For any brand or company hoping to succeed online, social media marketing has become crucial. It’s the perfect place to connect, influence, and convert your target market because of the large and diverse audience that uses it on many different platforms throughout the world.
Take a look at these striking figures from the Global Social Media Statistics from Datareportal:
More over 5 billion people use social media regularly, accounting for almost 64% of the world’s population.
Every day, the average user uses social media for two hours and twenty-one minutes.
With the most active users, YouTube is in first place, followed by Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
On average, users interact with 6.8 platforms every month.
These figures demonstrate the profound influence social media has on day-to-day living. But merely appearing on these channels is insufficient. Knowing how to effectively interact with your audience, publish interesting and useful material, build brand awareness, take advantage of social media trends, and produce leads is essential.
We’ll look at the essential elements of an effective social media marketing plan in this blog.
- What is a social media strategy?
- What are the benefits of having a social media strategy?
- What are the 8 steps in building a social media strategy?
- Great examples of a social media strategy
What is a social media strategy?
A social media strategy, to put it simply, is a thorough plan that outlines your objectives, how to reach them, and the metrics you’ll use to monitor your progress.
Building solid customer relationships, generating leads, and raising brand awareness and engagement for your target audience(s) on social media platforms should be the main goals of the plan.
What are the benefits of having a social media strategy?
You may have had a successful social media campaign or seen a high level of interaction on your postings. You can have that type of success once.
Consistency is the true obstacle in social media marketing, though. Do you know why that post or campaign did so well? Is it easy to replicate such success?
Even while developing a social media plan could seem overwhelming, there are many long-term, beneficial advantages for your company.
Provide clear direction for all your social media efforts
Boost brand awareness
Offer customer support and service through social channels
Improve targeting across different platforms and audiences (e.g., your Facebook audience will differ from your TikTok one)
Drive and increase website traffic
Personalize your content for specific audiences
Generate higher-quality leads
Create opportunities for social media influencer collaborations
Enable social commerce and shoppable posts
Collect data for analysis and measurement
Promote unique content with viral potential
“Brands may interact and communicate with their audience and customers in a unique way using social media. Julie Atherton, Digital Strategist and Founder of Small Wonder, a social media transformation company, comments on the DMI podcast that “it stands out because it’s bold, innovative, and highly creative, unlike other forms of media.”
Social media has many advantages, and if you have a plan in place, it may help you accomplish your goals and increase customer interaction.
Get in touch with Neil Patel Digital if you need professional help with paid media, content marketing, and SEO.
What are the steps in building a successful social media strategy?
After learning the basics of a social media strategy, let’s examine the precise procedures you must adhere to in order to develop one.
To make sure every facet is covered, we’ll also look at how to integrate your engagement and content strategies into your larger social media initiatives.
Here are seven essential stages for creating a social media strategy that works.
1) Set goals for your business
Spending time at this step is crucial since the rest of your approach will be shaped by your comprehension and definition of your social media goals.
Think about the goals your company has for using social media. Remember that business objectives are different from marketing objectives. Are you trying to expand your following, improve your audience understanding, raise brand exposure, or produce more leads?
Even though you may wish to accomplish all of these objectives, it’s crucial to specify each one precisely because they call for various kinds of social media content and tactics.
Determine which social media analytics are most important by identifying your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) after you’ve established your goals. 79% of strategists, managers, and directors named engagement-related metrics like likes, shares, and comments as the most important KPIs that marketers monitor on social media, according to Sprout Social’s 2024 Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report. Demographic insights and follower growth come next (52%).
2) Research your audience
Understanding your audience and their demands is essential to creating tailored messaging and content.
The ultimate goal is to encourage consumers to talk favourably about your company, goods, or services, generating word-of-mouth advertising that spreads to other people.
The best method for achieving this is to carry out market research using:
Using online surveys
Conducting customer interviews
Organizing focus groups
Running polls on platforms such as X, LinkedIn, or Threads
Gathering opinions and feedback through apps
Social listening is a powerful tool for learning more about your community and customers. You can monitor social networks with the help of a number of programs, like BuzzSumo, SparkToro, and Followerwonk.
