Creating an Effective Social Media Strategy

When it comes to planning anything new, whether it’s a trip or an event, creating a well-structured plan is crucial to ensure the success of the overall goal. The same principle is applied when organizations use social media to help reach business goals. When deciding to use social media as a part of your marketing strategy, it’s important to establish a strategic plan. A social media strategy outlines your overall goal, tactics used to achieve them, and plans to measure the progress. Having a social media strategy in place should reflect the mission of your business like with any other organizational goal. 

Steps to Create an Effective Social Media Strategy:

Goal:

When establishing your goal, it’s important to capture the overall theme of what you want to achieve. Using the S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) framework can help ensure the alignment with the organization's objectives. 

Objective: 

Objectives are used to break down your goals into measurable steps that guide your actions to determine what measures should be taken to achieve them. 

Strategy:

Strategies are developed to determine what approach will effectively help you reach your objectives. The strategy should communicate a consistent message that is tailored to specific target audiences. Often, there are multiple strategies to achieve one goal. 

Tactic: 

Tactics support your strategies and objectives. They enable you to identify your target audiences and how to reach them and clarify the reasons behind delivering your message. This specific information helps assess their success. 

Evaluation:

Evaluations of your tactics help determine their effectiveness of meeting the objectives. It is essential to analyze specific metrics and indicators to determine whether the tactics were successful or require improvement. This step provides valuable insights to assess the overall success of your strategy and identify areas for enhancement. 

Example of Creating a Social Media Strategy  

IKEA is one of the world’s leading brands that’s known for its affordable furniture and home goods. Guided by their vision, “to create a better everyday life for the many people”, IKEA strives to make a positive impact on the world. They are influenced by the communities that they source their raw materials from and the products that enable their customers to live a more sustainable lifestyle. With their belief in sharing what they stand for and advocating for their beliefs, IKEA aspires to contribute a positive change in society.

 Starting in 1948 based in a Swedish town, IKEA began selling furniture which has evolved into the IKEA the world knows today. Presently, IKEA offers an extensive range of home essentials, including furniture, home decor, and innovative solutions. The brand maintains an active social media presence on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. On Instagram, IKEA adopts a warm and helpful voice, focusing on sharing furniture inspiration. Meanwhile, on other platforms, IKEA adopts a more informative and active voice. They focus on emphasizing the benefits their products bring to consumers. Considering these aspects, let’s conduct a SWOT Analysis of IKEA’s social media presence.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths:

• Deep understanding of customer base. 

• A well-established brand voice on each platform. 

• Strong reputation and commitment to their customers. 

• A strong sense of community.

Weaknesses: 

• Inconsistent posting on Instagram that lacks differentiated content. 

• A limited presence of video content. 

• Relatively low participation in viral trends, unlike competitors. 

Opportunities:

• By generating and sharing more video content, IKEA can enhance engagement, ultimately driving an increase in exposure and online sales.

• Leveraging customer testimonials to establish trust and to promote the brand.

Threats:

• Competitors such as HomeGoods and At Home utilize their platforms to share engaging content like how-to videos, customer testimonials, and participation in viral trends, gaining more customer interaction. This puts pressure on IKEA to elevate its social media game to compete effectively. 

Proposed Social Media Strategy for IKEA:

Goal:

• The goal for IKEA is to create captivating video content to engage customers and boost online sales. 

Objectives:

• Increase video content by posting two videos per week.

• Achieve a 5% growth in online sales within six months.

Strategies:

• Create informational and inspiring video content tailored to Facebook and Instagram. 

Tactics:

• Produce user-generated content in the form of “How-To” videos, showcasing creative ways customers style IKEA products. 

• Establish weekly video series titled “Let’s Shop”, sharing the shopping experience for specific items. 

• Create targeted Facebook and Instagram promotions to drive online shopping.

Evaluation:

• Utilize unique URLs to track leads and sales generated from the video content on social media.

• Monitor key social media metrics such as engagement, reach, and interactions to determine the success of the campaign. 

For more information on creating an effective social media strategy, click here.