social media strategy business plan

How to Create a Great Social Media Strategy in 2024 (+New Data)

Create a comprehensive plan for leveraging social media platforms to achieve your marketing and growth goals with this free workbook.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY WORKBOOK

Updated: 03/13/24

Published: 03/11/24

Creating social media strategies can be overwhelming, especially when you're just launching your brand or just building your online presence for the first time. So many channels, features, tools, and products available – but so little time to fit them all into your marketing strategy.

If you don’t have a full-time team of social media experts at your disposal, it’s even harder. But the fact is that your online success depends on having a sensible and straightforward strategy that fits your resources and goals.

hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(53, '98832452-a1c6-4911-8d99-700ee5007c0d', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"});

I spoke with three top-tier social media experts, and dug into recent HubSpot research (including our 2024 State of Social Media Report), to show you how to develop a social media strategy that drives traffic and ROI to your brand.

What is a social media strategy?

Why you need a social media strategy, how to create a social media strategy.

A social media strategy is an outline of the content that your business will post, the responsibilities of your social media team, and the social media channels you will use to promote your business. A social media strategy includes social media goals that complement your business' overall digital marketing strategy.

Your social media strategy is your master plan for how you create, post, and engage with your social media content.

It encompasses your social content guidelines, posting cadence, social media marketing campaigns, target audience, and engagement strategy that promote your business and brand.

To track and analyze your social media marketing performance, HubSpot’s Marketing Analytics and Dashboard Software can help you get insights, including customer lifecycle.

Many companies use social media to connect with customers, provide support, advertise new products and features, and promote special offers.

The State of Social Media in 2024

Explore the top trends in social media for brands to know and optimize your social strategy.

• AI Content Creation
• Community Building
• Social Media Shopping
• Social Vs. Search Engine

Download Free

All fields are required.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

According to our most recent The State of Social Media , social media marketers' top challenges include creating engaging content, generating leads, and reaching target audiences. While these are some of the trickiest challenges, they're also the items you'll want to think about most when making an effective plan.

Ultimately, well-thought-out social media strategies equip you to set goals and guardrails, track performance, and tweak your benchmarks over time.

“One of the biggest challenges I think social media marketers face is saturation and competition. There is so much content on social media that sometimes it makes it challenging to stand out from the crowd. Having a robust strategy that understands the target audience includes strong copy and unique content can help to cut through the noise,” says Ellie Nash , social community executive at Kurago .

Without a starting point, you can‘t measure what’s working and how to shift your activity to hit your goals.

A social media strategy also helps you set expectations for broader team involvement and get everyone aligned on what they should and shouldn't do on your social networks.

• Define your target audience.
• Incorporate ecommerce.
• Optimize your social channels for search.
• Focus on a few key channels.
• Make a plan for customer service.
• Develop a recipe card to guide you.
• Measure your results.
• Adjust your tactics.

1. Define your target audience.

If you haven’t already identified and documented your buyer personas , start by defining the key demographics of the audience you’re trying to reach — such as age, gender, occupation, income, hobbies, and interests.

To meet your audience where they are with marketing that won't annoy them, you first need to learn out what they want and why. 

Social Media Motivations

Are social media users visiting these apps to learn, explore, shop, or just have a good time?

In our most recent State of Consumer Trends Survey this summer, we asked over 500 general consumers to pick the three most common reasons they use social media. 

While 65% actually use it socially to keep up with friends, 53% just want to be entertained while 50% want to learn new things. Unfortunately, 28% say they prefer to go on social media to learn about new products or brands. 

The good news? Later in the survey, when we asked consumers how they prefer to research and learn about brands and products, a whopping 41% said they like to do this on social media channels (a slight increase from a similar survey we ran six months prior).

While Gen X and Boomers skew lower on this average, Gen Z and Millennial generations are using social for brand research more often – which is not surprising due to their hyper-connectedness to the web.

As you might be able to tell from our data above, your target audience plays a role in how successful the right strategy will be. And, better catering to them helps you create focused advertising that addresses your ideal consumer’s specific needs.

For instance, the below-sponsored post by Monday.com , a project management platform, highlights the platform’s flexibility and workflow customization feature.

The post targets business owners and project managers who may feel limited by other project management software.

Image Source

Consider your ideal consumer’s challenges and what problems they're solving daily. Focus on no more than four types of people representing most of your buyers. Don’t get hung up on the exceptions or outliers, or you’ll never get started.

Once you start creating content for your audience, focus on engaging your audience at every level.

Pay close attention to any questions or comments your audience posts, and be quick to address them, as that engagement could make or break a conversion or purchase.

Consumers like feeling like they’re part of a community when they’re on your social media pages. More than 1 in 5 social media users joined or participated in an online community in the last year.

Speaking of communities, creating social media groups is a smart move to attract, keep, and engage the audience, with 90% of marketers agreeing.

Here's why:

• Groups help people get involved.
• Followers can learn from each other.
• Your brand becomes a connector — something like a helpful friend.
• Communities feel more friendlier to chat compared to pages. 

In 2020, HubSpot made a small Facebook Group called Marketer to Marketer with 4.9k followers. It's not as big as our Facebook page, but conversions prove its worth it.

Pro tip: To reach the right audience, use social listening tools . These tools check social media for keywords, assess if the talk is positive or negative, and give you reports. This helps in creating a buyer persona for better targeting.

2. Incorporate ecommerce.

As more and more people use social media to discover new products, they’re also finding convenience in shopping for those products directly in the social app they found them in.

While one-fourth of social media marketers are already seeing more effectiveness in social shopping tools than they are with ecommerce site strategies, 80% of social media marketers believe consumers will eventually buy products directly within social apps more often than on brand websites or through third-party resellers. 

What's more, 25% of users between the ages of 18 and 44 had already bought a product on social media by summer of 2023. We wouldn't be shocked if this number increased in 2024.

Lastly, if we look at how this trend is fairing across the globe, several other countries have already made social media shopping a norm.

For example, check out this comparison of data from the UK, China, and the US:

• In the UK, social shopping saw a rise from 2021 to 2023 , with 4.1% of the population engaging in this trend. Anticipated data suggests a further increase in 2024 and a growth of approximately 2% in 2025.
• In 2022, around 84% of Chinese consumers have shopped on social media platforms. Despite some COVID-19 challenges, it reached 850 million users in 2021 , making the market worth more than 2.5 trillion.
• In 2023, the US made $68.91 million from social commerce , which is 5.9% of all online sales. This is a sharp increase from $39.51 million in 2021.

Translation? If you sell products, social media should be a key part of your ecommerce strategy in 2024. It doesn't matter where you are. Social selling is a big deal — so it’s time to take it seriously.

Most platforms offer built-in e-commerce features like shoppable posts, and 47% of social media marketers are already taking advantage of selling products directly within social media apps.

The most popular social selling tools for marketers are:

• Instagram Shops and Instagram Live Shopping — high ROI.
• Facebook Shops — average ROI.

(Psst: Need help building a Facebook page for your business? We have you covered.)

If you need inspiration for incorporating e-commerce into your social strategy, take a cue from Sephora .

Whenever the beauty brand shares an image of a product, it uses a product tag that links to its shoppable page above.

This makes it easy for its followers to instantly buy something they see on the page without ever having to leave the app.

One critical element of successfully selling on social media is establishing brand trust so users feel comfortable purchasing your products directly on the app.

While Sephora has built an established brand reputation over time, you can build trust in other ways, even if you’re building your social media strategy from scratch.

Focus on sharing customer reviews and testimonials, user-generated content (UGC), and product data to build social proof.

Pro tip: Go with image, video, and carousel ads for brand awareness to emphasize store visits, ad impressions, and engagement. For increased sales, select product, collection, or shopping ads to drive direct purchases and product page visits.

3. Optimize your social channels for search.

Social search is on the rise.

As more people turn to social with their queries instead of search engines, 89% of social media marketers agree that social search is important to their overall social media strategies in 2023.

Nearly 24% of consumers aged 18-54 use social media first to search for brands.

Pro tip: You don’t need to film an hour-long video. Even short videos, aka YouTube Shorts, can help you rank higher in SERP. You can use UGC videos and testimonials for that purpose.

4. Focus on a few key social channels.

Most small businesses or social teams don’t have the bandwidth to establish and sustain a quality social media presence on every single channel.

It's also overwhelming to learn the rules of engagement on multiple networks simultaneously.

Focus on the channels that will bring in the highest ROI. For most brands, this will be Instagram.

Instagram has proven to be the best source of ROI, engagement, and quality leads. Additionally, 23% of marketers believe Instagram offers brands the most potential to grow their audiences in 2023.

Adding an Instagram feed to your website is also a smart move to keep your site looking fresh and even to nudge people towards buying, as social media content can increase conversions by up to 29%.

With a tool like Flockler, even if you’re not a tech expert, you can make your site more lively and exciting with your latest Instagram posts. See their easy guide on how to embed an Instagram feed on a website .

Or as Annie-Mai Hodge says, “You don’t need to be on every single social media platform, full stop — for most businesses, it’s a waste of time and resources to be on platforms where your audience isn’t active.”

When creating your strategy, Hodge says, “You would’ve looked at where your audience is, what your competitors are doing, and what you’re aiming to achieve with social media — all of this will help inform you as to what social media channels you should be focusing on.”

Pro tip: Check where your competitors are most active and what kind of content they post. You’ll see what works or doesn't and how engaged their audience is. Don’t copy them — just use that info to make smart decisions for your strategy.

5. Repurpose your content.

Why stress over creating different content for each platform? 

Keep it simple: repurpose and use the same awesome content in different places – within reason of course.

According to our research, most marketers repurpose content in some way, shape, or form, while 19% consider it one of their key strategies. Meanwhile 40% plan to invest more in content repurposing in 2024.

This makes sense. By repurposing content, you can leanly and easily:

• Get your message to more people on different platforms.
• Save time by using what you already have instead of starting from scratch.
• Stay visible on search engines by updating and reusing content.
• Cater to your audience's preferences with different formats.
• Make your content last longer by updating timeless pieces.
• Improve your strategy by checking how your content performs on different channels.

…to hilarious TikTok video:

@hubspot Always look for a desk with a view (of your manager's eyeline) #hybridwork #9to5 #officehumor #inoffice ♬ original sound - HubSpot

However, one word to the wise is to not lean on it for every single campaign. Although most marketers do it, only 7% told us it yields them substantial ROI compared to content that's more catered to platforms. 

So, if you're low on time or bandwidth, experimenting a new platform that's similar to one you already use, or can make light tweaks to optimize content for different channels – feel free. Just make sure you're giving your audience what they're looking for and not over-spamming them with content they've seen several times already.

Pro tip: Looking for a creative content idea that feels more personal than repurposed? Make catchy quote pictures from customer thoughts, share email insights on X or LinkedIn, and whip up quick videos from podcasts — people love that kind of stuff.

6. Make a plan for customer service.

When putting together your social media strategy, consider how you’ll use your channels for customer service.

Social media is so ingrained in our day-to-day lives that it’s no surprise that people turn to these platforms for everything from brand discovery to customer service.

According to our State of Social Media and Consumer Trends research, 1 in 5 social media users contact a brand through social DMs for customer service each quarter.

43% of marketers use customer service reps, 41% rely on platform managers, and 13% employ automated tools like chatbots.

Whether you create a separate account dedicated to customer service or have an auto-reply set up when people DM you on Instagram, have a plan for how you’ll handle customer support through social media.

Now, let’s talk a little bit about the importance of good customer service on social media. According Khoros research :

• 42% felt disappointed, 43% were unhappy, and 41% reported anger with poor customer care.
• 67% shared bad experiences, and 65% switched to a different brand.
• 43% are more likely to buy from a brand after a good customer service experience.
• 83% feel more loyal to brands that resolve their complaints.
• 73% of brands expect more inbound channels, and 53% anticipate more outbound channels in the next one to two years.
• Pro tip: Apart from clearly stating working hours, let customers know the expected response time and inform them about quicker alternative resources if available.

7. Develop a recipe card to guide you.

Social media isn’t an exact science. It doesn't work the same for every business or industry.

To see results for your business, create a recipe card. A recipe card is a posting and engagement schedule that keeps your team on track and helps you post content consistently.

HubSpot has a list of social media tools and templates that you can use to plan your content and create a posting schedule and content calendar.

One of the best ways to manage an SM content calendar is the method Bazile shared with me.

Here’s how she categorizes it:

• Evergreen engagement content.
• Evergreen promotional content.
• Specific campaign content.
• Recurring communications content.

“Breaking down content into these buckets allows social teams to maintain regular presences online while also separating content data into easily trackable pieces,” she says.

Develop a reasonable recipe card and well-organized calendar. Stick to it and get your team to follow. Set goals for your posting and engagement frequency, and hold yourself accountable for following your recipe.

Pro tip: Choose platforms that allow easy editing and content management within your team. This ensures smooth collaboration and calendar updates.

8. Talk WITH, not AT, your followers.

In our latest Consumer Trends research, 41% of consumers pointed to relatability as the most memorable aspect of posts from brands or companies on social or the web. 

Friendly brands win more followers (and hearts). So, skip the self-promotion overload. Instead, get into conversations and respond to comments authentically.

People love it when you chat with them, not just throw information their way. It makes them feel special, creating a genuine affection for your brand.

You don't have to sound super professional. Casual talk works even better on social media. Just take a cue from McDonald’s:

And here’s something interesting to remember — very few people, less than one percent , interact with the brands’ posts. 

Here are the platform breakdowns:

• Facebook: 0.09%.
• Instagram: 1.22%.

So, once you get a comment, find the right way to interact and show that you care.

Don't just ghost and ignore. These comments boost your post higher in algorithms and make it more visible. 

Pro tip: Never delete negative comments unless they’re super offensive or totally inappropriate. Instead, use them as an opportunity for constructive engagement and improvement.

9. Measure your results.

“Without goals, a product roadmap, or even a full brand strategy, social media managers will struggle to know what to prioritize in the social space, what metrics to measure to convey progress, and what sort of content or social presence is ideal for the brand,” Bazile says. 

There are countless things to track on your social media channels. Start by looking at how much traffic your social accounts drive to your website or blog.

Social media platforms offer tools to help businesses track analytics.

For example, you can use Facebook’s Page Insights , Instagram’s Account Insights , and LinkedIn’s Visitor Analytics to see what people are responding to and look for trends related to topics or keywords that generate the most interest.

Once you get an idea of your average traffic and post-performance, set goals for key metrics and keep a scorecard to measure your progress.

Be sure to choose metrics that are easy to gather because if it’s too time-consuming to track, you won’t be motivated to do it.

Examples of simple metrics include the total number of interactions, traffic to your website, and sales or revenue that can be attributed to social.

“One of the most valuable indicators, in my opinion, is impressions,” Nash says, “Impressions measure the number of times a piece of content is displayed on users' screens and help to evaluate the effectiveness of your content strategy in terms of exposure and brand awareness.”

Pro tip: Don’t only focus on platform numbers. Track the social sentiment as well. See if people express positive or negative feelings about you in online conversations. It takes a bit of manual work, but it's worth it. Check regularly for better insights.

10. Adjust your tactics as needed.

Social media won't start working overnight.

Establishing a following, stabilizing your brand, and seeing the results of your efforts take time. So, experiment to find the right combination of channels, content, and messaging that works for your audience.

We can pick up some cool tricks from Victoria's Secret in this regard.

They’ve shifted from using only professional photos and videos to incorporating more casual content. Now, VS’s Insta feed also includes UGC and interviews with random people on the street and in their stores.

Victoria's Secret proves that even as a high-end brand, you don't lose anything by including everyday people. 

Actually, you gain. 

More followers, more engagement, more exposure.

Keep track of changes in your post views, audience demographics, and post interactions, and make changes as needed.

Over time, you’ll be able to adjust your recipe card, content, and personas based on the information you’re gathering, which will help you fine-tune your strategy and generate more consistent results.

Trying new stuff might seem a bit daring, but sometimes, it's just necessary to “survive.”

For instance, try to use funny content whenever possible.

In our 2023 survey of over a thousand global social media marketers, 66% said funny content works best, followed by relatable (63%) and trendy (59%) content. While 45% talk only about their brand values, the key is to use humor for the most impact. 

Don't believe that humor can pay the bills? One-third, or 34% of Consumer Trends respondents also told us funny content is most memorable to them. 

I asked Hodge to tell me about a time when changing tactics improved social media results. She recalls that at the start of 2023, Girl Power Marketing stopped growing on social media and started losing engagement. 

