving forwards. Measuring social media marketing can prove more challenging than other online channels, but some variables to consider are: share of voice, awareness, engagement, influence and popularity.