By using these techniques, you can create buyer personas that combine your buyer insights and buyer profile, giving you a clear image of your ideal client. It’s crucial to remember that you can develop many personas in order to capture different demographics, insights, and pain areas.
“The brand strategy, content creation, marketing and positioning process, and thoughtfulness must come from someone who genuinely cares about how others perceive them and their product,” Rand Fishkin said in a recent DMI podcast. A marketer with customer empathy will be successful in brand marketing, positioning, and content strategy in addition to knowing customers.
3) Research your competitors
An essential component of your social media marketing plan is competitive analysis. It gives you the opportunity to learn more about what your rivals are doing on social media.
Important information you can learn is as follows:
Platforms utilized (which ones and the number)
Messaging style – tone and voice
Audience targeted per platform
Branding approach (how they implement their brand/style guide)
Types of content and formats employed
Campaign strategies (e.g., company updates, polls, promoting gated content, etc.)
Posting frequency on social media
Engagement with followers/customers
Use of influencers in campaigns
Social commerce options available
Knowing how your rivals engage with customers and how successful those interactions are will help you decide whether to copy their strategy or try something new to attract customers.
4) Choose your social platforms
The true question is how to choose the best social media platforms for your company, not if you should be active on them.
Don’t make the error of attempting to be active on every platform only for the sake of doing so; some might not be relevant to your content or business. So, how can you properly narrow down your options and customise material for each social network?
Facebook, one of the biggest and most established social media networks, offers a targeted strategy for interacting with both potential clients and existing consumers. This platform works well for a variety of content genres, and Facebook Live allows you to engage with clients via video.
An photograph from Oreo that captures the brand’s light-hearted humour is a fantastic illustration of this. This image coincides with the release of the Minecraft movie and successfully engages consumers.
Instagram, which has grown significantly in recent years and is particularly well-liked by younger people, is still the best visual platform. It’s a great place to display your goods and work with influencers to grow your clientele. Additionally, users can buy straight from the platform with in-app shopping through shoppable postings.
Nike’s Instagram carousel post, which highlights women in sports and the different bras made to improve performance, is a fantastic example. Product names are included to make it simple to locate the things online, and each athlete is tagged in the article so you can click directly to their profile.
In addition to providing chances for B2C interaction, LinkedIn is the preferred site for B2B business marketing. eBooks, blogs, whitepapers, and articles that are relevant to a certain industry are examples of content that does well on this platform. Furthermore, podcasts and other audio and video content have become more and more popular, therefore it’s critical to use these media to educate and include your audience.
X
Over the past few years, X has undergone significant change in response to a number of issues, including a boycott by big advertisers. Its primary purpose—a real-time platform that gives priority to pertinent and timely content—remains the same, nevertheless. With its ability to provide prompt responses and the use of hashtags to find fresh and popular material, it remains a successful customer service medium for brands.
For instance, SkyUK has a specific X channel called SkyHelpTeam that it uses to answer consumer questions. This channel offers updates on frequently asked service-related questions and invites users to get in touch.
TikTok
TikTok is an excellent platform for video content and one of the social media sites with the quickest rate of growth. Known for its brief, humorous videos, it is quickly developing and proving to be a successful marketing strategy. In an effort to compete with YouTube, the platform has also begun to promote videos that are up to 60 minutes long.
TikTok is a great platform for influencer partnerships because it is hard to beat when it comes to user-generated content. The collaboration with McKenna Crisp, a GymShark athlete who joins other influencers, is a prime example.
Pinterest is a social discovery hub where users may access movies and photos that inspire them. Millions of pins covering anything from food to home décor make it a perfect platform for curating material, effectively acting as a communal mood board.
Oh Joy!, a design and lifestyle brand, has multiple Pinterest boards. Her “Recipe” board, which has around 2.7k pins, is the most popular.
You may find out more about using Pinterest to further your business.
YouTube
A YouTube video is currently being seen by someone. According to the number of users, it is the most popular social media network in 2025! Expanding your YouTube channel is a great approach to interact with clients by offering them fun and useful information.
This GoPro video, in which filmmakers test out the new lenses with the GoPro HERO13 product, is an excellent illustration.
