How to Choose the Right Social Media Strategy for your Business and Budget

Social media is one of the hottest marketing tools right now for businesses of all sizes. Regardless of your industry, it’s likely that there are several ways that you can engage social media to improve your brand reputation, increase your customer base, and grow your business. Of course, that’s dependent on what kind of budget you have to work with in the first place. You’ll be happy to know that today’s solutions give you a chance to get a lot more for your money, though, so it should be easy to find what you need. 

Simply setting up profiles and having a social media presence is not enough. You have to create a clear social media strategy and plan measurable goals so that you can get results. It takes a little time and effort, but it’s worth the investment in more ways than you can imagine. In this guide, we’ll talk about how to choose and create the right social media solutions for your business and your budget. 

The answer is “Yes”

If you’re working on a social media strategy and you question whether you need profiles on certain platforms, don’t. Today, almost every kind of business can benefit from almost every social media platform. It’s about creating an omnichannel marketing strategy and that includes embracing all the social media sites:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Snapchat
• Reddit
• Tumblr
• Etc. (yes, there are tons more out there these days—find the ones relevant to your business or your product/service)
  

How you can create or choose a solid social media strategy for your business

There are a lot of factors that you’ll want to consider in this marketing effort, but taking the time to plan makes it easy to cover them all. To make the most of your social media strategy, here are some tips to keep in mind. 

1. Define your target audience first and foremost — This will help you see which platforms should get more or less attention based on how much of your audience segment uses that social media site. Enterprise-level consultants, for example, would likely put a huge emphasis on LinkedIn, while a teen-focused beauty brand would stick to sites like Instagram and Snapchat for the bulk of their campaigns. 
   

2. Create a content/posting strategy — Social media isn’t a standalone marketing tool. It integrates with your website, blog, and the rest of the tools that you use to create a comprehensive space where your audience can learn more about the things that they need. Make sure that your social media plan includes the type of content you want to share and how frequently you’ll be sharing. 
   

3. Pay attention to metrics — If you’ve already got some social media efforts out there, take the time to run some analytics and see how the campaigns are doing. When you take advantage of metrics and reporting tools, you can learn a lot about how your social media campaigns are doing, how they can be more successful, and where you might be able to up your presence to get a boost in visibility or brand reputation. 
   

4. Make adjustments where necessary — Once you’ve seen where things aren’t working, make changes. Check on your competitors and see how they’re owning social media marketing. Take notes on what they’re doing (and what they’re not doing) to win their audiences on the social platforms. If you never adjust your tactics, you will never improve your presence. 
   

5. Enlist help by outsourcing — There are plenty of people who can help you improve your social media efforts with their expertise and experience. Whether it’s a matter of limited time or resources on your part, this is a great way to create a dynamic social media strategy without having to do all the work yourself or spend a fortune on an in-house social media marketing team. 

In addition to these tips, you will also want to make sure that you set goals that are achievable and sensible. You aren’t trying to hang the moon here, just make sure that your social media is on point. Take the time to establish metrics, create and curate engaging content, and make sure that everything you post on social is timely and relevant. The last thing people need is more stuff in their feeds that looks like random spam posting. 

Why are you using social media?

Besides the fact that it’s recommended as a best practice, what are you using your social media marketing for? For example, you might be using it to boost brand awareness, or you could be creating campaigns to help boost engagement, drive traffic to your website, or even generate leads and sales. What matters is that you are aware of your intentions here so that you can set up the most effective campaigns possible. 

If you want to drive user engagement and stay on top of social media marketing and interaction, you need to develop a robust, intensive strategy that covers everything. Of course, for those on a budget, that might sound like a daunting (or impossible) task. That’s not the case when you do it right. 

Spend less and streamline social media marketing and more with Smith.ai by your side

As we mentioned in the tip about outsourcing, sometimes you need a little more help than your budget can afford—or so it would seem. While you may not be able to spend a fortune on in-house support, the 24/7 virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can provide all the assistance you need for those increased leads, and even assist with outbound sales and support and outreach campaigns. We also offer lead intake and qualification solutions, appointment scheduling, and 24-hour live website chat services, along with after-hours answering, and more. 

If you’re ready to streamline your business without breaking the bank, schedule a consultation to find out how the 24/7 virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can help. You can also reach us at hello@smith.ai or (650) 727-6484.