In 7 Steps to a Successful Social Media Strategy

1. Why is a social media strategy so important?
2. Now that we have discussed why you should definitely take care of a good strategy and what the benefits of a successful strategy are, let's now dive into the
3. Die Top-Tools für Euer erfolgreiches Social-Media-Management

We don't need to tell you that social media is playing an increasingly important role for businesses. That's why it's all the more important to establish a sensible social media strategy to address your business's target audience, perfectly inform your site's users and readers, and ensure you can keep things interesting with tailored content.

Via social media, you not only inform your target audience, but also share your content, your expertise, and maintain contact with your followers. In today's world, content spreads nowhere faster than on the internet and nowhere else can you reach more users at once. The internet has become far more than a mere information platform, and through influencer marketing and co., the scope that you can utilize for your content is virtually limitless. So why wait?

Why is a social media strategy so important?

As mentioned at the beginning, you can reach not only your targeted audience on social media but also millions of users who might be interested in your content. You know it yourselves, you search the internet for a certain topic or a certain contact person to solve your problem and first land countless hits. It's completely logical that you first consume the content that seems most interesting to you.

A refined social media strategy now serves to ensure that you can clearly position yourself with your customers and your target group. It summarizes your goals, measures the success of your interactions and defines your target group. In this way, you also keep track of your channels and your content and have the opportunity to measure successes and failures and continuously optimize your actions.

According to Statista, social media became increasingly relevant for businesses in the years 2015 and 2016, with around 130 companies surveyed (Source: Statista).

Advantages of a social media strategy:

• Professional appearance in front of your target group
• Clear communication & interaction with the interested parties of your content
• Defined goals for your business
• A content plan to keep track of the contents
• Accessibility also to "foreign interested parties"
• Measurable figures to optimize your channels at any time

Extra bonuses when your strategy is successful:Increased new customer acquisition

• Free, automatic marketing due to high reach
• Automatic increase in organic reach through increased sharing of content by users
• In 7 steps to a successful social media strategy

Now that we have discussed why you should definitely take care of a good strategy and what the benefits of a successful strategy are, let's now dive into the

7 steps for your successful social media strategy.Step 1 of a social media strategy: Define your goals

Before you dedicate yourselves to people and channels, you should first clarify your goals. It is important that these are clearly defined and remain within a realistic framework. It's better to set several smaller goals instead of one large one – achieving individual sub-goals keeps you motivated and you don't lose sight of your path and resources. The S.M.A.R.T. procedure is helpful in setting goals, ensuring that your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed:

So first ask yourselves the following questions:

Where do you want your company to go? These can be goals like brand awareness or reach, but also building your image or stronger new customer acquisition.

• What do you want to offer? Do you want to expand your service? Do you want to be more accessible to your customers? Should the product/service range be expanded?How are these (sub-)goals achievable and within what timeframe?
• What key figures do you want to use for orientation and measurement?Step 2 of a social media strategy: Define your target group
• So that you can reach exactly the people with your channels and content that you want to reach, you should now think about your target group in the second step. If you offer products or services, it is also helpful to be aware of the buyer persona. What is that? The buyer persona describes your ideal customer. Where does he live? What does he do and what needs/problems does he have to cope with? The gender and age cut of your target group can also be researched and better defined this way.Defining the buyer persona and target group enables you to publish content that is ideally tailored to these people and to offer services/products that actually contribute to solving the problems of these people. In this way, you are always one step ahead and can already develop solutions for future problems to be equipped when your target group starts looking for these problem solutions.Step 3 of a social media strategy: Define your social media channelsIf you now know where you want your business to go and who you would like to address, you can now take care of the "how": Which social media channels are suitable for your content? How do you want to present yourselves on these channels and how do you want to address your target group? Basically, the use of all channels is based on 3 simple basic rules:Sympathy: Nobody consumes a channel if the person appears unsympathetic to them. Cheeky comments, unprofessional answers, gloomy profile pictures – there are many stumbling blocks in the world of social media.Snack-format info: People are lazy. If they are not burning with interest for a topic, they will never read long texts or work their way through complicated material. To attract many people, some of the content should therefore be so-called "snackable content" – for example in the form of Instagram stories, summaries, teasers.

