How to Build a Powerful Social Media Strategy
Have you ever found yourself blankly staring at your company’s Instagram account, wondering how
the heck you were going to grow an audience?
You’re not alone.
The reality is, most companies don’t have big budgets to spend on growing their social media accounts through paid advertising, influencer marketing, or targeted PR efforts. They rely on organic growth to propel their brand forward. However, many of these same companies lack the know-how needed to effectively grow their social media presence organically.
The bad news: There’s no quick fix. Unpaid social growth demands strategy, value, and consistency over a longer period of time.
But here’s the good news: you can achieve organic growth AND become a social media superstar by following this guide.
Getting started
To create an extra powerful, well-rounded social media strategy, there are a few plans you’ll want to create and approaches you’ll want to consider. These include:
Channel Strategy
Hashtag Strategy
Optimized Profiles
Communication Plan
Content Calendars
Sound overwhelming? Bare with us. This guide will dive into each of these areas to help you build the foundation of a powerful social media strategy.
Let’s start with the basics —
CHANNEL STRATEGY
A “channel” refers to the different social platforms you might consider creating a profile on. You don't need to have a profile on every social channel in order to perform well. In fact, having too many social channels may actually dilute your social media strategy and harm your performance. The first step in forming a social media strategy is to decide which channels are right for you. Start by asking yourself:
Who is my target audience?
Where am I most likely to reach them?
What type of content will help people experience my brand best?
From there, select the mix of social channels that reach your target audience & align with your brand goals. Once you’ve selected which channels you’d like to use regularly, establish a purpose for each one. Each channel’s brand purpose should be able to be summed in one sentence.
example:
BRAND PURPOSE (BY CHANNEL)
LinkedIn: Used for building thought leadership in the social enterprise marketing space and sharing relavent news articles, business updates, and blog content.
Facebook: Used as a credibility and community builder, connecting our community with eachother and sharing user-generated content.
Instagram: Used for educating and engaging our audience, while providing authentic behind-the-scenes business content.
HASHTAG STRATEGY
These bad boys will help you put your content in front of the right people. Using a mix of niche, relevant and branded hashtags will place your posts in front of people who have an actual interest in the content. Rather than just putting your content in front of your followers, effectively using ### can put it in front of thousands. We recommend using hashtags in both in-feed posts and on stories for optimal reach.
There are a couple of ways you can determine which hashtags are right for your brand, such as:
Exploring hashtags used by similar accounts
Are there other accounts that are in your brand’s niche? Consider exploring what hashtags they use to connect with their audience. You may be able to find relavent hashtags for your brand.Reverse engineering target audience keywords
Instead of just adding in branded hashtags based on what’s in your post, ask yourself “What hashtags would the person I want to see this content be following?” For example, as a creative agency run by full-time travelers we often use #digitalnomad in our posts about remote work. Additionally, people who are female and interested in entrepreneurship may be following hashtags such as #fempreneur #bossbabe #solopreneur.Researching relavent/recommended hashtags by category
Using either Instagram or social tools such as Later, you can research recommended hashtags for use by category. For example, in Instagram if you type #entrepreneurship into the search bar you will be recommended similar hashtags which are generally followed/searched by accounts that engage with #entrepreneurship content. Similarly, in Later you can search for similar hashtags and then select to have them added into your caption.
OPTIMIZING YOUR PROFILE
Did you know that your bio can be a powerful lead generator? (Particularly on Instagram) 🤳⠀⠀
That’s right! Optimizing your bio can put your brand in front of more potential customers & help boost your followers, reach, and engagement.
(Now is when you should go ahead and whip out your cell phone, sis. It’s time for a PROFILE MAKEOVER 💅)
the breakdown-
YOUR NAME (NOT USERNAME)
Did you know your “name” is searchable? When a user goes to their Instagram search bar to look for a specific kind of content or profile, the keywords in your name field are what will help connect them to you. So, for example, even though our username is “Creatively Wired” we use “Global Creative Agency” in the name field of our Instagram.⠀
THE WEBSITE
Pretty self-explanatory, but make sure that your website is placed in this field. Notice that IG only allows you to have one link. If you have multiple links you’d like to house on your profile, use Linktr.ee. It’s a free tool that lets you link users to all the things. ⠀⠀
THE BIO
You only have 150 characters to tell users who you are. What do you do? Who do you serve? The first sentence of your bio should define these two things. Get crystal clear about who your business is. Then, insert a clear call to action (Ex. Let us take “digital marketing off your to-do list” with arrows pointing to the website link). Do you want users to visit your site? Download your freebie? Check out your highlights? Whatever it is, spell it out for them!⠀⠀⠀⠀
TAGS
As of last year, any profile usernames or hashtags used in your ‘gram bio will become clickable links. That means that if you have a branded hashtag (which you should) or secondary account, you can cross-promote via your bio. (it’s worth mentioning that neither @ or # in your bio are searchable. They are just clickable). ⠀⠀
EMOJIS, OR NO EMOJIS?
