Only a few years ago, social networks were not a crucial part of a business marketing strategy.

That is no longer the case, For B2C and B2B businesses, social networks are a marketing opportunity not to be missed.

Making yourself known and standing out is more and more complex on these platforms. Through the multitude of companies on social networks, you need to find ever more innovative ways to connect with your customers.

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In 2018, 39% of Canadian companies are present on social networks...

Creating a social media marketing strategy is much more complex than what you see on the surface. So that nothing escapes us, our web agency Walter has developed a very precise methodology. Here's how to develop your social media strategy:

Importance of a social media strategy

A *well-executed* social media strategy can significantly increase brand awareness, credibility, web traffic and possibly online sales.

Your consumers are present on social networks and use them as a reference source. Many people consult either reviews on the web or the website of a product before making a purchase. A bit like asking a friend for advice before making a purchase, your customers are on the web to learn more about your products. There is a huge business opportunity here.

In addition, by sharing links from your website, your efforts on social networks will be fully in line with your SEO strategy thanks to social signals.

Step by step to be a social media superstar

Define your goals

You start a social media strategy by defining the end of it.

What is your goal in creating a Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin page for your business? These goals should be a continuation of your overall marketing goals.

In addition, setting clear goals will allow you to calculate your return on investment in terms of efforts made on your social networks.

Your goal statement should always:

• Be easily measurable
• Include specific actions
• Register within a time limit

Once selected, write down your objective! It will be much easier to keep this in mind when deploying the next steps. Above all, make sure that this statement meets the 3 conditions set out above.Example:Weak objective
Generate 5 sales thanks to our Facebook pageStrong objective
Convert 5 sales in the next 30 days by publishing content from our blog and our achievement tab on Facebook 3 times a week, all with an advertising budget of $75.Here, the Goal is clear:
Convert 5 sales in the next 30 days on Facebook
And the actions to be performed are also:

• Post 3 times per week
• Share content from our blog and our creation page
• Allocate $75 in advertising budget for the month's publications

Now, let's talk about the different types of goals on social networks. The most common ones for a business have appeal to the brand awareness And at the Conversion.When you determine a goal that aims to increase the reputation of your business, consider goals that allow you to

• Grow your audience
  Ex. Gain 75 followers on Instagram within 2 weeks by posting 1 day out of 2 and engaging with potential followers
• Promote your brand image consistently and consistently
  Ex. Join 1000 Facebook users in 1 week
• Communicate with your community
  Ex. Respond to 10 comments on Twitter within 1 week about a service we offer.

If your focus is more on conversion and advertising, consider:

• Increase the number of clicks to our website
  Ex. Make a story containing an effective call to action to the link to our website that will bring 10 visitors to our website within 24 hours when the story will be displayed.
• Increase our conversion rate
  Ex. By offering an exclusive 10% discount to subscribers of our Facebook page for 1 week, we want to convert 25% of visits to our site into sales.
• Increase the number of subscribers to our newsletter
  Ex. Create a Facebook ad that will be displayed from July 1 to 31 with a budget of $100, containing a link to our free ebook in exchange for contact information

Getting to know your audienceYour organization may already have a clearly identified persona. If this is not the case, taking the time to fix it can greatly help your marketing strategy. If your business already has an established persona, use it when creating your social media strategy. You will save time and will be guaranteed that your goals align with those of your organization. For an organization that has not already built its persona, create your own by imagining your ideal customer. A worksession will allow you to highlight the challenges this customer faces on a daily basis and how your business overcomes them.By detailing your persona, you will know exactly who to target and where when creating your posts and advertisement.Factors to consider when creating your persona:

• Sex
  Ex: 81% of Pinterest users and 68% of Instagram users are women

• Age
  59% of 18-29 year olds are present on Instagram compared to 33% among 30-49 year olds
• Personal interests
  75% of adults use YouTube to watch videos that remind them of another era, while young girls mostly watch makeup videos on YouTube.
• Most used device (smart phone, computer, tablet...)
  80% of Twitter users consult the platform on their mobile.
• Level of education
  40 million students and recently graduated college students are on Linkedin
• Geography
  60% of Pinterest users are American.
• Salary
  44% of Linkedin users earn more than $75,000 USD per year.

Even go so far as to determine which companies, in your field or not, could be of interest to your target customer. This is a criterion that some networks, like Facebook, may take into account when creating an audience for an ad. For example, a jewelry company could consult the pages of companies in fashion, creation, Lifestyle...

Set up an internal structureTo ensure the proper functioning of your strategy, it is necessary to adequately structure your team that will work on your social networks.It is always important to have the right people in the right places.It is very likely that the members of your team already have a lot to do and will not be able to take on additional responsibility to take care of your social networks. So do not hesitate to hire either a manager internal community/social networks or even an agency exterior.Regardless of how you decide to proceed, you will need to determine:

• The person who will be planning the content
• The person who will create the content
• The person who will create the publishing calendar
• The person who will have to approve the posts
• The person who will be in charge of publishing the content
• One person per department to address complaints and questions (customer services for service problems, product team for product problems...)