If your company creates a lot of videos, particularly tutorials or how-to instructions, YouTube can be the ideal platform for you. Because so many people use it as a search engine, it’s also a potent discovery tool. Therefore, when producing your material, keep YouTube SEO in mind.
Threads:
Meta’s microblogging platform, Threads, was created as a substitute for X. Its objective is to give users a place to engage in public discussions and exchange text updates.
A ‘For You’ feed, trends on the search page, the option to add images to posts, saved posts, and saved drafts are just a few of the features that Threads provides. The platform is one to monitor because it is always changing.
To reach its 6.5 million subscribers, Netflix uses Threads to promote both new and old content.
5) Plan your content
It’s time to concentrate on your content and strategy after you’ve done your homework and chosen the appropriate social media channels.
Audiences are less likely to search through lengthy content for important information as short-form video content continues to gain popularity.
During the recent DMI webinar on social media strategy, Sweathead CEO and author Mark Pollard offered insightful advice on how to use content to develop your brand. Here are some important things to think about.
- Most people don’t buy often: Even though they might make up fewer than 5% of your potential clientele, you don’t have to limit your attention to your high-value buyers. Rather, focus on your lightest customers, who may account for as much as 20% of your total sales.
- Brand takes time and money to develop: Long-term sales growth can be fuelled by brand building, but it takes a lot of effort and money.
- Too many messages dilute your brand: The effect of each communication will decrease as you convey more.
- Emotions help to build brands:
You may establish enduring brand memories by arousing emotions. Make an effort to strengthen your brand’s emotional ties.
- Fame makes brands:
Creating powerful emotional bonds can assist increase the recognition and recall of your brand.
- Brand assets stay in the memory: Characters, colour schemes, slogans, fonts, and logos are examples of brand assets that can improve your audience’s emotional connection.
- Natural content beats staged content: Scripted material with celebrities is rarely as effective or relatable as natural content, such as product images, real-life conversations, or people utilising items in everyday situations.
- Celebrities are not always effective:
Influencers and celebrities frequently have less of an impact than anticipated. Make sure they are pushing the brand, not simply their own image, if you decide to collaborate with them.
- Creative content drives profits: One of the main factors influencing profitability is original and creative material.
- Most people ignore more ads: Eighty percent of advertisements miss the critical two and a half-second window.
We share content that inspires awe: We are compelled to share content that reveals something amazing about the world or ourselves, which strengthens our bonds with one another.
When planning your content, follow these simple steps:
- Create a tone for your pages.Do you communicate in a casual or formal manner? Is your business tone more serious or do you include humour? Do you want to modify your voice to fit the distinct tone of each platform in order to convey the personality of your brand?
- Create content themes or content buckets.Examine your USP in detail and determine any content categories or themes that you can create. For instance, if you own a hotel or vacation resort, you may produce a wellness-themed content series that features your spa treatments and nutritious cooking ideas. What makes your place special could be the focus of another content category. Is it the gorgeous beauty, the amazing wildlife, or something else? There are some great social media tools that can help you create content more quickly if you need assistance.
- Create a content calendar.Posting frequently on social media is essential, and keeping organised with a content calendar can be beneficial, particularly when handling several platforms. To ensure a more efficient approach, use this content calendar template to track your posts across several media.
- Schedule your content.It can be difficult to keep up with social media’s rapid pace, but consistency requires sticking to a regular posting schedule.
What makes a good social media post?
Posting material is easy, but making the effort to create excellent content will pay dividends in terms of engagement and reach. So, how can you ensure that your posts are unique?
- Monitor content performance -To determine what works and what doesn’t, you must analyse your content.
- Optimize content – Make sure you’re using the appropriate message, format, and tone for each platform as you refine your content to improve its success.
- Think about new angles for content – Would humour or even videos of previous customers’ reviews work? Try out several concepts and don’t limit yourself to the same message and presentation.
- A/B test content – Test many iterations of your content on various platforms to determine which ones work best. Does a particular colour generate greater interaction, or does a particular keyword resonate more? This tutorial and toolbox will help you with A/B testing.
