11 tips for an effective social media strategy for your business

Social Media and Effective Marketing

Over the last decade, social media marketing has proven to be the most effective form of marketing especially compared to traditional media advertising. It is much cheaper, can reach a much bigger audience, can be highly targeted, is easily measured, and provides a direct two-way communication with an audience.

However, embarking on a social media journey is no simple feat. Many startups and businesses treat it as a series of random posts which usually proves ineffective. Creating a social media strategy is crucial to ensure a professional and productive social media presence for your brand.

Here are 11 tips that businesses should consider when creating and implementing strategy for their business.

Creating and Implementing Your Social Media Strategy

1. A proper social media strategy includes many components among them goal setting, target audience and creating personas, asset mapping, position in the sales cycle, choice of channels, voice and tone, posting frequency, posting time, content types, content calendars, community management, online advertising strategies, influencer marketing strategies, social media policies, crisis management policies, monitoring, measurement, and reporting.
2. Setting quantifiable goals is very crucial so that everyone is clear on what you want your social media plan needs to achieve.
3. What your target audience already knows about you will dictate what you can credibly have a conversation about on social media. That is why is it important to be aware of your position in the sales cycle.
4. A common myth about social media is that it’s free, or at least very cheap. While it may be free to set up a Twitter or Facebook account, it requires time and lots of it to effectively manage these accounts. 
5. A great way to ensure you hit your target and focus communications on the right people is to create personas. These are short descriptions of fictional individuals that represent your target.
6. Prioritize your channels, start slow and get comfortable even if it means starting with just one platform. Spend time getting accustomed to posting content, answering questions and comments, and the overall level of engagement required. Once you’re comfortable, add another platform and slowly build your network.
7. Setting your voice and tone is very important to create a professional brand for your business on social media. Voice is your brand personality described in an adjective while the tone adds specific flavor to your voice based.
8. Content creation is a vital element in contemporary marketing strategies. There is a science behind what motivates users to share digital content. Researchers have discovered a number of psychological triggers that inspire people to engage in online activities: social approval, communication, support ideas, and entertainment.
9. So that your social media content is more shareable, consider the following: create high-quality content, use smart structuring, add value to users’ lives, keep your audience in mind, trigger emotions and exploit trendy topics.
10. Make sure to create a crisis management strategythat takes into account speed, hyper-transparency, dialogue, search and detractors.
11. Before commencing with paid advertising, you should properly understand the organic algorithmsfor the platforms that you are using.

About the author

Mohammad Hijazi is a leading communications consultant, trainer and digital strategist. He was a pioneer in digital marketing; he was one of the earliest to educate businesses on the importance of digital in Lebanon. He consulted for international organizations including the EU, UN, British Council, British Embassies, World Economic Forum, US State Department, Leo Burnett and 100+ clients across different fields and countries. His expertise includes creating and implementing marketing strategies, business training, influencer relations, public relations, copy-writing, translation, and project management. His portfolio includes more than 100 events that he led or organized.

Aside from his professional work, Hijazi spends his free time working with international NGOs. In 2018, Hijazi served as the National President of JCI Lebanon (Junior Chamber International, a 102-year-old UN-partner NGO that promotes positive impact through youth empowerment) and in 2017 was a Global Shaper for the Beirut Hub (an initiative by the World Economic Forum). He is passionate about working on two UN Sustainable Development Goals: Quality Education and Decent Work & Economic Growth.

Hijazi also founded the Online Collaborative, a non-profit initiative that aims to promote awareness about technology and social media and is the organizing entity of The Social Media Awards MENA. In addition, he was the Editor in Chief of Cloud961, a print and online magazine that is dedicated to the online community in Lebanon and discusses digital and social media topics from the region.

Hijazi was named the Social Media Consultant of Lebanon by ECONEWS and was nominated for the MENA Best Social Media Trainer Award by Social Media Club in Bahrain. Hijazi co-authored a 2017 McGraw-Hill university textbook entitled “Contemporary Management” that is taught in universities across the Middle East.

Hijazi graduated from the American University of Beirut (AUB) with degrees in biology and marketing.