Visually appealing: Insignificant graphics, expressionless pictures or no images at all – in social media you should definitely ensure that your content is presented in a visually appealing way.

To define the suitable social media channels, "real" figures are also suitable: The internet is full of statistics and surveys about which age groups and interest groups prefer to stay on which platform.

Bamboo Consulting has provided a setup on its homepage, which social media channels provide a good first overview and which age and interest groups can be found where (Source: Bamboo Consulting).

Step 4 of a social media strategy: Plan your content – Regularity is king

In the world of social media, few things are more important than continuity: Users can easily become excited about information and content, but just as easily they can be lost again if the desire for regularity is not satisfied. Enough things happen in life that are unpredictable and even if it's just a change of date – bang, you haven't posted anything for two days and you are forgotten by your followers. This is now exaggerated, but you should always make sure not to neglect the regularity of content delivery.In order to ensure regular postings and content, you can now call on dozens of programs and apps for help. Ultimately, you should just try out which of these work best and most reliably for you. After the 7 steps for your social media strategy, you will also find a list of tools here that we at OMR Reviews can recommend for your social media management. Among other things, there are also tools for planning your postings and content.Step 5 of a social media strategy: Keep an eye on your figures!

• This step goes hand in hand with step 4: Regularity is particularly important here as well. Your figures show you which contents generally work, how reactions are made to which postings and which content provokes the greatest interaction. Regular checking of these figures (which is normally possible on any platform or with the help of a suitable tool) ensures that you constantly optimize your pages – which in turn keeps the users of your content "happy". If you belong to your target group, you expect tailored content. If a content does not fit one hundred percent to your own problem/your own interests, that's not a big deal.
• However, if you regularly post past your users, it becomes difficult to impossible to hold your target group in the long run. Then you should either go back to "Step 2: Define your target group" and see why it doesn't fit and what you have overlooked so far in defining your target group, or react to your figures by adapting individual content. This ensures that the content you offer provides optimal added value for consumers of your site and that you really have solutions for the problems of your target group. If the target group and content match, this also makes your entire online presence more professional, as you can position yourselves as experts for the concerns of your target group. In the best case, you will be recommended by satisfied customers afterwards.Step 6 of a social media strategy: Always watch the competition and marketAs with everything you do, you should always keep an eye on the competition. This of course also applies to social media! If you have therefore got your channels up and running, your profiles are standing and a certain continuity has settled in, then you can use the interims to spy on the competition: Are the other competitors at the same level of knowledge as you? Do they offer their followers similar topics and content as you or do they roll the whole thing out differently? What are you doing better? What could you potentially adjust?
• The looking around on "competitive channels" can also serve to find inspiration. What are particularly successful profiles doing differently from you? Are there niches that suit you particularly well and would help you to position your expertise even more precisely? On the other hand, you can also – unfortunately this happens often enough – uncover cheaters. A given at the end: Do not steal ideas! Adorning yourselves with borrowed plumes may simplify your own process, however, it is 1. possibly forbidden and casts 2. absolutely no good light on your business. Accordingly, it is also absolutely necessary that you react if your content was stolen/copied.

What should also be avoided as far as possible is to make your competitors look bad. Privately, you may always get upset about other channels or poor service, however, carrying this out in cheeky tone will harm your reputation more than it will benefit. Apart from the fact that it is rude, it gives the impression that you have nothing better to do. Rather, take the mistakes of others as learnings for your business and do better.

