A Comprehensive Guide to Developing a Social Media Strategy for Your Client
As a social media manager, one of the most important parts of your job is creating and executing an effective social media strategy for your client.
A social media strategy is crucial for any business that wants to succeed on social platforms. By creating a well-researched and data-informed social media strategy, businesses will be able to set themselves up for success on social media.
As a social media manager, you can offer the social media strategy as an effective stand-alone service, allowing your client to benefit from the research and insights given by a professional who is passionate about social media and understands the ins and outs of how it works.
Those who charge for this service can pride themselves in knowing that they have provided valuable resources and saved their client’s time in the strategizing process.
How to create a social media strategy As A Social Media Manager
Let’s dive in and explore the five things you should include in your client’s social media strategy.
A successful strategy takes into account brand details, objectives and KPIs, market research, competitor research, and content strategies.
Brand Specifics
The first thing that needs to be established in the social media strategy is the brand details. Brand details are not just about logo design; they also include fonts, colors, tone of voice and other elements that make up the unique character of each brand.
These characteristics must be consistently used throughout all social media platforms so that clients can easily recognize them.
If a client already has existing branding guidelines in place, then these need to be taken into consideration when developing a social media strategy.
Market Analysis
When creating a comprehensive social media plan for your client, market research is essential in understanding consumer needs and desires.
This will give insight into who customers are and it will help create content and campaigns that resonate with their interests or pain points.
Market research should also take into account current trends in order to ensure campaigns stay relevant over time which will increase engagement rates with customers/clients alike.
Goals & KPIs
After establishing brand details, it is important to set goals for the social media strategy which will help measure success. This is something you will discuss with your client during your discovery call.
Objectives should be realistic yet challenging so that there is motivation to reach them while understanding what resources are needed to accomplish them.
Measuring success can come in many forms such as tracking website visits or engagement stats on posts.
Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) allows you to better understand how well your efforts are paying off as well as what areas need improvement within the overall campaign strategy.
Related: Social Media Manager Onboarding Process – What You Need to Succeed
Content Overview/Strategy
A content overview/strategy should also be included within any comprehensive plan since this provides an outline of types of content that will bring it all together such as infographics, videos, images, etc., along with topics being discussed so it is easier for clients to see how everything works together before launching campaigns.
Content should be tailored specifically toward the audience’s interests while staying true to the overall messaging associated with each brand identity.
Competitor Analysis
It is also important to do competitor research when developing a strategy for any given client/brand as this will give you an idea of what they are doing on social media platforms compared to others within their industry space.
Understanding what competitors are doing both correctly and incorrectly gives a better indication of how strategies should be executed differently or if they need fine-tuning in order to stand out from the competition which could help improve ROI (Return on Investment).
GET THE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY TEMPLATE HERE
Conclusion
Developing an effective social media strategy requires careful planning and execution from start to finish. It involves taking into account several different elements including brand details, objectives & KPI’s, market research, competitor research, and content overview /strategy.
All these pieces must work together in harmony so that campaigns can reach their desired audience while remaining consistent with overall messaging & branding guidelines associated with each individual client /brand.
With this comprehensive guide, you now have all the tools necessary to create great strategies for your clients!
