Learn the steps and components to develop a simple social media strategy that supports your business objectives.

1. How to Develop a
Social Media
Strategy
UNIVERSITY OF THE SUNSHINE COAST
July 2018 Prepared by: Dr Karen Sutherland

2. IN THIS PRESENTATION
Benefits of a social media strategy
Types of strategies
The customer journey
Stages in strategy development
Components of a strategy
Social media strategy template

3. BENEFITS OF A
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Without a strategy social media
activity is ad hoc and untargeted.
Strategies (and the research
behind them) enable:
The target audience to be
identified
Knowledge about the social
media platforms that they use
Understanding of the audience’s
language and habits
Competitor analysis and
industry insights
Evidence to be found about what
has worked well and not-so-well

4. TYPES OF STRATEGIES
It's important for a business to have an ongoing social media strategy
and to develop other strategies to support short-term campaigns
LONG-TERM SHORT-TERM

5. LONG-TERM STRATEGIES:
Support long-term business goals
Focus on long-term customer relationship management
Build positive brand reputation over time
Position business as an industry leader over time
Focus on the day-to-day social media activities of the
organisation

6. LONG-TERM STRATEGIES:
CREATING A CONTENT
SCHEDULE
Facebook, Instagram, monitoring, responding to comments.DAILY
Blog post/s, video, How To articles, online group and
discussion participation, webpage updates.
WEEKLY
More in-depth pieces e.g. newsletter, webinar, video interview
with an expert etc.
MONTHLY
e-book, research report, video series, competition etc.QUARTERLY

7. LONG-TERM STRATEGIES:
CREATING A CONTENT
SCHEDULE

8. SHORT-TERM STRATEGIES:
Have a specific purpose
Aim to achieve a short term goal
Are part of an integrated communication strategy
Are a smaller component of a long-term marketing communication
strategy

9. SHORT-TERM STRATEGIES
PURPOSES:
To launch a business
To launch a product
LAUNCHES:
Membership drives
Volunteer drives
Donation drives
Subscription drives
DRIVES:
Event promotion
Sale promotions
PROMOTIONS:

10. THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
The best way to use social media is
to keep building customer
relationships and improving the
customer experience well after
purchase.

11. STAGES IN STRATEGY
DEVELOPMENT
1. RESEARCH
2. ANALYSIS
3. GOAL SETTING
4. SETTING
OBJECTIVES
5. IDENTIFYING
TARGET AUDIENCES
6. DEVISING
TACTICS
7. IMPLEMENTING
TACTICS
8. MONITORING
9. EVALUATION

12. COMPONENTS OF A
STRATEGY
STRATEGY
GOALS
SMART OBJECTIVES
TACTICS

13. COMPONENTS OF A
STRATEGY
GOAL
SMART OBJECTIVES
TARGET AUDIENCE
KEY MESSAGES
TACTICS
BUDGET
MEASUREMENT

14. GOAL
The main outcome/s that you
want this strategy to achieve.
Must be able to be summarised in
one sentence.
Must be aligned to business goals
1 -2 goals per strategy is plenty
E.g:
To increase online sales
To increase Facebook followers

15. SMART OBJECTIVES
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timely
Each SMART objective must be
summed up in one sentence.
2-3 SMART objectives should
support each goal
To increase online sales by 10%
within one month of this
strategy's implementation.
To increase Facebook page likes
by 500 before the end of 2018.
FOR EXAMPLE:

16. TARGET AUDIENCE
Learn as much as you can about
your target audience
Demographic: Age, gender,
occupation, income, geographic
region, family composition,
race/ethnicity, religion,
education, language
Psychographic: Personality,
attitudes (opinions), values,
expectations, habits (e.g. social
media habits, traditional media
habits).
RESEARCH

17. TARGET AUDIENCE
Inspire
Engage
Excite
Entertain
Inform
YOUR AIM IS TO
Boring
Offending
Disengaging
WITHOUT THOROUGH RESEARCH
YOU RUN THE RISK OF:

18. KEY MESSAGES
Most important information for
the target audience
Must support the goals
inform;
build understanding; or
persuade people to act. Calls-to-
action
Less is more
1-3 KEY MESSAGES ARE PLENTY
Every piece of social media
content must communicate one
of these key messages.
E.g. Shopping via our website can
save you time and money.
You can show rather than tell.
REMEMBER

19. TACTICS
'How’ the key messages reach the
target audience.
Important – but they are the
mere tools of the strategy
What must: facilitate the
achievement of the objectives
and objectives must facilitate the
achievement of the goals
ARE:
3 tactics to support each SMART
objective, and to identify
The goal and objectives
supported
The key message conveyed
The audience targeted
YOU WILL NEED

20. TACTICS
Goal: Improving online sales
SMART Objective: Generate at least one sale from 20% of our existing Facebook page
followers before the end of the campaign.
Tactics:
1. Create a how-to video based around one of the questions most frequently asked by
customers
2. Produce a video testimonial by a regular customer who is also a Facebook follower
3. Run a 10% off promotion exclusive to our existing Facebook page followers.
4. Create a Facebook advertising campaign to promote the above offer to our Facebook
page followers.

21. BUDGET
Ad spend?
Video production?
Content production?
Be realistic
Be detailed
Shop around
Ask others for advice
REALISTICALLY, WHAT IS THE
BUDGET TO SUPPORT THESE
TACTICS?

22. MEASUREMENT
Determines if you met your
objectives
Achieved your goals
If the strategy was successful
What you would improve for next
time
Likes, shares, number of
comments, etc.
VANITY METRICS
CONVERSION METRICS
Measurement of tangible results
resulting from social media tactics
e.g.
online sales,
number of volunteers,
number of event attendees etc.

23. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
TEMPLATE
Goal: Only 1 - 2 per strategy. One sentence for each.
SMART Objectives: 2-3 per goal. One sentence for each.
Target Audience: Key demographic and psychographic
characteristics. One paragraph or list of attributes.
Key Messages: 3 maximum

24. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
TEMPLATE
Tactic: Write your tactics in a table format e.g.
Goal
SMART Objective
Platform Tactic Duration Key Message Target Audience Rationale
Facebook Ad
campaign
promoting
10% of
voucher
First two
weeks of
strategy
Shopping via
our website
can save you
time and
money.
between Female
Facebook users
between 35-40.
Similar
businesses
have had
success using
discounts
promoted on
Facebook
(Brown, 2018)

25. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
TEMPLATE
Measurement: Write your measurement section in a table too:
Goal Objective Measurement Method
To increase
online sales
To increase online sales
by 10% within one month
of this strategy's
implementation.
An increase online
sales by
10% originating from
social media within
one month of this
strategy's
implementation.
Using a Facebook
pixel and Google
Analytics to track
activity from our
social media profiles
to and on our
website.

26. THANK YOU AND QUESTIONS?
DR KAREN SUTHERLAND
KSUTHERL@USC.EDU.AU
F: /DRKARENSUTHERLAND
L: /KARENESUTHERLAND
T: @KESUTHERLAND777
I: @KARENESUTHERLAND
DRKARENSUTHERLAND.COM