05 July 2024 ~ 10 min

Author of the article

Nikita Guzeria, marketing manager at VAU Agency

Today, it is hard to imagine a brand without social media, just as it used to be without a website. They have long since ceased to be just “photos and video sections”.

An effective SMM strategy helps to attract new customers, strengthen relationships with existing ones, and increase brand awareness.

Read this article to find out what an SMM strategy should look like to make it an effective roadmap, not just another document.

The process of creating a strategy begins with determining “why do you need social media at all?” Often, SMM helps to achieve the following goals:

• Recognition.
• Applications.
• Loyal community.
• Informing.

And each global goal will have its own component goals. For recognition, it is coverage and frequency, for applications - the number and cost of applications, and for the community - ERR (engagement rate).

Accordingly, the content will also be very different.

We have a goal, now we need to understand who we will communicate with. This will determine the content and style of communication. And the deeper you understand your audience, the more targeted content you can generate.

What is target audience analysis in simple terms?

It's a lot of “why?” questions in a row to understand how and why they buy your product/service. It also means understanding the “pains” - the problems that you can solve with your product/service.

The audience of a service station, for example, is not just men aged 20-70, but

• owners of old cars that can often break down;
• owners of +/- new cars that need a scheduled inspection;
• owners of cars that have been damaged in an accident or crash.

And there are many more segments. The same is true for other niches.

It's always a good idea to start by looking at what others are doing. This way, you can understand what content, approaches, and mechanics are available on the market. With this, you can either refine your existing ideas or stand out from the competition with unique content.

What to analyze?

The amount of content, frequency, headings, mechanics, formats, design, statistics (you won't be able to find out the number of saves, shares, and page views, but you can easily find out the number of likes and comments).

Videos for Tik Tok and videos for YouTube will differ in format, so you need to clearly understand which platforms your target audience is on.

Instagram is a social network for a young and female audience, while Facebook has a more adult and male audience. Tiktok is generally considered the most “young” social network.

Another important element of preparation for content creation is the budget.

Professional shooting with an operator, camera and lights or an iPhone and a loop? I think you understand what I mean.

Now that you know your audience and their pains, you can clearly make a list of headings, topics, and posts that will be of interest to them.

Using the example of a service station, it will be very strange to explain to the audience what a service station is. However, it will be interesting to know how to get to the service station if you have a flat tire.

Keep track of trending formats, adapt them to your needs, and collect millions of likes and views.

“Wheelbarrow and carriage” or ‘car and car’? You need to decide how you will communicate with your audience. It can be any style:

• just friendly;
• best friend
• dry informative;
• discreet.

To get your content seen by as many people as possible, you need to promote it. You have three main options here:

• Targeted advertising.
• Bloggers.
• Collaborations.

Which one to use and what budget to allocate for it depends on the goals that are set at the very beginning of the creation of the SMM strategy.