Planning to build a social media marketing strategy for your brand? While the idea might initially sound exciting, it can pose a great challenge to your consistency and creativity. 

To a great extent, marketing for social media is all about knowing your target audience and staying updated with the latest social media trends. But it does include certain complexities and difficulties that will vary for everyone. 

After handling social media marketing for Vaizle, I can safely say that the below-listed insights are going to help you get started. 

What is Social Media Marketing? 

As the nomenclature suggests, social media marketing is the process of spreading brand awareness and driving sales by publishing engaging content on various social media channels.

With increasing social media use in the US, it becomes crucial for you to establish a presence online and interact with more potential customers that you wouldn’t normally reach. 

Having defined social media marketing, let’s move on to creating a plan.

Here are five steps you can follow to build a strategy based on the tips provided in this article.

How to Build a Social Media Marketing Strategy? 

Building a social media strategy is not about following a cookie-cutter approach. Steps might vary for everyone but the basics remain the same. Here are 5 tips that will help supercharge your social media marketing efforts.

Set Fixed Goals for Your Brand’s Social Media 

What do you want to achieve with a social media marketing strategy? Do you want an active user community or increase your following? Based on what the goal is, your social media approach is likely to vary. 

Personally, I prefer to focus on brand awareness by creating plenty of informational posts. But that won’t necessarily be the right approach for you.  

If you want to focus on generating sales or substantially improving your following count, work accordingly.

We’ve compiled a list of the latest social media trends to assist you.

Bonus Tip: while setting goals, ensure they fall under the SMART category. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. 

Find Your Target Audience’s Preferred Platforms 

I’ve observed that people in my circle no longer consider Facebook to be the social hotspot. But that doesn’t mean Facebook is losing its edge in the digital world. In fact, it is still the top-ranking platform in terms of MAUs (Monthly Active Users). 

That’s probably why 89% of social media marketers are actively using Facebook to promote their business (including me btw!) 

What I mean is that making assumptions based on your personal observations is bad for marketing. Invest your time in target audience research and find out where they spend most time. 

For example: if you want to reach GenZ, Instagram and TikTok are likely to work better than Facebook. Similarly, if you’re looking for niche-based B2B lead generation, LinkedIn is the place to go.

 Here’s how you can use LinkedIn for business growth. 

Get Creative With Generative AI Tools 

When ChatGPT launched in Nov 2022, the digital marketing industry went through an upheaval. There was plenty of hysteria around content creation and whether AI integration is right for long-term success or not. 

More than a year later, it is safe to say that generative AI is here to stay. Instead of wholly relying on it, it is better to experiment with different tools. 

Using AI creatively will not only reduce manual efforts but will also introduce you to newer ideas and data-driven insights. Additionally, you can use AI to streamline customer support and audience interaction. 

Go through these Social Media Prompts for ChatGPT to try out new ideas. 

Maintain a Content Calendar for Consistency 

Consistency can be a big issue when it comes to content creation. Brainstorming new ideas and executing them in a presentable way can be pretty exhausting at times. While there might be no fixed solution for creative burnout, you can manage it better with the help of a content calendar. 

List down all your ideas in one place and schedule to post them throughout the week. Ensure that you’re sticking to a similar schedule so that your audience knows when to expect a new post from your account.

Keep Tracking Your Social Media Metrics 

Regardless of your goals and approach, checking key social media metrics regularly should be a top-shelf priority. Doing so will help evaluate whether your efforts are working in the right direction or not. 

Here comes the main question: which particular metric should you focus on most? If you’re planning to increase ROI, you need to keep a check on ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) and CTR (Click Through Rate). Similarly, if you want to increase your overall engagement, keep an eye on likes, shares, and comments. 

Go through this comprehensive guide on social media metrics to know more. 

Additionally, if you’re wondering how to track these metrics in a single dashboard, I have just the platform for you. Social Media Competitor Analysis Tool by Vaizle lets you track real-time data both for your and competitors’ accounts.

Vaizle now offers exclusive access to all paid features for $1 only. Sign up for the 7-day trial and explore our range of tools — including social media, ad, and competitive SM analysis. Also, try our newly launched Ads to Google Sheet connectors to make your marketing journey insightful. Cancel or change plans anytime.