Do you want to start posting on social media with intention? Would you like to increase engagement and grow an audience that you can effectively monetize for your business? If so, you’re going to need a solid social media marketing strategy in place; read on and we’ll cover the essentials in 10 simple steps…

1. Know what you want to achieve

It might sound daft but the first step is one of the most frequently overlooked; what do you actually want to achieve on social media? Do you want to make more sales? Are you simply looking to increase your following and thus brand awareness? Is it the creditability and authority that you wish to establish for your small business online?

Once you know exactly what you want from social media, you can start dialing in your strategy accordingly.

2. Get to know your audience

Yet another seemingly obvious point, right? Wrong! You’d be amazed by how few marketers actually know who their audience is (beyond the usual, age, gender, location, etc.).

If you don’t want to waste your time on social media, you need to know exactly who you are talking to. You need to be all up inside their psyche so you can resonate with them on a deep and emotional level; that’s the key to impactful communication.

3. Define your key messaging

You need to define and implement some key messaging in your overall strategy. For example, the “this is who we are” should be crisp and concise because you must be able to communicate such messaging effortlessly throughout every piece of content you create.

4. Know your platforms

Every social media platform has its pros and cons and you need to invest some time into figuring out which are best suited to your business.

For example, if you are in B2B, then LinkedIn is going to be perfect for you. However, if you’re selling products to a majority female audience aged between 16 and 24, then you might want to head on over to TikTok.

And of course, you can be active on multiple social media platforms – and will need a strategy and posting schedule for each.

5. Planning and engaging with strategic activities

If you wish to achieve your social media goals, you’ll need to take the appropriate action. It’s all very well knowing what you’d like to say, without knowing how to say it.

For example, as part of your strategic activities, you could engage in social listening; explore influencer marketing to expand your reach to people in your ideal audience; and even set up and carry out various studies in order to gather real-life statistics that you can use in your content generation (e.g., “61% of our customers agree on XYZ; here’s what we’re going to do about it”).

6. Schedule and be consistent

As your social media strategy begins to take form, you’re going to need to start looking at a social media schedule. What days and times are your ideal customers likely to be the most active on social media? Which social media platforms have more activity over the weekends? Are there specific times that should be avoided altogether?

When you figure this out, you can use this data to set up an awesome social media posting schedule – and if you are consistent with this, it will not only contribute to establishing your authority, but it will invariably attract more loyal followers to your cause (people love consistency and routine).

7. Awesome content creation

Next, it’s time to start thinking about all of that delicious content you’re going to create. What mediums can you leverage to connect with your audience? How can blogging help you put certain points across? Can you break those handy listicles down into infographics or image carousels? How about utilizing video marketing to promote your latest products?

You must put a lot of time into your content creation. It’s not enough to post every day and hope for the best. Instead, you must invest in premium quality content creation from gifted artists, writers, and video editors. If you want your audience to believe in the quality of your products/services, then your content needs to emulate that.

8. Get ready to go live!

By this point, you should be ready to go live and start rolling out your new social media strategy. If you need a hand with scheduling, there are plenty of awesome social media tools you can utilize to your advantage.

9. Monitor your progress

Over the next few weeks, you need to monitor all of your progress on social media. How are people reacting to certain posts? Are specific formats resonating better than others? Are you using #hashtags correctly?

Monitor and measure and then update and adjust your strategy accordingly. This is the key to your long-term success.

10. Deep dive into data

Over the course of the next year, while monitoring and measuring your progress, you should then take a deep dive into the data you’ve been collecting and see how well you’ve been doing. Are you well on your way to achieving your goals? Did you smash your targets? Have your goals changed? Did it meet your expectations? What do you plan to do differently next year?

Big data can help you make incredibly valuable changes to your social media marketing strategy and as such should not be overlooked.

Final thoughts

As you can see, there’s an awful lot of work that goes into strategizing and successfully managing a social media marketing campaign. If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by how much work is involved, we highly recommend that you explore your other options – such as hiring a digital marketing agency. A reputable social media marketing agency Dubai can help you with your onsite optimizations, developing quality content, and strategizing a social media marketing campaign that will set your socials on fire!

In any case, we hope that you’ve found this article insightful and now have some inspiration to start strategizing an awesome social media marketing campaign of your own. Good luck!