“It wasn’t until I sat down and reassessed my strategy that I was missing something, and that was humanization,” Hodge recounts. “Why should people trust my thoughts, opinions, and guidance if they have no clue who was behind GPM or the mission behind it?”

Hodge shares that she started showing up more intentionally. She created content that showed more of herself, her personality, and GPM’s mission. 

“And a year later, GPM has grown to a community of 180k+ people - all because I switched up my tactics that no longer worked,” says Hodge.

Pro tip: Tailor your content to match seasonal trends and holidays. This helps keep your brand messaging timely and relatable. And most importantly — people love it.

Keeping Up With Social Media Strategies

While these tips will help you optimize your strategy for ROI in the present day, it's important to get your footing and keep up with the big shifts that are inevitable as new tools, channels, and trends arise.

To keep up with low stress, keep following research like our State of Social Media Report and check out our blog and resources for the coverage of social trends and tactics you actually need to keep on your radar.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Free Social Media Strategy Template

Create a comprehensive plan for leveraging social media platforms to achieve your marketing and growth goals with this free workbook, including sections for:

• Content Strategy
• Community Management

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

How to Generate Leads on TikTok, According to TikTok's Global Head of Product Partnerships

The 7 Types of Social Media and Pros & Cons of Each (Research)

8 Shifts Social Media Marketers Should Make in 2023 [Insights from 1,000+ Professionals]

Branded Mission: How to Leverage TikTok's New Ad Solution to Boost Brand Awareness

Which Social Networks Should You Advertise on in 2022?

13 Social Media Strategies & Resources for Black-Owned Businesses

The True Impact of Social Analytics on B2B Funnels

8 Simple Ways to Segment Your Social Media Audience

How to Analyze Facebook Data to Understand Your Audience

8 Ways Marketers Can Leverage Social Media to Meet Business Objectives

Create a plan for leveraging social media platforms to achieve your marketing and growth goals with this free workbook.

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

Due to recent expansions in US sanctions against Russia and Belarus as well as existing country-level sanctions in Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, and the Crimea region (each a “sanctioned country”), Zapier will no longer be able to provide services in any sanctioned country starting September 12, 2024. These sanctions prohibit US companies from offering certain IT and enterprise software services in a sanctioned region.

Starting September 12, 2024, Zapier customers will no longer be able to access Zapier services from a sanctioned country. We understand this may be inconvenient and appreciate your understanding as we navigate these regulatory requirements.

• Marketing Automation
• StoryChief Updates
• Customer Success Stories
• Digital Marketing Agencies
• Write for us ✏️
• storychief.io

9 Steps to Create a Social Media Strategy in 2024 [Templates & Examples]

The companies that are successful on social media aren’t tackling everything at once. They’re picking a few strategic channels, honing in on their audiences, and— above all —creating truly great content that educates and entertains.

4.7 billion people around the world now use at least one social platform. Yes, your audience is on social media. Yes, you can use it to scale your business. And yes , you will struggle if you don’t have a great social media strategy .

So let’s build that strategy step by step.

How to create a social media strategy

Step 1. document your goals, step 2. clarify your target audience, step 3. conduct competitive analysis, step 4. choose your channels.

• Step 5. Choose your content formats and frequency

Step 6. Determine your internal success metrics

Step 7. plan out your budget, step 8. map out your collaboration processes.

• Step 9. Continually improve your approach
• Bonus: 7 social media strategy presentation templates

What is a social media strategy?

A social media strategy documents a business’s goals for social media marketing , target audience, top channels, and content categories to keep the team on track to achieve key business goals.

Social media managers can use Google Docs, Notion Docs, or PowerPoint presentations to write and visualize their strategies. Templates can save a ton of time with professional formatting. It’s also smart to use content collaboration software to present the content calendar portion of the strategy, and to organize work from multiple team members.

What should your social media strategy include?

A great social media strategy should at least include these essential sections:

• Target audience
• Competitor analysis
• Content formats and categories
• Success metrics
• Budget allocation
• Team collaboration plan
• Content frequency and key timelines

Below, we go into more detail on how to create, document, and share your own strategy.

How to create a social media marketing strategy

Follow these steps and expert tips to help you craft your own strategy.

Join 5,000 marketing professionals and teams who already save multiple hours every week on creating and distributing social media content. Create a free account and start publishing today . 🙌

When you know your goals for social media , you can keep the rest of your strategy on track. Some companies only care about audience growth and branding, while others expect to drive measurable sales directly from social content.

The right goals for your business really depend on what you sell.

If you sell a low-cost e-commerce product, you can easily gain direct sales from social platforms. But B2B companies might need to use social media to gain leads and keep in touch with their existing customers.

The longer and more complex your sales cycle, the less likely you’ll be able to tie social media directly to revenue. Instead, you should set goals that are related to brand awareness, lead generation, community building, and customer retention.

💡Helpful Tips :

• Come up with 2 - 5 goals yourself before meeting with stakeholders to get their input. This will provide a better starting point for the meeting.
• Make your goals as specific and measurable as possible . For example, instead of “We want to grow our audience,” write “We want to grow our audience by 60%.” Or instead of, “Our goal is to increase our customer acquisition from social channels,” write “Our goal is to increase our social media customer acquisition from 2% of our overall acquisition to 10%.”

It’s important to include descriptions of your target audience in your documented strategy so that you can craft the strategy through the lens of what your audience will really care about.

The next step is to write down exactly who your target audience is.

B2C companies typically use a variety of demographics and interests. For example, 30- to 50-year-old women who are interested in housekeeping, home decor, and minimalism.

But B2B companies are usually better off using the jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework , as their target customers can come from a wide variety of age, gender, and ethnic backgrounds.

JTBD teaches us to define our customers by the jobs they need to get done. For example, a chief cybersecurity officer needs to protect his organization against ransomware.

• Review your target audience description with all stakeholders to make sure everyone is on board. Iron out any disagreements until you’ve defined your audience accurately.
• If you have two or more target audiences, create a page or section in your strategy for each one. Later on in step 5, create a content plan for each audience and describe how you will address the needs of your different audiences.

What are your competitors doing on social media? Deep competitor analysis can make it easier to know exactly how to approach your own social media accounts.

With your goals and target audience clear, you’ll be able to select the right competitors to analyze.

You should analyze at least 3 competitors from each of these categories:

• Direct competitors - Companies that offer a similar solution to solve a similar problem.
• Indirect competitors - Companies that offer a different solution to solve a similar problem.
• Content competitors - Companies that compete with you for your target audience’s attention on social media, even if the problems you solve are different.

As with every part of your social strategy, the competitive analysis needs to be well documented. You can’t just spy on your competitors without writing anything down. At the very least, you should list their channels, account handles, followings, content formats, and content pillars.

• Create a Google Sheet and make a row for each competitor. Then, in your strategy presentation, create a section for your overall findings from competitor analysis. Link to the spreadsheet so stakeholders can dive into the details. SproutSocial offers a helpful competitive analysis template specifically for social media.

• What content gets the best engagement? How about the worst? For thorough content analysis, link to the top 10 highest-performing and top 10 lowest-performing posts for each of your competitors. Put these in your spreadsheet, so you’ll have inspiration 24/7.

Start by listing out the distribution channels you hope to tackle, making sure to include only channels your audience is actually present on.

Then, use the RICE method to choose which channels you should actually prioritize right now. With the RICE method, you give each item a score from 1 to 10 for these categories : Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. (For effort, if it’s a low effort, you give a higher score.)

Then, you tally up the scores to discover which channels to choose. For example, let’s say you want to take on TikTok, but your confidence and effort scores are such that it doesn’t make it into your top 3.

• Depending on the size of your team and budget, choose the social channels for which you will have sufficient resources to create great content and manage audience engagement.
• If your budget and resources are low, choose only 1 or 2 channels to start with. Once you’ve met some of your goals on your core channels and you have the resources needed to create content for another channel, then you can take that on next.
• Consider content repurposing when choosing channels. For example, you might find that you can handle Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn because you are repurposing your Instagram content for the other 3 platforms.

Automate posting to Facebook, Twitter (X), Linkedin, Instagram, Instagram Reels, TikTok, Pinterest and many more. Try it free ! 🙌

Step 5. Choose your content formats, pillars, and frequency

Your content creation strategy should make up a sizeable portion of your overall documented social media strategy. What kind of content will you create? Which formats and media types will you use? Which content pillars will you satisfy?

Content formats

Social media algorithms love native content. This means content that was truly designed for that platform, rather than trying to get people off the platform. So, you might create a Facebook post with multiple images, a LinkedIn carousel, a TikTok video, etc.

Every social platform has its own content formats. Some platforms have tons of different formats. Instagram, for example, allows you to create Stories, Reels, Carousels, Feed Posts, Lives, and more. Instagram is known for copying other platforms like TikTok and Snapchat.

As you can see in this example, Quickbooks uses Posts, Guides, Reels, and Stories.

Now TikTok is getting in on the copycat action, having released a feature similar to BeReal’s quick post challenges .

Should you try to keep up with every content format under the sun? Absolutely not.

Try choosing just 2 to 3 content formats for each channel. This way, you can satisfy different learning styles and test the formats over time to see what works.

Social media content pillars

Tie your content pillars to customer concerns. What do customers ask you about? What do they want to know? The answers to these questions should guide your 3 to 6 content categories, your social media content pillars .

Posting frequency

A great social media strategy covers how frequently you’ll post each type of content on each channel.

• How will your social media content play into your overall content marketing funnel ? Make sure to include these details in this section of your strategy. For example, you might share your plan for promoting lead magnets to generate leads.
• Make sure to also include details on how you will source content in this section. Will you source user-generated content (UGC) ? Will you partner with other companies?
• Set a fixed slot for the best times to post on each social media channel.

Your strategy should include the specific metrics you’ll collect to measure success . You might also list any benchmarks you intend to hit.

Here are some examples of social media metrics:

• Post engagement rate
• Account mentions
• Impressions
• Leads generated per post or campaign
• Conversions generated per post or campaign
• Website traffic per channel
• Audience count
• Audience growth rate

The metrics you choose will depend on your strategy as well as your prowess with data collection and analytics .

FYI: With StoryChief, reporting and analytics are seamlessly integrated into one powerful tool, making it easier than ever to track and optimize your content performance. Create a free account and start optimizing content today . 🙌

• In your strategy document, clarify what you’ll track for each channel. For example, for TikTok, you might clarify that you’ll track views, likes, comments, and saves per post, as well as audience count, audience growth rate, and website traffic for the entire channel.
• If you’re not an expert at collecting social media metrics or attributing business results to organic channels, then include phases in your strategy. In phase 1, you might collect impression and engagement metrics, while in phase 2, you might start collecting conversion metrics. This way, you can focus on implementing the strategy first without worrying about doing the setup upfront.

Write down your company’s budget for social media and how you plan to spend it.

Your budget can include:

• Hard costs like social media software or agency retainers
• Variable costs such as freelancer hours
• The amount you are spending on internal hires related to social media

Some social media managers might also manage paid advertising and the costs required to boost the visibility of certain posts. If so, be sure to include that as well. If you have a separate team or department for paid advertising, then you don't need to include those costs in your budget.

• It’s best to plan quarterly because social media is a fast-changing industry. The more results you get from social channels, the more budget you’ll be able to advocate for.
• Make sure to reserve 70%+ of your budget for content creation. A great social media presence requires top-tier content. Your remaining budget can get spread between audience engagement work, software, and other related costs.

Your strategy should also include a plan for content collaboration with your team. List out who will work on social media, what tasks each person will do, and what tools you’ll use to coordinate that work.

Make sure to also clarify the process for collaboration . For example, you might create a diagram for the 5 phases of your ongoing social media work:

• Content planning
• Content creation
• Content review

Then, you can detail which people, tasks, and tools fit into which stages.

• Know that social media collaboration is an ongoing battle. Add a phase in your strategy to review your collaboration processes and make continuous improvements.
• Use content collaboration software designed to save time and streamline your efforts. You can use StoryChief to brief, assign, create, review, schedule, publish, and analyze all of your digital content, including social media, blog posts, email marketing, and more.

Cureight Content Solutions faced challenges with editing and processing feedback in Google Docs before they started using StoryChief. By collaborating through StoryChief, they can conveniently store content briefs, feedback, and deadlines in a single platform. Additionally, they can publish content after approval without the need to switch between platforms.

Step 9. Implement your strategy and continually improve your approach

Now it’s time to get to work.

Once your team has accepted your strategy, you’ll need to put the plan into motion. If you’re creating a social media strategy from scratch, you might need to implement new software, design templates, and create a tone of voice or brand guidelines .

• Add phases to your strategy document. For example, you might have Strategy Creation; Strategy Discussion & Review; Initial Implementation; and Results Analysis & Strategy Updates. This way, you show your team members that you’ve scheduled time in to actually check whether or not the strategy was successful.
• When analyzing the results of your strategy, make sure to review everything: the channels, content formats, content pillars, posting frequencies, etc. to find opportunities to improve.

7 social media marketing strategy presentation templates

We’ve rounded up the very best free and affordable templates to help you create, visualize, and share your social media strategy.

💡Tip : Some templates can be mixed and matched. For example, you can add a Lucidchart diagram to your Notion doc or PowerPoint presentation, and then use StoryChief to share the content calendar aspect of your social media strategy.

1. Gantt’s Social Media Strategy Template

Gantt is a project management software that’s excellent for—you guessed it—using Gantt charts to map out tasks and project phases.

Their Social Media Strategy Plan Template uses a similar approach to map out work throughout the year. You can use it to visualize your recurring processes for research, analysis, content creation, and review. While it’s great for organizing your tasks, it’s not suitable for actually documenting your strategy. So, you’ll likely want to use Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Notion for that.

2. Social Media Strategy Template by DesignsDuke

CreativeMarket is an excellent resource for super-affordable templates. This Social Media Strategy Presentation Template by DesignsDuke costs as much as a t-shirt and is compatible with Adobe InDesign and PowerPoint.

This template is great for pushing you to dig deeper in your research, helping you organize your thoughts, and of course, presenting your strategy either in person or virtually.

The sections include:

• Market analysis
• Audience demographic
• Analyzing the competition
• Top social networks
• Content sharing plan
• Content calendar
• Collaborators
• Guiding principles
• KPI overview

3. StoryChief’s Social Media Content Calendar Template

When you use StoryChief to strategize and plan your social media content, you get access to our Content Calendar . This means that once you create and plan your content, it will auto-publish posts according to your schedule. You don’t have to double up your work by copying content from Notion over to a social media scheduler.

You can plan, collaborate, schedule, and measure results all in one place. Learn more about managing content collaboration with StoryChief.

4. Natalie Furness’s Growth Marketing Strategy Template for Notion

Natalie Furness is a revenue operations consultant who specializes in growth marketing. Her Growth Marketing Strategy Template for Notion is one of the most detailed marketing strategy templates we’ve ever seen. While it’s not specific to social media, you can easily use it to document your strategy for social media specifically.

It includes:

• SWOT analysis
• Strategy documentation
• Key growth metrics
• Attribution analytics
• OKR tracking
• Customer journey maps
• Marketing partner database

By following this template and filling out every detail, you’ll create a social media strategy that will impress stakeholders and keep efforts on track toward reaching important business goals.

This video walks you through the marketing strategy template in more detail:

5. Easlo’s Social Media Planner for Notion

Notion has a template library where you can find their free templates as well as ones for sale by the Notion community (at affordable prices). Easlo’s Social Media Planner is an excellent template for any team already using Notion. You can track your social media strategy in terms of channels, content formats, and post frequency, as well as your content calendar and upcoming tasks.

And of course, you can create a separate Notion doc to outline your target audience, goals, and success metrics.

6. Social Media Strategy Template by Latasha James

Latasha James is a social media strategist and manager who teaches other marketing agency owners how to create effective social media strategies for their clients. In her Social Media Management Toolbox course, she offers a social media strategy template that covers business goals, content audits, recommended channels, posting schedules, content formats, content pillars, and examples of content ideas.

You can watch this walkthrough of her Social Media Strategy Template and recreate your own version using Google Slides or Canva.

7. Lucidchart’s Marketing Plan Template

Lucidchart is a popular tool for creating diagrams and flowcharts. Their Marketing Plan Template can be easily customized for your social media strategy. Add your channels, content formats, and content categories to the mind map to help you visualize your overall approach.

On its own, this graphic isn’t comprehensive enough. So, be sure to download the image and upload it to your overall strategy document, where you can describe why you’ve chosen certain channels, content formats, and content categories.

Top 4 tools for creating your social media strategy

When creating a social media strategy, you need the right tools. You can use all of these together for different purposes.

