Tag: social media

These days, social media is an essential part of any successful business strategy. It’s not a luxury, but a necessity. With over 3.6 billion people using social media worldwide, it’s a digital playground for businesses to showcase their products and services, build brand awareness, and connect with customers.

But it’s not just all fun and games. It takes a well-planned strategy to succeed on social media. That’s where this guide comes in. It’s a complete playbook to help you navigate the world of social media marketing and advance your goals.

1. Identify and understand your audience

Before you start creating content and posting it on social media, it’s important to understand who your target audience is. This will help you tailor your content so that it’s engaging and effective, and determine the best platforms to invest your time and budget.  

How do you find your ideal audience? 

Talk to your current followers and customers or, if you’re just starting, seek out people who respond enthusiastically when you approach them with your idea. 

You’re looking for shared traits beyond a common interest in the category of products you sell (fitness, pet, culinary, etc.). What kinds of pain points, passions, and core values do you hear over and over again?

Spend some time digging through your analytics. What do your existing visitors have in common? Where are they from? What content are they reading on your site? Are they primarily in a certain age range?

You can also send out surveys to your email list or add polls to your social media accounts. But the absolute best option is to talk to people in your audience face-to-face or over the phone. This allows you to ask open-ended questions that get more to the root of their motivations. You may end up finding out things you never even thought to ask about!

Then, create buyer personas to help you better imagine your audience and how to relate to them. For example, if you sell hiking gear, you might have a persona named Jenny, who’s 35 years old, lives in the Pacific Northwest, has two kids, and is constantly looking for new ways to streamline her hikes. When you’re writing content in the future, you can think about ways that it can specifically help Jenny.

Learn more about finding your audience. 

2. Set clear goals and objectives

Once you have a clear understanding of your audience and competition, it’s time to set your goals and objectives. Your overall marketing goal may be to increase brand awareness or drive more sales, but it’s important to break that down into specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives.

For example, your objective may be to increase your social media following by 20% in the next quarter, or to achieve a certain amount of engagement on your posts. With clear goals and objectives in place, you can create a plan to achieve them.

3. Choose the right social media platform(s)

There are countless social media platforms available, but not all of them will work for your business. It’s important to identify the most popular and relevant ones for  your audience. Once you know which platforms to focus on, spend time learning the features and capabilities of each one. This will help you determine the kinds of content you’ll need to create.

For example, if your business specializes in products that are creative, artistic, or otherwise best represented by imagery, platforms like Instagram and Pinterest would be a great fit for you. Think food, home decor, artwork, and fashion! 

On the other hand, if you’re a B2B firm, LinkedIn would be a better fit. Understanding the features and capabilities of each platform will also help you make the most of its features.

Ecommerce store? Learn how to choose the right social media platforms. 

4. Create and curate engaging content

The key to a successful social media effort is creating and curating engaging content. Decide on the types of content you want to create, like blog posts, videos, infographics, or memes. A content calendar can help you stay organized and on schedule. 

But don’t just focus on creating your own content. Curating and sharing relevant posts from other sources can also be a great way to engage with your audience and alleviate the pressure for continuous development of original content.

It’s not always easy, but don’t get discouraged. It’s like trying to come up with a good joke — it’s hard but when it’s done right, it’s a hit.

How to determine the kind of social media to create

Start by researching your competitors. Which ones have the best engagement on their social profiles and what’s unique about their approach? You can pick up cues for the kinds of content to produce, when to post, and how to interact with followers. 

And you can do the same with competitors who aren’t having as much success — by learning from their mistakes, you can avoid making the same ones.

Get familiar with the successful influencers in your target genre. What kind of content do they post? On YouTube, for example, you can quickly scan popular creators from a variety of genres and look at the views for each video. What do the most popular ones have in common? In other words, what topics and style of content is really drawing attention? 

5. Leverage automation to streamline social media posts

Automation is a must for businesses looking to stay competitive on social media. It’s a powerful way to streamline your social media efforts and ensure that you’re reaching your audience at the right time.

