3 Reasons Why A Social Media Strategy Is Essential
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who are the smartest ones of all? Those who thoroughly plan and are prepared, of course.
In order to be successful at anything, there are necessary steps that need to be made. One of the most critical steps is planning. It should be at the top of the list. Now, this may seem like common sense, but as we all know, common sense isn’t as common.
Imagine cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the first time with no recipes, grocery list, or guidance. I am almost positive that you would be ordering takeout by the end of the day. Without planning a menu for the night, gathering the needed ingredients, and following a recipe, there is no way to guarantee success.
The same goes for managing social media platforms and creating campaigns. The only way to ensure success is by creating a social media strategy first.
It allows brands to be specific with their goals, strategically target their audience, select the correct platform, analyze their competition, track results and optimize, etc. Plus, it serves as a guide to creatively creating engaging content and campaigns.
Oh, you aren’t convinced yet? Don’t worry! Here are 3 reasons why a social media strategy is vital and should be completed before diving into social media campaigns.
1. A Goal Worth Planning For
One of the most important reasons you need to create a social media strategy for your brand is to make sure you thoroughly define your goals.
How else will you be able to track and measure your success?
This will simply help to ensure that your goals and campaigns align.
Now, you don’t want to be too general with your goals — instead, the more specific, the better. When defining your goals, utilizing the SMART goals approach will help you identify precisely what your brand needs to be successful on social media.
Plus, it’s the perfect time to connect your social media goals to your brand’s overall objective.
What happens when you don’t identify clear goals in your social media strategy before creating campaigns? The answer should be obvious, but I will tell you anyway. If there are no specific goals set, there is no purpose.
Instead of producing meaningful content that attracts your audience, you will be releasing content with no direction and ultimately missing your targets.
2. Be Prepared
We all know that time is valuable, so why waste it? The ability to save time while being effective is another reason why creating a social media strategy is necessary.
A social media strategy allows you to specify your brand’s needs and target audience. Then create a plan that will align with them. By creating a social media strategy first, your team will have something to reference when creating content calendars.
This may be a tedious task in the beginning, but trust me, it will pay off in the end simply because it eliminates the day-to-day posting responsibilities. As a result, it leaves time to focus on the analytics and optimize as needed.
Not to mention, by taking the time to create a social media strategy that includes an outline of your competition, you can prioritize creative content that will make you stand out and save time in the long run.
Without a social media strategy, your brand will constantly be playing catch up. Rather than strategically releasing innovative content that encourages engagement and conversions, you will be scrambling to post just anything.
As a result, consumers will be less inclined to be loyal to your brand and cause you to fall behind your competition.
3. You’ve Got A Follower In Me
The overall goal for any brand is to attract and retain consumers, which is another reason why creating a social media strategy is crucial.
Though brand loyalty is not a new buzz phrase, it is definitely still relevant.
In today’s society, the key is consistency. Consumers are typically loyal to brands that are active on social media and consistent with their tone and voice.
With a social media strategy, brands can identify their target audiences’ needs and produce a plan that will result in brand loyalty.
Plus, the strategy provides an outline of the brand’s voice and tone, which generates compelling, cohesive content no matter the writer.
Your brand will struggle to keep consumers loyal without a social media strategy because their platforms will lack consistency and organic content.
Instead of being attentive to your consumers online, your brand will be unprepared and will have to post random content to stay active — reducing brand loyalty.
With that said, it’s a whole new world. So, if you haven’t created a social media strategy for your brand yet, what are you waiting for?
Happy Planning!