We personally love using emojis in your bio. They add a clean, fun element to your profile, require less characters than words & can help emphasize key points like your call-to-action. At the end of the day, the choice to use emojis is entirely yours! Whether or not you use them will not make or break your profile.⠀⠀
CREATING A COMMUNICATION PLAN
Before diving into creating a communication plan, revisit the channel purposes that you determined early on. This will help you get crystal clear and intentional about how and what you want to communicate across each platform. Then, build a plan with these three attributes in mind:
COMMIT TO A CONSISTENCY
Whether your posts be in-feed or stories, it’s important to determine a reasonable consistency. After all, each social platform’s algorithm has shown that consistency is ESSENTIAL to growth and reach. Be sure to commit to a frequency that you can stick to in the long-term.⠀
IDENTIFY KEY MOMENTS
Are there certain key moments you anticipate taking part in throughout the year? Campaigns you plan to run, relevant holidays to take part in, or upcoming launches you need to promote? Identifying these moments early on will set yourself up for less stress and more long-term success. You’ll be able to clearly block off the time and resources needed to communicate with your audience during these key moments.
ESTABLISH CONTENT THEMES
Sticking to a content "theme" over the course of a period of time can help serve your audience with more in-depth knowledge & can also showcase your expertise in a specific area. An example of this could be identifying a one-week period in which you dive into how to show up on the 'gram. Or a mini IGTV series on how to properly care for plants. It could even be as simple as establishing an “about me” introduction theme at the launch of your social profile. Establishing themes will not only make creating content easier for you, but it will also help provide your audience with the focus needed to actually value from your content.
BUILDING CONTENT CALENDARS
It’s time to ditch the random in-the-moment posts and start creating content in advance. Building out social media content calendars can help ease the burden of social media marketing, while also leaving you with great content that flows together and gets you in the habit of showing up on social consistently. Here’s how we recommend building them:
1. STAY AHEAD
Planning content in advance will save you so much time, energy, and oh-sh*t moments. At Creatively Wired, we like to plan out our content at least a month in advance (and can update content as needed in real-time) for both ourselves and our clients. Staying ahead helps us align our social media content with other upcoming marketing initiatives and provides us with more flexibility to juggle our social media needs with life’s unexpected moments.
We recommend that you begin batching a month’s worth of social content at least 2-4 weeks before the beginning of the month that you plan on batching for.
2. COMMIT TO A CONSISTENCY
How many times a week are you going to post? Once you define this, it’s easier to figure out how much content you need to create for a given month. For instance, if you plan on posting 4 times/week you know that you’ll need to create or repurpose a minimum of 16 posts each month.
PRO TIP: Make sure that you commit to a consistency that you can stick to, as it will play a factor in how your content ranks in platform algorithms. At Creatively Wired, we try to stick to 3-4 posts/week. ⠀
3. IDENTIFY KEY MOMENTS
Once you’ve determined how many posts you’ll be sharing each week, you can start filling in the content calendar by identifying any upcoming key moments (think: holidays, brand campaigns, promotions, events, etc.). For example, if you know that you’re going to be launching a new freebie midway through the month, make sure that you input content placeholders in the days leading up to the launch. ⠀
4. FILL CONTENT GAPS WITH PLACEHOLDERS
Once all key moment placeholders have been added, you can go back throughout the calendar and fill in any content gaps with topic placeholders. For this step, we recommend asking yourself questions like:
What valuable content can I provide to serve my audience?
Are there content themes that I can group together/post chronologically to provide richer, higher quality content for my followers?
What tips, behind-the-scenes moments, or lifestyle tidbits can I share that will give others a taste of my brand?
How can I build relationships with my followers while promoting the services/products that I offer?
Use these questions to brainstorm content ideas to fill in remaining gaps in the calendar.
5. GET DETAILED
In this final stage of content batching, you’ll replace all placeholders with post-specific copy and images. You’ll get our content lookin’ ready for the masses and will use a text editor to get the formatting of each post exactly how we want it. Once you've batched a month's worth of content, use a scheduler like @latermedia to add it all into a calendar.
Pssst…As copywriters, we prefer to begin with writing post copy first and then adding images in later. However, the visually savvy may prefer to start by selecting images and then adding in copy last. ⠀
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