1. StoryChief

StoryChief is a platform designed to help you collaborate on organic content . Content managers, social media managers, and freelancers can all work together in one place. So, rather than plan your content on one platform and schedule it on another, you can save time and never have to double up on your work.

How to use it for your social media strategy :

StoryChief is best used for sharing your first content calendar during the strategy process. Then, you can continue to use it for implementation and analytics.

Check out this tutorial to learn how to set up your channels, integrations, and content calendar:

Canva is a popular design tool that is an easy cloud-based alternative to professional design products like Adobe InDesign.

How to use it for your social strategy :

This tool is great for presenting your strategy. Create slides for all of the key sections and share the link with stakeholders, or organize a meeting to present and take feedback.

With Miro , you can visualize or diagram anything. Consider it a visual whiteboard and design tool. You can use it to organize your thoughts and create attractive images.

Miro has a lot of use cases when you’re fleshing out your strategy. You could use their RICE method template when prioritizing channels and then include the visual in your strategy presentation:

Or, you can use it to illustrate how social media fits into your content funnel, how you’ll collaborate as a team, or just about any other process or method.

4. Google Sheets

It’s hard to imagine life without Google Sheets . While not as fully featured as Microsoft Excel, this tool is a favorite among many digital workers who want to collaborate in the cloud.

It’s great for organizing just about any data.

Google Sheets is best used when analyzing your competitors. You can include information on your competitors’ followings and top content. Then add your key takeaways to your presentation slides.

We have 20 more social media agency tools listed here: from creation to management, monitoring, and employee advocacy.

Social media strategy examples [by channel]

In this section, we’ll deep-dive into example social media strategies for Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok and Pinterest. Additionally, if you’re looking to get actionable insights into how social media algorithms work in 2024, take a look at this blog post.

Instagram social media strategy

Because Instagram provides so many different types of content formats, you can really let your creativity shine. However, the accounts that are getting the fastest growth are those that post Reels regularly .

Example company: Shopify

Shopify is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the world. It’s used by billion-dollar brands and new startups alike.

Shopify’s Instagram account features only a few types of content formats:

• Standard feed posts
• Carousel posts

They don’t do Stories. They don’t do Lives.

Let this be a lesson in not biting more than you can chew!

They provide really high-quality vertical videos, as you can see in this funny example:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shopify (@shopify)

Shopify knows how to play the social media game. They don’t work too hard to educate their audience on what Shopify does. Instead, they focus on brand awareness and use viral content to drive as much traffic as possible to their Linkpop .

Too many B2B brands are failing on Instagram because they’re attempting to appeal to companies instead of people. Shopify only makes human-centric content.

Interestingly, Shopify also drinks its own Kool-Aid, because they sell products from its own e-commerce store that are designed for its audience, such as t-shirts that say “entrepreneur” on them.

Twitter social media strategy

Twitter is a great place to show off your funny side, and of course, share links to your great content.

Example company: Adobe

Adobe offers a variety of products for creatives, small businesses, and enterprise marketers. Although Adobe is a large enterprise company, they do a good job of keeping its social media content personable and informal.

Like many companies, Adobe uses their Twitter account to drive traffic to the free content featured on their website.

If your camera roll is 99.9% pictures of your pet, this one's for you. 🐾 Find your furry friend's purrfect angle: https://t.co/JQqaf5LqTy — Adobe (@Adobe) October 29, 2022

But they also wisely post native content that doesn’t include any links. Like this funny tweet that is relatable to designers, photographers, and other digital workers.

Just one more edit… – two hours ago 🤡 — Adobe (@Adobe) November 1, 2022

Adobe has a massive global audience. Their 800K+ Twitter followers could be made up of everyone from amateur photographers to Fortune 100 business executives. They do a good job of providing mass appeal with their Twitter content.

Adobe uses their Twitter account to send traffic to the homepage of their website as well as to their free content for designers and photographers.

To keep their account relatable, they focus most of the content on their small business audience. This makes sense because they can garner big business clientele through inside sales and leave social media to win over small businesses, students, and individuals.

LinkedIn social media strategy

LinkedIn is the best platform for reaching a professional audience. Use it to connect with small business owners and employees from organizations of all sizes.

Example company: Gong

Gong is a revenue intelligence platform. The company is known for its bold, no-nonsense branding.

Gong employees at all levels of the organization post regularly and garner lots of brand awareness for the company.

For example, this post from RVP Dana Feldman shares behind-the-scenes SDR tips:

Employee advocacy is the name of the game on LinkedIn. Personal accounts get far more visibility than company accounts. The team at Gong understands this and dominates LinkedIn. People from a variety of teams post regularly, including marketing, product, sales, and the c-suite.

TikTok social media strategy

The TikTok algorithm shows users new content on the For You page. Creators can focus on making great content, without having to spend time commenting on other people’s posts to drive traffic back to their own accounts.

Example company: Rachel Pedersen

Rachel Pedersen is a business coach and social media strategist who trains social media managers in growing their businesses and who also helps entrepreneurs and influencers grow their reach and income through social media.

Her TikTok content has racked up over 19 million likes on TikTok so far.

Because her audience is small business owners, she uses a more personal approach. She posts about motherhood, entrepreneurship, freelancing, mental health, and other topics that matter to her and her audience.

In her free TikTok Business Bundle , Rachel shares that her TikTok strategy looks something like this:

She sells courses on growing social media accounts and on starting a business as a social media manager.

Pinterest social media strategy

A lot of bloggers and digital publishers use Pinterest to promote their content, making it an excellent platform for not only targeting middle-class millennial women ( the biggest user segment ), but also online creators.

Example company: ConvertKit

ConvertKit is an email marketing software that is popular amongst bloggers, freelancers, course creators, coaches, and other small business owners.

With their Pinterest account, ConvertKit does an excellent job of targeting their small business audience. They share productivity tips, marketing advice, and useful templates and tutorials.

ConvertKit utilizes Pinterest’s SEO features to get views and clicks not only from their own followers but from Pinterest searches too. The account has just 4.9K followers, but 2.5 million monthly views, meaning they are SEO-optimizing every pin to further its reach.

For all of their blog content and lead magnets, they create dozens of different pins linking back to those URLs.

Implement your social media strategy with StoryChief

StoryChief gives you all of the tools you need to plan, create, schedule, promote, and analyze your content.

Join 5,000 marketing professionals and teams who already save multiple hours every week on creating and distributing content. Create a free account and start publishing today . 🙌

SEO score is generated by our copywriting assistant and helps us rank higher on search engines.

Free Social Media Strategy Template For 2024 [+ 5 Brand Examples]

Creating a social media strategy takes time to research and write, but not all digital marketers have enough hours in the week.

Altering existing strategies can be difficult, too. The online landscape — be it platforms or audiences — continuously changes and forces the need to refine new tactics.

Download our free social media strategy template to help develop a plan with more ease and speed.

Edit it according to your current social structure, as well as the explanations and examples below:

Social media strategy template explanation

Overall goals.

The opening section of the strategy should identify traditional business goals that social media activity will help meet.

The goals must adhere to the SMART method — they need to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.

“Generating leads” isn’t time-based, whereas “generating 10,000% more leads in a day” isn’t attainable. On the other hand, “generating 10% more leads over a month using targeted ads and content” meets SMART criteria.

Defining goals — and keeping them in mind while completing the template — will ensure your social media strategy has a clear focus.

Think of sub-goals as SMART steps that help reach goals that you had in mind while you develop a plan .

Sticking with the example of earning a 10% boost in leads, here are potential sub-goals:

• Gain X followers on platform Y
• Earn X paid impressions on platform Y
• Earn X organic impressions on platform Y
• Generate X total link clicks from platform Y
• Get users from X different demographics to complete an opt-in form

Target audiences

• One or Two Primary Audiences. These are typical customers who — ideally — will engage with your profiles and visit your website or physical locations. They can also be prospects who are demographically similar to your customers yet haven’t made a purchase.
• Two or More Secondary Audiences . These are consumers who don’t coincide with your brand’s typical customers. This could be due to their age, income, or other factors. However, they should be interested in your products or industry.

Competitor analysis

• Types of Content Shared
• Average Engagement Rate
• Posting Time and Frequency
• Follower Growth
• Post Reach and Impressions

Self-analysis

As well as the metrics in the Competitor Analysis section, you should explore:

• Click Rates
• Top Fans and Followers
• Audience Demographics

Accessing this data will help guide you through the Channels , Content, and Tactics sections.

• Business Goals: Your ultimate goal is likely to increase sales. If you’re a company with photogenic products, make Pinterest a priority. Strategists say users log onto the platform with the explicit intent to make purchases. Plus, Pinterest has buy buttons.
• Sub-Goals: If you prioritize developing a large following, devote substantial resources to Facebook. As of April 2016, it is the most popular social platform with more than 1.5 billion users . For comparison, Tumblr has 555 million and Instagram has 400 million.
• Target Audiences: For brands with target audiences made up of teenagers and young adults, make Snapchat a focus. Although it lacks metrics marketers value , it is the most popular platform among this demographic as of February 2016 .
• Competitor Analysis: If the bulk of competitors see desirable results on Twitter but can’t crack the code to Instagram, you should be able to build a strong Twitter presence from the outset. Contrarily, you’ll need to determine if you can use Instagram to get a leg up on the competition.

For every platform in the Channels section, figure out:

• Content Tone
• Content Types
• Sharing Times
• Posting Frequency
• Your brand and product names
• Competitor names
• Misspellings of terms relevant to your brand and competitors
• All of these phrases with positive terms such as “can” and negative terms such as “don’t”

Creating set responses for questions, complaints and other comments can prepare you for a range of social media situations, helping ensure each interaction goes smoothly.

He didn’t tag Delta, but the company responded to his tweet before day’s end and offered a room with a better view.

McCready wrote a post about the experience, saying “The staff at the Delta Vancouver Suites didn’t have to do anything … But now, I think more of them and the brand they represent.”

You can follow Delta’s example by creating responses for common issues, and reacting in a fast and helpful manner.

The purpose of this section is to designate responsibilities, according to the Tactics section of the template.

It can also act as a social media team hierarchy. If so, describe who reports to who and which roles involve approving content.

You must determine how much money a social media strategy needs to succeed, or else you’ll risk ignoring resources and not meeting goals.

The budget must cover:

• Ads and Boosted Posts
• Analytics and Management Tools
• Any New Position Created due to Strategy

If your boss or client does not approve your budget, you may have to adjust the entire strategy.

Ongoing performance analysis

The Ongoing Performance Analysis is a simple set of questions to help improve your social media strategy.

The social media lead should answer them every month or quarter. Address them with the Business Goals and Sub-Goals sections in mind.

Here are the questions:

1. What’s working and in what sense?

Describe each tactic that’s yielding desirable results. Then, explain why it’s working. Is it due to frequency? Because it hits an audience pain- or emotional point?

By understanding why a certain tactic works, you should be able to craft approaches that deliver similar benefits.

2. What’s not working and why isn’t it?

Describe each tactic that has fallen flat. Then, explain why you think it didn’t succeed.

By doing so, you should be able to determine if you can fix something. For example, you may not be sharing a content piece during optimal times.

Keep in mind, you may want to test a tactic for more than a month before declaring it a failure.

5 Examples of social media strategies to consider

To gain ideas about how to complete the downloadable social media strategy template, read about the five examples below.

Keep in mind, they don’t describe ongoing plans. Instead, they focus on campaign strategies.

1. Domino’s Pizza

Some digital marketers don’t see the value in emojis, but Domino’s used them to simplify ordering.

Once customers register their Twitter handles with the restaurant chain, they can tweet a pizza emoji at the Domino’s account. Domino’s sends a direct message to confirm the order before sending a delivery person to the customer’s home.

For Twitter users, ordering a pizza has never been so easy. For Domino’s, making a sale has never been so simple .

2. WATERisLIFE

Charity WATERisLIFE demonstrated how to do nonprofit marketing capitalizing on a trending hashtag, quickly growing its Twitter following.

#FirstWorldProblems frequently trend, as people complain about issues such as laggy Internet. The charity used this opportunity to share an original video called First World Problems Anthem, comparing problems in the developed world to those faced by people who lack clean water.

The video went viral on Twitter and Facebook, drawing attention to the charity and its cause.

Estonia’s tourism ministry not only drove engagement by creating unique content but successfully encouraged consumers to do the same.

This shoe brand demonstrates its philanthropic side through Instagram, boosting engagements and impressions along the way.

Each May, TOMS donates a pair of shoes to children in need on behalf of each person who posts their bare feet. They just have to tag the image #WithoutShoes.

The campaign ties TOMS to kids’ health and education, earning the support of Instagrammers across the globe.

5. Squatty Potty

Squatty Potty mixed comedy and education by publishing a video about a unicorn showing proper toilet posture.

The product is a stool you can use to lift your knees while on the toilet, relaxing your colon. This prevents issues such as bloating and constipation. To date, the video has almost 25 million views on YouTube.

The approach allowed Squatty Potty to address an uncomfortable issue to connect with this target audience, generating sales and social buzz.

Final thoughts about using this social media strategy template

Use this template and the five strategy examples as a starting point. Combined with the explanations of different sections, they’ll help you develop a comprehensive and effective social media marketing plan.

If you use the template for an ongoing strategy, be sure to regularly update it as you refine content and posting tactics.

Plus, once you surpass your goals, you’ll have to alter approaches to reach new social media heights.

Keyhole is a real-time conversation tracker that provides keyword and hashtag analytics for Twitter and Instagram.

Related Articles:

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i create a social media strategy template.

You can download a free social media strategy template and edit goals and KPI as per your preference. Here's a quick step-to-step guide: 1. Chart down your goals 2. Analyze your target audience 3. Audit your competitors 4. Finalize your social media channels 5. Brainstorm content and tactics 6. Monitor your KPIs 7. Engage with your followers

What are brand examples for social media strategies?

Some of the brands you should follow for social media strategies: 1. Domino’s Pizza 2. WATERisLIFE 3. Estonia 4. TOMS 5. Squatty Potty

What are the 5 C's of social media?

The 5 C's of social media are: 1. Conversations 2. Collaboration 3. Contribution 4. Commenting 5. Community

In accordance with international sanctions, the Semrush platform is no longer accessible to businesses registered or based in Russia. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and if you believe there is a mistake, please send us an email to [email protected] so our team can review.

Social Media Marketing In 2024: The Ultimate Guide

Updated: Aug 2, 2024, 10:10am

Table of Contents

What is social media marketing, benefits of social media marketing, 7 top social media marketing platforms for business, key components of a good social media marketing strategy, how to create a social media marketing strategy, social media marketing best practices, frequently asked questions (faqs).

Social media marketing has become a vital component to the market mix of many businesses–large and small. After all, there are 4.9 billion people who use social media platforms worldwide and so having a presence on social is a good way to connect with both current and potential customers alike. No matter your industry, social media is an effective way to reach your target audience, strengthen your brand, establish a loyal customer base and increase your revenue. In this guide, we detail everything you need to know about social media marketing, including what it is, how it works, the best strategies and how to implement it.

Social media marketing is a type of digital marketing that uses social media platforms to promote your brand and offerings to your ideal customers. Contrary to popular belief, it involves much more than random posts on your business accounts. An effective social media marketing campaign requires sound strategy and planning.

Once you create your business profiles, you’ll need to maintain and optimize them. Then, you’ll want to develop a content calendar that describes what you’ll post, when you’ll post it and where you’ll post it. Your posts will likely include a combination of text, images, videos and stories that position your brand in a positive light and capture a relevant audience.

In addition to unique, regular posts, you’ll respond to comments, likes and shares to monitor your online reputation and hopefully build a community. Depending on your budget and particular goals, social media marketing might also include paid social ads that allow your brand to appear in front of the right people at the right times.

