Which of the following strategy questions would you ask when determining your social media goals?

Updated July 23, 2019.

So, you’ve decided that the time has come to finally start using social media to help build your business. Or, maybe you’ve decided to revisit your social strategy to incorporate new platforms. Both are exciting ideas!

But before you jump in, you first need to ensure you have clarity on what you want to accomplish and how you’re going to get there.

Read on for the six important questions you should ask – and answer – to get the most out of social media for your business.

1. What are you trying to achieve?

This might sound trivial, but it’s a critical first question to answer. Unless you have a clear picture of your social media goals, it will be difficult to focus your efforts on initiatives that will drive success.

Goals to consider might include:

• Building brand awareness
• Attracting new customers or leads
• Engaging or supporting existing customers more effectively
• Increasing customer loyalty
• Generating sales or closing deals

Social media marketing efforts are rarely successful without first defining both short-term and long-term goals. You need to decide what your own primary objectives are, make them clear to everyone on your team, and focus all your efforts to achieve them.

2. Who are you trying to attract?

Once you have defined your goals, you’ll have a firm idea of the types of people you want to attract on your social media channels – and how to do it.

For example, if your primary goal is to retain existing customers, then you want to focus on getting them to engage with you on social media. This involves steering your customers to your social channels at every opportunity, providing valuable content and being responsive.

A great way to get started is considering what channels you already own that you’re using to communicate with existing customers, like email, and think about how you can tie them to your social accounts. Adding share buttons to your email newsletter or follow buttons to your website is a great first step.

On the other hand, if your main goal is to build your brand and attract new customers, you’ll need to focus on defining who those people are, where to find them, and which messages and content will most likely reel them in.

In this case, you will want to get the attention of and build online relationships with, bloggers and influencers in your industry who are willing to direct their own followers to your social channels.

Easier said than done, right? If you’re just starting and the idea of getting influencers to notice you seem out of reach, consider mid-tier influencers or micro-influencers with smaller but loyal followings. Getting in on the ground level can pay off in the long run.

3. Which social media platforms should you use?

Once you’ve determined what you are trying to accomplish and who your target audience is, you can decide which social media platforms work best for your business. Not all platforms will serve your particular goals and target audience equally well.

The most important factors to consider are the behaviors, preferences, and demographics of your target audience.

If you haven’t already done so, spend some time perusing the social media presence of other companies and people in your space (competitors, influencers, suppliers, etc.) to see where they’re investing the most resources and where they have the biggest followings.

A helpful resource for getting an overview of different social media platforms and their users is the Pew Research Center’s social media fact sheet. You can also check out our “Social Sites Explained” (with donuts) infographic by clicking below.

To get started, select one or two platforms to focus on. Unless you have the resources and momentum for more, it can be difficult to launch on several platforms at the same time.

Once you’ve chosen the platforms you will use, make sure to invest the resources to learn the dynamics, best practices, content types, advantages, and pitfalls of each. Then develop a strategy to take advantage of each one in the best ways.

It’s important to match your activity patterns and responsiveness to what’s customary for each platform. For example, Twitter users expect prompt and personal replies. If you don’t have the resources to consistently keep up with these communications, Twitter is probably not the best platform to start with.

Remember, this takes time. It’s not something you pick up overnight, and what works one month can change the next. Some of the biggest successes we’ve had with the AddThis Twitter account is due to being flexible and experimenting with different tactics.

4. What style, tone, and voice should you use?

As is true with all customer-facing communications, it’s important to develop and maintain a particular “brand persona” that people will relate to and want to engage with.

This includes deciding what kind of writing style to employ, the tone and voice to use (e.g., informative and serious versus casual and funny) and the types of content you will create.

Having an effective and consistent voice is a valuable method for attracting and retaining social media followers.

It can be a key factor in how your business is perceived, both by customers and by the general public. While the tone/voice you use in social media should be in line with the one you use for your website, advertising, and other materials, social media generally lends itself to a lighter, more casual tone.

Also related to this are the visual designs you will use in your social media presence and the types of content you will create (articles, images, guides, videos, apps, etc.).

5. How will you measure your progress?

Once you launch your social media efforts, it is critical to track your progress and tweak your strategy as necessary. The first step in doing so begins before you even go online: deciding what metrics matter the most and how you will measure them.

Every social media platform provides metrics that help you understand how well you are performing on that platform. Many social media metrics are the same across platforms, while there are also platform-specific metrics you might find valuable.

You’ll also need to weave in metrics from your website (e.g., using Google Analytics) to understand how your social media efforts are making an impact on website traffic and activity. Kissmetrics has a great primer on social reports in Google Analytics.

While reviewing the ins and outs of all possible metrics is beyond the scope of this article, it’s important to understand what’s available and metrics will help you measure progress.

6. Who will manage and execute your social media strategy?

Once you’ve answered all of the above questions and have a basic strategy in place, it’s time to execute!

The final important question to answer before you start is, “Who is going to manage and your social media strategy day-to-day?”

Many skills are required to successfully use social media to build a business. This includes strategic thinking, product expertise, content creation, visual design, community management, customer service, and analytics.

Even if you assign one person to manage the overall effort, such as a community manager or social media manager, he or she will need the collaboration of others within the organization, and perhaps outside consultants as well.

It is important to build a team with a clear structure and a clear division of responsibilities. Like in any team, each member needs to have both responsibility and accountability for his or her particular duties. If you’re executing across multiple social media platforms, you might need to divide responsibilities for certain activities across multiple people.

Consider using online team collaboration tools (such as Hootsuite, Basecamp, or Trello) to assign tasks and keep everyone organized and aligned.

Give your social media strategy a boost and get more of your content shared online. Add share buttons to your website  and connect your visitors to 200+ social platforms.

Last modified:  July 23rd, 2019

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