7 Question and answers Before Building Social Media Strategy

What are my objectives?

If you don’t know what you want, how are you ever going to get it? Goals should be concrete, measurable, and achievable.

Examples goals: build your brand identity, increase brand awareness and attract new customers, customer support, audience engagement.

How will I reach the right audience?

One of the many perks of using social media is that you can gain insight into how your best customers think. But before you begin, you should already have a sense of who your target audience is, focusing on influencers, buyers, and end users. You should know where your audience is because not everyone is on Facebook.

What are my hot buttons?

If you post about anything and everything, it can be very confusing. Choose 3-5 main topics that you want to be associated with. Choose the topics that ignite emotion (thus- audience engagement).

Which networks?

On one hand, you want to claim your identity on every network possible, realistically, just because it can get messy if you leave your online identity available to be created by somebody else.

p class="none">But if this is not a concern for you, try starting with a small realistic goal to master one network before you even think about adding another. The decision to keep it simple is a relief for those who aren’t in the position for a dedicated social media manager yet feel pressured to act like those who do.

If you are the one who has to update Facebook, then your time might be better spent on more important things than adding Twitter to the mix.

How will I get people to like me?

Tip- Use existing communications (email, signs in your store, newsletters, etc.) to encourage people who already like you to make it Facebook official.

How often should I post? How much of my resources should go into social media?

Decide who will handle social media engagement. Set limitations for social media use. I wouldn’t say to plan on posting 3 times a day, 5 days a week because that’s not organic… especially planning your posts out ahead of time. But I would say to have a sense of how much time spent on social media is too much.

How will I measure results?

This is always based on your unique, concrete goals. Don’t just wing it!