- Track your KPIs – Regularly review your KPIs to make sure your material is on course.
There isn’t a magic recipe for producing excellent content. It involves regularly publishing, evaluating the outcomes, refining, and trying out novel concepts.
6) Manage and engage your community
Social media’s power lies in its capacity to create relationships that have the potential to develop into communities. Because they increase involvement and brand recognition, communities are extremely useful.
Customers can become brand ambassadors and draw in new ones with the help of an engaged community. However, communities take time and effort to create and flourish, so they need to be maintained.
Being responsive is one of the most crucial elements of running a social media community. Be prompt and helpful when a customer asks a question or writes a review.
You will inevitably run into complaints as social media becomes the preferred method of communicating with customers. Negative reviews can help your brand seem more genuine and show that people are interacting with your material, so don’t freak off.
Consider every unfavourable criticism as a chance to be innovative. You may confront the remark in an interesting way, start a meaningful discussion, or even utilise comedy to defuse the situation. Imagine, for instance, making a comedic act out of unfavourable reviews!
Be careful with the tone, though. “Be mindful of how serious the complaint is,” suggests Mark Pollard. “It could backfire if you come across as trivialising a serious problem. Sometimes the best course of action is to demonstrate empathy.
7) Grow your following
It’s useless to have a social media account if you’re not getting new followers. Any social media strategy must include growing your following, and you’ll need to use efficient techniques to do it.
You may grow your audience in two primary ways: naturally or by using sponsored advertising.
Content is crucial for organic growth. Given that organic reach on social media sites has been dwindling, it helps draw users and increase engagement. In a post on X, Neil Patel claims that throughout the previous three years, organic reach has decreased by roughly 61.83%. Make the most of your content by reusing it to increase effect and save time in order to prevent this.
Remember to use cross-promotion. People use many platforms every day, so use Meta’s platform to distribute your content on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The objective is to demonstrate the reach of your content and increase traffic across your channels.
You can target a certain audience and establish a daily budget for paid advertising. Use a paid media campaign tracker to track the effectiveness of each campaign so you can keep tabs on your efforts.
Another excellent strategy to market your products is to work with influencers. In particular, micro-influencers might be useful, particularly for nearby establishments trying to draw clients, such bars or restaurants. Digital PR can also help increase traffic to your social media networks. Examples of this include acquiring articles in pertinent publications or releasing press releases.
8) Work the social media algorithms
No matter how many followers or subscribers you have, your social media plan will fail if you don’t know how the algorithms work.
Mark Pollard offers some professional advice on how to get the algorithms to work for you.
- Use bold hooks: Use a strong hook to draw in your audience, whether it’s a favourable or negative one. To increase its impact, provide a sense of freshness, urgency, or scarcity.
- Have characters that do stuff: Characters that actively participate in acts pique curiosity and enhance the content’s relatability and engagement.
- Use raw production:
Compared to extremely polished information, raw content frequently seems more genuine.
- Aim for quantity to reach quality: Create content quickly and build a library. Track which pieces perform the best and focus on those. Repurpose and reuse what resonates most.
- Give it some energy: Try out different extremes. For example, produce material that is quiet and subtle or forceful and bombastic.
- Include the products: Make it clear what you are giving.
- Add some WTF: Use unusual words, sounds, or images, or combine all three for a powerful effect.
Add subtle branding: Make sure your brand is visible but keep it under the radar. It might show up on a wall, a t-shirt, a mug, or even a cap. Helping customers connect your brand with your content without being overbearing is the aim.
Great examples of a social media strategy
If you work in marketing, you probably have a favourite firm or brand, such as TOM’s, Amazon, or Airbnb, which places a strong emphasis on corporate social responsibility.
Studying how a brand functions is a terrific approach to get inspired, regardless of which brand you like. Social networking is no different. You can get useful ideas from studying successful examples that you can modify and use in your own company. Let’s look at a few examples of B2B and B2C transactions.
B2B social media strategy examples
Although B2B marketing may initially appear uninteresting, there are many great instances that can stimulate new thinking.
