Every business, large and small, needs to have a presence on social media in order to have a successful online presence. Even large, popular brands like Walmart, which has over 2000 stores worldwide, and eBay, which is also famous for having an online store, have found that social media is vital to their success.

In fact, many businesses without a social media presence don’t even exist anymore. It’s essential that you have a strategy in place before you begin creating content for social media; otherwise, you could waste a lot of time and effort, and undermine your company’s growth.

Fortunately, with a little bit of planning and research, you can ensure that your efforts on social media will bear fruit, and you’ll be able to use the platform to your advantage.

Set A Goal

The first step to effective social media strategy is to set a goal. This is especially important because there are a lot of platforms out there, and it can be difficult to know which one will be the most beneficial for your company. Your goal should be to set a long-term goal, such as increasing web traffic or getting listed on the first page of Google searches. However, if you’re just starting out, a short-term goal, like getting 500 Twitter followers, is a lot more realistic.

Once you’ve set your goal, you can begin to map out a plan of action. For example, you can decide that you’ll use specific social media platforms and tactics to achieve your goal. Before you begin taking any kind of action, be sure to get approval from executives or board members; otherwise, you could be risking your job. They might even ask you to justify your plan or approach, and give you feedback on how you’re doing.

Choose The Right Platform

The next step is to choose the right platform. There are hundreds of different social media platforms out there, and it can be hard to know which one is best suited for your business. Once you’ve decided that Twitter is the right platform for you, you’ll have to choose between the iPhone app and the Android app. The main difference between the two is that the iPhone app is slightly more limited in what it can do, while the Android app supports a lot more functionalities, like videos, interactive maps, and more.

The best part about Walmart’s choice of Twitter as a platform is that the company has already done the research and is aware of what features work best for their audience. For example, Walmart knows that their audience is mostly interested in recipes and meal ideas, so they focus a lot of their strategy on that area. They also utilize tools like Hootsuite to gather feedback on their social media strategy and measure the success of their campaigns. On the other side, if you’re just beginning your journey, it’s probably best to start with the Android app, as the functionality is more accessible from the get-go.

Once you’ve chosen the platform, the next step is to decide on a name for your account. The name you select should represent your brand and be easily recognizable. When users find your content, they’ll be able to find your account faster because of the unique name. Additionally, you’ll have an easier time remembering and using the account name whenever you want to share a blog post or tweet. You should also register or create a relevant username for your account, so that people can find and follow you easily.

Create Content

The next step is to create content. This can be anything from a simple blog post to a short video series. The only requirement is that your content has to be useful or interesting. Don’t worry too much about what the content is about; instead, focus on creating quality content that will engage with your audience and encourage them to follow you.

It’s important to note that although you want to create content for social media, don’t simply copy and paste the text from your website into your blog post. For example, if you’re writing about the importance of organics in your diet, you don’t want to just sprinkle in some organic recipes here and there. Instead, find a way to integrate the information about organics into your content, so that it makes sense and doesn’t feel like repetitive copy.

Distribute Content

Once you’ve got some content, it’s time to distribute it. You can easily do this by simply sharing the blog post or video you’ve created on your social media accounts. However, if you’ve decided that YouTube is the best platform for you, you can take it a step further and actually develop videos specifically for social media.

You should consider creating videos that are short and sweet, and most importantly, engaging. If you create an engaging video, you’ll be able to encourage your audience to take further action, like subscribing to your channel or engaging with you directly on social media. Moreover, you can use tools like Hootsuite to distribute your content to other platforms, like Twitter.

Monitor, Measure, and Adjust Based On The Results

Now that you’ve got some content, it’s time to monitor, measure, and adjust. You can do this by simply checking your results on a daily basis. If you use tools like Hootsuite, you’ll be able to easily see the results of your efforts on social media. You can also use tools like Google Analytics to track your website’s traffic, or Hootsuite to see the success of your various social media accounts.

If you notice that one platform is performing better than the others, it might be a good idea to try and expand your reach to more platforms. Some businesses find that Facebook is the best platform for reaching an audience, while others prefer to use Twitter.

As for measuring success on social media, there are endless possibilities. You can measure the amount of engagement you receive on your various accounts, the number of people who view your content, how many people clicked on a specific link or action button, and more.

The Takeaway

Creating and implementing a social media strategy is not as difficult as you might think. It can be a lot of work, but it’s mostly about taking the time to plan out and execute a strategy. When it comes to getting results, there are definitely some basic rules you need to follow, but beyond that, you can use any platform and any style to get the content you need, when you need it, and most importantly, make your business stand out.