As per the analysis by the team at Kepios, about 60 percent of the global population is actively using social media platforms, roughly about 4.76 billion social media users as of January 2023 (Chaffey, 2023). Therefore, every small, medium, and extensive business needs a well-defined social media strategy to engage and interact with these users actively.
What is a social media strategy, and how relevant is it for any size of business?
A social media strategy is a Strategy that outlines how a business intends to showcase the outlook of its business virtually on social media platforms. It includes various aspects such as identifying the right platform with respect to the nature of the business, knowing the target audience, defining goals and objectives that align with the mission and vision of the business, establishing two-way communication and measuring the results by analyzing the interactions to find out what is working well and what not and then revising social media practices. The strategy is the vocal and non-vocal image of a business. It must outline the business’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to have a better impact and higher success with social media efforts. A well-defined social media strategy is a rescuer for any business struggling with having estimated virtual presence and interactions, finding it difficult to convert the potential leads into sales and, thus, unable to reach their marketing objectives.
Why does your small business need a social media strategy?
Various reasons support a business to have a well-defined social media strategy. To begin with –
1. To establish a robust virtual presence
A well-defined and structured social media strategy will benefit any business with a strong, organically formed presence. The content that needs to be posted can be better planned and thoroughly refined with respect to the strategy and the target market.
2. Defining the proper milestones for your goals
By having a planned content calendar, the business can create milestones concerning their goals which in turn buys more time for them to focus on other essential aspects. This way business is able to reap rewards from its efforts and investment of time and other resources by having detailed milestones and basing the strategy around these milestones.
3. Effectively targeting the audience
Having a well-established social media strategy, the business is able to narrow down its target audience and then cater to them appropriately. This is done by understanding the market, audience, trends, and pain points and then offering a suitable solution to the target market.
4. Gaining a competitive advantage
By having a defined social media strategy, a business is able to stay ahead of its competitors by discovering the niche and standing out from the crowd. By putting efforts into social media campaigns, businesses better understand what is suitable for their product/service, what will work best for them and what needs more attention. This way, any business can consistently define its brand story with a powerful voice that is impactful for its target audience.
5. Choosing the suitable medium to advertise
It is essential to actively engage with your audience through social media applications, namely, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Tik Tok. To engage with the target audience, the business needs to proactively create distinctive content and be consistent with that and post regularly on such mediums. This way, the audience is engaged and part of your success story in the virtual world. Furthermore, the higher the interaction on social media, the more power a business can leverage by better understanding the trends and demands of their consumer and their behaviour.
Tips to grow your social media presence.
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Setting SMART goals: By defining goals that are S- Specific, M- Measurable, A- Attainable, R- Realistic and T- Timebound, any business can utilize the power of having a solid online presence and raise its brand awareness. To illustrate a SMART goal, we aim to increase customer engagement on Instagram by 10 percent by the end of this month. This goal is specific with the mention of Instagram, measurable with the help of an analytics tool, attainable by stating 10 percent in two weeks, realistic attribute to it and timebound by having a time frame in mind.
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Interaction with consumers: A marketer or a business needs to understand the thin line between establishing and maintaining relationships with their audience and giving little importance to focusing on increasing followers (Barnhart, 2021). Having positive, long-term relationships is one of the most valuable assets for any business on social media. It drives their business and brand awareness, acts as the brand voice, and helps a business generate organic leads.
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Leveraging the power of the trends – Being active and posting content is not sufficient to boost social media presence. The social media manager must make himself aware of the current trends and look ahead to gain an edge over the competition (Bretous, 2021). Knowing what is trending and what is old fashioned and adjusting the social media strategy according to it will bring so many better results for a business than sticking to old techniques of boosting online presence.
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Gaining the competitive advantage: It is crucial to know what your peers and direct competitors are doing, and then being unique and distinctive with your content and marketing practices gives a massive edge to any business. Using the correct set of hashtags that are trending, creating positive and more valuable content than usual content, staying one step ahead of the market that you are operating in and going the extra mile to understand the customer’s needs and pain points will do wonders for good and fortune to a business who is striving to boost their online presence.
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All in all, the epilogue of this article states that for any startup or existing business, it is essential to understand the market trends and follow those trends to stay ahead and strive to be on the top in the race of competition. Having a thorough social media strategy acts as a roadmap on which a business strives to boost its online presence and make a positive impact in the virtual space by having a robust, transparent and consistent brand voice across all the social media channels.
Bibliography
Barnhart, B. (2021, March 26). Building social media presence. Retrieved from SproutsSocial: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/building-social-media-presence/
Bretous , M. (2021, March 29). Monitoring the social media presence. Retrieved from Hubspot: https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4663/how-to-monitor-your-social-media-presence-in-10-minutes-a-day.aspx
Chaffey, D. (2023, January 30). New Global Media Research. Retrieved from Smartinsights: https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/
