Creating and Implementing a Social Media Strategy
Creating and implementing a social media strategy will make your online content more effective, and you will be more likely to reach people.
What is a social media strategy? “A social media strategy is a summary of everything you plan to do and hope to achieve on social media. It guides your actions and lets you know whether you are succeeding”.[2]
Social media objectives and goals
The first step to creating your strategy should be setting objectives and goals. To do this, you should first identify your audience… This could be other community groups, funders, LGBTI people or specific subsections of the population, such as ‘trans youth in the Glasgow area’.
Decide on your objectives… Do not use social media for the sake of it. Think about what it can do for you. For example, are you wanting to promote your group and work, raise awareness of a specific issue, provide advice and information, or entertain people? Your objectives are likely to be a mix of these things.
Decide what your goals are… Your chosen objectives and audiences should influence your goals. You may want some overarching goals such as: more engagement with your group and its work, increased follows and likes, or increased membership.
You could set more specific goals within these. These should be ‘SMART’, which means:
SMART
- S – Specific
- M – Measurable
- A – Attainable
- R – Relevant
- T – Time-bound[3]
Create brief mission statements for each social media platform… Work out which of your goals and objectives relate to each of your social medial platforms. If you do not feel that you know this, our sections on the uses of specific platforms may help.
Conduct a social media audit
What is a ‘social media audit’? This means making a list of the platforms you use, how you use them, your current followers etc. and who has access to the logins.
Do not be afraid to get rid of accounts that no longer serve a purpose. Just make sure to let people know that you are closing them and help people to migrate over to your other social media channels.
Create a content marketing plan
Think about your group’s voice, tone, and style…
- Do you want a friendly, informal tone?
- Do you want to create informative posts that are to the point?
- Do you want your style to be in line with your branding?
When deciding on your social media content, think about the following:
[Image with the following phrases pointing towards ‘Content’: ‘Frequency’, ‘Promotion’, ‘Who Creates This?’, ‘Scheduled or Live?’, ‘When?’, ‘Target Audience’, ‘Type’]
Create a social media content calendar
Sharing great content is essential, but you need to plan when you will do this. Create a social media content calendar which takes into account each type of social media you use, and the time you spend interacting with your audience. Find more info and a free calendar template here.
Choose a balance of content
If you are starting from scratch, and you are not sure what types of content to post, Hootsuite recommend the 80-20 rule:
- 80% of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain your audience
- 20% can directly promote your group
If you already have social media experience, you might want to create more specific content targets. For example, you might decide that:
- 35% will be curated from other sources (sharing knowledge, resources for LGBTI people, other events etc.)
- 20% of content will be about your group’s activities and upcoming events
- 15% will be about your current fundraiser (updates on milestones, achievements, reminders of the link to give etc.)
- 10% will be for the purposes of entertainment
- 10% will be input from your community (information gathering such as surveys and polls)
- 10% will link people to your website
Footnotes
- Christina Newberry, Evan LePage, Hootsuite (2021) ‘How to Create a Social Media Strategy in 8 Easy Steps (Free Template)’. (Return to reference [2])
- Mind Tools, ‘SMART Goals’. (Return to reference [3])
