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How to plan your social media marketing strategy for 2022

2 mins read

Social media strategy. It can be a tough one to organise and 'get right'. It's a noisy world out there on social right now and most businesses finally realise they need to be 'on social', but they don't quite know where to start. 

Similarly, I know you Digital Marketing Managers out there will be tearing your hair out, trying to align your social strategy with your business goals while juggling all the other responsibilities that come with your role. 

I feel your pain. Take a step back. Breathe and maybe watch my HUG presentation from December? 

It's full of guidance on where to focus your efforts for the different stages of the buyers' journey. And I've thrown in a handy way to organise your content for the year ahead, too. I hope it alleviates some of the burdens you have on your shoulders right now and gives you clarity with your social media strategy for the year ahead. 

 

If you aren’t entirely convinced, here’s a little rundown of what you can expect from the talk.

Setting goals 

The goals are the first place any social media marketer should look at when planning for the year ahead. It’s a great time to reflect right now. How has this year been? What have we seen success with? What should we do more or less of? And most importantly, what are our overall business goals? 

After you’ve established your overall business goals or if you’ve already had these given to you by your boss, then it’s time to figure out how social fits into the equation. 

Here are some industry benchmarks as a reference. 

Tactics and KPIs

So, you’ve got your goals and you’re working out what tactics you should deploy to help reach them, but where do you start? This is where you should focus on which part of the buyer’s journey your goals are aimed towards. 

Do you want to attract more customers? Or are you more focused on brand building? In my presentation, I talk all about how different stages of the buyer’s journey require a different approach tactically. 

Not only this, but they also have different metrics you need to track to measure success. 

Here’s what that looks like:

 

social media marketing strategy target setting diagram by digital 22 avidly uk and canada

Once you’ve established the goal, for example, Awareness (generate demand), I then have a few questions you should ask yourself to help influence your tactics. 

For Awareness, ask yourself: 

  1. How are we trying to reach people today?
  2. Which platforms are we focused on now? 
  3. Are there types of content we’ve seen success with before?

These questions should act as a steer to guide your social content for that specific stage of the buyer’s journey. You can do this from awareness to advocacy. This should help you refine your goals and clarify what tactics you should deploy. 

After we talked about goal setting, we touched on benchmarking your KPIs and other marketers’ focus for the year ahead. 

Now let’s talk content 

One of my favourite ways of organising content was shown to me earlier in the year and I felt like I needed to pass it forward as it’s probably one of the best methods for social. 

I can’t take any credit for this method. I first heard it from Taylor Loren, one of my favourite social media content creators. She’s amazing, so definitely check her courses and social channels out if you get the chance. 

The basic premise is starting with all your big business goals for the year ahead and mapping out the big initiatives to help you reach those goals. You call these your content gold. Think big events, campaigns etc. An example of content gold for us would be LOVE INBOUND

Then you map out your content buckets/pillars. These are the themes that will help keep you on brand. Then you break it down even further to create your gems, which are your day-to-day posts. So, it’s not ‘We’re going to do a bunch of Tik Toks’. It’s more ‘we’re going to one Tik Tok video about X, the next about Y and the third about Z’. That’s where you’ll get really detailed with your content. 

Break it down

You can use this method to structure and organise your content for the year ahead in an effortless way. Choose a goal, map out your gold and your content buckets throughout the 12 months, then break it down quarterly, monthly and then weekly with your gems. 

The secret is giving yourself enough lead time to achieve your gold. Work backwards from all your big initiatives and you’ll very quickly have a full social calendar of great content. You may even have too much! 

If you’re interested in hearing more about that method, make sure you watch the HUG presentation here. 

What is the Manchester HUG?

HUG stands for HubSpot User Group and is a recurring event hosted by Digital 22 throughout the year to help like-minded people share their skills and tactics to improve their inbound marketing efforts. It’s an excellent opportunity for marketers to grow, learn and enjoy. Together. Which is something we’re big on here at Digital 22.

At the Manchester HUG, you’ll discover what does and doesn’t work for other companies, as well as have the opportunity to ask experts questions. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn and grow with like-minded individuals.