A social media strategy is crucial for any small business looking to grow online. With millions of users on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn, the potential for reaching and engaging with your target audience is immense. However, without a well thought out strategy, your social media efforts can easily go to waste.

We also understand that as an owner of a growing business, there isn’t always budget available to pay for ultra-targeted advertising, nor do you always have time to spend hours creating content. That’s why we’ve created a step-by-step guide to help you get the most out of your organic, non-paid social media strategy.

Step 1: Define Your Goals

The first step in creating a successful social media strategy is to define your goals. What do you want to achieve through your social media posts? Your goals could range from increasing brand awareness and driving traffic to your website, to generating leads and boosting sales. Make sure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to ensure you can track your progress.
**Example SMART Goals:**
Increase brand awareness by reaching 1,000 new followers on Instagram in the next six months.
Drive 5,000 visitors to your website from social media channels this quarter.
Generate 100 new leads through social media campaigns next month.

Step 2: Know Your Audience

Understanding your audience is crucial for creating content that resonates with them. Start by identifying your target audience and creating a profile for them using the information you already know - consider factors like age, gender, and interests. Be sure to use the internet as an extra resource. There are tons of great websites that can help you find information about your audience for free if you don’t already know it.

Questions to Consider:

What type of person makes up the largest amount of your followers?
What type of content do they engage with the most?
What are their pain points and how can your business solve them?

Step 3: Choose the Right Platforms

Not all social media platforms are created equal, and not all of them will be right for your business. Choose the platforms that align with your goals and where your target audience is most active. For instance, if you’re targeting professionals, LinkedIn might be the best platform for you, whereas Instagram and TikTok are better for reaching a younger demographic.

The Best Ways to Use Each Social Platform:

Facebook: Great for building a community and sharing a variety of content types.
Instagram: Ideal for visual content and engaging younger audiences.
LinkedIn: Best for B2B marketing and professional networking.
X (Twitter): Useful for real-time updates and customer service.

Step 4: Focus on Engaging Content

Content is the heart of your social media strategy. To keep your audience engaged, you’ll need to consistently produce quality content that provides value. Mix up your content types to keep things interesting—use a combination of images, videos, infographics, articles, and user-generated content.

One of the biggest mistakes we see from business owners just starting their social accounts is making posts just for the sake of posting. If your content isn’t relevant and doesn’t provide value to your followers - it won’t perform well. Always think of how your posts will benefit your audience.

Content Suggestions:

Behind-the-scenes looks at your company
Customer reviews
How-to guides and tutorials
Industry news and insights
Interactive content like polls and quizzes

Step 5: Develop a Content Calendar

A content calendar helps you plan and organize your social media posts in advance. This ensures a consistent posting schedule and allows you to align your content with important dates and events. Plan your content around themes, campaigns, and goals. While several online calendar tools will want you to pay for a simplified dashboard and the ability to post to multiple social accounts at once, you can use Microsoft Word or Excel to create a simple calendar for free.

Tips to Create a Content Calendar:

Plan your posts at least two weeks in advance to get started. Once you build up a schedule, try to move to scheduling one month in advance.
Include key dates like holidays, product launches, and dates important to your business. For example, a social post from a local ice cream shop would probably perform better than average on National Ice Cream Day.
Research to find the best days and times to post on your social platforms. Different audiences will have different times that they interact with content the most.

Step 6: Engage with your Audience

Social media isn’t just about broadcasting your message - it's about engaging with your audience too. Respond to comments, messages, and mentions promptly. Encourage conversations and build relationships with your followers. Engagement helps build trust and loyalty, making your audience more likely to support your business.

Engagement Strategies:

Respond to comments and questions as soon as you can.
Like and share content relevant to your business posted by your followers.
Run contests and giveaways to encourage participation.
Use polls and questions to gather feedback.

Step 7: Analyze Results & Adjust

Finally, regularly review your social media performance to see what’s working and what’s not. Each platform offers free analytics tools that help you track metrics, see your most popular posts, and gather important information about your followers. Adjust your strategy based on the data to continuously improve your social media efforts.

Important Metrics to Track:

Engagement rate (likes, comments, shares). To find this, take your total engagement divided by total followers and multiply by 100. You’ll then have a percentage that shows how well your content performs. You can find all of these numbers using the analytic tools offered by your social platform.
Follower growth
Website traffic from social media
Conversion rate (leads or sales generated).