Featured Partners

Sprout Social

Standard $199/seat/month; Professional $299/seat/month; Advanced $399/seat/month * annual subscriptions

30 days (all plans)

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Yelp!, Glassdoor, Trip Advisor, and more

On Sprout Social's Website

Professional $99/month; Team $249/month *pricing based on annual subscriptions

30 day free trial (all plans)

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Threads (beta), Google Business Profile and more

On Hootsuite's Website

TikTok for Business

Customizable - Auction Format; specify your bid and daily spend

1B+ users across 140+ countries

Range of ad formats to delight your target audience, achieve your ad objective and grow your business

On Tiktok's Website

Due to its popularity and versatility, social media is a powerful tool for marketing your business. It’s also highly measurable, unlike other types of traditional marketing such as billboards, print ads and radio spots. The most noteworthy benefits of social media marketing include the following:

• Add a human element to your business: Social media platforms allow you to interact with your current and prospective customers. As long as you use them correctly, you’ll be able to “humanize your brand” and form a deeper connection with your audience.
• Drive traffic: By adding links to your website throughout your social media posts, you’ll bring relevant traffic to it. This type of traffic can do wonders for your search engine optimization and convert visitors into customers. Another key way to drive traffic is through search engine optimization (SEO). Learn more about SEO and the best SEO services .
• Generate leads: Thanks to features such as appointment booking and call-to-action buttons, Facebook and Instagram shops, and direct messaging, you can generate leads and conversions through social media. Leads and conversions are a sure way to increase your revenue.
• Increase brand awareness: If you’re a startup or smaller business, social media marketing will give you the chance to show off your brand. You can use it to explain how you’re different (and hopefully better) than your competitors.
• Build relationships: Forming relationships with your customers is important if you’d like to retain them for the long haul. Since social media opens the doors to easy lines of communication with your followers, it’s a powerful relationship-building tool.

There are a number of social media marketing platforms you might want to take advantage of when you develop a social strategy. As you explore your options, you’ll find that some platforms are a better fit for your brand and target audience than others. Here’s a brief overview of several platforms that can help you leverage the power of social media marketing.

1. Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social media platform, making it a smart choice for almost any business. You can use it to boost brand awareness, gain followers, generate leads and increase sales. It also offers the chance to display highly customizable, targeted ads. Keep in mind that while Facebook is an effective platform for social media marketing, it also comes with a lot of competition.

2. Instagram

Instagram began as a basic platform to share images. Over time, it’s evolved into a place where brands can engage their audience with attractive photos and videos. Instagram also offers stories, reels, live streams and shops that can take your marketing efforts to the next level. If your business relies on visuals to sell your products or services, you can’t go wrong with Instagram.

Twitter uses short posts called “tweets” with text, images, animated GIFs, videos and links. You can use Twitter to connect with your audience through short yet valuable messages. Depending on the nature of your business, it may allow you to provide customer service, build brand awareness and look for topics and information related to your industry and target audience. A tweet can usually contain up to 280 characters.

YouTube is a streaming social media platform and the second-largest search engine next to Google. If your brand has the desire and ability to produce meaningful video content, YouTube should definitely be on your radar. With YouTube, you can explain complex topics, showcase interesting processes, promote the unique features of your offerings and so much more. It’s a great way to include videos in your marketing strategy.

5. Pinterest

Pinterest is known as a “visual discovery engine” that inspires users. Users often search the platform for ideas that help them renovate their homes, take dream vacations, plan weddings and fulfill other dreams in their lives. If your brand provides products or services that can allow users to discover their dreams and achieve them, Pinterest is the way to go.

6. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business networking platform that’s particularly useful if you’re a B2B business. It’s geared toward professionals and can give you the opportunity to share your industry expertise. You might also use it to promote job openings within your company, connect to your employees and even generate leads through paid ads.

TikTok is a newer social media platform that revolves around short-form videos. It tends to target younger females so it may make sense if you’re trying to reach that particular demographic. As a business on TikTok, you can use hashtags that relate to your posts, brand and offerings. When users search for these hashtags, they may come across your content.

While it may be tempting to post on a few social media platforms whenever you feel like it, doing so isn’t recommended. To truly make the most out of social media marketing and increase its chances of success, you need a solid social media strategy.

Put simply, a social media strategy is a game plan that lays out your social media goals, the tactics you’ll use to achieve them and the metrics you’ll track to measure performance. Here are the key components of an effective social media strategy:

• Audience research: Before you post anything, you should have a strong understanding of your particular target audience. Answer questions such as, what platforms do they use, what type of content do they prefer, and who else do they follow.
• Brand identity: Determine how you’d like to position your brand when you post on social media and interact with your followers. Think about the messages you hope to convey.
• Content strategy: Content strategy describes how you’ll use content to grow your brand and attract your audience on social media platforms. The more specific your plan is, the more likely it will succeed.
• Analytics: Social media analytics is a process where you collect and analyze data from your social media platforms so you can measure performance and determine how to improve your strategy. Without it, you won’t know whether or not what you’re doing is working.
• Ongoing activity: Along with most types of marketing, social media marketing is not a one-time deal. You’ll need to post on it, engage with your followers and optimize your profiles on a regular basis.

Keep in mind that in addition to your social media strategy, you also need a professional business website. This way, those who discover your business via social media can go to your website to learn more about what you offer. If you don’t already have a site, learn how to design a website . If you want a very easy way to build a site quickly and affordably, consider using one of the best website builders .

Now that you know what’s involved in a good social media marketing strategy , you may be wondering how to create it. If you follow these steps and utilize all of the resources at your disposal, you’re bound to set your business and brand up for social media success.

1. Set goals and objectives for your business

First and foremost, think about what you hope to achieve with your social media marketing efforts. Maybe your main priority is to build brand awareness. Or perhaps you’d like to generate more leads online. Once you establish your goals, set metrics for each channel you plan to use. Several examples of metrics you might consider include reach, impressions, audience growth rate and video completion rate.

2. Understand your audience

To develop content that attracts and inspires your target audience, you need to find out who they are and what resonates with them. You can conduct focus groups, interviews and polls to dive deep into their likes and dislikes. It’s also a good idea to perform some social listening in which you analyze conversations and trends that pertain to your brand and the brands of your competitors.

3. Study your competitors

At the end of the day, you want your target audience to choose you instead of your competitors. That’s why competitor research is essential. It can give you insight on what your competitors are doing on social media and give you ideas for your own social strategy. It may also empower you to think out of the box and come up with fresh content that allows your brand to stand out. As you study your competitors, focus on the content that generates the most interaction and engagement. Don’t forget to look for influencers in your industry for some inspiration.

4. Choose your platforms

Not all social media platforms are created equal. The right platforms for you depend on factors including your target audience, industry and goals. If you’re a B2B business that would like to connect to other businesses, LinkedIn is invaluable. But if you’re a clothing boutique with apparel geared toward teenage girls, TikTok is a solid choice. Remember, you can choose multiple social media platforms, as long as you post unique, relevant content on all of them.

5. Develop your content

Once you’ve done your research and chosen the social media platforms you’d like to use, it’s time to create a content strategy. Make sure all of the content you generate matches your brand voice or the personality you’d like to convey to your target audience. Also, develop a content calendar that outlines your posts for various platforms. In addition, you might want to schedule your content in advance to save time and hassle.

6. Report and adjust regularly

Your social media marketing strategy is not set in stone. It will likely change as you use analytics to identify what’s working and what’s not. Once you implement your initial social strategy, revisit on a regular basis. Make sure your content and engagement is helping you meet your business goals. If it’s not, tweak your original strategy.

To ensure your social media marketing strategy works, there are several best practices you’ll want to follow. These tried-and-true best practices have been used by the leading brands and can help your startup or small business thrive on social.

Diversify Your Content

Diverse content is just as important as regular content. If you’d like to keep your audience engaged, provide them with a variety of posts that help sell your products or services and position yourself as a leader in your industry. Consider a combination of how-tos and quick tips, polls, questions, contests, announcements and industry news. Also, make sure your content is in a variety of formats, such as images, videos, live streams and online stores.

Be Consistent

Each social media platform comes with its own voice and environment. However, your brand and identity must remain the same, regardless of where you post. If your brand is fun and trendy, for example, convey that message through your posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and any other platforms you utilize.

Engage in Conversations

Don’t overlook the importance of conversing with your audience. Pay close attention to the type of users that engage with your content and engage back through likes, comments and shares. To try to spark conversations and set up polls, live streams and live questions. You can also host contests and giveaways.

Take Advantage of Content Creation Tools

To hook your audience on social media and gain loyal followers, you’ll need to post photos, videos, infographics and other compelling visuals along with text. If you don’t have the luxury of an in-house graphic design team to create them, don’t worry. There are plenty of content creation tools, such as Canva and Freepik, with templates that make it a breeze to create visuals quickly and affordably.

Use Hashtags

A hashtag is a word or keyword that precedes the hash symbol and is used within social media posts to help users find topics that interest them. By using hashtags in your posts, you can increase visibility for your brand. Let’s say you sell accounting services. Several examples of hashtags you might add to your posts include #CPA, #taxseason and #accounting.

Repurpose and Recycle Content

If you already have some content that relates to your brand, there’s no need to start from scratch. You can and should repurpose content you already have. For example, take a customer review and highlight that customer on Facebook or Instagram. Another idea is to share articles from your website’s blog or press release section.

Use Analytics To Measure Success

You won’t be able to determine whether your social media strategy is successful unless you take advantage of analytics and track data. Each social media platform has its own analytics features but you may also invest in a social media analytics tool to track all platform data in one place. You’ll be able to track clicks, comments, reach, engagement rate, impressions, shares, saves, video views, follower growth over time, reactions and more.

Explore Paid Social

If you have room in your marketing budget, it’s worth your time to try paid social ads. You’ll be able to position your ads in front of users who may be specifically interested in the types of products and services that you offer. You can start with Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, Instagram ads and Pinterest ads.

Results from social media marketing won’t happen overnight. But with patience and consistency, you’re bound to succeed. Just be sure to target the right audience, post intriguing content and converse with your followers on a regular basis.

What is the best social media management software?

The ideal social media management software depends on your budget, industry and unique goals. Those that are widely revered as the best in Zoho Social. Buffer, Hootsuite, Social Pilot and Sprout Social. For further insight and help determining which is best for you, read the complete breakdown of the best social media management software .

What’s the difference between a social media ad and a social media post?

A social media post features content you share with your followers organically. A paid social media post, which costs money, puts your brand in front of followers who match the demographics and interests of your target audience.

What is the best way to handle negative customer comments on social media?

You can respond to negative customer comments and try to regain trust. Another option is to use a content moderation platform, which is available on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

What are the top social media marketing platforms for business

There are several platforms that can help you leverage the power of social media marketing. These include Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn and TikTok.

• Best Marketing Software
• Best Email Marketing Software
• Best SEO Software For Small Business
• Best SEO Services For Small Business
• Best Social Media Management Software
• Best Mass Texting Services
• Best Mailchimp Alternatives
• Best ActiveCampaign Alternatives
• Top SEMRush Alternatives
• Top ahrefs Alternatives
• Hootsuite Review
• MailerLite Review
• ActiveCampaign Review
• Constant Contact Review
• Sprout Social Review
• SEMRush Review
• Mailchimp Review
• GetResponse Vs. ClickFunnels
• ConvertKit Vs. Mailchimp
• Mailgun vs SendGrid
• Flodesk Vs. Mailchimp
• Small Business Marketing
• What Is Marketing?
• What Is Digital Marketing?
• Digital Marketing Strategy Guide
• Digital Marketing Tips
• Search Engine Marketing Guide
• SEO Marketing Guide
• Content Marketing
• PPC Advertising Guide
• Tips For Generating Leads Online
• The 4 Ps Of Marketing
• How To Get More Followers On Instagram
• How To Start A Podcast
• E-Commerce SEO
• WordPress SEO Guide

Next Up In Marketing

• Best SEO Tools & Software
• Best Social Media Management Tools
• Best SEO Services
• Best Chatbots

What Is SNMP? Simple Network Management Protocol Explained

What Is A Single-Member LLC? Definition, Pros And Cons

What Is Penetration Testing? Definition & Best Practices

What Is Network Access Control (NAC)?

What Is Network Segmentation?

How To Start A Business In Louisiana (2024 Guide)

Anna Baluch is a freelance writer from Cleveland, Ohio. She enjoys writing about a variety of health and personal finance topics. When she's away from her laptop, she can be found working out, trying new restaurants, and spending time with her family. Connect to her on LinkedIn.

• Digital Marketing
• Most Recent
• Presentations
• Infographics
• Data Visualizations
• Forms and Surveys
• Video & Animation
• Case Studies
• Design for Business
• Design Inspiration
• Visual Thinking
• Product Updates
• Visme Webinars
• Artificial Intelligence

The Expert Guide to Creating a Social Media Plan [+Template]

Written by: Raja Mandal

But with so many social media platforms available, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. This is why having a solid social media plan is essential.

However, creating a social media plan from scratch can be time-consuming and frustrating. That’s why we’ve created a social media plan template to guide you through the process and make it easier for you to create an effective plan for your business.

Whether you’re a seasoned social media marketer or just starting, you’ll learn how to prioritize your efforts, create a content strategy and measure your success. We will also cover all the critical aspects of customizing your template.

Table of Contents

What is a social media plan template, why do you need a social media plan template, how to get the most out of your social media plan template, 3 tips to follow after launching your social media plan.

• A social media plan is a detailed blueprint for building and managing your company’s social media presence and achieving set goals.
• Using a social media plan template saves you hours of work and helps you stay consistent with your branding and other activities
• To make the most of your social media plan, you’ll need to set SMART goals, figure out your target audience profile, select the right social media channels and content type. Using a content calendar helps you automate your social media activities and keep things on track
• After launching your social media plan, measure key metrics and KPIs to see what’s working or not working.
• Conduct a competitor analysis to see what social networks they use, content types they post most frequently, how they engage with their audience, the keywords they rank for and more.
• Your social media plan should not be set in stone. Prioritize auditing and optimizing your own social media plan. Doing that will help you track your performance, identify areas for improvement and where to focus your efforts next.
• Visme has everything you need to supercharge your social media plan. You can create an effective social media plan, content calendar, competitive analysis as well as graphics for all of your social media channels.

A social media plan template is a document that guides you through the process of creating your own social media plan. It helps you to focus on your goals, identify the right audiences and set clear objectives for your marketing campaign .

The template provides pre-made sections to fill in with your own information. It also includes instructions on how to create a successful social media campaign.

A social media plan template can be used by anyone who wants to boost their brand awareness online through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Social Media Plan vs Social Media Strategy

Though these two terms are often used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings. A social media plan is a detailed document that lays out all of the steps you need to take to implement your social media strategy. It includes tasks, timelines and budgets for each step of the process.

For example, a social media plan might include tasks like creating a brand strategy , researching your target audience and developing content. It will also include timelines for when each task should be completed.

But the social media strategy will include how you will reach these targets. For example, the strategy will consist of how to create content that engages your audience and how you plan to measure success. It will also explain what type of content should be posted and when it should be published.

Hey marketers! Need to create scroll-stopping visual content fast?

• Transform your visual content with Visme’s easy-to-use content creation platform
• Produce beautiful, effective marketing content quickly even without an extensive design skillset
• Inspire your sales team to create their own content with branded templates for easy customization

Sign up. It’s free.

Social media is a fast-moving environment, and getting caught up in the day-to-day tasks of posting content on your page is easy. But with a plan, you may get the most out of your efforts.

And a social media plan template will ensure you have all the information you need to create an effective plan. Let's discuss further why you need a social media plan template.

Save Hours of Work

Social media can be a fun and creative way to engage with your audience. But when you're just starting, it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks of posting content on your page. Without a plan, you may end up spending hours working on social media — but not seeing any results.

A template will ensure you have all the information needed to create an effective plan. So, you can spend more time creating content and engaging with your audience than just figuring out what to do.

Set Clear Social Media Goals

A social media plan template is one of the best tools for setting clear goals for your social media presence . When you know what you want to achieve by creating a social media plan, you can set realistic goals that will help you measure the success of your efforts. Whether it's increasing brand awareness or growing sales through social media, clear goals will help you create content with intent.

Read this article about creating SMART goals to set and accomplish your goals faster. Additionally, you can use the infographic template below.

Stay Consistent with Your Activities

The best way to build your brand's social media presence is by staying consistent. If you post once a week, then do it every week. If you post twice per day, then stick with that schedule. Consistency will help establish trust with your followers and keep them coming back for more content from your business.

A social media plan template will help you stay on track by giving you a place to keep all your content ideas and the schedule for posting them. When you create a plan with your team, you'll know what to do and when to do it.

Keep Your Branding Consistent

Consistency is essential when it comes to branding. You should always use the same voice on social media, whether posting about products or services. When you create a social media plan, you'll have a place to keep all your brand guidelines and messaging so that your team can reference them whenever they need help staying consistent with your brand voice .

But creating content while keeping your branding assets in mind is not a skill everyone possesses—especially non-designers. Visme's brand design tool can help you deal with this.

Create and save all your branding materials, such as your logo , brand fonts , brand colors and everything else, in Visme. Whenever you or anyone from your team opens Visme to create anything, Visme's brand wizard will help you automatically apply these assets to your design.