... To name just a few roles.In addition, you must also determine the number of hours to devote to your marketing on social networks and the advertising budget you are ready to allocate.Look at yourself in the navelAre you already present on social networks? You will be able to perform a mini analysis of your current networks to understand your strengths and weaknesses and build on that. Ask yourself questions such as:

• What type of content is your audience most receptive to? (Consider the number of likes and comments) Can you identify why?
• What type of content gets the least engagement? Can you identify why?
• On which networks do your publications get the most attention?
• On which networks do you have the most subscribers?
• Do your followers generally match your persona?
• How does your social media presence compare to your competitors?
• What networks are you not on? Is your persona there?

Your social networks may currently be managed by several people within your organization. Before you go any further with your strategy, do an inventory of the networks you already have, those to be created and their access.

Research competitorsNow, conduct an analysis of competitors in your industry to determine how you can differentiate yourself.Many companies rely solely on their own growth to measure their success on social networks. Has the number of likes on our page increased by 20%? Wow! But how does this figure compare to other companies in your industry? All of your performance indicators will not always be in relation to the pages of your competitors. However, it is a good way to take the pulse of the market. Just start by identifying who they are. Your local competitors may not be your competitors on the web. The easiest and most intuitive way to identify your competitors is to do a Google search. Search for the same keywords that a potential customer will search for your service or product. Eliminate giants like Amazon or Ebay in order to identify your real competitors. Consider companies that are similar in size to yours.What platforms are they present on? The most common place to find a company's social links is at the bottom of the home page.Depending on your industry, the number of social networks on which your competitors are present may vary.For each platform, fill out these tables:

A very simple way to identify if a company is active is to answer these three questions:

• When was the last time they published?
• Are there long periods of time between each post?
• Do they respond to comments?

The proportion of posts that contain promotional content can be difficult to determine, especially in a retail industry. To make things easier, consider a post as promotional when there is a clear call to action (promotional code, contest...) Promotional content:

We are talking explicitly about a product on sale and the publication contains a clear call to action.Non-promotional:

No product mention and no call to actionFilling out the tables above is a simple and practical way to see what platforms your competitors have in common, how they use them, what works and doesn't work, and the leaders on each network.Planning and preparing content

Planning and creating content is the most difficult, but also the most important step. Find a voice that's unique to your company to tell a story that will hold your audience's attention. Then keep that mindset to be consistent in your visuals and messages.

It's important to talk to your audience in a way that makes them receptive.

The types of possible publications are endless... Photo, video, GIF, GIFs, texts, quotations, podcasts... Find what type of content will interest your audience and especially what is accessible to produce for you.

According to Cisco, 79% of web traffic in 2018 will come from videos.

It is certain that a video clip captures much more attention than a text.

But thoughtful, catchy text is better than a lower-quality video.

As for the tone to use, analyze how your subscribers interact with each other and how they interact with companies similar to yours. Choose a familiar or professional tone based on your research. Above all, do not hesitate to stand out by using a different tone.

Organize your content in a publication calendar

Now that you have a bank of great content, figure out when will be the best times to publish it.

The content your audience is receptive to on Monday morning is not the same as on Saturday morning.

Plus, there are better times to post depending on the day and the platform.

Organizing your content in a publication calendar will allow you to maximize the number of people who will see your activities.

Plus, when the content is planned in advance, you won't miss out on any special events to cover.

Several content management software programs allow you to plan your calendar and visually understand what is coming.

To publish, most networks (except Instagram) let you plan content in advance. It's a good way to post at the right time. Otherwise, content management software like Sprout Social or HeyOrca publish according to your planned schedule.

Interacting with your audience

Once the content is published, always keep an eye out for customer feedback. Responding to all comments is a great way to build your brand personality and especially to connect with your audience.

Like Wendy's, which responds in a very humorous way to frequently to its customers when they're just selling burgers. Even interacting with only one customer at a time gives them a lot of visibility and engagement:

GoPro who re-publishes the craziest photos taken with their cameras by customers:

RedBull who sells energy drinks but focuses on the concept of “energy” to create compelling content for their customers:

Measure the activity, analyze its performance and adapt its strategy

You have arrived! You have set up a marketing strategy on social networks.

All that's left is to assess your performance.

What worked? What did not work?

There is no magic formula for success on social media. It's a question of trial and error, time and effort... which will bear fruit!

Sources:
https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-create-a-social-media-marketing-plan/
https://freshsparks.com/social-media-goals/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-marketing-strategy/
https://librisblog.photoshelter.com/best-brands-twitter-instagram-facebook-2018/
https://www.sherpamarketing.ca/canadian-social-media-stats-updated-2018-471
https://www.disruptiveadvertising.com/social-media/be-in-the-know-2018-social-media-statistics-you-should-know/