Are you looking to create your own social media strategy? Most small businesses manage at least part of their social media themselves – or they help outsourcers generate ideas to support their work. It's good practice and helps improve results.

However, do you know how to create your own social media strategy? Do you know what makes a good strategy great and drive traffic to your brand? Here are some of our best tips for getting you started.

1. Know Your Audience

If you want to have a meaningful social media strategy, you need to consider who your target audience is. These potential customers will have a preference to where they receive information from.

Most people have Instagram account, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best social media platform for your business. Some people will only use instagram for personal use or to manage a brand page. They might use snapchat or another platform for business reasons instead.

The only way to know is to ask your target audience. Conduct surveys, ask customers and do some market research. Find out who uses what platform and for what reason.

2. Consider What Content Audiences Want

Next, you need to discover what content your audience wants to see. Simply, updating them about your business is going to appear too sales led, and most audiences won’t interact.

Instead, you need to consider a content mix that shares ideas, news, and advice from different sources. These could be complimentary to your products/services, or they could be something that you know your audience will care about.

3. Monitor, Measure And React

The most successful social media users aren’t just looking at producing content, they want to know how audiences react to it. This can only be done by monitoring and measuring the results from social media campaigns.

Then the metrics collected can be used to generate new content that is more aligned to the preferences of the audience.

Conclusion

Social media strategies are about planning, measuring and reacting. You need to know what audiences expect from your brand and then meet it. Otherwise, while your content might be technically great, it will be ignored by most audiences.

What tips do you have for a great social media strategy? When was the last time you measured the success of your social media strategy?