A slideshow based on my article on LinkedIn titled 'How to Strategise for Social Media'. Read article on https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/strategizing-social-media-benita-bhatia-dua

3. Why:
What is the purpose of your social media? When the campaign is
over (or while it is still on going), what would you use as a
measure of success. E.g. generating three new leads per day
could be a measurable outcome of a perpetual social media
campaign. On the other hand, if you are promoting an event,
selling fifty tickets online could be the goal of your social media
campaign. A common mistake made is to do social media
because ‘everybody must do it.’ Ask yourself, "Why are we doing
this?"

5. Who:
Based on what you wish to accomplish, define your target
audience. Do not say, ‘everybody’. ‘Everybody’ will include
people who would never be inclined to buy your products and
services. If you don't define whom you are targeting, you will
end up with a ‘Spray & Pray’ strategy. Ask, "Who are we
targeting?"

7. Where:
You have limited time and resources. If you know someone you
want to meet is in London, you wouldn’t go to Beijing to meet
him or her, right? The same logic applies when you are targeting
an audience. Know which platform they’re active on and use
your resources to reach them there. Now you know why
knowing ‘Who’ is your target audience was so important. Now
you can ask, "Where is my target audience most active?"

9. When:
There is tons of data available on what is a good time to post on
a particular platform. Club that with the demographics of who’s
active on social media to gather insights and post at appropriate
times. This will answer, "When is it a good time to post?"

11. What:
The vocabulary you use on social media, your key messaging and
your content needs to be thought out. Don't go online and then
begin the thought process of "What do I post today." At Vanilla
Skills, we choose our content for a week and then review it as we
go. Sometimes, we tweak it based on what’s trending but it is a
thought out move instead of an accidental one.

13. How:
The format in which the content is presented has a great impact
on whether it will be shared forward or not. Statistics prove that
tweets with a link get highest retweets though the traffic to the
link is not drastically higher due to the tweet. On the other hand,
visuals & videos get more clicks & engagements. Always ask,
"How will our target audience want to see this content?"

15. Which:
Choose which of your members will post on social media and
which ones will back it up. It is a bad idea to hand over your
social media account in the hands of an intern. A lot of people
think young people know and understand it better and hence
hire interns to handle their social media. However, while the
youth is usually tech savvy, they lack the maturity required in
handling clients. A better idea is to keep control of your social
media, post yourself and ask other stakeholders to back it up. If
uncertain, hire an expert.

16. Summary of
Strategizing For
Social Media
By

17. @vanillaskills www.vanillaskills.com http://lnked.in/SMTCCD