Watch this video to learn how to set up your brand identity kit in Visme.

The social media plan template is a powerful tool to help you create and execute a strategy to achieve your goals. But to be effective, you need to know how to customize the template to align with your brand.

We will provide tips to help you get the most out of your social media plan template.

Define Your Social Media Goals

Starting social media without knowing your goals is like going on a trip without knowing the destination. You may end up lost in the middle of nowhere, wondering if your efforts are even worth it. Before creating your social media plan, define your primary goals and how these goals will help you achieve your overall business objective.

Look how specifically the social media goals are defined in the template below.

There are many ways to set goals for your social media presence, but one of the best ways is by creating a SMART goal. This stands for specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound.

If you struggle to set and reach goals, use Visme's SMART goal-setting templates or goal setting worksheets .

Here is an example template for you.

Create Target Audience Profile

Social media is not just a tool to get your message out there and hope it sticks. You need to know who you are targeting, where they hang out and what they enjoy to ensure your content is relevant to them.

The next step is to include the target audience in your social media plan.

A target audience profile is a description of who your ideal customer is. It includes demographic information about age, gender, income level and location and psychographic information about interests and personality traits.

Look at the target audience section of this social media plan template. It's well-researched and perfectly explained.

To create your own, edit the data widgets in this template and replace them with your own findings. Visme's comes with 30+ data visualization tools such as progress bars, redial gauges, population arrays and more. If you need to visualize more extensive data sets than this, you can use Visme's charts and graphs templates .

You can also use Visme's customer persona templates to capture these details and create an ideal customer persona for your business.

Below is a video about creating a user persona that you can watch to learn more.

Choose the Right Social Media Channels

Choosing the right social media channels for your business can make all the difference between success and failure. It's crucial to select the channels that are most relevant to your target audience. For example, if you're selling consumer goods, you will get little traction on LinkedIn or Twitter. But if you are in the B2B space, LinkedIn can be your ultimate game changer.

Here is an infographic template that you can use to compare each platform and decide which one works best for your business.

You can now use this section of the template to plan your social media channels and tactics.

Decide on Your Social Media Content Type

Engaging your target audience is the primary goal that brought you this far. And you may already know what will help you do that—creating content that will make the audience stop scrolling and engage with your posts.

So, what are the most common types of social media content ? Here's a list you can use as a guide:

• Social advertising (paid and organic)

However, creating content for social media can be challenging, especially if you're a small business owner or a busy marketer who only has a little time.

Keeping this in mind, Visme features hundreds of templates to create eye-catching social media content for every business type and size. With Visme, you can create infographics , Facebook posts , Instagram stories , LinkedIn posts and even videos like explainer videos , video testimonials , product videos and many more.

Create stunning social media graphics

• Present social media graphic dimensions
• Create and resize content quickly and easily
• Engage your audience through visuals

Below is a video guide that will provide tips for creating social media graphics.

Create a Social Media Content Calendar

Creating a social media content calendar is essential for any business that wants to establish itself as an authority in its industry. A content calendar lays out the themes and topics you plan on sharing over a month or quarter so you don't have to scramble at the last minute.

And, what can be better when you can create content, post schedule and publish from one place? With the Visme social media content calendar , you can create a customized calendar with all your posts planned out in advance. Each post can be scheduled for any date in the future and sent directly to your social media accounts.

This will save you time because you won't have to log into each platform separately to publish your content—they'll all be done from one place!

This video will show you how to automate your social media activities right inside the Visme editor.

Collaborate with Your Team to Optimize Your Social Media Plan

A social media plan template can be an excellent tool for keeping track of your goals, objectives and strategies for each channel. However, it's important to know that a template is different from a finished plan.

The key is to use the template as a starting point and then adjust it to meet your needs. So, if you have a social media team, it would be better to include everyone in the process of editing the template.

However, bringing everyone's thoughts and ideas together to create a social media plan is no easy feat. Visme's collaborative design features help you overcome these challenges and make collaboration easy and fun.

Invite your team members via email or by sharing a link generated from Visme. When one person makes a change on their end, it's automatically updated for everyone else as well.

Read this article to learn how to do collaborative design right in Visme, or watch the video below to see this in action.

Creating a social media plan is only half the job. Once you've created your plan and are ready to launch it into action, there are a few more things you should do.

Here are three tips you should follow after launching your social media plan.

1. Measure Your Social Media Progress

Once you've launched your social media plan, it's time to start measuring how well it's working. You can track various KPIs, such as total followers, likes and shares over time. This will help you see which posts are performing well and which need more work.

Here is an infographic showing the 15 KPIs you should track to measure your social media performance.

You can conduct a social media audit to understand your current social media presence. This will help you see where your brand is currently standing and what changes need to be made.

If you have an existing social media presence and want to create a new plan, you should measure how well it works.

Use this social media audit report template to record your findings and present the information to your team.

RELATED: How to Create a Social Media Report in 2023 (+ Templates)

2. Observe and Analyze Your Competitors

Social media is highly competitive. A recent study found that 91.9% of marketers in companies with more than 100 employees use social media. So paying attention to your competitors' actions is important. As you track and measure your own performance, keep an eye out for any changes in theirs.

You can also conduct competitor analysis by looking at their social media accounts and seeing what types of content they post most frequently. Here is a worksheet template that you can use to analyze multiple competitors.

3. Adjust the Social Media Plan Accordingly

Once you've audited your own social media and identified areas for improvement, it's time to make the necessary changes. For example, if your competitors post more frequently than you do, consider increasing the amount of content you publish on each channel.

You might also decide to change up the types of posts that get shared most often—this could be photos or videos, depending on what kind of content performs best for your brand.

Customize Your Next Social Media Plan Template with Visme

Creating a social media plan is a great way to stay on top of your brand's marketing efforts and see how they fit into your business goals. But if you're a business owner or a marketing professional, you may be pressed for time to create a detailed plan from scratch.

Instead of wasting hours researching and writing a plan that may not apply to your business, consider using Visme to create one in a few minutes. The drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to customize all of the elements of our social media plan template so that it fits your brand's unique needs—from goals and objectives to action steps and KPIs.

Sign-up for Visme to create your next social media plan and all the graphics you need to improve your brand's social media presence.

Put together effective social media plan and drive better engagement using Visme

Trusted by leading brands

Recommended content for you:

Create Stunning Content!

Design visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.

About the Author

Raja Antony Mandal is a Content Writer at Visme. He can quickly adapt to different writing styles, possess strong research skills, and know SEO fundamentals. Raja wants to share valuable information with his audience by telling captivating stories in his articles. He wants to travel and party a lot on the weekends, but his guitar, drum set, and volleyball court don’t let him.

Need a hand creating engaging content? Try Buffer for free →

Social Media Strategy: How Much Time Does a Good Strategy Really Take?

I have a blog post to write. This blog post, to be exact.

And in the course of researching, outlining, writing, editing, and writing some more, I also have other hats to wear. Email marketing . Social media strategy. Blog promotion, blog design, and anything else that should happen across my plate.

I’m sure you wear a lot of hats, too.

How do you find time to put them all on?

One of the tasks that I’m currently optimizing is implementing a social media strategy at Buffer. Amid writing posts like these , I’m also curious to see how much time it takes to put a social media strategy in place.

Does juggling social media management and an armful of other tasks sound familiar to you? If so, I thought it might be helpful to detail what I’ve found so far and to show what’s involved in the way that we go about managing our social media strategy at Buffer.

The wheel of social media strategy

It’s interesting to note that a social media strategy and a social media plan intersect a lot.

You can think of it this way: A strategy is where you’re headed . A plan is how you’ll get there .

When I think about the time involved in implementing a social media strategy, I can’t help but include the essential parts of our plan, too. In fact, I think that strategy can be boiled down to a simple three-part idea:

Once you come up with the strategy, you’ll need to implement it, to measure it, and to think on it again.

Here’s how this process might look.

I’ve run across ideas like this before. For instance, Amy Porterfield’s social media strategy suggestion is to assess, implement, and monitor. Others call it Organize, Act, and Regroup.

Put another way:

• This is what we want to do
• This is how we’re going to do it
• This is how we did

Then, repeat.

That’s how I choose to view our social media strategy at Buffer. And now for the all-important follow-up question: How long does this process take?

The time it takes for a good social media strategy

I took my time-tracking seriously this week—so serious, in fact, that I used Harvest 's time-tracking software to see exactly how long these things take. I wanted to see exactly how much time it takes to implement a solid social media strategy. Here’s what I found:

Essentially, the time breaks down like this:

Every Monday , revisit your strategy to make sure you’re on the right track and focusing on the right areas

 Time : 1 hour

Monday through Friday , implement the strategy. Schedule, create, and post updates. Engage with the community.

 Time: 2 hours

Every Friday , check your metrics. See how you’re doing on your goals, and identify areas for growth.

 Time: 1 hour

Total time: 12 hours per week

Depending on the scope of your business, your time could be greater or smaller than this. You may have a team of dedicated social media staff who can give 40 hours per week or more. Or you may have a small footprint on social and not need as many hours. The above times are simply my experience; feel free to use them as a guide and benchmark for your own social strategy.

As far as what my time looks like specifically, here’s a taste of what’s involved at each step of the process: planning, implementing, and measuring.

1. Planning a social media strategy

A good social media strategy begins with a good think.

What do you want social to do for you or your brand? Sales? Loyalty? Awareness?

These are the three main areas that Jay Baer identifies as potential focus points of a social media strategy. As Baer puts it: "What’s the point of your social media marketing? Pick one of the above, and focus your efforts on that single objective."

The best social media strategies are those that focus (at least initially) on a more narrow rationale for social.

In thinking about this question of “What’s the point?” we’ve found that the answer may sometimes change as your marketing goals ebb and flow. I’d encourage you to revisit this question often. Don’t be afraid to shift gears and aim for a new objective.

For instance, you may find that it’s best early on to focus on awareness, especially if your business is fresh out of the box. Once you’ve built sufficient awareness, it might make sense to transition your focus to loyalty or sales. Your strategies can grow up as your business grows up.

Once you’ve defined your social focus , you can have a clear picture of success metrics to track. Amy Porterfield has a great way of breaking this down according to the three main social media strategies:

 If you choose sales , you’ll want to track click rates, social e-commerce sales, and  conversion rates.

 If you choose loyalty , you’ll track engagement, sentiment, and influence.

 If you choose awareness , you’ll track growth, engagement, shareability, likes,  and subscribers.

One final piece of the puzzle – many social media strategists would advise beginning with this step – is listening to your audience . Listening will reveal several key factors like which social networks you should be on, how your audience uses social media, and what are their pain points.

These basic factors will be hugely helpful to discover as they’ll help set your focus moving forward. For instance, I’m often guilty of assuming that all social networks are generally the same when in fact, they are entirely unique and individual and deserving of their own specific messages and plans. The donut analogy is a fun reminder that each social media site comes at content differently.

How can you go about listening to your audience?

You can begin by asking. Surveys are great tools for gathering insight into your customers and fans. If you’ve yet to implement your social strategy, you can send out a survey to your email list. If you’re already on social, you can ask questions of fans or link to surveys from your updates.

Beyond surveys, you can listen to your audience by tracking mentions of your brand , discovering the communities and groups based on your niche, and watching your key social metrics to see how they grow. For instance, if you find yourself banging your head against a wall to get new followers, it could be that your target demographic doesn’t hang out on that network.

Once you’ve listened to your audience, chosen a focused goal, and identified your success metrics, it’s time to move on to the next step: Implementation.

2. Implementing a social media strategy

I like to think of implementation as having two prongs:   Creation and Community.

When you think about it, what kind of input will you be having on social media each day? You’ll be publishing new updates and responding to others – and sometimes, the two might even overlap. Both prongs should fit with the strategy you’ve chosen.

Perhaps the best way to talk about implementing a social media strategy is to show you a bit about how we do it here at Buffer. Here is our system for sharing on Twitter and Instagram

Buffer's social media strategy for Twitter

Our goal with social media is loyalty—with a twist. We’re interested in driving engagement and positive sentiment, two of the hallmarks of a loyalty strategy. We’ve also added a dash of sales to our mix. It’s not sales in the traditional sense; rather, we’re aiming to sell the value of the blog posts that we share. In this way, we’re also interested in boosting clicks back to the blog.

Our posting strategy

• We schedule 14 posts per weekday and 10 posts per Saturday/Sunday
• Our posting schedule is spread out throughout the day to connect with our global audience
• Our bread-and-butter post type: Visuals
• The majority of updates we share come from content in our blog archives
• We share one post each day from Buffer’s content suggestions
• We retweet a Buffer team member or Buffer community member once-a-day
• All new posts are shared multiple times that day and scheduled for further shares over the next two months
• All updates are in keeping with Buffer’s values of positivity and helpfulness

After posting updates according to the schedule, I like to borrow a tip from our repurposing efforts and come up with as many tweetable parts of the post as I can. These posts are added to a dummy Buffer account that I’ve set up as a kind of storage unit or backlog of useful tweets. When I’m in a pinch to fill our main queue, I can quickly and easily pull from this backlog and drag-and-drop into the Buffer Twitter profile .

As for sharing from our archives, we’ve found some helpful ways to do this.

• The first is a method created by our co-founder Leo. He’ll go to a random page on our blog (i.e., buffer.com/library/page/4) and share from each of the evergreen articles on that page.
• The other method I use relies on Buffer’s analytics. I’ll take any previous updates that earned a “Top Tweet” badge and drag them into my backlog, dummy account to easily share again later. (We’re big fans of reposting content here at Buffer.)

Our engagement strategy

• Reply to every mention of Buffer
• Engage the community with weekly questions

How would you spend your extra day off if you had a four day workweek? — Buffer (@buffer) October 23, 2022

Replying to every mention is a very noble goal that I’ve personally tried to maintain on my own Twitter. It’s hard. Fortunately, we’ve got an army of Customer Advocates who invest time in responding to every Buffer mention out there.

3. How to measure a social media strategy

Find your key metrics. Set some goals. Revisit often.

To recap from above, depending on what focus you’ve taken with your social media strategy, you’ll likely have a few success metrics in mind that you’d like to track. Here’s the breakdown once more.

 If you choose awareness , you’ll track growth, engagement, shareability, likes,  and subscribes.

At Buffer, we’ve taken to tracking our social metrics according to a neat method first proposed by Avinash Kaushik back in 2011 . This theory of engagement breaks the metric into four parts that can track across all social networks:

• Conversation
• Amplification
• Economic Value

Our friends at Moz introduced us to this tracking method, and they’ve shared how they measure these metrics and set goals for growing engagement and traffic back to their site. Here’s a peek at what their weekly reports look like .

Another way to look for key metrics with your social media strategy is to approach it from a growth perspective. We’ve used the following grid to help guide our product growth here at Buffer, and in some cases, you can apply the same ideas to the metrics you pay attention to on social.

The key points to focus on in the grid below are “low conversion, high traffic” and “high conversion, low traffic.” For instance, tweets with high impressions and low clicks might be ripe for growth.

Over to you: How much time do you spend on social media each week?

The three parts of a social media strategy—planning, implementing and measuring—take time.

Fortunately, it can be a manageable amount of time if you have a plan in place and the right resources at your disposal. I’ve found that a weekly schedule that involves each strategic step helps to keep things on track and in place as we strive to meet our goals.

What’s been your experience with a social media strategy? How much time do you spend each week?

It’d be awesome to hear from you over on Twitter @buffer .

Did you find this article helpful? You might also like our all-you-need social media toolkit.

The all-you-need social media toolkit

Publish Flawlessly. Analyze Effortlessly. Engage Authentically.

Buffer is the all-you-need social media toolkit that lets you focus on doing what you love for your business.

Related Articles:

How the Instagram Algorithm Works in 2024: New Update from CEO Adam Mosseri

An inside look at how the Instagram algorithm works for the feed, Explore page, stories, and reels, the 'signals' that impact them most, and how to make them work for you....

23 Top Social Media Sites to Consider for Your Brand in 2024

Find out the most popular social media sites today. Some will be familiar, others may not. Discover some that might be great for your brand but that you have yet to explore....

The Best Time to Post on Facebook in 2024: A Complete Guide

We analyzed more than 1 million Facebook posts sent through Buffer to pinpoint the best time, day, and post format for maximum engagement....

Is It Okay To Cross-Post Content On Different Platforms?

If you're wondering whether cross-posting is a good strategy for your business, the answer is yes. This guide will provide helpful cross-posting tips and real examples from other small businesses....

140,000+ small businesses like yours use Buffer to build their brand on social media every month

• No credit card required
• Cancel anytime

May we suggest

Picked for you.