Jetpack Social is the ideal social media tool for WordPress site owners. Instead of having to log in and out of social media accounts, you can post to multiple platforms at the same time, or automatically push new WordPress posts out as soon as they’re published on your site. 

It also allows you to work more efficiently. Schedule posts in advance so you can plan once a week and then spend the rest of your time working on other tasks. And you can rest easy, knowing that they’ll go out at the perfect time to reach your audience when they’re most engaged. 

Imagine you’re a business owner who just opened a new store, and you’re too busy to post on social media, but you know the importance of it. By using Jetpack Social, you can schedule your posts in advance and not have to worry about missing out on potential customers. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows how to use social media.

6. Build a community of followers and keep them engaged

Once you have a strong following on social media, it’s important to keep them engaged. So, be sure to make interacting with followers a regular part of your social media plan. This can include responding to comments, hosting giveaways, and creating polls. Measure and analyze community engagement to see what’s working and what’s not.

Think of your followers as a group of friends. You don’t want to only talk about yourself, or even the same topic over and over. Instead, switch things up to keep people interested, and take the time to let your followers do the talking.  Hosting giveaways and creating polls can feel like throwing a party — it’s fun and interactive. And just like a party, you want to make sure everyone’s having a good time. So keep tabs on engagement levels and if they start to drop, adjust your approach!

7. Advertise on social media

Advertising on social media is a great way to reach a targeted audience and drive more sales. There are a variety of options available, including sponsored posts, carousel ads, stories, messages, videos, and more. It’s important to understand the different types of advertising and how they can benefit your business. Create ad campaigns and target specific audiences, then measure and analyze the performance of your ads to see what’s working and what’s not.

Advertising on social media is like dating, you want to make sure you’re reaching the right person, and you want to make sure the relationship is worth it. By understanding the different types of advertising and targeting specific audiences, you’ll increase your chances of finding the perfect match. 

8. Consider influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular strategy for businesses looking to promote their products or services on social media. By collaborating with influencers in your industry, you can reach a wider audience and gain credibility with potential customers.

Influencer marketing can help you promote your products or services in a more authentic and relatable way. Influencers have built a following based on trust and credibility, and their endorsement can be a powerful tool for promoting your business.

When it comes to influencer marketing, it’s important to identify and reach out to the right influencers. Look for partners who align with your brand and target audience, and who have a strong engagement with their followers.

Once you’ve identified the right influencers, it’s important to establish clear and mutually beneficial objectives. This can help ensure that the collaboration is successful and beneficial for both parties.

The size of each influencer’s audience can vary dramatically, but even those with only a few thousand followers can provide a boost if their audience fits perfectly with your business’s target niche. Some influencers will post in exchange for free products, while others might command a high fee. You can get pretty creative with this kind of marketing, so give it a try. Learn more about influencer marketing for ecommerce. 

9. Measure and analyze the results

Measuring the success of your social media efforts is crucial. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) to track, such as reach, engagement, and conversions. Analyze and interpret the data to see what’s working and what’s not, and make adjustments as needed.

Jetpack Stats is a great way to dive into the world of analytics. It provides essential information about your website’s performance, and allows you to easily sync your Google Analytics account for even more in-depth information about marketing campaigns and conversions.

10. Know how to manage and respond to negative feedback

No matter how well you plan and execute your social media strategy, it’s inevitable that you’ll receive negative feedback at some point. Whether it’s a snarky comment on a post or a bad review, it’s important to know how to handle it.

First and foremost, stay calm and professional when responding. Don’t take it personally, and avoid getting defensive or argumentative. Instead, take the time to understand the customer’s concern and address it in a thoughtful and respectful manner.

One effective way to handle negative feedback is to respond with humor or laugh at your own mistakes. If you did something wrong, acknowledge it. If it’s something you personally wrote or created, consider taking yourself out of the situation and having an employee or trusted friend respond. 

And, remember, not everything requires a response. It’s okay to remain silent sometimes. People have bad days and say mean things. Sometimes, they misspeak or misunderstand. It doesn’t change the value of what you’re building. Focus on the followers who love what you’re doing! 

