Build a Social Media Strategy that Generates Results

Define Aims

Setting a goal (preferably SMART) is the basics! Because it is accepted that Facebook “works” doesn’t mean that it will be easy and that you can go for it with your head down. Several parameters must be taken into account. The first of them is to ask yourself why you want to use this or that Network: improve your notoriety, generate contacts, build your brand image, your employer brand, etc.

If the desire to develop an awareness of your company is the main goal of social networks for companies according to this Hootsuite study at a rate of 91%, the objectives can be multiple depending on your situation. Thus, again according to this study, 74% say they want to manage the reputation of their brand when others (70%) want to build and manage an engaged community.
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Also, we can note a good margin of improvement when we talk about “Social selling” since one in two companies uses their networks to increase their conversions and sales in 2018, against 27% in 2017 and 20% in 2016.

Dependent on whether you are B2B or B2C, the stakes will also not be the same: the use of networks for assistance and customer service is, for example, much more developed in B2C than in B2B (37% against 17%)

Finally, whatever your goal, here is a summary of good and bad practices to help you see more clearly:

Bad practices:

• post posts that only talk about you and your company
• only post promotional offers
• not knowing why, for whom, and what is the purpose of a publication
• do exactly like the competitor
• adopt the wrong Strategy on the wrong social Network
• do not test
• stay camped on one’s certainties
• be limited to a single format (video, image, canvas) or type (informational, humorous, promotional) of publications

Good practices :

• I publish varied content useful to my audience (personas) and which helps them in their purchasing decisions at each stage of the conversion funnel
• I know in advance my next publications (at least those of the next two weeks), and I schedule them
• I know what the objective of each of them and to which audience I wish to address is
• I have already planned a moment on my list to analyze the results
• I adapt my communication according to the social network used and the objective.

Identify your Audience

Your audience is the key to your business! Who do you want to address? It is essential to be able to answer this question. Your target audience (or persona) is the one for whom your digital Strategy will be built.

Your goal: to offer them a solution to their problems! Therefore, identifying their problems and determining how to help them should be the heart of your Strategy.

If you want to determine your target audience, download our free guide, “How to create my persona”:

Select your KPIs and Analyze

Also, according to Hootsuite, 84% of respondents say that their company’s presence on social media is important to be competitive, even though 63% of them cannot measure the effectiveness of actions taken on social media.

Each of your posts should, therefore, be accompanied by a specific objective and be associated with one or more KPIs (Key Performance Indicator).

For example, you post an article on your Facebook page, the purpose of which is to generate views. You set an amount for your advertising for over two weeks with a target of x views. After one week, you analyze your results. Where are you? Goal achieved? If so, after how many days, for what budget, for what audience?

Have this rigor for each of your posts, and after a few weeks/months, you will have a personalized strategy adapted to your audience.

Observe your Competition

If you should not base your Strategy on your competitors, it is, however, always useful to know what their Strategy is and benchmark it, that is to say, to observe their strengths, but also their weaknesses. As such, several tools make your task easier; here are some of them:

• Radian 6
• Karma Fanpage
• MakeMeStats
• LikeAlyzer

Each Network has its Strategy

While Facebook is widespread, it is not necessarily the most suitable social network for your business. We note, for example, that for companies with more than 1000 people, Twitter is the most popular. If you’re not sure which social network to use, or if you’re unsure whether to get started on a social network, here are some questions that might help you make up your mind:

• Does my target audience (or persona) use it?
• What are the advantages of using this Network?
• Are there any consequences of not using it (good or bad?)
• What resources (people, time, skills, budget) are needed to maintain an effective presence?
• Do my competitors use it? If yes, how? What conclusions can I draw from it

What makes you Unique?

There are more and more competitors, and it is becoming more and more complicated to stand out. In 2014, a company had six competitors on average. In 2018, it had 22, according to a Hubspot study.

It is, therefore, your ability to make yourself unique that will attract the good graces of your audience. So ask yourself what is your added value, what makes you special, what do you have that your competition doesn’t?

Your brand image, your corporate culture, your products, your team, your methods, your internal and external communication, your customer relationship are all factors that set you apart from others. And what can make the difference, more than ever, is the customer experience you offer.

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68% of companies opt for centralized management of their networks. Understand by, managed by a single team. And for 30%, only one person is dedicated to community management. Convenient to centralize everything, we grant you. But if your Community Manager is only in contact with the marketing manager, only the company’s “marketing” vision will then be shared. And that would be a shame …

Your teams generally have a lot to say and have tremendous feedback to provide. So don’t hesitate to contact each department (or at least one referee) and let your Community Manager be influenced (in a good sense) by the various feedbacks. In this way, you benefit from several visions to best stick to the culture of your company and the reality of your market. You will then be able to better perceive who you are talking to and determine how to solve their problems before and after the purchase. While some principles remain immutable, others are a direct consequence of market developments. If social networks are now part of the landscape, they are still very young: Facebook created only 15 years ago, Twitter barely 13 years ago, and Instagram is not yet 10 years old (created in 2010).