5 February 2024

How to build an effective Social Media Strategy in 2024

Creating an effective social media strategy for your brand doesn’t need to be a complicated or painstaking task. Follow our simple guide and build your own social media strategy in just 8 easy steps. 

What is a social media strategy?

In simple terms, a social media strategy is a summary of what your business plans to do and achieve across its social media platforms. It shapes everything about your content from your tone of voice, the types of content you will post and on what platforms. A social media strategy doesn’t need to be complex, but it does require some time & research to build and shape. 

Why is having a social media strategy so important? 

We get it, the world of social media and digital marketing can feel like a whirlwind of new fads, tools & trends. But one thing always remains certain - if you’re serious about making an impact on your social channels, having a well-thought-through strategy is non-negotiable if you want to make an impact and reach the right people. It provides a framework for you and/or your team about how to post and where, and allows you to evaluate your content and improve on it for the future. Not sure where to start with carving out the perfect social media strategy for your business in 2024? It’s not as complex as you might think! Let’s dive into how to build yours in just 8 steps. 

Building your own social media strategy

Follow these 8 steps to create a winning strategy for your brand: 

STEP 1 – Set Goals

With any strategy, you must first set clear goals that reflect your current business objectives. Make sure these goals are attainable but also give you a push to want to achieve them! Your goals should also outline how you will measure them so you can assess your progress. 

Examples of social media goals could be:

  • Build an engaged community (KPIs – track likes, comments, shares, DM conversations etc)
  • Increase brand awareness & visibility (KPI’s - reach & account growth)
  • Drive traffic to your website (KPI’s website clicks via socials)

Don’t skip this step! Without setting goals & objectives, your strategy will lack direction and you will have no way to measure your ROI (return on investment). 

STEP 2 - Research

Next, it’s time to do some research into your target market and competitors.

Target Market

Think about exactly who your product or service is for. Be super specific here and think about who your current customers are or who your ideal client is. You could even build a client or customer avatar and jot down details about them e.g., gender, location, likes, dislikes, pain points, and even hobbies and home/family life. Diving deep into your target market’s character will help you to understand more about their buying habits and how your product or service can make their life easier! 

Competitors

Time to do a little spying on the competition. Think about who your direct competitors are and research other businesses doing a similar thing to you (indirect competitors). Consider:

  • What type of content they are producing on their socials.
  • What is resonating with their audience (and what isn’t)? 
  • What are they doing well and what are they not doing well? 
  • Can you spot any gaps where you might be able to do something better or different?

STEP 3 – Content Pillars 

You may have already heard of the term Content Pillars (or Content Themes). These are essentially categories & topics that all your content should fit into. They should be aligned with your business, industry and target audience and guide you in what subjects you will post about on your social platforms. Aim to have 3-5 content pillars and when you are posting content, make sure what you are posting is aligned with one or more of your pillars. Think about the “why” of your content pillars too i.e., what will your target market get out of this type of content? 

For example, content pillars for a wedding photographer could include:

  • Pillar 1 - Educational, tips & advice – e.g., how to prep for your wedding day, wedding inspiration, what to ask wedding photographers, how to choose a venue (provides value and positions you as an expert). 
  • Pillar 2 - Promotional & sales – e.g., info on you, your business, your services, special offers & showcases of your work (builds trust and credibility and shows off your talent!)
  • Pillar 3 - Behind the scenes & storytelling – e.g., content about your life, your journey, how you prepare for a wedding, how you edit your pictures, your process on a wedding day, what does a day in the life of a wedding photographer look like (builds a connection and stronger relationships with an audience). 

STEP 4 - Plan

You now have an idea of what type of content to post, so it’s time to build a plan! This is where you use the information you have already gained in steps 1-3 and plan out;

  • Where to post – is your target market on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok or elsewhere?
  • How often you will post - consider your capacity and schedule (be realistic and don’t set yourself up to fail)
  • Tone of voice – what kind of language will you use (formal, friendly, informal, professional)?
  • Branding – have you a defined vision for your brand (logo, brand colors/fonts, aesthetic)?

STEP 5 – Brainstorm Ideas

Time to start brainstorming content ideas! This is often the part of a social media strategy where people draw a blank. But, if you have followed the previous steps, you should have a good idea about what your business wants to achieve, what your target audience wants to see and what your competitors are doing. This should give you plenty of ideas to get started with! If you struggle to come up with ideas (the dreaded content block!) or manage several clients, our online AI strategy tool generates a month’s worth of ideas, tailored specifically to your brand, every month. 

STEP 6 – Content Calendar 

The next step is to create your content calendar and fill it with your ideas! You could use a calendar, spreadsheet or online tool to plan out your content week by week or month by month. You can also add key dates, events & hashtag holidays that align with your brand to your content calendar (we have them all listed here for 2024 for you!). Take a peek at our content calendar in rapidely below.

STEP 7 – Start Posting

You’ve planned out how your content and schedule will look, now it’s time to start creating content and start posting! Block time out in your diary each week or month to plan and create your content and remember to engage with your community too. You can even use a tool like rapidely to schedule your posts, reels & stories across your social platforms. 

STEP 8 – Analyse & Track

The last part of your strategy is to analyse your insights and record the statistics to track how your content is performing. Dive into your platform's insights and select relevant KPIs to track. From here you will be able to find out information which will tell you what posts are resonating with your audience and more about who your audience is which will allow you to plan content for the future. It also allows you to track your goals and progress. We advise you to track your stats every month to get a good overview and understanding of how your content is performing. 

What’s next? 

There you have it! How to build a social media strategy for your brand in 8 simple steps. But what next? You should, of course, revisit your strategy regularly (we advise every six months) to assess if you have reached your goals, set new objectives and tailor your content accordingly. Your social strategy should, by nature, change and be adapted as your business grows, your audience changes and trends shift. 

Feeling inspired to build an effective social media strategy for your brand? Follow this framework and we guarantee you will have no more stressing about what to post and guessing what your audience wants to see! To help make the process even quicker and more streamlined, our strategy tool builds your personal social media strategy in just a few clicks (and comes up with a whole month’s worth of custom content ideas). Try it out now here for free! 

Create and Schedule in One Go

Unlock efficiency with AI-assisted content creation and smart scheduling in one platform.
Overcome creative blocks and streamline your publishing, ensuring a steady stream of compelling content with minimal effort.
Create your 1st month of content. Free.
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram