With 2023 almost halfway over, it’s a good time to evaluate your marketing efforts and make any necessary course corrections. It’s especially important to assess your social media strategy on a regular basis because the social media landscape is always changing.
Social media dominates many marketing plans because there are no real barriers to access and, with enough time, you can do it for free. But that ease comes with pitfalls. It’s easy to get caught up in the conversation and lose sight of your goals, purpose, and brand voice. Consider the following as you take stock of your efforts and make a plan for moving forward:
- What does the data say? One major problem with social media marketing is that people will put a lot of effort into it and then not take time to analyze the results. You need to know where and when you’re getting engagement, and what kinds of content gets it the most. More importantly, you need to know if that engagement is translating to conversions. Any marketing you do should be helping your bottom line within a reasonable amount of time (that amount of time will vary based on your industry and buyer’s journey). Take a look at the data and see what channels and what kinds of content creation are worth your while.
- What is working and not working for your customers? Assess your content to make sure you’re providing real value. Ask for feedback from your audience. Pay attention to what is being shared over what is being liked. Make sure you aren’t primarily posting obvious fluff just because you know your customers agree with it. If you sell birdseed and bird feeders, for example, don’t make every post some version of “birds are cool.” Your audience is with you on that already. You’ll never convert anyone by preaching to the choir. Instead, provide information about various types of seeds, local birdwatching groups, migration patterns, binoculars and cameras. Provide content that is useful and interesting. Solve your audience’s problems.
- What is working and not working for you or your team? Think about your goals and how much content you need to be publishing to meet them. It can be hard to be practical about this, especially if you started your business before social media became so important. It’s vital that you provide enough content on a consistent basis to benefit your company, but it’s equally important that you not set yourself an impossible schedule that’s going to burn you out. If you dislike social media or have a small team, consider hiring someone or outsourcing social media management.
- What’s working for your competition? It’s always a good idea to know what your main competitors are doing. Check their channels for the same information you analyzed about yours: what they publish, where they publish, and how much engagement they get. See if you can ascertain whether they have grown their customer base through their social media efforts. You don’t want to actually copy their social media strategy, but it might help you to know if you need to step it up or if you can get away with doing much less than you’re currently doing. It’s also useful to identify gaps in the content that is out there about your topic and be the one to fill those gaps.
- How can you do better going forward? Look at your overall business and marketing goals, your audience, and the tone of your brand. Everything about your social strategy should be supporting those three things. Be crystal clear about who you are and what you will and will not post. Also, be crystal clear about your audience and who the content is for. Create a calendar that is manageable and and allows you to post on a consistent schedule. Make valuable content about: your purpose, your appreciation for your customers, and anything that shows off your expertise and unique selling points. Be authentic and let go of perfectionism, but definitely edit and proofread. Focus on making connections and building relationships.
Substance and Style 