Social media can easily overwhelm you. Between creating content and interacting, you may feel spending more time on your phone than in your business. The good news is that there is an easier way.
If you want to save time, effort, and energy, you need a social media strategy. Customers purchase based on trust, credibility, and loyalty. A social media strategy can help you stay consistent, which promotes these three actions. But what exactly is a social media strategy?
It’s a plan.
That’s it. The highly sought-after social media strategy is a plan you create, design, and implement before you ever post or interact on an app.
“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” — Michael E. Porter
It’s a plan that allows you to spend less time on social media and do more things you enjoy. So how do you get started?
Here are 5 quick steps to help you create a social media strategy for your business.
1. Know Your Lane
Before diving into content creation, taking a step back and having an honest brainstorming session with yourself is essential. Start by evaluating your areas of expertise—what subjects do you feel confident discussing? This self-reflection will not only clarify your strengths but also help you define the direction of your content. Consider the topics where your experience, knowledge, and passion naturally align. By identifying these areas upfront, you’ll build an authentic foundation that aligns with your skills.
Next, take this brainstorming further by being specific. Narrow your focus down to five key “buckets” or categories that represent your strongest areas of knowledge. These buckets will be pillars of your social media presence, guiding the type of content you create and ensuring you remain consistent in your messaging. By sticking to these five areas, you avoid spreading yourself too thin and can become a trusted source in those specific fields. This focused approach helps attract an audience that values your expertise and keeps your content intentional and cohesive.
2. Know Your Fish
Before you can catch the fish you want, you must be clear about what type you’re trying to catch. This analogy applies perfectly to social media strategy. Just as a fisherman wouldn’t cast a line without knowing the type of fish he’s after, you shouldn’t start creating content without first identifying your target audience. Knowing your “fish”—your ideal client or follower—helps you understand where they spend their time and how they behave online. Once you define who you’re trying to attract, you’ll have a clearer picture of where they “live” on the internet and what kind of “bait”—content or messaging—will appeal to them.
Not all social media platforms are created equally, and demographics vary widely from one to the next. It’s crucial to use the platforms (your body of water) that your target audience (your fish) is already using, even if it isn’t your personal favorite. You may prefer Instagram, but if your audience is more active on LinkedIn or Facebook, that’s where your efforts should go. Each platform offers unique tools and ways to engage, so casting your net in the right waters ensures reaching the people most likely to connect with your brand. It’s all about meeting your audience where they are rather than expecting them to come to you.
3. Know Your Apps
What are you waiting for if you’re not already using an app or software to streamline your content creation? Tools like Trello and Canva can drastically improve your workflow and efficiency, allowing you to focus more on producing high-quality content rather than getting bogged down by organization or design challenges.
Trello, for example, is a fantastic project management tool that helps you organize ideas, plan your content calendar, and track the progress of each post. It offers visual boards where you can lay out tasks, set deadlines, and collaborate with others if needed. This structure helps you stay on top of your content strategy, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.
Canva, on the other hand, is a game-changer for content design. Even if you’re not a graphic designer, Canva’s intuitive interface and vast library of templates make it easy to create professional-looking posts, infographics, stories, and more. Once you find a design template that fits your brand, you can save it for repeatable use, saving you time and maintaining consistency across your content. Whether it’s resizing images, adding text overlays, or selecting the perfect color scheme, Canva gives you the tools to create visually compelling content that resonates with your audience. By incorporating these types of apps into your routine, you’ll simplify your workflow, improve the quality of your content, and keep everything running smoothly.
4. Know Your Brand
Before diving into the plug-and-play templates available on apps like Trello and Canva, it’s crucial to establish your branding basics—this is the foundation that will make your content instantly recognizable. Start by deciding on your brand’s core elements, such as colors and fonts. These visual aspects play a major role in how your audience perceives your brand. Choose a color palette that reflects your brand’s personality, whether bold and energetic or calm and professional. Similarly, your font choices should align with your brand’s tone; for example, clean, modern fonts convey professionalism, while more playful or decorative fonts give off a creative, relaxed vibe. When these visual elements remain consistent across all platforms, they help build brand recognition and trust.
Beyond the visual aspects, defining your voice, style, and personality is equally important. Are you speaking casually and friendly, or is your messaging more formal and authoritative? What emotions or ideas do you want to evoke in your audience? Establishing this framework will make it much easier to communicate consistently with your audience. When you have clarity on these characteristics, creating content becomes smoother and more efficient, especially when batch-creating. Instead of figuring out how each piece should look or sound, you can focus on the message, knowing that your branding is already nailed down. This saves you time and energy and strengthens your brand’s relationship with your target market by reinforcing familiarity and trust.
5. Know Your Plan
Don’t fall into the trap of trying to create, craft, and post your content all in one go—it’s a surefire way to burn out and sacrifice quality. Instead, take a more thoughtful and strategic approach by planning your content. Remember the five key topics or “buckets” you identified in Step 1? These should serve as the backbone of your content plan. By rotating through these topics, you ensure that your posts are varied and aligned with your expertise and brand message. Each day can focus on a different area, keeping your content fresh while maintaining consistency in what your audience offers.