Send us an email

The complete guide to social media for businesses

Written by by Brent Barnhart

Published on  May 25, 2023

Reading time  10 minutes

Hot take: mastering social media is what sets businesses today apart.

Competition is fierce among brands and attention is scarce. Establishing an identity and sense of community via social is key to standing out.

Not to mention attracting valuable new customers.

Done right, a goal-driven social strategy means positive results for your business. Countless brands have been built from the ground up via Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Wrangling your social media strategy can be daunting with so many moving pieces. This is especially true if you’re totally new to the space. We get it.

That’s why we put together this post breaking down the basics of social media for business.

Table of contents

Benefits of social media for business

Setting social media goals for your business, follow these 5 social media tips for business.

• Use social media marketing tools for business

Uncover social analytics and reporting for business

Involve your c-suite and employees to amplify your business, work on a corporate communication plan.

• Go beyond the basics of social media for business

“Okay, so why is social media important for business?”

Good question! A decade ago, the upsides of social media for business were tougher to quantify.

Thankfully, times have changed and ROI is no longer a question mark. Let’s be crystal clear:

Social media is valuable for businesses of any size or industry. Finding customers on social media has a direct impact on sales and your bottom line.

Building awareness. Nurturing leads and driving sales. Community-building.

The list goes on given that the benefits of social media aren’t one-size-fits-all. That said, here are five upsides that brands can see from a smart social presence.

Like it or not, social media has become a go-to research channel for consumers at large.

Think about your own experience looking up businesses.

Chances are you’ve visited a restaurant’s Facebook to confirm their hours. Maybe you’ve combed a company’s IG content and comments to see if their products live up to the hype. This highlights how social media builds awareness for brands in a way that your website can’t.

Your business’ social presence is a powerful touchpoint with new customers. That’s because social media serves as an authentic reflection of what a company is all about.

Comments and shout-outs from satisfied customers speak volumes about your business. If someone’s first impression of your business is a glowing social review, that’s a huge plus.

Create a meaningful connection with your customers

It’s no exaggeration to say that social media serves as a Swiss Army Knife for customer support .

For reference, many brands use their social presence to…

• Answer questions from potential customers
• Handle concerns from existing customers
• Celebrate and welcome new customers
• Gather feedback from your target audience

Show off your products (and what makes them compelling)

From testimonials to tutorials and beyond, social media is a prime place to show off products.

As noted in the Sprout Social Index™ , the most popular types of posts teach people how products work.  For example, an IG Reel or TikTok can educate a potential customer in a matter of seconds. Contrast this with static photos and traditional product descriptions.

Formats such as short-form video empower brands to bring their products to life. Bonus points if you can feature real people and satisfied customers in your content.

Increase your brand’s visibility and reach

Recent demographics show us that people are spending hours per day on social media, not just a few minutes here and there.

This highlights the value of businesses having an established social presence. Many potential customers will see your brand’s Facebook or IG before they see your website.

Look no further than the rise of social search as evidence of this. Trends and research say that young consumers treat social media like a search engine .

The more word of mouth your business earns, the easier it is for your audience to find you. This applies to social searchers and potential customers alike.

Gather real-time insights to make data-driven business decisions

Social media marketing for business is about so much more than promotion.

Consider how you can use analytics to research the following in real-time:

• Audience pain points
• Competitor messaging and content
• Sentiment analysis (and how people feel about your brand)
• The most popular types of products and content among your follow
• The latest trends in your industry

And that only scratches the surface!

From your audience to competitors, there’s no better place to conduct market research . That’s because social media is a treasure trove of data points that are all out in the open.

The benefits of using social media for business speak for themselves.

That said, achieving them doesn’t happen by accident. That’s why goal-setting is so important.

Keep in mind that social media goals > are unique as they’re totally dependent on your business. Also, you can set multiple goals that actually overlap and influence each other. Goals affect everything from your content strategy to the social platforms you use.

Setting social media goals for business

There’s no “right” way to set goals but the process can be a lot. A few tips to get you started:

• Start with the big picture before getting granular. Why does your business need a social presence? What resources do you need to make those results a reality?
• Look at your target audience and customer personas . For example, how are your customers using social media? Is your audience glued to TikTok or Instagram? What types of content do they want to see? Brainstorm how using social media for business can help you reach your audience.
• Think about your business’ holistic marketing strategy and how social media fits in.
• Tie your social media goals to actual metrics and KPIs . This is a big one in an era where marketers are under pressure to prove ROI. From engagement to traffic and beyond, there’s plenty to track.

Sample B2B social media goals and KPIs

• Brand awareness (growth, engagements) and consideration (link clicks, web traffic)
• Lead generation (marketing qualified leads)
• Competitor analysis (share of voice) and market share
• Audience engagement (likes, replies, shares, etc.)
• Drive customer loyalty (+ CX) and reduce churn
• Customer service efficiencies (engagement speed and rates)
• Reputation management
• Customer satisfaction
• Positive reviews
• Customer sentiment online

Sample B2C social media goals and KPIs

• Find new sales opportunities (conversations to join)
• Uncover brand expansion opportunities
• Reputation management (engaging with inbound messages)
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Inspire customer loyalty
• Product launch analysis
• Competitive analysis

Create a social media strategy for business

Let’s say you have your goals squared away.

Remember: effectively using social media for business means having a plan. Posting at random won’t do you any favors. Without a strategy, your social presence can quickly become a time-sink.

No pressure, right? Mapping your social media marketing strategy doesn’t have to be daunting. To keep your focus and avoid getting overwhelmed, here’s what we suggest you focus on:

• Ensure social goals solve challenges
• Extend social marketing efforts throughout your organization
• Focus on networks that add value
• Create engaging content
• Identify business opportunities through social
• Engage instead of ignore
• Track, improve and market your effort

If you focus on these points, you’ll already be way ahead of the curve.

There’s no shortage of social media tips out there to help you fine-tune your strategy.

Some best practices related to social media for business are relative. Below are five universal tips that are fair game for companies of all shapes and sizes.

1. Build a human, people-first social presence

This might seem like a no-brainer.

That said, busy businesses tend to get stuck in a “copy-and-paste” approach to social. Comments and social captions should feel like they were written by a real person, not a robot.

Injecting personality into your posts is a low-hanging way to relate to your audience. Beyond that, personalizing your replies to people shows that you’re there to help them. This is an example of how to use social media for business to build connections.

2. Look at your social presence as a resource ( not just a promotional channel)

Don’t make the mistake of treating your social presence as a dumping ground for offers. Building an audience means being genuinely helpful, not salesy.

Many of the best practices across social media treat their accounts as resources. That means:

• Creating actionable, educational content (think: how-tos, tutorial videos)
• Answering questions and sharing advice with your audience
• Sharing company updates and keeping customers in the loop (see below)

Imagine that your social accounts are your first touchpoint with a potential customer. Sharing resources makes a better first impression than screaming “BUY NOW!”

3. Show up consistently

This applies to both publishing content and engaging with customers.

Conventional wisdom says that social media algorithms reward consistency. Sprout’s own research on the best times to post on social media confirms this.  If nothing else, letting your social feeds gather cobwebs isn’t a good look.

Neither is leaving your followers hanging. Making a conscious effort to reply to questions and comments is crucial. This is why you need to keep a close eye on your @tags and social notifications.

4. Be prepared to experiment with different types of content

Brands are spoiled for choice when it comes to the types of content they can post.

Below are two examples of brands with diverse social feeds in terms of content.

From short-form videos to Stories and slideshows, you have plenty of options. Different industries and types of brands thrive on different types of content.

That said, don’t make assumptions when it comes to what performs best.

Just because a competitor posts a bunch of memes doesn’t mean you should follow suit. Let your own analytics and engagement guide your content strategy.

5. Don’t treat your social presence like an island

Social media shouldn’t be a siloed channel separate from the rest of your marketing efforts.

From announcements to offers and company initiatives, social can be in the middle of it all. For example, a feature rollout isn’t something a SaaS brand should restrict to its email list. These sorts of updates should be front and center on social, too.

A more holistic approach to social media marketing for business is ideal. In turn, you maximize your marketing assets elsewhere and see a greater ROI for your efforts.

Use social media marketing tools for businesses

Good news: you’re not expected to do everything totally DIY when building your presence.

There’s no shortage of social media marketing tools out there to help with the heavy lifting. Depending on your needs, you might consider investing in a combo of the following:

• Scheduling tools that allow you to queue up content across multiple platforms
• Analytics tools that measure content performance and engagement (see Sprout Social below)
• Listening and monitoring tools that make it easier to track audience conversations

Remember: the purpose of these tools should be to make you more productive. A big challenge in building any sort of marketing stack is redundancies. It’s easy to invest in tools that overlap. This results in brands burning through their budgets and needlessly bouncing between platforms.

The more opportunities to consolidate your tools, the better. Working with fewer tools means squeezing the most out of what you have. Also, you save a ton of time onboarding.

The less bouncing between tools, the better. This speaks to the value of an all-in-one social media management platform like Sprout.

With Sprout, brands access a comprehensive suite of social tools and analytics. For example, the platform makes it a cinch to map out your content calendar across platforms. This is a shining example of how to save time and avoid bouncing between tools.

Sprout’s analytics and dashboards encourage a goal-driven approach to social media for business. Advanced analytics means fewer question marks and a better understanding of your presence. This includes your top-performing content and social channels.

In short, you have a constant pulse on what’s working, what’s not and what you should do next.

As noted earlier, social media shouldn’t be treated as an island.

This applies to your own team as well. The sooner you’re able to get approval and buy-in from your C-Suite, the better. Brand-building through employee advocacy is another way to use social media for business.

Employee advocacy is the promotion of a brand by its employees on social media.  Instead of solely promoting products, advocates promote a company at large. This means:

• Sharing behind-the-scenes experiences about work life
• Celebrating team members and workplace accomplishments
• Amplify company messages and promotions

Chances are you’ve seen your fair share of employee advocacy in action on LinkedIn.

Again, the crowded nature of social media means anything you can do to stand out is a plus. Advocacy is an opportunity to boost your company’s profile and exposure via social.

One last pointer for anyone on the enterprise level.

The power of social media as a communication channel shouldn’t be taken lightly. Brands have the opportunity to reach massive audiences at a moment’s notice. This applies to customers, industry leaders and competitors alike.

The stakes are high for large companies with significant audiences and stakeholders. That’s why having a corporate communication plan is crucial. In short, you need to establish rules for:

• Internal communication , including employee engagement and internal marketing
• External communication , including PR and how you speak to the public
• Executive communication (ex: how the C-level discusses your company on social media)
• Crisis communication to deal with controversies and damage control situations

Having all of the above squared away empowers brands to have consistent messaging. Likewise, you can avoid miscommunication and countless public headaches in the process.

Going beyond the basics of social media for business

An active social presence is an expectation, not an exception for companies today.

The tips and best practices above serve as a solid foundation. With the right goals and mentality, social media can have a positive impact on your business.

Building a results-driven social media presence is so much easier with a platform like Sprout.  From content to trend analysis and beyond, Sprout empowers brands to build their presence with confidence. If you haven’t already, test-drive a free trial of Sprout Social to see the full suite in action for yourself!

• Data Report

A CMO’s 2025 Social Content Strategy Pre-Mortem

• All Social Media
• Social Media Analytics

Social media is the new search engine. Are you ready?

• Social Media Engagement
• Social Media Strategy

How Miami Beach broke up with spring break: An inside look at the viral social media campaign (plus their new matchmaking quest)

• Marketing Disciplines

Social media marketing: What it is and how to build your strategy

• Now on slide

Build and grow stronger relationships on social

Sprout Social helps you understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection.

• Digital Marketing Strategy and Planning
• Content Marketing
• Digital Experience Management (Desktop/mobile website)
• Email Marketing
• Google Analytics
• Marketing Campaign Planning
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Social Media Marketing
• Agency growth
• Business-to-Business
• Charity and Not-for-profit
• E-commerce / Retail
• Managing Digital Teams
• Managing Digital Branding
• Managing Digital Transformation
• Managing Lifecycle Marketing
• Managing International Marketing
• Startup and Small Businesses

Social Media Strategy and Planning Essentials – Strategy and Tactics

Creating your social media strategy and tactical plan

Noun: Strategy / A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim .

First, you need to understand what a strategy is, and isn’t it. A strategy should define the main aim of your social media presence and set the parameters for what it will deliver and how it will be delivered. It will be supported by a tactical plan that defines how the strategy will be delivered, including the channels, resource and budgets to achieve it.

Download our Free Resource – 10 common social media marketing mistakes

Avoid the pitfalls that limit engagement with your target audience by taking a look at our Free guide on some of the most common social media mistakes.

1 - Building the strategy

Below is a summary of key content to include in your strategy document.

1.1 - Strategy statement

A short, concise summary of what the strategy is aiming to achieve, broken down into bullet points. Below is an example from a homewares retailer I worked with:

• We will undertake a full social media audit, benchmarking current positions, implement key improvements identified and develop content plans and styles to deliver consistent communications ongoing.
• We will increase engagement from existing customers and connections, and draw in new audiences - ultimately driving purchase through organic & paid activity.
• We will test and learn about the community and the brand in a social space, in order to shape the future growth of social media audiences and social driven purchase.

1.2 - Context analysis

Set-out where you are in your social journey and where the business needs to be, and the reasons for this.

For example, are you a global organization seeking to consolidate a fragmented approach to social media, or a startup looking to build a social presence from the ground up?

1.3 - Goals & Objectives

Goals define your high-level aims and objectives use SMART criteria to ensure each goal has a measurable set of criteria against which to evaluate progress.

I still use SMART criteria for objectives because they encourage you to think about the practicality of achieving each goal, rather than focusing on things that sound good but might not be feasible.

S = Specific in terms of what needs to be achieved M = Measurable so that progress can be tracked and evaluated A = Achievable so that your team has a realistic chance of success R = Relevant to your business so it’s aligned with overall business goals T = Timeframe within which the objective must be satisfied

Below are examples of high-level goals for your social media plan:

• Complete social media audit and implement actions arising from it
• Create and maintain a social media content calendar
• Begin regular social media activity, in line with strategy and calendar
• Create and work within a measurement framework
• Demonstrate the impact and ROI of social media to the wider business.

An example of a smart objective for goal #5 is:

We want to increase our followers on Twitter (Specific) to drive more organic social traffic to the website (Achievable/Relevant). We want to gain 1,000 new followers (Measurable) from our marketing by 31st January (Time based).

1.4 - Strategic challenges

1.5 - Target audience

This frames who you want to reach via social networks. For this, you need to understand your core audience (personas, profiles, demographics etc.) and identify any new customer types that you want to attract based on your products/services. It can help to split this into three types of social follower:

• Loyal Regular customers who are already connected to you via social media. You want to retain them and increase their purchases and engagement with your social profiles.
• Existing Customer who have shopped with you before but aren’t regular shoppers and haven’t connected on social media. You want to nurture them, bringing them closer to you online and therefore increasing purchase rates.
• Potential People who have never visited the website or purchased from you but who are regular online shoppers, and users of social media. You want to use social media to bring them into contact with the brand, and ultimately move them to purchase

1.6 - Review

Your strategy shouldn’t be set in stone; it needs to be flexible to respond to changing market conditions.

Include an explanation of the review process:

• Who will lead the review (business sponsor)?
• How often will the review take place?
• What data/insights will be used to inform the review?
• What will the outputs be?
• How will outputs be measured/monitored?

Some people include social media guidelines in the strategy but we don’t think this is the best approach. Guidelines are part of the tactical execution, providing a set of rules for the business to adhere to. It’s not a strategic activity, so this content sits best within the tactical plan, or as a separate document referenced by the plan.

1.7 – Related documents

Make sure you include links to all other documents that are relevant to your social media strategy so that anyone new joining the business can find them and get the full picture.

2 – Creating your social media plan

2.1 - deliverables.

This provides a summary of all activities that need to take place to support the implementation of the plan. For example:

• Benchmarking of social media integration
• Benchmarking of Facebook profile
• Benchmarking of Twitter profile
• Review of the suitability of other platforms e.g. Pinterest, Youtube
• Recommendations of next steps for each platform/area
• Social media content calendar (Excel document) to be created, with stand-alone thematic moments, and full integration with wider marketing plans
• Measurement framework to be devised (Excel document)
• End of phase evaluation report to be completed (PPT plus full data in Excel).

2.2 - Channels + activities

Here you will spell out what you’ll be doing for each social network to satisfy the goals of your social strategy. Be sure to include all tactical elements and any related, process, people and tools.

