By Cassy van Eeden

As Jessica Rose McEndoo, head of social media and content strategy at BlueMagnet points out, 95% of successful brands have a social media strategy.

What is a social media strategy?

A strategy defines your objectives and explains how you’re going to achieve them. It also gives you the opportunity to measure your efforts and whether or not they have been successful.

“It is the same as any other strategy,” says Daryn Smith, director of Mpull. “A strategy needs to have an objective and then the tactics that are planned to meet that objective.”

As McEndoo explains, a social media strategy is a key document in managing content development and promotional activities that are centred on a business objective. It is also where “clear milestones and KPIs are set and where these key metrics can be properly measured”, she says.

Any business or brand can set up and run a social media account. However, it’s what you do with those accounts that matter.

Why should I have one?

As with any communications or marketing activities, you need to know who your audience is and how you’re going to reach them. You also need to know what your messaging is going to be and how you’re going to get heard. Without a clear definition of these aspects, how are you going to know what to do?

As Smith explains: “Without an objective, you just have a bunch of activities that are unmeasurable and have no purpose.”

“Know the goal you are working towards so that you know why you are doing social media,” he adds.

“Social media works because it talks to humans,” explains Dimitri Quadflieg, founder of Brand Launch. “A social media strategy fine tunes how we go about talking to them, and in the most effective way possible.”

“Having a social media strategy aligns your business and sets out your rules of engagement with clear objectives, deliverables and is measurable,” says McEndoo.

What should it include?

André Beukes, social media manager and consultant at Social Media Cape Town, explains that your strategy needs to answer some key questions. You need to know why you need social media, what you’re going to do with it and where you want to take it, he says. Your strategy also needs to delineate your goals and when and how you are going to achieve them.

“Identify the key factors of your brand,” suggests Quadflieg. “This is probably the single most important factor of a successful strategy,” he says. When it comes to creating your social media content, Quadflieg says you should ask yourself: what are your unique USPs? What do you do that your competitors don’t? What are the benefits of your product or service?

But it doesn’t end there. Your audience as well as your chosen platforms are constantly changing and growing. As a result, you strategy needs to do the same. “Remember that your social media strategy is a living, breathing thing and that it will continually grow and develop as your business grows and develops,” says McEndoo.

Do you have a social media strategy? What does yours include? Let us know in the comments below.