Mailchimp
Even if marketing automation isn’t the most glamorous, Mailchimp gives it individuality. They employ vibrant colours and attention-grabbing graphics on their website and social media to draw attention to their all-in-one email marketing service. Their lighthearted language and tone add interest to the material.
They also employ humour, which appeals to users and clients, to engage with their social media groups wherever possible. This simple LinkedIn post from the company’s global CMO emphasises the importance of email marketing.
Adobe
Leader in content creation software Another B2B business that is very successful on social media is Adobe. Its strength is its strong, eye-catching imagery, which the brand makes good use of.
Adobe’s long-running Instagram promotion #adobe_perspective encourages users to contribute their content, further celebrating creativity. In order to promote user-generated content and highlight its product suite, the company then reposts the top entries on its official account, tagging the authors.
B2C social media strategy examples
There are some great B2C social media campaign examples available.
Specsavers
Specsavers started an interesting TikTok campaign to reach a new audience and urge individuals in the UK to schedule eye checks.
Utilising TikTok’s Creative Exchange programme, Specsavers collaborated with media agency Manning Gottlieb OMD to produce content especially for the app.
With 26.8k online eye test reservations, the campaign’s cost-per-acquisition (CPA) was 30% lower than its goal and five times lower than the CPA ceiling.
Using the hashtag #PlaywithPringles, the community produced more than 2 million videos on TikTok, garnering an astounding 4.7 billion views. According to We Are Social, the campaign also surpassed engagement expectations, achieving a tasty 13% average engagement rate.
By releasing new flavours and frequent challenges that entice fans to try them all, Pringles keeps its audience interested. This emphasises how crucial it is to maintain a brand’s appeal while remaining true to what consumers genuinely adore about the product.
Dove
Dove is a well-known brand for its advertisements that promote natural beauty. It has run a number of campaigns throughout the years that have generated controversy in some cases in addition to making news.
In addition to addressing the pressures women encounter after giving birth, the brand has promoted body confidence, pushed for young girls to be safe online, and increased awareness of eating disorders.
The theme of Dove’s most recent campaign is to “keep beauty real,” in reaction to the forecast that 90% of web content would be artificial intelligence (AI) generated by 2025.
Excellent examples of how brands use social media to effectively address social concerns are also available for you to examine.
Nonprofit social media strategy examples
In addition to raising brand recognition, nonprofits utilise social media to encourage donations. People actively look out causes they identify with and wish to assist as their passion for social concerns grows.
How can you stand out in a crowded field of organisations vying for attention? Here are a few motivational examples to help you stand out.
The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF)
For good reason, the WWF is a well-known and reputable brand in the nonprofit industry. Their programmes have a significant impact, inspiring people to take action to save wildlife and preserve the environment.
The WWF works with brand ambassadors—some of whom are well-known—to promote dialogue on significant topics. A recent post on X, for instance, depicts supporters assembling outside the UK’s Houses of Parliament and calling for action under the hashtag #RestoreNatureNow.
Additionally, by promoting interaction and post sharing, the WWF uses social media channels to encourage people to experience nature throughout the seasons, connect with it, and learn amazing animal facts.
Bronx Zoo
A vital component of any nonprofit or charity is fundraising. The Bronx Zoo in New York introduced ‘Wild Encounters,’ which offers both in-person and virtual animal interactions, to raise money and present the public with a unique experience.
These interactions are intended to provide visitors with the opportunity to “learn about our extraordinary work directly from the keepers or unwind with a tour of must-see exhibits.” Cheetahs, giraffes, sloths, penguins, and many other species are available for visitors to interact with.
Social media is used to spread the word about these chances, which increases engagement, builds brand awareness, and boosts sales.
This X article encourages readers to stop for a #MomentofZoo and educate themselves about animals.
How do you create your own social media strategy?
Social media provides businesses with an effective means of reaching customers worldwide across all demographics. Reaching your target audience, however, requires that you become proficient in the art of using these platforms. The Professional Diploma in Social Media from DMI gives you the know-how and abilities you need to be successful on all social media platforms. Social research, content production, affiliate marketing, social commerce, customer support, and strategy will all be covered in detail. The features of popular platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X, and WhatsApp will also be explored. Start your journey by enrolling today!