Step 7 of a social media strategy: Adapt your strategy

No matter how much you post, no matter which target groups you cater to, interests may always tip over. That's why it's all the more important that you always keep an eye on your numbers and content and are able at any time to adapt your strategy. For a better overview of what truly interests your target group, you can always involve them in the process. Simple surveys on topic wishes or existing content, as well as regular interaction with your followers, are suitable for this. Q & A formats are also a good way to filter the interests of your community. By doing so, your followers will get the chance to voice what they are really interested in.

As you can see, developing your own successful social media strategy is not rocket science. A final tip: Respond to your users' feedback! There's nothing worse than when, as a user, you sacrifice your own time to give a company feedback and then get completely ignored. Of course, you should not react personally to every insult, but constructive criticism and friendly feedback should always find an open ear with you. Customers very much appreciate when companies work with them and take care of the real concerns of people. Often enough, it feels like something is being decided "from the office chair" without the company ever having spoken to real people about it or reacted to feedback.

Of course, you can't cater to every single wish, but over time you will notice which problems are close to your community's heart. That's your moment to show that you appreciate the opinion – and free help – from outside.

The top tools for your successful social media management

On the last pages, you have now learned a lot about how to easily work out a reliable and successful social media strategy and what benefits this brings to your own business. In addition to this process, the general social media management is of course particularly important for this. There are numerous tools for this, which we have compiled for you on OMR Reviews.

Here you will now get an insight into a selection of tools that you can use for each step of your social media strategy:

Later: Later is among the first tools that made it possible to plan content for various platforms. Aside from planning via a calendar or an upload plan, the numbers can also be analyzed in retrospect. The whole thing can be used via a desktop version.

Facelift: The software solution Facelift Cloud is particularly suitable for larger companies. Here too, you can plan content and analyze data, community management and customer service are also simplified. Compared to Later, this tool also offers ideal service for you in the sense of 24/7 care.

Falcon.io: If you want to go a step deeper for data analysis and do not shy away from costs, Falcon.io is the right place for you. This platform offers you alongside content planning, also the feature to find out what your users are talking to and what moves them.Fanpage Karma: Even trend analysis is simplified with this complete solution. If you want to know what the world will be talking about tomorrow (even more), you are in the right place here. You can also use this tool to analyze data and plan content.Blog2Social: This WordPress plug-in allows you to automate your social media activities: Auto-posting, cross-posting, re-posting and posting planning for blogs and social media are simplified here to support you in implementing a continuous social media activity and also to make your social media marketing independent of time and effort.

Clarabridge CX Social: To keep the best possible eye on your community's feedback, you can optimally use this tool. All messages from various platforms are collected and analyzed here so that your team can react better and faster to your users' comments.

Schritt 7 einer Social-Media-Strategie: Passt Eure Strategie an

Egal, wie viel man postet, egal, welchen Zielgruppen man sich widmet, es kann immer passieren, dass die Interessen kippen. Deshalb ist es umso wichtiger, dass Ihr immer ein Auge auf Eure Zahlen und Inhalte haltet und jederzeit in der Lage seid, Eure Strategie anzupassen. Zur besseren Übersicht darüber, was Eure Zielgruppe wirklich interessiert, könnt Ihr diese auch jederzeit in den Prozess einbeziehen. Dazu eignen sich beispielsweise simple Umfragen zu Themenwünschen oder bestehenden Inhalten, sowie eine regelmäßige Interaktion mit den Follower:innen. Auch Q & A – Formate sind eine gute Art, die Interessen Eurer Community zu filtern. Ihr gebt damit Euren Follower:innen den Ball in die Hand, auszusprechen, was sie wirklich interessieren würde.

