MARCH 21, 2025

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7 Steps to a Social Media Strategy

Jessica Dante didn’t have the money for her content startup. So, the blogger took social media into her own hands, spending her evenings learning how to do YouTube and Instagram. Over 10 years later, Love and London boasts 332K YouTube subscribers and 519K Instagram followers.

Social media is an attractive option for most content entrepreneurs. It doesn’t cost any money. It also provides access to audiences who are interested in consuming content. It’s a valuable avenue for marketing.

To get the most out of it, create a strategy using this simple seven-step process.

1. What’s in it for the business?

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of starting their social media plans by selecting the platform or creating the content. However, you must first establish clear objectives related to your business. What do you want to achieve with your social media presence?

Having a singular focus is a must. (Sure, you may see other benefits, and that’s great. They’re just not what your social media activity will be centered around.)

Ask these questions:

• Which business objective do you want social media to help with?
• What is the marketing goal related to that?
• What is the purpose of your brand being on social media?

Example: Let’s construct a social media marketing strategy for an entrepreneur specializing in career-related content.

My business objective is to increase the belief that my brand is a valuable resource for information about attaining your career goals. My marketing goal is to increase subscribers to the monthly newsletter. My social media purpose is to establish this brand as a go-to expert for information about how to attain career goals.

2. Who is the audience?

Now that you know the why, you must describe the who. After all, you can’t create an effective social media plan if you don’t understand your audience and their online behavior. Beyond basic demographics, delve into their psychographics, interests, and online behavior.

After you think you have your target audience, narrow it further. For example, if you’re that career content entrepreneur in the example above, your initial target might be early-stage professionals. Narrow the group to early-stage professionals in their first post-graduate roles.

Example: Early-stage professionals who are employed in their first post-graduate roles. They seek to take on a new role in the next two years and put time outside work hours to expand their professional skills. They are active on LinkedIn and Instagram for career-related content. They prefer short-form video content and informative articles.

3. What content will you create?

At this stage, you want to identify the content topics that work for both your business and your audience. I recommend picking three to five overarching categories. In your strategy, provide detailed examples of content posts that fit into those categories. (This also makes content planning easier.)

Example: My content categories are:

• Skill development
  • Struggling with public speaking? Actionable tips to overcome your fear
  • Master data analysis with these free resources
• Networking and professional relationships
  • Craft a LinkedIn invitation worthy of a yes response
  • How to navigate challenging workplace relationships
• Career planning
  • Define your career vision and create a roadmap to achieve it
  • Identify transferable skills for new opportunities

4. Where will you publish?

Select one primary channel where your audience expects to see and consume your topic on social media. Then, select two to three secondary channels where you can cross-post content.

Example: My primary social media platform is LinkedIn. Instagram is the secondary channel.

5. When will you post?

Consistency is key. Identify the minimum number of times you can create and publish. Don’t get ambitious. Also, determine how frequently you’ll publish content for each category. This information helps inform your content calendar planning.

Example: I will publish twice a week on LinkedIn and Instagram. Each weekly rotation will include a skills post and alternate between networking and career planning categories.

6. Why?

Revisit your business purpose in the first step. Based on your business, marketing, and social media purposes, what do you want the audience to do after consuming the social media content? Potential calls to action include follow, subscribe, like, share, visit website, and sign-up for email.

At this step, you also want to put numbers and timing to your goals. Pick a metric relevant to your goal, identify the relevant number, and set the time it should be completed.

Example: To become the go-to content resource for early-stage professionals interested in advancing their careers, my business will grow followers to the LinkedIn page by 50% in the next six months and increase newsletter subscribers from social media traffic by 5% in the next three months.

7. Review and adjust

Using your measurable goals as the timeline, add an appointment on your calendar to check in to see how well you achieved them. Also, revisit your goals based on external or internal triggering events.

By implementing these steps, you can get your social media guidance in writing and improve your opportunities for success.

Helpful Resources:

• ​5 Social Media Strategy Tips [The Tilt]
• ​A Social Strategy for Real Life From Katie Brinkley [The Tilt]
• ​Get More and Do Less Social [The Tilt]
• ​5 Things To Do To Convert Your Viewers Into an Audience You Own [The Tilt]
• ​7-Step Social Media Marketing Template [Ann Gynn]
• ​The Social Shift: The Road Back to Community [Tilt Publishing author Katie Brinkley]
• ​Simple Social Media [Tilt Publishing author Annie Schiffmann]

- Ann Gynn

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