How to build a successful web strategy on social media?

These days, every business owner knows that social media is an essential part of digital marketing. But knowing how to go about it is not always straightforward. By spreading yourself too thinly across too many networks, you risk being effective on none of them. Without specific knowledge in the field, making mistakes is also common — starting with choosing the wrong network, or posting without any prior strategic thinking.

This article does not aim to provide all the answers. That would be impossible without taking a case-by-case approach. However, you may find some useful tips and knowledge here to better guide your digital choices.

Know your brand and craft its story

This may seem obvious, but it is clearly the starting point for any effective use of social media.
More than the product or service you offer, this is about discovering the values you want to convey, the tone and atmosphere you are aiming for.

This aspect is fundamental. One might think it is negligible, but it is quite the opposite. It is the foundation upon which everything else is built. Embarking on a communications strategy without it is like writing a story without knowing its characters.
Even with perfectly thought-out communications actions, there is little chance of success if they are carried out haphazardly. You need a unified tone, a clear direction and a precise story to tell — clear values to communicate.

Know your target audience

Again, this may seem trivial or obvious. But many people misunderstand this aspect. Many companies and individuals decide on their target audience in a more or less arbitrary way — based on their own preferences. They then communicate with that audience in the way they think is appropriate for it.

While choices must obviously be made at some point, a target audience on social media is not something you choose. The type of people interested in your brand emerges on its own over time.

These will be people who share your values — those of your brand. While it is useful to think about a certain target audience based on market research, you must know how to evolve and adapt your target according to the criteria that emerge from it — according to how it forms and evolves itself.

Set clear goals

How many Facebook fans are you aiming for? Twitter followers? How many comments do you want to generate? How many shares? What type of traffic, what level of engagement?
The list can be even longer and depends on your own goals.

Knowing which of these goals you are targeting will allow you to measure the success of your experiments on each social network you try. You will be able to gauge the time and effort required to reach your goals. You will thus be able to adapt in good time, if needed.

Integrate your social networks into WordPress

Or whichever hosting platform you choose. But generally speaking, WordPress is the master of this domain.
Integrating your social networks into it means using the available plugins to include share and like buttons on your pages, among other things.
More simply, placing a link on your website to your social media accounts is of course the basic step to implement as soon as possible.

Find the platforms where your target audience is active

This echoes the point made earlier about "knowing your target audience". As you publish, produce and analyse your content, you may notice strong activity from your audience coming from unexpected social networks. Take the time to learn more about these platforms (how they work, how they are used, etc.) and focus your efforts there.

Understand the platforms you use

Here again, something that seems obvious but is easily forgotten in practice. Every network has its own rules and workings. Ignoring them means working against them and being counterproductive. Knowing a network well is therefore essential, even if studying it does not seem to be the most important or exciting thing in the world.

Schedule your posts

Very useful free online tools are available for this purpose. In particular Buffer and Hootsuite, both of which allow you to schedule a message on any targeted social network. The goal, of course, is to post at a time when your audience is most active online — ideal for optimising your efforts in this area.
The ideal approach is to schedule every message to ensure it appears online at the best possible moment.
It is also a perfect way to never let a network stagnate due to an erratic online presence.

Automate

Without overdoing it. Ending up in the spam category is a fate nobody wants.
That said, to a limited extent, you can use automated response emails for certain interactions on your website in particular. Likewise on your social networks, as seen in the previous point on scheduling posts.
The only rule to keep in mind here is "don't spam". If you find a template message that suits a given situation and is unlikely to spam your users in the long run, go for it!

Analyse your actions

Whether it is a link shortening service, Google Analytics, Hootsuite, or any other analytics site, using the data these platforms give you is of incalculable value to you.
Statistical data may seem intimidating at first glance. But it is not incomprehensible, and you will quickly see how useful it is.
Take the time to engage with it.

Start again

The saying goes that you cannot repeat the same action and expect a different result. Social media is no exception. You cannot expect a tactic that has not worked for months to suddenly deliver satisfying results.
Think back to the 10 foundations covered here. If they do not lead to success at the snap of a finger, ignoring them will inevitably lead to failure. Analyse their effects regularly. Adjust your actions accordingly.
And once you have found the right formula for your network — then repeat your actions as often as necessary.

A strong social media presence in summary

When it comes to social media marketing strategy, several elements must be taken into account.
First and foremost, identify the identity and values of the brand, and reflect them through your network. Then recognise the audience that emerges and responds positively to your messages and content — content built around those brand values. This part will obviously differ on a case-by-case basis.
What follows is more standardised. Set clear goals for your social networks, integrate them into your website, use and understand your audience's platforms, stay consistent with scheduled posts, use automated actions in moderation and analyse the results.
Then start again, adjusting each step based on the feedback you have received by analysing your actions.

Freely adapted from Elegantthemes

Updated 20/04/2018

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