Social Media Strategy
For almost every brand in the 21st Century, social media marketing is an essential part of reaching current and potential customers and clients. The challenges of using media where communications flow from many to many is one that all contemporary brands must consider, whether they actively engage with social media or not.
A social media strategy is a plan that outlines your social media goals, the tactics you could use to achieve them, and metrics that could be tracked to measure performance.
Your strategy should pay particular attention to the sustainable nature of your product/service and how this will be promoted through your social media presence. You should identify the target audience for your brand for each platform, and the plan for what when and where you will share content. You should also consider the key competitors and how you will ensure your brand will out-perform theirs.
Students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of how social media marketing can help brands connect to, and expand, their audiences. They should be able to develop a meaningful and appropriate plan which describes the needs and requirements of the brand; how the brand is expected to benefit from the implementation; and how the impact of the plan will be assessed.
Demonstrating an understanding of how social media marketing can help brands connect to, and expand, their audiences.
Developing a meaningful and appropriate plan which describes the needs and requirements of the brand.
Analysing how the brand is expected to benefit from the implementation of the plan.
When formulating a social media strategy, it is important to consider the needs and requirements of the particular brand. This should include who they are trying to reach (their target audience), what type of content they will be sharing, when and where it will be shared, as well as how this content will help them achieve their goals. Additionally, brands must pay attention to competitors in order to ensure their own strategies out-perform those of others in their industry.
Once these elements have been identified, students should then research and evaluate potential social media platforms that could best meet the needs outlined above. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat all offer opportunities for brands but depending on your message and desired outcome different platforms may be better suited than others. Furthermore it is important not only choose which platform you are using but also create engaging content tailored specifically for each platform's users; content that appeals directly to your target audience - ensuring maximum engagement from followers/fans/customers etc.
Finally measuring the success of posts and campaigns requires analysing various metrics such as engagement rate (likes/comments/shares) reach (number views) impressions (unique people seeing your post) hashtag use etc., so having systems set up before launching campaigns ensures effective data collection during campaigns allowing further refinement over time resulting in stronger results going forward.
In conclusion creating an effective social media strategy involves understanding both what you want out of it short term but also long term; planning accordingly based on research into audiences likes wants & needs; selecting appropriate platforms; creating relevant engaging content; setting up monitoring systems right away & continually refining each step along the way based on regular feedback thus allowing your brand's presence online continually evolve & improve leading closer relationships with more loyal customers who are ultimately more likely keep coming back again & again!