Below is an example channel level plan for Twitter:

We will use our primary Twitter handle as both a customer service channel and a broadcast/interaction channel instead of having 2 separate handles. Twitter will be used to make us feel extremely accessible to consumers – real humans at the other end in real time (so we will initial conversations wherever possible). This will be beneficial in developing brand awareness and putting a real face to the products bought elsewhere.

Key actions:

• Housekeeping – follower clean up, including cross-referencing to email database using a tool such as FollowerWonk or SocialBro
• Following key influencers and thanking new followers personally (and doing this regularly)
• Tweeting at least x2 times a day (using a tool like Buffer to help schedule updates)
• RT’ing useful/relevant stuff (kudos by association)
• Sharing every blog post created twice a week (‘in case you missed it’)
• Important to highlight personal customer service i.e. signing off tweets, not just taking all issues offline/other channels
• Handling negative exceptions visibly to demonstrate that you take issues seriously but taking offline when appropriate
• Being innovative with content formats e.g. testing Q&As with your product experts on specific topics
• Twitter cards will be trialled around product launches or specific campaign pushes.

2.3 - Integration with other marketing

Note down how social will align with other marketing channels so that the people doing the work understand the wider picture. For example, for email marketing explain:

• How you’ll use social networks to promote newsletter content
• How you’ll use apps/widgets to drive email sign-up
• How you’ll use social engagement data to inform the email team what content is working well and for whom.

Don’t forget, it’s a two-way street, so also define how you need other marketing channels to support social. Again, taking email as the example:

• Our social network links will be included in the email footer
• Emails will include social sharing option which posts the browser version of the email
• We will work with the email team to explore how we feature popular social content in relevant emails.

2.4 – Timelines

This is the ‘T’ in the SMART objectives – ensuring each activity has a time frame stamped on it, so you can track progress.

Timelines are critical because they give you a yardstick against which to measure your ability to implement the strategy. Activities without deadlines tend to drift and are often seen by others as less important (if you don’t know when you need it by, it can’t be important can it!).

Note that some activities are recurring, such as posting the weekly newsletter to Facebook. For these simply state the frequency and target day of the week.

2.5 - Measurement

Start by defining the KPIs for your social strategy, which should break down into macro KPIs (for the whole strategy e.g. increase traffic from social media ) and micro KPIs (channel specific e.g. increase RT rate on Twitter ).

You should align your KPI expectations with the metrics that you can track for each social network so that they can easily be measured. Then sense check that your web analytics tools are configured correctly to capture all relevant data.

I recommend using campaign tracking parameters in all URLs you share via social. Using Google Analytics as the example, this means adding UTM parameters for at least medium, source and campaign.

Why? You’ll be able to drill down into traffic from social and isolate specific elements of activity, such as individual links. I’ve used this for differentiating between different content formats, such as text vs. image vs. video updates for the same campaign. You can overlay ecommerce goals and conversion data to see what is adding the most value, and use the learning to fine tune your social marketing.

Include details of the reporting you’ll do to measure performance, and where these reports can be accessed.

Your thoughts, comments and personal experience

So this is step 2 in the Smart Insights 12 step series on social media strategy and planning.

Did you find it useful? Do you think there are any gaps i.e. would you put anything else in a social media strategy or plan?

Please join in the discussion with comments and your own experience. Keep an eye out for next month’s article, “What competitor analysis should we do to inform our social media strategy?” .

If you missed the previous post, catch-up by reading " 6 reasons why you need a social media strategy " .

By James Gurd

James is an Ecommerce consultant and owner of Digital Juggler, an E-commerce and Digital Marketing consultancy helping retailers develop, execute and evolve E-commerce strategies and optimise their digital channel. With a background as a Head of E-commerce and also agency side as Head of Client Development, he has experienced life on both sides of the fence. He has helped companies like A&N Media, Sweaty Betty and Smythson to manage RFP/ITT proposals . and been lead consultant on high profile projects for Econsultancy, Salmon and Greenwich Consulting. He is a guest blogger for Econsultancy, for whom he also writes best practice guides, regularly contributes to industry events and co-hosts #ecomchat, a weekly Twitter chat for e-commerce knowledge sharing. For e-commerce advice and support , connect with James on LinkedIn and Twitter .

This blog post has been tagged with:

Turbocharge your results with this toolkit containing 12 resources

• Social media marketing strategy guide
• Social media marketing playbook
• Smarter LinkedIn marketing guide
• View the Toolkit

The Social Media Marketing toolkit contains:

FREE marketing planning templates

Start your Digital Marketing Plan today with our Free membership.

• FREE practical guides to review your approach
• FREE digital marketing plan templates
• FREE alerts on the latest developments

Solutions to your marketing challenges

• Digital Transformation
• Email Marketing and Marketing Automation
• Managing Digital Marketing Teams
• Marketing Strategy and Planning
• Multichannel lifecycle marketing

Expert advice by sector

• Business-to-Business (B2B)
• Charity and Not-For-Profit
• E-commerce and Retail
• Sector Technology Innovation
• Startups and Small Businesses

Improve your digital marketing skills with our FREE guides and templates

Join the Conversation

Recommended Blog Posts

How to create and structure a social media campaign plan, step-by-step

To make sure your social media campaign is as successful as possible, follow our 7 steps to plan and structure your campaign strategy If you have an upcoming marketing campaign for a new product feature, or a holiday promotion that …..

Global social media statistics research summary May 2024

Our compilation of the latest social media statistics of consumer adoption and usage of social networking platforms Social networks have transformed marketing and, as this post shows, their popularity is still growing in our latest global social media statistics research …..

First Look – Using Threads for Marketing

What do marketers need to know and do? Exciting times for marketers who enjoy following how digital platforms evolve… It feels like 2008, as I said in my first post on Threads… Since I’ll be talking about it, amongst other …..

Instagram Marketing Strategy Guide: Tips for 2024

Instagram marketing is competitive, but not impossible. Follow this guide and try our top strategies to succeed in 2024 and beyond.

Table of Contents

With over 2 billion monthly active users, Instagram is both the O.G. and trendsetter of social media marketing.

It’s not just a place for friends to trade vacation pics. Instagram has shaped social commerce, the creator economy, and how brands use social media for over a decade.

But forget about the big picture: How can you use Instagram marketing to grow your business in 2023? Do you need Instagram ads (or, worse, dancing Reels) for your brand to be successful? Are Instagram’s shopping tools a fun perk or an absolute necessity?

Find out how to use Instagram to grow your business online, no matter your industry or goals.

Bonus: Claim your free pack of 15 creative Instagram post templates made by Hootsuite’s professional graphic designers. Easily customize them in Canva, and start getting more engagement today.

What is Instagram marketing?

Instagram marketing is the practice of using Instagram to grow your brand awareness, audience, leads, and sales. As the most-used social media platform for people ages 16-34 , Instagram is a highly effective marketing platform for brands, entrepreneurs, and creators.

Instagram marketing strategies include:

• Organic content . Photo, video, or carousel posts, Reels, Stories
• Paid content . Instagram ads, including Stories ads, Shopping ads, and more
• Influencer marketing .
• Shopping tools . Shop tab, Product tags and catalogs, Live shopping, Instagram Checkout, Shopping ads

Why market on Instagram?

Instagram has more than 2 billion active monthly users , making it the world’s third-most-used social media platform . If you run a business of any kind, your customers (present and future!) are absolutely on the app.

People also love using Instagram. In a survey about preferred social platforms, Instagram came in hot as the number two overall pick . No wonder Instagram users spend an average of 12 hours a month on the app .

And guess what they’re doing there? Looking for things to buy.

That’s right: 44% of Instagram users use the app to shop on a weekly basis, and 62.4% of social users use Insta to follow or research brands, products, or services.

Some users even go beyond just commercial interactions: 2 out of 3 active users say Instagram allows them to build meaningful relationships with brands.

So get out there! Make some new bffs… in the name of business! (Want more intriguing Instagram statistics? Here’s our extensive list .)

How to set up Instagram for marketing

Creating a professional Instagram account doesn’t just lend your brand an air of legitimacy—it gives you access to important business tools like analytics (called Insights) and advertising options. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to change your Instagram profile to a business profile.

1. Head to your Instagram profile page and hit the hamburger menu in the top right corner.

2. Tap Settings and privacy .

3. Scroll down to Account type and tools .

4. Tap Switch to professional account .

5. Choose Continue and continue through the prompts

6. Choose the category that best describes you or your brand. Depending on your category type, you may be prompted to clarify if you’re a Creator or a Business . Both types of accounts have access to analytics and advertising tools, so choose whichever suits you best. Tap Next .

7. Review your contact information and update it as required.

How to create an Instagram marketing strategy

Sure, some Instagram accounts thrive thanks to pure luck. But for the most part, brands with active Instagram followings and high engagement have executed some time-tested processes and techniques.

Follow these steps to create a winning Instagram marketing strategy for your own Instagram business account.

Understand your audience

If you don’t know who’s reading your posts, it will be hard to create engaging content. A strong Instagram marketing strategy starts with a deep understanding of your target market.

Where do they live? How old are they? Where do they like to hang out online? What kind of hashtags or online communities are they a part of? Look at your analytics and data from your offline marketing efforts, too, to determine who you’re talking to.

These insights will help your team decide on appropriate content, a strong editorial voice and campaigns that will resonate. Just think about it: your Instagram presence will be very different if your followers are teen boys from India or suburban grandmas from Canada.

Learn more about defining your social media target market here.

Make the best Instagram profile possible

Think of your Instagram profile as your digital business card. It’s your first impression, so you’d better do it right.

Like a business card, there’s limited space to share what you need to share, so make sure you have a snappy bio packed with as many SEO keywords as possible.

Or, take a page out of this wine club’s book and get playful with the emojis. (Maybe you want to take advantage of Instagram Story highlights to showcase some past content, too.)

It’s also best practice to make sure all your contact details are filled out and your URL is working. You’ll also want a high-res professional profile image that aligns with your business’ branding.

For more tips on making the best Instagram profile possible, here’s our deep dive into optimizing your social media profiles .

Align your social strategy with your business goals

Before you start posting up a storm, take a beat to make sure your social plan serves your bigger business goals.

Optical company Warby Parker, for example, regularly posts non-glasses-related content—for instance, a meme about soup. We’d take a good guess this sort of content is part of the company’s broader business goal to make the brand seem fun, approachable, relatable and human. (Or maybe they’re about to pivot into DTC soup; we’re speculating here.)

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Warby Parker (@warbyparker)

So, if you’re all about creating brand awareness, make a social plan that is focused on exposure and reach. Or, if you’re hoping to build your database of leads this year, your social strategy should be built around driving traffic into your sales funnel . In other words, there should be a reason behind everything you do.

In case it’s helpful, here’s a primer on how to set social media goals that make sense for your business needs .

Create a content calendar

What’s the best way to plan and organize your content? A content calendar.

As fun as off-the-cuff posts can be, it’s a lot of pressure to find that perfect moment every day that also happens to align perfectly with your business goals. Instead, brainstorm content pillars and plot out your social content in advance.

By carving out dedicated time to plan and prep in advance, you’ll be more efficient (and definitely less prone to typos.) Learn more about creating a social media content calendar here.

Schedule your posts in advance

With a scheduling tool (like Hootsuite, ahem), you can batch-prep a week or month’s worth of posts when you’re in the creative zone for maximum impact.

Scheduling your Instagram posts is also a great way to make sure you’re posting when your audience is most likely to be online . (Hot tip: Hootsuite will actually analyze your past posts and suggest unique-to-you times and dates for maximum engagement. What a sweetie.)

Start your free Hootsuite trial today

You can even schedule Instagram Stories, too!

Never miss a mention (or keep an eye on the competition)

Instagram marketing isn’t just about what you’re putting out into the world. It’s about being responsive and receptive to the people who are talking to and about you, too.

Social listening is a key component of a strong Instagram marketing strategy. With Hootsuite Streams, you can track mentions, keywords and search terms most applicable to your business.

Want a running feed of industry news? Looking to catch all those Tweets that misspell your business name? Custom search streams will make sure you never miss an opportunity to react.

Get familiar with the algorithm(s)

Instagram’s algorithms control what winds up in people’s feeds, what makes the cut on the Explore page, and what winds up languishing in Instagram purgatory. If you wanna succeed on the platform, you better study up.

Put simply, Instagram’s algorithms look at information about content (Reels, feed posts, and Stories) and information about users (interests and behavior on the platform) to serve the right content to the right people.

Each algorithm considers information about the post (like relevance and popularity), the person who posted, your history of interaction with them, and your activity across the platform.

Want to learn more about best practices for mastering Instagram’s algorithms? We’ve got posts on Instagram’s primary algorithm as well as the ones that govern Reels and the Explore Page .

Experiment with different formats

While Instagram started as a simple photo-sharing app in 2010, the platform is a very different beast in 2023. Instagram now offers a variety of formats to explore.

You can cultivate the perfect Instagram grid on your main feed and share photos, videos or even carousels of pictures .

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Native Shoes (@nativeshoes)

Instagram Stories have a prime, top-of-the-feed position, capture millions of views daily…and disappear after 24 hours.

Instagram Reels , meanwhile, are a chance to play with short-form video .

Most businesses try a mix of these different content styles. What’s best for your unique needs? Well, there’s only one way to know what works best for your audience: get postin’, kid.

Try out a livestream

Instagram’s livestream feature offers a unique (and extremely engaging) opportunity to broadcast live to your followers.

Whether you’re giving a behind-the-scenes tour, sharing an exciting product update, taking questions from your audience, interviewing a brand ambassador, or even selling your wonderful wares, Instagram live streams are a thrill to audiences—a chance for an intimate interaction with the brands they love. (And you can repost that Live content to your feed later, too.)

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Western Living (@westernliving)

Here’s everything you need to know about going live on social.

Set up an Instagram Shop

Rather than directing customers from your account to your website, Instagram Shopping allows them to select and purchase products easily from the Instagram app.

An Instagram Shop is a brand’s customizable digital storefront. It allows customers to shop right from your Instagram profile.

Think of it as a landing page where users can discover or browse all your products. If you sell tangible goods, your Instagram Shop is a great opportunity to capture a ready-to-buy market right on the app… especially if you actively tag products in your Stories and Posts.

Find a step-by-step guide to setting up your Instagram Shop here.

Boost top-performing posts

Maybe Instagram advertising isn’t a fit for your business, but you still would love to get some exposure to a new audience. If that’s the case, Instagram’s boosting option is a lifesaver.

Just set the budget at your comfort level, define a target audience, and pay to give a regular Post a little extra juice. You can even boost Instagram posts right in Hootsuite —and then get back to your social media monitoring and scheduling in the very same dashboard.

Measure content performance with analytics

The best Instagram marketing strategy is built on a foundation of knowledge. And the data you need for peak performance is right here in front of you, thanks to our old pal analytics.

Instagram’s own Insights offer plenty of, well, insight into which posts are doing well, which Stories are popping off, and exactly how many people saw your latest Reel. This info is incredible feedback to help you take your next batch of content even further—you’ll see what worked, what didn’t, and where some tweaks might be helpful.

Hootsuite’s own Analytics tool is really, really great for Instagram, too. (Really!) You can even schedule auto-reports that track your preferred metrics in a visually appealing package to really wow your team.

Try Hootsuite Analytics for free

Ultimately, there isn’t really any special trick to creating a great Instagram marketing plan: it’s all the same stuff that will make any of your social media accounts pop.

Check out our video recap of everything you need to know to create the perfect social media strategy here:

Most popular types of content on Instagram

According to a 2023 Statista study , 50% of weekly Instagram users said they prefer to consume funny content on the platform. Forty-six percent seek out “creative” posts, while 41% of active users like informative content.

This Recess post? Definitely funny.. .and definitely creative.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Recess (@takearecess)

Other popular types of content, appealing to around 36% of users, include posts and Stories that are relaxing, inspiring, engaging or trendy.

In 2022, the most popular posts by number of likes were all by celebrities (save for one enigmatic egg ).

But what’s interesting is that the celeb posts that continue to drive engagement are all deeply personal—pregnancy announcements, dramatic makeovers, wedding photos, or jokey posts with friends. They’re not pushing tickets to their soccer games or advertising their movies. They’re being (seemingly) authentic, and fans connect with that in a big way.

So, even if you’re a brand and not a pregnant Kylie Jenner, there are ways to tap into that desire for connection. Get personal. Be silly. Express your values creatively. Showcase the people and personalities behind the scenes.

Helpful Instagram marketing tools: free & paid

1. hootsuite.

