How to Build Your Social Media Marketing Strategy: Step-by-step Guide

How to Build Your Social Media Marketing Strategy: Step-by-step Guide

Are you not getting the kind of engagement you were hoping for from your social profiles? Are you looking to boost your profile and bring in traffic to your brand through social media?

If so then you need a proper social media marketing strategy.

Aside from just making your life easier, a proper social media marketing strategy can give you a lot more help than you might think. There is a reason all the top digital and social marketing experts never start a project without first making a SMM strategy.

In this article we will look at what it is, why it's so important, and most importantly how to build your social media marketing strategy itself. If you are looking to guarantee better results from social media profiles then stick with us till the end.

What Is Social Media Marketing Strategy?

Before we get into building your social media marketing strategy you need to know what it is. Common sense says that it's a strategy for your social media marketing and it is but it's so much more as well. 

A social media marketing strategy is basically a guide to your business end goals through social media platforms. 

Importance of Social Media Marketing Strategy

So we now know that a social media marketing strategy is basically a roadmap to brand success through social media platforms. But what’s the big deal? Why do we need a strategy for social media platforms for business growth? 

You very much do need one because social media platforms are extremely tricky to navigate on the best of days. They might have spontaneous updates and changes that might derail your plans and goals. 

But with a proper social media marketing strategy you can more easily overcome the challenges and changes. There are other reasons why the strategy is necessary such as:

Efficiency

A proper strategy will help you keep on track and make sure you don’t go off on tangents. It will also help you keep your mind on your goals about what you are trying to achieve which is harder to do then you might imagine. And most importantly a social media marketing strategy can help you manage your social media marketing funds properly. 

Consistency

Staying relevant and boosting your brand on social media requires that you stay consistent through thick and thin. You can’t be skipping days or even hours sometimes without being active on social media platforms. 

But this is quite hard to do if you don’t have a plan or more accurately a strategy. Also the social media marketing strategy will also keep your brand tone or voice in check because you will know what and where you post your content. 

Long-term Benefits

Finally a social media marketing strategy will ensure that you are building your business profile properly on social platforms over a long time. 

From creating the right content to posting them at the right place at the right time all of these will be possible with the marketing strategy in the long-term. 


Before you delve into creating social media marketing strategies, learn which one is better SMM vs SEO.

Step-by-step Social Media Marketing Strategy Guide

That’s enough jibber-jabber about what and why you need a social media marketing strategy. You are here to read how to build your social media marketing strategy, right? 

So let’s get started on that. 

1. Determine Your End Business Goals

First true step on how to build your social media marketing strategy is to know what your business end goals are. The more you know about where you want to head and what results you are looking for from your social profiles the better. 

A helpful way you might determine your business goals for social media marketing can be SMART goals. What are they?

  • Specific: Be specific. What are you looking to find or get from your social profiles? Are you looking to boost your brand awareness? Bring in more traffic? Get more leads? 

  • Measurable: What are your measurements for success? What are your KPIs? Are you looking to increase your followers or subscriber count by X%?

  • Attainable: Have you set actually attainable goals for your business? 

  • Relevant: Do your end goals help your business achieve helpful objectives?

  • Time-bound: Can you reach your goals in a suitable amount of times?

Once you have determined some end goals match them with SMART and see if they are the right type of goals.

2. Find Out More About Your Target Audience

Another helpful step to creating your social media marketing strategy is to know as much as possible about your target audience. The more you know the better you can personalize your strategy for maximum effectiveness. We recommend you know about:

  • Who are they?

  • What are they interested in that you can provide?

  • What goals and challenges do they have

  • Where do they usually hang out online?

  • When do they look for the type of content you can provide?

  • Why do they consume the content?

  • How do they consume the content?

Answering these questions about your potential and target audience will help you plan your strategy accordingly. 

3. Do Competitor Analysis

Alongside knowing more about your target audience you should learn about your competitors. A proper and helpful social media marketing strategy should ensure that you beat your competitors at their own game with better content and plans. 

Nowadays you will find that all your competitors are present in social media in one form or another. Therefore you need to plan your social media marketing strategy to compete and beat them. 

The more you know about what they are doing on their social profiles and who they are targeting the easier it will be for you. 

4. Select Your Social Platforms

There are about a dozen or so social platforms that are very active and popular. Most if not all of these platforms are where businesses are active. But you can’t and shouldn’t be active in all of them at the same time. 

Too many businesses make this mistake and suffer shortly. A social media marketing strategy should guide you to the best platforms for the best results. With time the strategy will also tell when and where you should expand.  

Here is a simple rundown about the top social media platforms in 2024:

  • Facebook

    • 60% of Facebook users visit a local business Page at least once a week

    • 56.3% men, 43.7% women

    • Dominant age group: 25 - 34 years

  • YouTube

    • Over 70% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices

    • 54.4% men, 45.6% women

    • Dominant age group: 25 - 34-year-olds

  • X (formally Twitter)

    • 56% of X users get their news from them

    • 56.3% men, 43.7% women 

    • Dominant age group: 25 - 34-year-olds

  • Instagram

    • 71% of Instagram users feel more connected to brands they follow on Instagram

    • 51.8% men, 48.2% women

    • Dominant age group: 18 - 24 years

  • TikTok

    • Nearly 50% of the best-performing ads on TikTok have an emotional drive to them

    • 50.8% women, 49.2% men

    • Dominant age group: 18 - 24-year-olds

  • LinkedIn

    • 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn.

    • 63% men, 37% women

    • Dominant age group: 25 - 34-year-olds

5. Find Your Brand's Voice

Your brand's voice sets the tone for your social media presence. Define your brand's personality and style, and ensure consistency in your messaging across all platforms.

6. Optimize Social Profiles

Optimizing your social media profiles is crucial for visibility and credibility. Make sure your profiles are complete, accurate, and reflect your brand identity. Use keywords strategically to improve discoverability.

7. Develop Engaging Social Content

Creating engaging content is essential for capturing the attention of your audience. Experiment with different formats, such as images, videos, and infographics, and focus on providing value to your followers.

8. Create A Proper Social Content Calendar

Consistency is key in social media marketing. Develop a content calendar to plan and organize your content creation and publishing schedule. This ensures that you maintain a steady presence on social media and keep your audience engaged.

9. Track Essential KPIs

Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential for evaluating the effectiveness of your social media marketing efforts. Monitor metrics such as engagement, reach, and conversions to measure your progress towards your goals.

10. Refine Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media is dynamic, and what works today may not work tomorrow. Continuously monitor your performance, gather feedback, and be willing to adjust your strategy accordingly to stay ahead of the curve.

Conclusion

There is no right or wrong way to build your social media marketing strategy. Well, there is but not how you might imagine. We are saying that there is no set method for building a social media marketing strategy because every business in every industry will see success on social media differently.

Our guide on how to build a social media marketing strategy only shows you what you need to consider and plan for. How you go about following through your strategy is completely up to you.

When it comes time to boost the engagement of your social media profile you should consider SMMGen because we can work with you. We have our own social marketing experts who will ensure that we work with you and follow your social media marketing strategy.  We will strive for guaranteed positive social results.