Finally, if a legitimate issue is raised, be sure to make note of it and use it as an opportunity for improvement. Show your customers that you value their input.

Frequently asked questions about social media marketing

How can Jetpack Social help businesses with their social media efforts?

Jetpack Social is a powerful social media plugin for WordPress that can help businesses automate their social media, post to multiple profiles at once, and schedule posts in advance. It’s a great way to streamline social media efforts and make the most of your time.

Why is it important for a business to have a social media presence?

Having a social media presence allows businesses to reach a new audience, engage with customers, and drive more sales. It’s also a great way to build brand awareness and establish a relationship with customers.

What are the benefits of social media marketing for businesses?

The benefits of social media marketing for businesses include increased brand awareness, more sales, improved customer engagement, and more.

What are some common mistakes businesses make on social media?

Some common mistakes businesses make on social media include not understanding their audience, not setting clear goals and objectives, not choosing the right platforms, and not measuring and analyzing their results.

Jetpack Social: Social media automation for businesses using WordPress

As we’ve mentioned in this guide, automation is a crucial aspect of a successful social media marketing strategy. And for businesses using WordPress, Jetpack Social is the perfect solution.

This plugin offers a wide range of features to help you streamline your social media efforts, including automating your social media posts and scheduling posts in advance.

Visit the following page to learn more about Jetpack Social: https://jetpack.com/social/

When it comes to creating a successful social media content strategy, it can feel like there’s an endless amount of options and platforms to choose from. But don’t let that overwhelm you, because with a little bit of planning and a lot of creativity, you can build a strategy that will help boost your brand awareness, increase customer engagement, and drive sales.

Eight steps to define your social media recipe

Think of your social media content strategy like a recipe for success. Just like a recipe, if you don’t have all the right ingredients and a clear understanding of what you’re trying to achieve, your dish (or in this case, your content) will fall flat.

But with the right components in place, you’ll be able to whip up something that’s not only delicious, but will also leave your customers craving more.

1. Understand your audience’s platform & content preferences

The first step in this journey is to understand your audience’s platform and content preferences. Think about it: you wouldn’t serve a steak to a vegetarian, so why would you create content that’s not relevant to your audience?

By identifying your target audience demographics, researching their interests and behaviors, and creating buyer personas, you’ll be able to create content that resonates with your audience.

So how do you do this? You may already have an idea of who your target audience is. Perhaps it’s busy professionals who are looking for a way to save time. Maybe it’s families within a 50-mile radius of Boston who are looking for outdoor activities. Or it could be coffee lovers who want the highest-quality beans to brew in their French press.

If you don’t know who makes up your audience, dive into your analytics. See who resonates with your content, products, or services. Or think about who might have the problems that your business solves.

Then, get to know that audience. Talk to them in person. Send out surveys via email. Conduct social media polls. Find out information about where they spend their time online, what types of content they like to consume on social media — livestreams, image-based posts, audio, links to long-form blog content, etc. — and what piques their interest.

Finally, turn that information into buyer personas, which are essentially made-up characters who are similar to the average member of your target audience. For example, you could have a persona named Josh, who is a 35-year-old father of two, makes a middle-class income, lives in the Boston area, and goes on hikes every weekend.

In the future, when you make decisions about social media, you can reference these personas to ensure that every move you make meets their needs.

Learn more: this article is specifically tailored to ecommerce, but can help any business choose which social media platforms are right for them. 

2. Define your success metrics and goals

Once you have a clear understanding of your audience, it’s time to define your success metrics and goals. Just like cooking, having a clear finished product in mind will help you navigate the recipe.

Identifying overall business goals and setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) steps along the way is crucial for success on social media. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics you can use to objectively measure results. These can help you understand if your efforts are truly working or if you need to make adjustments.

Common KPIs for social media include: 

• Impressions
• Likes
• Comments
• Audience growth
• Engagement rate
• Conversion rate
• Click-through-rate 
• Return on ad spend (ROAS)
• Add to carts

3. Develop a content theme that sets you apart

In today’s crowded social media landscape, it’s essential to have a content theme that sets you apart. Think of it like a fashion statement — to work, it has to be unique and memorable.