Ihr seht also, eine eigene erfolgreiche Social-Media-Strategie zu entwickeln, ist kein Hexenwerk. Ein Tipp zum Abschluss: Reagiert auf das Feedback Eurer Nutzer:innen! Es gibt nichts Schlimmeres, als wenn man als Nutzer:in die eigene Zeit dafür opfert, einem Unternehmen Feedback zu geben und dann völlig ignoriert wird. Ihr sollt natürlich nicht auf jede Beleidigung persönlich eingehen, doch konstruktive Kritik und freundliches Feedback sollten bei Euch stets auf ein offenes Ohr stoßen. Kund:innen wissen es sehr zu schätzen, wenn Unternehmen mit ihnen zusammenarbeiten und sich um die realen Belange der Menschen kümmern. Oft genug hat man das Gefühl, etwas wird realitätsfern „aus dem Bürostuhl“ heraus entschieden, ohne, dass das Unternehmen je mit echten Menschen darüber gesprochen oder auf Feedback reagiert hätte.

Natürlich kann man nicht auf jeden einzelnen Wunsch eingehen, dennoch werdet Ihr nach und nach feststellen, welche Probleme Eurer Community am Herzen liegen. Das ist dann Euer Moment, um zu zeigen, dass Ihr die Meinung – und kostenfreie Hilfe – von außen schätzt.

Die Top-Tools für Euer erfolgreiches Social-Media-Management

Auf den letzten Seiten konntet Ihr nun viel darüber lernen, wie man sich relativ einfach eine zuverlässige und erfolgreiche Social-Media-Strategie erarbeiten kann und welche Nutzen diese für Euer eigenes Business mitbringt. Ergänzend zu diesem Prozess ist das generelle Social-Media-Management dafür natürlich besonders wichtig. Für dieses gibt es zahlreiche Tools, die wir Euch auf OMR Reviews zusammengestellt haben.

Hier erhaltet Ihr nun noch einen Einblick in eine Auswahl an Tools, die Ihr für die einzelnen Schritte Eurer Social-Media-Strategie nutzen könnt:

Later: Later zählt zu den ersten Tools, mit denen man Inhalte für verschiedene Plattformen planen konnte. Abgesehen von der Planung über einen Kalender oder einen Upload-Plan lassen sich die Zahlen auch im Nachgang analysieren. Das Ganze ist über eine Desktopversion nutzbar.

Facelift: Für größere Unternehmen eignet sich die Softwarelösung Facelift Cloud besonders gut. Auch hierüber könnt Ihr Inhalte planen und Daten analysieren, es werden auch Community Management und Kundenservice vereinfacht. Im Vergleich zu Later bietet dieses Tool auch für Euch idealen Service im Sinne von 24/7-Betreuung.

Falcon.io: Wer für die Datenanalyse einen Schritt tiefer gehen will und keine Kosten scheut, der ist bei Falcon.io richtig. Diese Plattform bietet Euch neben der Content-Planung auch das Feature, herauszufinden, worüber Eure Nutzer:innen sich austauschen und was sie bewegt.

Fanpage Karma: Sogar die Trendanalyse wird mit dieser Komplettlösung vereinfacht. Wenn Ihr also wissen möchtet, worüber die Welt morgen (noch mehr) spricht, seid Ihr hier richtig. Außerdem könnt Ihr auch mit diesem Tool ebenfalls Daten analysieren und Inhalte planen.

Blog2Social: Dieses WordPress-PlugIn ermöglicht Euch, Eure Social-Media-Aktivitäten zu automatisieren: Auto-Posting, Cross-Posting, Re-Posting sowie Posting-Planung für Blogs und Social Media werden hier vereinfacht, um Euch bei der Umsetzung einer kontinuierlichen Social-Media-Aktivität zu unterstützen und zudem auch Euer Social-Media-Marketing zeit- und aufwandsunabhängig zu machen.

Clarabridge CX Social: Um das Feedback Eurer Community bestmöglich im Auge zu behalten, könnt Ihr dieses Tool optimal nutzen. Hier werden alle Nachrichten verschiedener Plattformen gesammelt und analysiert, damit Euer Team besser und schneller auf die Anmerkungen Eurer Nutzer:innen reagieren kann.