Boost Visibility Through Strategic Organic Social Media

An active social media presence is a marketing must for businesses large and small. Why? Customers often look up companies on social media before making purchases. A compelling social media presence is an easy and cost-effective way for businesses to build brand awareness, foster customer loyalty, and drive conversions. 

But developing this social media presence can be challenging and time-consuming. For small businesses, posting on social media is often the last thing on the to-do list. 

In this blog post, we’ll take you through the steps to create a social media strategy that works for your team and for your business. 

1. Define Your Objectives

The first step in a successful social media strategy is to establish your objectives and align them to your overall business goals. Objectives might include increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, generating leads, or boosting sales. Assign each of these objectives a success metric. 

For example, if your objective is to drive website traffic, your metric will be the number of new website visitors coming from the social channel and success might be increasing web traffic by 1% through social media.

Defining objectives and success will guide your social media strategy and content. It will also ensure that all of your efforts contribute to your bottom line. 

2. Allocate Resources

The main reason businesses’ social media presence suffers is because they have not assigned responsibility for it to one (or more) individuals. What’s more, they have not made it a priority within those individuals’ responsibilities.

Decide how much time and effort you want to invest in your social media presence and commit to it. This could be 1 hour per week or 1 day per week. No matter what, make it clear and hold the team accountable. 

Resource allocation will influence how many social media channels you choose to tackle and how frequently you choose to post.

3. Know Your Audience

Understanding your target audience is crucial for selecting the right social media platforms and for tailoring the content to create. Use your team’s knowledge to outline your audience’s preferences, pain points, and interests. Don’t forget to discuss demographic details and potential online habits. If you can, conduct market research to further develop your understanding of your audience. This knowledge will help you craft content that resonates with your target audiences and sparks action.

4. Choose the Right Channels

Instead of spreading your efforts thinly across multiple social media platforms, focus on those most relevant to your audience, industry, and business objectives. For example, B2B businesses may find LinkedIn more effective, while local small businesses might thrive on Instagram. 

Start small. Invest time and resources in platforms where your potential customers are most active and where you can best fulfill your business objectives. You do not need to open accounts on all platforms.

5. Create a Content Calendar to Stay Consistent

Consistency is the backbone of successful organic social media. Develop a content calendar to plan and schedule posts in advance. Regular posting keeps your audience engaged and demonstrates your commitment to providing value. 

Your posting frequency will depend on the resources you have available. You do not need to post every day on your chosen channel(s): you could post every other day or even once a week. 

It is better to post once per week for a year than to post 5 times per week for 1 month. Make a plan that works for your team!

6. Create Content

Here’s the most time-consuming part of social media: creating content that speaks to your audience and your business goals. Keep your audience’s interests and your business goals in mind when you create content. 

Use a mix of content formats, including images, videos, infographics, and written posts, to keep your feed diverse and exciting. When applicable, encourage user-generated content (UGC) to foster a sense of community and loyalty among your followers–and then share that content through your own feed.

Remember to maintain a consistent brand voice and visual identity across all posts for better brand recognition.

7. Listen and Respond

Social media is a two-way street. Be prepared to spend time responding to comments and answering messages. Prompt and thoughtful responses builds trust with your audience. 

Social media is a great way to get audience feedback. Listen to what your followers and customers are saying: they may be voicing feedback, questions, and concerns that you can address in your business. 

Finally, social media can serve as a customer service platform. Addressing issues publicly can demonstrate your commitment to resolving problems.

8. Analyze and Optimize

Once your social media content is running, analyze it regularly to see if it is meeting the objectives you established. (For example, is it actually driving website traffic?)

It is easy to track metrics such as engagement rate and impressions. But take it one step further and use the insights to refine your strategy, focusing on what works best and adjusting approaches to improve results continually.

Social media is a place for experimentation with content, timing, and more. Algorithms and customer preferences change frequently, so be ready: just because something is working for now doesn’t mean it will work forever.

Conclusion

Customers expect businesses to have organic social media. Organic social media is a potent and cost-effective tool that small businesses can leverage. To make a big impact, set a strategy and allocate resources to social media: don’t just jump in and do it ad-hoc. By defining objectives, knowing your audience, and analyzing your content, you can make data-driven decisions to drive growth, strengthen your brand, and connect with your customers.

Here are two ways I can help you:

1. Serve as your business’s Fractional CMO.

2. Analyze and optimize your marketing strategy.

Interested? Send me a note.