3 Ways To Get Better Results From Your Social Media Strategy

by Sarah Greenberg | Jan 21, 2022 | Organic Social Media

Today’s blog is dedicated to something that can drive business owners and marketers to madness. Not exactly the Lady MacBeth kind of madness, but it can sure feel like it. Today we’re talking about…social media strategy.

When you think about using social media for your company, what comes to mind? If it’s feelings of overwhelm and frustration, you are not alone. I’ve worked with many business owners and marketers who consistently tell me three things:

1. They know they should be on social media, but they don’t know where to start.
2. It’s takes too much time to post consistently. They end up starting and stopping.
3. They’re not seeing results from their social media efforts.

I’ve experienced all of this too. In the past, I would spend a full day crafting the perfect social media calendar for the month only to abandon it two weeks in because it took up too much time. I would spend hours writing three days’ worth of social media posts, then have to spend another half-day to write posts for the rest of the week.

Guess what I had to show for all of this work?

Not much.

In one job, my social media strategy helped secure a long-term sale. Other than that, I didn’t have much else to show for the hours and hours I put into running social media strategy. It was truly maddening.

Stats On Why Social Media Is Crucial To Your Business

Your overwhelm, frustration or just plain dislike of using social media might make you question if a social media strategy is even necessary.

Here’s the thing.

Your company’s social media isn’t really for or about you. It’s about your customers. You can still dislike social media. But you can’t discount the value it provides your customers and in turn, your business.

A social media strategy is supposed to provide high-quality content to your target audience that helps them achieve their goals or solve their pain.

For some concrete reinforcement, check out these stats:

• If you’re a new brand, more than half of consumers will learn about you on social media.
• 78% of consumers said they’re more likely to make a purchase for a company after having a positive experience with them on social media.
• 80% of business executives value social media so much that they think it’s essential to invest resources in their social media strategy.

The Key To Better Results From Your Social Media Strategy

Years of social media strategy trials and errors led me to practically pulling out my hair. After deeply analyzing my process and studying with top experts, I identified where I was going wrong.

I was overcomplicating. I was getting lost in the weeds, caught up with flashy technology and forgetting about the basic tenets that work.

So, what’s the key to getting better results from your social media strategy, whether you’re starting from scratch or have been posting for a while?

Simplicity. Simplicity in how you think about social media for your company, simplicity in what you post and simplicity in how often you post.

By focusing on simplicity, you’ll be able to create a social media strategy that is sustainable and profitable.

Friendly reminder. Simple doesn’t mean easy. You and/or your team still need to devote time to building, executing and analyzing your social media strategy. But doing that while prioritizing simplicity guides you in posting great, customer-focused content on a regular basis–so that you reap the rewards.

How can you tweak your social media strategy so that it prioritizes simplicity? Below are my top three ways to do it.

1. Be Consistent With What And When You Post

Few things look worse for your company than when your social media strategy is inconsistent–in both the content you post and the frequency at which you post it.

Prospective customers tend to trust you less when you they see that you posted regularly from Sept-Nov, didn’t post for several weeks or months, then started posting again in the spring. Or if you posted well-written content for a while, then began posting lifeless company updates. Statistically, customers who are able to interact and have positive experiences with your company on social media are more likely to buy from you.

Choose 3-5 categories of high-traffic categories, create a month’s worth of content for each one and schedule them to go live throughout the week.

The categories below, as inspired by the great Julia McCoy, Jeff Hunter and Jenna Kutcher, will get you started:

• Story
• Ask
• Myth/Common Misconceptions
• Possible additional category: Company Culture (behind the scenes at your office, employee shoutouts, philanthropic efforts).

Best Types Of Content To Post On Social Media

Here’s the breakdown of the three categories to include in your social media strategy:

• Story: These are best-suited to Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. They are typically long-form posts (100+ words) that tell authentic stories. Topics can include how you helped clients get great results, overcame major hurdles in your business and learned valuable lessons from childhood hardships. If you feel a little vulnerable when crafting a story post, that’s good! You’re on the right track to having true impact on your customers. For great story post examples, check out Shay Rowbottom.

• Ask: Ask posts are on the shorter side (1-2 lines) where you address your target audience and pose a question to them. Pose a question to them about one of their pain points–a pain point your company can solve. For example, if you’re a real estate agency who serves first-time home buyers, you might post: First time home buyers: What intimidates you the most about the house hunting process? 

• Myth/Common Misconceptions: A great way to position yourself as an expert in your field is to write posts that debunk common industry beliefs or myths. What beliefs does your audience hold that frustrates you to no end? Post about them! If your company provides financial advising services, you might post: Have you ever been told that if you want to save $10K, you MUST cut out your daily coffee run? We shatter that myth and give you a sustainable savings plan that ACTUALLY works.

How Often To Post On Social Media

Now that you know what to post, let’s talk about how often to post it. To keep your social media strategy simple, you can follow this guidance:

Weekly: 3-5 feed posts (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) and 30 mins of interaction.

Daily: 1-2 real-time posts (Facebook/Instagram stories or on Twitter)

Determining the exact right posting frequency for your company and any additional platforms you need to use (TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.) will require some testing. However, 3-5 feed posts/week, 1-2 story posts/day, plus 30 mins of interaction/week is a simple way to begin your social media strategy or get it back on track.

What does 30 minutes/week of interaction mean? Engaging with your audience. Spend 10 minutes a day liking, sharing, following and commenting on posts from your colleagues and target customers. This shows that your company is tuned into the conversations happening in your space.

2. Always Post With This In Mind

This simple tips comes straight out of the teachings from my mentor and coach Julia McCoy. She recommends that before you post ANYTHING, tell yourself, “This post could pull in an ideal client.”

This mental reframe helps me when I create social media strategies for clients. It refocuses my mind from what my client does to how my client can move their target audience closer to their end goals.

For example, a run-of-the-mill post for a real estate agency might be: We celebrated our top agent’s birthday today!

After reminding yourself, “This post could pull in an ideal client,” you might revise it to be more customer-centric: Our tight-knit team of agents always celebrates each other’s wins and of course…birthdays! We bring the same dedication to you, every step of the way, to help you achieve your real estate goals. Contact us today!

So, anytime you’re about to post on your company’s social media platforms, I encourage you to tell yourself, “This post could pull in an ideal client.” It’s a simple way to ensure your content is as effective as possible.

3. Update Your Profiles And Ensure Consistency

This sounds obvious, but it’s easy to forget. When crafting a social media strategy, business owners and marketers rightly focus on their audience, content and analysis. All of that high-level thinking sometimes results in neglecting the smaller details.

But the small details in your social media strategy make a huge difference. If one of your profiles has outdated contact information, for example, that can cause a dip in trust from clients. And it doesn’t look great for your brand overall.

Here are a few things to check for consistency and correctness across all of your social media profiles.

• Contact info. Website, phone, address, email, etc.
• Company description. Year founded/years in business, services (did you remove or add any?), industries served, number of employees.
• Company name. If you haven’t posted in a while and your name changed even slightly, your profiles may not reflect it.
• Lead magnet. Since launching your social media profiles, have you created a lead magnet that your audience would love? Include a link to it in your profiles so that your audience can access it easily.

These tips are meant to be a guide to help you prioritize simplicity in your social media strategy. Prioritize simplicity in what and how you post. This will help you avoid confusion and overwhelm, post great content regularly and get the best results possible.