To be successful, your company needs a unique selling proposition like a new material, service style, or ingredient that competitors don’t have. Maybe you have several. You can lean into this key difference to form the basis of the subject matter for your posts. Just like creating buyer personas, you may want to map our personas for competitors that also serve your target audience. Include your own company and see what makes you different. 

Regular brainstorming sessions — where anything goes — can help get ideas flowing. Then simply pick the best and leave the rest. 

Finally, don’t forget to listen to your followers. Ask them for their ideas and award prizes for the top ones. Explore trending ideas that other companies are using and see if you can adapt them to your unique selling proposition and target audience.

4. Establish a publishing frequency and content calendar

Establishing a publishing frequency and content calendar is crucial for keeping your content strategy on track. 

Your frequency might be dictated, in large part, by the platforms you choose to use. For example, Twitter lends itself to multiple updates every day. On Facebook, you might not want to post more than once every day or two. 

This guide breaks down how often to post per platform. 

You also want to vary the kinds of posts you make (quotes vs stats vs photos, etc.) and you don’t want to just start thinking of ideas 15 minutes before you’re supposed to post. This is where having a three-month content calendar planned in advance can help you stay organized and ahead of the game. Then you can create similar posts in bulk and spread them out on your calendar for efficiency.

Jetpack Social can help you schedule social media posts from WordPress in advance so that, once you know what you want to post and when, you can automate publishing. This is how professional social media managers consistently release new content — even while they’re on vacation. 

5. Create content that resonates and connects with your audience

Remember that audience research you did earlier? Here’s where it will really come in handy! Create social media content around the topics that your audience will find helpful and interesting.

This, of course, will look different for each individual business or blog. But here are just a few ideas to get you started:

• Answers to questions commonly asked by your customers or followers
• Behind-the-scenes glimpses into your life, business, or processes
• Tips and tricks for using your products
• A live Q&A with your audience members
• Gift ideas that incorporate your products alongside related items from other companies
• Giveaways and contests that reward loyal followers
• Fun ways to celebrate quirky holidays
• User-generated content that showcases how your audience uses your products and services in their everyday lives
• Articles from similar websites that relate to your business or industry

Interesting, eye-catching graphics can go a long way toward improving engagement. You should set aside some of your social media budget with the help of a professional designer. For efficiency, they might be able to create unique templates you can modify yourself. These are great for quotes, stats, and quick text-based statements. Choose your professionally-designed background, add your text, and go! 

You can also use tools like Canva to help you make your own designs without expensive software. 

6. Leverage automation to save time and increase efficiency

Automation is crucial to making the most of your social media content efforts. Think of it as a personal assistant — it can help you save time and increase efficiency, allowing you to focus on the most important tasks.

Jetpack Social is a convenient and powerful way to automate your social media posting on WordPress, enabling you to automatically post your site’s content on social media and schedule posts in advance, all with just a few clicks.

With Jetpack Social, you can write once, and post everywhere, making it easier than ever to increase efficiency and save time.

7. Promote and distribute your content

Promoting and distributing content is an essential step in a successful social media strategy. 

Utilizing paid promotion for maximum reach, partnering with influencers and other brands, using the appropriate hashtags and keywords, reposting and repurposing content on different platforms, and measuring and analyzing the success of your content promotion efforts for adjustments are all key parts of this process.

8. Measure success and make data-driven decisions

Measuring success and making data-driven decisions is crucial to any successful social media content strategy. It’s like a report card — it helps you understand what’s working and what’s not, and allows you to make adjustments and improvements accordingly.

Utilizing analytics tools set up to track your KPIs so you can make data-driven decisions for future content is all part of this process. 

Before you add your next set of posts to the social media content calendar, analyze your KPIs by type of post and don’t be afraid to mix things up, re-evaluate results, and continue to make changes.

