Creating A Social Media Strategy

GUIDECreating a SocialMedia StrategyA Guide to Developing YourSocial Media Presence

Guide to Creating aSocial Media StrategyGetting StartedIn order to gain customer trust, establish expertise, andmeet potential customers, every business needs to havea social media presence. It’s simply not enough to havesocial media sites up for your business; without a clearstrategy for social media use, your business will struggleto get the customer engagement levels and increasedsales you’re looking for. To get the most out of yoursocial media efforts, your strategy should include thefollowing:FFDetermining which sites are most beneficial to postto and when to post to themFFDeciding how large you want your social mediapresence to beFFIdentifying the right metrics to use to measure yourprogress towards social media goalsFFHow and why to engage current and potentialcustomers onlineUse this guide as a first step towards learning moreabout how to create a social media strategy for yourbusiness. For more in-depth guidance on creatingyour social media strategy, Hootsuite University offersstep-by-step best practices and business case studyexamples in a 30-minute on-demand course online.Enroll at learn.hootsuite.com.Step 1:Clarify Your Business’Social Media GoalsAll business planning should start with defining cleargoals, and social media is no exception. Without a clearidea of what you want to accomplish with social media,you are unlikely to achieve anything at all because yourefforts will be scattered or aimless. In addition, differentsocial media goals require different sets of action. Forexample, if your goal is to gain consumer credibility, thatlooks very different than if your goal is to convert 30percent of prospects to sales.Start by writing down at least three social media goalsfor your business. Make sure each goal is specific,realistic and measurable. It is vital to make your goalsmeasurable so that you can track your business’progress towards each goal. To test how measurableyour goal is, ask yourself what it will look like whenpartially or completely achieved. If you don’t know, youneed to continue working on the goal’s measurability.It’s also important that your goals for social mediarelate to your overall goals for your business. Ratherthan choosing social media goals arbitrarily, make surethese goals tie in with your overall sales, marketing andproductivity goals.My Business Social Media Goals Are:1.2.3.GUIDE TO CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY2

Step 2:Audit Your Current Social Media StatusPrior to creating your social media strategy, you needto assess your current social media use and how itis working for you. This requires figuring out who iscurrently connecting to you via social media, whichsocial media sites your target market uses and how yoursocial media presence compares to your competitors’.Take Current Social Media InventoryStart by conducting a search for both officiallysanctioned and unauthorized pages representing yourcompany. These could be fan sites, rogue employeesites or malicious sites posing as you or your company.Check the pages to see how many followers you have,how much activity is on the page and whether all linkswork. If any of your pages have become overrun withspam, sign on and delete it.Distribute SurveysIf you’re not currently on social media at all, yourfirst step is to figure out which sites would be mostbeneficial for you to use. You can do that by invitingcurrent customers to complete a survey online or instore. Consider offering an appropriate incentive to yourcustomers for completing the survey, like a discountor coupon. Collect demographic information as wellas information about which social media sites yourcustomers use. If you already have some sort of socialmedia presence, post a similar survey on your socialmedia pages as well as providing it to customers afterpurchase.My Business’ Social Media LogSocial Media SiteURLFollowersLast Activity Date1.2.3.GUIDE TO CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY3

My Business Survey ResultsNumber of RespondentsAverage Age% MaleSearch for Your Competitors’ PagesInvestigate what your top competitors are doing online.Check out their social media pages on each social medianetwork to see how much of a presence they have.In addition to checking out whether your competitorshave a social media presence, it’s important to analyzetheir existing pages. Ask yourself what each of yourcompetitors does well and does not do well on socialmedia. You can use this analysis to help you in craftingyour social media strategy.% Female% on Facebook% on Twitter% on LinkedIn% on OtherSocial Media NetworkStrengthsWeaknessesCompetitor #1.Competitor #2.My CompanyGUIDE TO CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY4

Step 3:Develop Your Content StrategyStep 4:Use Analytics to Track ProgressAll of the work you’ve done in the previous steps shouldnow enable you to develop a comprehensive contentstrategy for your social media campaign. Your contentstrategy should include:Once you’ve begun your social media campaign, don’tsit back and keep doing the same thing over and over.Instead, check your analytics frequently to see how yourcampaign is performing.FFWhat type(s) of content you intend to post andpromote via social media Use your preferred analytics tool to find out who’sreading, responding and reposting your social mediaposts. Hootsuite Pro offers advanced analytics andreporting for your social media measurement needs.FFHow often you will post the contentFFTarget audience for each type of contentFFWho will create the contentFFHow you will promote the contentAs part of your content strategy, you should create aneditorial calendar. Your editorial calendar lists the datesyou intend to post blogs, Facebook posts and othercontent you may plan to use during your social mediacampaigns. Check out this sample editorial calendar,then create your own. Use Facebook Insights to find out when your fans areonline, how many are seeing your posts and who’ssharing or responding. Google Analytics can show you who’s viewing andengaging with your web pages.Remember to match your analytics up with your goals.Examine data that measures your specific progresstowards your objectives so you can ensure you are onthe right path.Your content strategy may also involve creating posts inadvance to be posted later. You can use Hootsuite Proto schedule posts to as many social media sites as you’dlike. Remember to put your scheduled posts on youreditorial calendar so you don’t forget about them.Editorial Calendar exampleGUIDE TO CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY5

Step 5:Adjust Your Strategy as NeededMy New Social Media StrategyThe following worked well to reach my goal ofOnce you’ve analyzed your current campaign, resolve todo more of what is working and revise things that arenot working. Re-write your content strategy based onyour analysis to reflect your new understanding. You willneed to keep developing your strategy and content andusing analytics to guide your next step throughout yoursocial media campaign.1.2.The following did not work so well:1.2.My goal for the next period isIn order to reach that goal, I will make these changes inmy social media strategy:1.2.3.Hootsuite University now offers a comprehensive 30-minute online course on Creating a SocialMedia Strategy. Access the course on Hootsuite University and learn how to create your socialmedia strategy through easy-to-follow video courseware featuring tips, best practices andbusiness case studies.Learn more gyGUIDE TO CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY6

About Hootsuite EnterprisePartner with Hootsuite to accelerate your social transformationSocial MediaManagementSocialMarketing9:35SocialCustomer ServiceHootsuite Enterprise empowers organizations toexecute business strategies for the social media era.As the world’s most widely used social relationshipplatform, Hootsuite Enterprise enables globalbusinesses to scale social media activities acrossmultiple teams, departments, and business units. Ourversatile platform supports a thriving ecosystem oftechnology integrations, allowing businesses to extendsocial media into existing systems and programs.am pmSocial SellingWe help organizations create deeper relationships withcustomers and draw meaningful insights from socialmedia data. Innovating since day one, we continue tohelp businesses pioneer the social media landscapeand accelerate their success through education andprofessional services.Request a custom demo today by visitingenterprise.hootsuite.comTrusted by 744 of the Fortune 1000GUIDE TO CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY7

sanctioned and unauthorized pages representing your company. These could be fan sites, rogue employee sites or malicious sites posing as you or your company. Check the pages to see how many followers you have, how much activity is on the page and whether all links work. If any of your pages