Hootsuite helps you plan great content, boost your follower count, and rack up more sales on Instagram — in way less time, with way less effort. Grow your account, manage all of your Instagram marketing in one place, and save time with Hootsuite, your all-in-one social media management tool.

• Create engaging content using built-in creative AI tools, a hashtag generator, Canva editing tools, and more
• Schedule posts, carousels, Stories, and Reels in advance
• Get personalized recommendations for the best times to post on Instagram to reach more people
• Boost organic posts and Reels with just a few clicks
• Answer comments and DMs from all your Instagram accounts
• Keep tabs on competitors, industry leaders, and relevant influencers
• Track your results in real-time
• Download custom reports to showcase your success
• Handle Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest from one dashboard

Try Hootsuite free for 30 days

2. Ads Manager

Ads Manager serves as a shared platform for both Facebook and Instagram—it’s a tool for creating and monitoring advertisements on Meta’s social networks. Ads Manager offers advertisers access to Facebook’s targeting capabilities and the flexibility to run campaigns on both platforms.

Once your campaign is rolling, you can make modifications, engage with comments, and monitor performance. The Amount spent and Cost per result sections are there to help you gauge the effectiveness of your spend.

3. Instagram hashtag generator

Give your feed posts, Reels, and Stories a dash of viral magic with this Instagram hashtag generator. Everybody knows hashtags are social media’s secret sauce, but who has time to come up with them from scratch? This handy hashtag helper can do it for you.

4. Instagram username generator

Get a list of Instagram name ideas in a few seconds flat. It’s the perfect tool for businesses or individuals looking to nail it on Insta. Just answer a few Qs, and this AI username generator will whip up a list of inspiring handles to get you started on your Instagram marketing journey.

5. Instagram bio generator

Your bio is your chance to tell the world what you’re all about (within the character limit, of course). Give your Instagram profile a refresh with this quick Instagram bio generator. It works for business and personal accounts.

Visuals are everything on Insta, but we aren’t all graphic design specialists. Luckily, Canva can help you create eye-catching images and simplify your content creation process.

It even integrates with Hootsuite, so you can use templates made specifically for social media and save time bringing your ideas to life.

Get Canva for Hootsuite

7. Content ideas generator

We know, we know: saying “build a content calendar” is easier said than done. If you need some help getting the creative juices flowing, this AI-backed content ideas generator is here to help. Answer a few Qs and you’ll be given ideas for social media posts, blog posts, videos, and more.

8. Panoramiq Insights

Panoramiq Insights seamlessly integrates robust Instagram analytics into your Hootsuite dashboard. (Oooh!) With Panoramiq, you can delve into account activity, explore follower demographics (very useful for targeted campaigns), and gauge the effectiveness of your Posts and Stories.

Get Panoramiq Insights for Hootsuite

9. Instagram caption generator

A picture is worth a thousand words, so you gotta think words themselves have a pretty big impact, too, right? (And our experiments with Instagram captions prove it.) Generate Instagram captions in seconds with this AI-powered Instagram caption writer.

10. Engagement rate calculator

Your engagement is everything: it defines just how much you’re connecting with your audience. Determine your social media return on investment (ROI), enhance your media kit, and figure out which posts work and which need work with this easy engagement rate calculator tool for Instagram.

11. Adobe Lightroom

If Instagram’s editing options are falling short, it might be time to experiment with Adobe Lightroom CC. The app simplifies the use of professional photo editing tools and can even be enhanced with downloaded Lightroom presets.

Find more amazing tools marketers should use for Instagram here .

Instagram marketing FAQs

When was instagram created.

Instagram was released to the public in October 2010 . By the end of the first day, it had 25,000 users and hit one million users in under three months.

Does Facebook own Instagram?

Yes, Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion . Since then, the company has restructured. Now, both Facebook and Instagram are operated by a parent organization called Meta (still helmed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg). Meta also operates Threads and Whatsapp .

Manage all your Instagram marketing alongside your other social platforms with Hootsuite’s time-saving tools. From a single dashboard, you can schedule posts, Stories, and Reels, engage with your audience, and measure your social ROI. Try it free today.

Get Started

Easily create, analyze, and schedule Instagram posts, Stories, Reels, and Threads with Hootsuite. Save time and get results.

Become a better social marketer.

Get expert social media advice delivered straight to your inbox.

Stacey McLachlan is an award-winning writer and editor from Vancouver with more than a decade of experience working for print and digital publications.

She is editor-at-large for Western Living and Vancouver Magazine, author of the National Magazine Award-nominated 'City Informer' column, and a regular contributor to Dwell. Her previous work covers a wide range of topics, from SEO-focused thought-leadership to profiles of mushroom foragers, but her specialties include design, people, social media strategy, and humor.

You can usually find her at the beach, or cleaning sand out of her bag.

Related Articles

How to create a social media marketing strategy in 9 easy steps [free template]

Creating your social media marketing strategy doesn’t need to be painful. Create an effective plan for your business in 9 simple steps.

How to make the most of Instagram carousels in 2024 [GUIDE]

Instagram carousels get way more reach and engagement than regular posts. Here’s how to make carousel posts part of your Instagram strategy.

20 Instagram Post Ideas to Boost Engagement

Great Instagram post ideas should promote your brand, engage your followers, and be hard to resist sharing with others.

How to Build an Instagram Sales Funnel in 8 Steps

Yes, you can create an entirely self-sufficient sales funnel on Instagram. Here’s why you should, and the content you need to make it work.

We use cookies on our website to provide you with the best possible user experience

Manage Your Social Media Like a Pro with Planly

Automate your posts, analyze performance, and engage with your audience—all in one place.

Manage all your social media with Planly

Create a social media marketing strategy: 6 essential steps.

Table of Contents

Introduction

In the vibrant and ever-bustling world of social media, having a well-thought-out social media marketing strategy is essential. Think of it as your trusted guide in a lively, colourful landscape. A strong social media marketing strategy helps you chart a clear path, ensuring that your brand’s voice stands out and connects with the right people. It’s more than just a set of rules; it’s a roadmap that helps you navigate through countless interactions, trends, and opportunities.

With a solid plan in place, you’re not just aiming to keep up with the latest trends—you’re setting the stage for meaningful engagement and growth. A clear social media marketing strategy lets you organize your content, target the right audience, and measure your success effectively. By understanding and applying these elements, you transform your social media presence into a powerful tool that drives results and builds lasting connections

Step 1: Define Your Goals

Setting Clear and Achievable Social Media Objectives

Start your social media marketing strategy by establishing clear and achievable objectives. Think of these goals as your roadmap, guiding you through your journey. Whether you're looking to boost brand awareness, drive more traffic to your website, or enhance customer engagement, well-defined objectives give you a clear direction and a way to measure your success. Clear goals ensure that your social media efforts are focused and purposeful, making it easier to track progress and make adjustments as needed

Aligning Social Media Goals with Business Objectives

The next step is to align your social media goals with your broader business objectives. This alignment ensures that every post, campaign, and interaction is contributing to your overall business vision. By connecting your social media strategy to your business goals, you create a unified approach that supports your company's growth and success. This way, your social media efforts are not only effective but also reinforce your long-term business ambitions

Step 2: Know Your Audience

Identifying Your Target Audience and Their Preferences

To make your social media marketing strategy truly effective, you need to get to know your audience inside and out. Start by identifying who they are, including their demographics , interests, and online behaviour. This step is crucial as it helps you understand whom you’re talking to and what they care about. By having a clear picture of your target audience, you can ensure that your content is relevant and engaging, which increases the likelihood of capturing their attention.

Using Audience Insights to Tailor Your Content

With a clear understanding of your audience, you can now use these insights to customize your content. Analyze the data to determine what types of posts, formats, and topics resonate most with your followers. This might involve adjusting your messaging to match their interests or choosing specific times to post for maximum engagement. Tailoring your content based on audience insights helps you create more meaningful interactions and ensures that your social media efforts are aligned with what your audience values.

Step 3: Choose the Right Platforms

Selecting Social Media Platforms That Suit Your Brand

Choosing the right social media platforms is essential for a successful marketing strategy. Each platform has its own unique features and audience demographics, so it's important to select those that align best with your brand's goals and target audience. For example, Instagram might be ideal for visual storytelling, while LinkedIn could be better suited for B2B engagement. By focusing on platforms where your audience is most active and engaged, you can maximize your reach and impact.

Understanding Platform-Specific Best Practices

Once you've chosen your platforms, it's time to dive into the specifics of each one. Different social media sites have their own best practices for content creation, posting frequency, and engagement techniques. For instance, Twitter favors concise, timely updates, while Facebook supports a mix of long-form content and interactive posts. Understanding these nuances helps you tailor your approach to each platform, ensuring that your content performs well and resonates with your audience.

Step 4: Create Compelling Content

Developing a Content Calendar and Strategy

To keep your social media presence organized and effective, start by creating a content calendar . This tool helps you plan and schedule your posts in advance, ensuring a consistent and strategic approach. By mapping out your content themes, important dates, and posting frequency, you can stay on top of your social media game and align your content with your marketing objectives. A well-thought-out strategy also allows you to manage your resources better and respond to trends and opportunities in real-time.

Tips for Crafting Engaging and Shareable Content

Crafting content that captures attention and encourages sharing is key to a successful social media strategy. Focus on creating posts that are visually appealing, informative, and relevant to your audience’s interests. Use eye-catching images or videos, engaging headlines, and calls-to-action to spark interaction. Incorporating storytelling and user-generated content can also make your posts more relatable and compelling. By prioritizing quality and relevance, you can boost engagement and expand your reach across your chosen platforms.

Step 5: Implement and Manage Your Campaigns

Scheduling and Publishing Your Content Effectively

Effective scheduling and publishing are crucial for maintaining an active and engaging social media presence. Utilize tools and platforms that allow you to plan your posts ahead of time, ensuring they go live at optimal times for your audience. Consistency is key, so stick to a regular posting schedule that aligns with your content calendar. This helps keep your audience engaged and ensures your brand stays top-of-mind. Also, make sure to stay flexible and adjust your schedule as needed based on performance insights and trending topics.

Managing Social Media Interactions and Engagement

Managing interactions and engagement on your social media accounts is vital for building strong relationships with your audience. Monitor your social media channels regularly to respond to comments, messages, and mentions promptly. Engaging with your audience not only helps build trust but also fosters a sense of community around your brand. Addressing feedback, both positive and negative, with professionalism and responsiveness will enhance your brand’s reputation and encourage ongoing engagement.

Step 6: Monitor and Measure Your Success

Tracking Key Metrics and Analyzing Performance

Keeping an eye on key metrics is essential for understanding how well your social media campaigns are performing. Use analytics tools to track important indicators such as engagement rates, reach, impressions, and conversion rates. This data provides valuable insights into which types of content resonate with your audience and which strategies are working best. Regularly reviewing these metrics allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your campaigns and identify areas for improvement.

Adjusting Your Strategy Based on Data and Feedback

Once you have analyzed your performance data, it’s time to make adjustments to your social media strategy. Use the insights gained from your metrics and feedback to fine-tune your approach. This might involve tweaking your content, changing your posting schedule, or experimenting with different engagement tactics. Being adaptable and responsive to the data ensures that your strategy remains effective and continues to meet your goals. Regularly refining your approach will help you stay aligned with your audience’s preferences and improve overall campaign success.

To wrap things up, let’s revisit the six essential steps for crafting a winning social media marketing strategy. Begin by defining clear, achievable goals and aligning them with your business objectives. Next, get to know your audience to tailor content that resonates with them. Choose the right social media platforms for your brand, and create engaging content that keeps your audience coming back for more. Implement your campaigns thoughtfully, ensuring timely scheduling and active management. Finally, monitor your performance closely, and adjust your strategy based on the insights you gather.

With this roadmap in hand, you’re ready to dive in and start planning your social media strategy. Take these steps and transform your social media presence into a powerful tool for success. Happy strategizing and here’s to your future online achievements!

Ready to elevate your social media strategy? Join Planly today and experience the benefits of streamlined scheduling, insightful analytics, and enhanced engagement. Sign up for our 14-day free trial and discover how easy it is to manage your content across multiple platforms.

Stay in the loop with everything you need to know.

We care about your data in our privacy policy .

Related posts

Optimizing your news feed: tips for staying informed and engaged.

Optimize your news feed with practical tips for curating sources, managing notifications, and engaging with content. Stay informed and make your digital experience more meaningful.

Understanding Profile Pictures: How to Make a Lasting First Impression

Master facebook automation: save time and boost engagement effortlessly, best apps for effective time management: how to boost efficiency with popular apps:.

How to build the best social strategy

Social media is an essential part of a strong digital marketing strategy.

(Updated September 2024)

Since the early 2000s, social media has been a forum for community engagement and a great way for marketers to reach audiences and build trust; it follows then, that a strong social media advertising or social media marketing strategy is essential for establishing a meaningful digital presence. 

Social ad spending in 2023 is estimated to be about $83.72 billion USD. Influencer spending is also estimated to account for an additional $5.4 billion this year. 

This massive marketplace can be hard to dive into, especially as it continues to become crowded with competing brands. Knowing how to stand out, while engaging with audiences is crucial. 

The first thing to note is that there are two main ways to engage with users on social media: 

Paid social:

Paid social refers to ads created for social media sites. These can be video ads that play on platforms like TikTok and Instagram or banner ads that appear on Pinterest or Meta . Social media platforms also have their own formats and capabilities. It’s worth noting that the formats of ads are frequently changing as social networks update parameters. 

Organic social posts: 

Social posts are another great way to engage with audiences online. By creating and sharing content on social media, marketers can speak directly to their target audience , building trust and fostering relationships. They can count on an audience of engaged followers as it is made up of users who choose to follow their brand and want to see content directly from them.

The second thing to note is that whether engaging audiences through paid social or social posts, marketers are engaging with users on their terms, in their space. 

Social media networks are the realm of social media users, and ads and brand posts can feel like an interruption if they are not created with the intended platform and space in mind. The same way a television ad needs to consider its audience’s desires, so does a social strategy. Effective social media posts and ads fit into the digital space seamlessly. 

Using trends to bolster your social strategy

Following trends is an effective way to create impactful content for social media. By understanding the behavior, humor, and language a target audience uses online, marketers can make posts that fit the mold and attract engagement. 

Social media posts do best when they don’t interrupt a user’s feed, but rather fit into it. This builds a sense of trust by making your brand feel more like a friend and less like an outsider. 

This isn’t to say that posts shouldn’t stand out. There is a balance to be struck between fitting in and making a statement. The best engagement comes from posts that hit the sweet spot in between. 

Trends are also important to understand when building paid social campaigns. Ads that are too interruptive are less likely to be engaged with by audiences in an oversaturated market, like those online. A good paid social ad strikes a similar balance as social posts, blending in with existing trends while standing out from the competition. 

Understanding algorithms’ impact on social strategy

Social media algorithms determine who sees your social posts and when. This means that understanding how algorithms work on a given network is important when building out a social strategy. 

The trick is these algorithms are constantly changing. Like trends, which evolve as users grow and change, algorithms change too. Social networks update these decision making equations in order to create an environment that appeals to their users, and since user behavior changes over time, so do algorithms. 

Luckily, there are many industry specialists who track these changes. The Social Media Examiner, for instance, recently put out their report on how the Instagram Algorithm Works in 2023 . By keeping up to date with how algorithms work, marketers stand a better chance of having their work seen and building meaningful engagement.  

Putting your persona first

Like with all marketing, your persona should be at the center of your strategy. Every social media network targets a different demographic or fills a different purpose. By understanding how a network’s target audience intersects with yours, you are better able to delegate your efforts. 

For instance, commerce efforts on social media are best made when targeting millennials and Gen Z. 

Marketers should choose which platforms are the best fit for their brand and spend their resources accordingly. Likewise, when using multiple platforms, marketers should create tailored content in order to more effectively communicate with their audience. 

By creating individual content for each platform, rather than copy-and-pasting from site to site, marketers can build their strategy around their persona in order to more effectively foster engagement. 

Social media is a continually changing landscape. By continually conducting research and by paying attention to social platforms trends, marketers can build a social strategy that effectively communicates with their audiences and fosters meaningful engagement. 

To see more from illumin, be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn where we share interesting news and insights from the worlds of ad tech and advertising.

Learn how illumin unlocks the power of journey advertising

Related insights.

The best paid social ads of 2023 (so far)

The key to Gen Z: successfully targeting a new generation

The real and complete history of social media marketing

What makes a great TikTok ad

Subscribe for insights

Get the latest updates delivered right to your inbox.