Common social media content mistakes to avoid

• Not having a clear content strategy. Establishing a direction for your strategy maximizes the effectiveness of your posts.
• Not understanding your audience. The more you tailor your social media content to the needs of your audience, the more effective it will be.
• Not being consistent. Post regularly so your followers know what to expect, and so you stay on top of the social media algorithms.
• Not using visuals. Images, graphics, and videos help your content stand out in followers’ social media feeds and often help present information better than words alone.
• Not measuring and analyzing performance. Learn what’s working and what isn’t so you can make the most of your time and money.

Nine tips to elevate your social media content strategy

1. Bulk create your content 

Creating content in batches can save you time and ensure consistency in your messaging and branding. Set aside specific time slots to brainstorm and create content — this way you can focus on the creative process without the pressure of a deadline looming. It also helps you mix up different types of content — images, videos, Q&As, promotions, etc. — to keep things interesting.

2. Prepare and schedule social media posts in advance

By scheduling your social media posts in advance, you can ensure that your content is being published at optimal times and avoid the scramble of trying to come up with something at the last minute.

3. Use automation tools

Utilize tools like Jetpack Social to automate your social media posting and schedule posts in advance. 

4. Build personas 

Creating personas allows you to gain a deeper understanding of your audience and create content that resonates with them on a personal level. 

Instead of seeing your followers as numbers, you can imagine them as friends and community members. This can help you create more empathetic, memorable, and effective posts.

5. Take note of your best-performing social media posts

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! By identifying your best-performing social media posts, you can replicate the approach and format for future content, leading to increased engagement and performance.

6. Use A/B testing

A/B testing allows you to compare different variations of headlines, images, and other aspects of your posts to see which ones resonate best with your audience. By doing so, you can amplify the most effective version for more efficient ad spend. Plus, you’ll have empirical data to inform your future post creation.

7. Use hashtags strategically

Hashtags help increase discoverability and reach. Use them strategically to increase the visibility of your content and reach new audiences. For example, Instagram will provide several uses next to hashtag suggestions as you start to type. This gives you an idea of what people are already searching for. Including branded hashtags that your audience never uses might look cute in the post, but it won’t help anyone discover your content.

Learn more: How to use hashtags on social media. 

8. Prioritize engaging content formats

Polls, quizzes, and live streams are particularly engaging because they require participation and allow people to contribute — often anonymously — in real-time and see results. 

Videos are still as powerful as ever. Though they’re usually more expensive to produce, they’ve become the go-to for the masses over things like radio and books for a reason. The same goes for social media.  

9. Be consistent with your brand’s voice and visual identity

Consistency is like a signature — it increases recognition and trust. You can create a list of phrases and words that your brand should both try to use often or never use at all. You can also create a brand book with example voices or compare your preferred brand voice to well-known characters in pop culture. If there’s more than one person on your team, these things can help your team speak with one consistent tone. 

By implementing these tips and utilizing the right tools, such as Jetpack Social, you can make the most of your social media content strategy and achieve your business goals. 

Frequently asked questions

What are the benefits of having a clear social media strategy?

A clear social media strategy can help you work with consistency and more effectively boost brand awareness, increase customer engagement, and drive sales.

How can you determine which social media channels to use?

Determining which social media channels to use can be done by researching your target audience’s demographics and platform preferences, as well as identifying which channels align best with your overall business goals.

Learn more: Choosing social media platforms for ecommerce marketing. 

What makes good social media content?

Good social media content is engaging, visually appealing, relatable, and relevant to your target audience. It should also contribute to your overall business goals and align with your brand’s tone of voice.

Jetpack Social: The #1 social media automation plugin for WordPress

Jetpack Social is a WordPress social media plugin that makes it easy to plan, schedule, and automatically publish your posts. With Jetpack Social, you can write once and post everywhere, saving you time and increasing efficiency.

It’s a simple yet powerful tool that can help you automate your social media content strategy and take your content to the next level. With over one million posts shared every day, Jetpack Social is a tried and tested tool that can help you make the most of your social media efforts.

To learn more about Jetpack Social and start using it today, visit https://jetpack.com/social/