Creating a social media strategy is about so much more than just posting. You have to set goals, track them, create a content mix, and more. This guide will dive into how to do just that. Bonus: use this formula for any marketing strategy, not just social!
Choose what you want to focus on first. This can be to increase followers, likes, comments, views, engagement, or anything else you choose. You want this to be a specific area to focus on. This should also be something that is trackable. Set a timeline for this goal. Once that goal is reached you can set a new one.
Who is your ideal customer? What is their age, job, location, or typical interests? This customer persona can be different for each platform or piece of marketing. For example, your ideal TikTok persona is probably different than your email customer. Interests are especially important to identify so that you can use the information in ads. Most digital advertising only allows you to target location and interests due to the “housing” special ad category.
This also helps you understand who you are talking to and how to speak to them. You can be more thoughtful about the content that you create.
Identify your competition and conduct an audit of their content. What are they doing well? What are they not doing well? What opportunities exist? Take a look at what platforms they aren’t using or what type of content they aren’t producing and seize that opportunity. Also, look at what they are doing well and learn from it. This type of audit can be conducted every few months, or any timeframe you deem appropriate.
Take a look at what you are currently doing and identify what you’re doing well, where you can grow, and what content gaps exist. An easy way to look at this from a numbers standpoint is to use a third party software that will show you analytics or use the built in insights on each platform. Take a look at individual platforms, as well. Something that is working on YouTube might not work for Facebook. Conduct an audit every few months.
Take a look at what accounts you haven’t created and begin creating them. Once you are logged in to each platform you want to use, begin optimizing. Make sure that each platform has the same profile photo for easy brand recognition. Ensure that each section of your bio is filled out and that all information is still correct for each platform. For platforms such as YouTube, this is a great time to add keywords, add thumbnails, and beef up descriptions. For other platforms this is a good time to archive posts that are no longer relevant and to add new hashtags, update captions, etc.
This is the fun part! Look at accounts that inspire you whether it is food, travel, memes, animals. This does not have to be real estate related. It just has to be something that gets you in a creative frame of mind. Looking at trends is helpful to give you ideas of what is popular and then you can use them with a real estate twist. When spending time on social media, set aside time to scroll with intent. This means looking at content through the eyes of a marketer. What made me want to click on this? What made me like this? How can I do something similar?
Begin by creating a content calendar. This is where you’ll decide which platforms you will be posting on, the types of content for each, and how often. Then you will take a look at the content mix. Generally, it is recommended to follow the rule of thirds: ⅓ personal, ⅓ real estate, and ⅓ real estate adjacent posts. You do not have to follow a strict mix, but take a look at your content and make sure that you are including a variety of posts. The point is to show your personality and connect with your audience. Once you have ideas in place, take a look at your schedule and begin posting at the days and times you set.
Set a cadence for checking on your metrics and refer back to your original goals to see how your content is performing against your goals. This can be once a week, every few weeks, or every month. Once you feel like your goals have been reached, you can set new goals and continue to track your progress.
Remember, social media is fluid. Your goals, content mix, calendar, platforms, and metrics will change over time, especially as trends change. Use social media as a piece of your marketing “pie” to supplement your other marketing efforts.