Setting Your Social Media Game Plan

A KPI-driven social media program isn’t just about posting content or sharing videos and images. To achieve significant impact—whether that’s generating engagement, driving website traffic or any other measurable objective—your social media efforts need to be built on a solid foundation: your social media strategy. 

At its core, your social media strategy connects seemingly disparate elements, demonstrating how various pieces of content, likes, comments and shares collectively support your business goals. It also defines your company’s online presence through elements like voice, tone and visuals, and clearly identifies your target audience and where they can be found. 

Gathering all this information and documenting it might seem like an unnecessary step. After all, your social media team lives and breathes these details daily. However, not having a documented strategy can lead to issues, such as scrambling to find someone with the right access when a post needs to go out, especially if your social media lead is unavailable. For larger or matrixed social media teams, not documenting a strategy can result in a disjointed feed with competing messages and visuals instead of a cohesive effort supporting common business goals. 

Building A Social Media Strategy

Like most things in life, a successful social media strategy is not one-size-fits-all. Consider including the following elements: 

• Clear Objectives and Goals: Document the purpose of maintaining a social media presence, with bonus points for including language that shows how it supports your company’s business strategy. 

• Target Audience Profiles: Describe who you’re trying to engage on social media—and maybe who you’re not as interested in engaging. 

• Content Strategy: Define your brand voice and tone, primary content types, topics and themes, post formats and visual branding considerations. 

• Platform Selection and Rationale: Outline where you’re focusing your social media efforts, and why they’re your priority channels. If there’s a strategic reason you’re not using a platform, you can include that here, too. 

• KPIs: Specify what success looks like for your social media program. 

Level Up to a Social Media Playbook

Once your social media strategy is established, elevate it by creating a social media playbook. This document becomes the definitive guide for your social media program, detailing how the strategy is executed and adhered to. 

Your playbook may include: 

• Platform-Specific Recommendations: Each social media channel has unique functionalities and norms. For example, links in Instagram captions aren’t clickable. Define your approach to such specifics to help your team avoid common pitfalls. 

• Messaging Matrix: Map out your target audiences, their preferred social media channels, and the topics they’re most interested in. Refer to the matrix when you need inspiration. 

• Content Development Guidelines: Codify your copywriting best practices. For example, decide on how to refer to your company in post copy, and settle on details like the use of the serial comma and date references. Maintaining consistency in your copy will reinforce your brand style and help people know what to expect when your account appears in their social media feed. 

• Community Management Guidelines: Plan for engagement opportunities in your social media feeds. Determine your responses to compliments, complaints or criticism, and outline the approval process for responses. For genuine crises, identify the people who need to be informed. 

• Staffing Roles and Responsibilities: Clearly outline the responsibilities of each team and identify backup contacts for each role. 

• Ways of Working Across Teams: Document the process for content contribution from multiple teams to ensure a coordinated effort and minimize duplication. 

Pulling these details together into a playbook helps everyone who supports or influences the social media function understand how the strategy becomes a reality. It also addresses some of the most common questions your team is likely to receive and can help you identify and gently deflect any requests that aren’t well aligned with your strategy. Moreover, a playbook can help internal teams understand social media’s role within the organization. 

Does Every Company Need a Social Media Playbook?

Ideally, yes. However, in reality, it may not always be necessary. Even if you don’t develop a formal playbook, consider the elements listed above and determine what someone would need to know to step into your role temporarily. 

If your social media strategy is more of a concept than a document, start by formalizing it. A well-defined strategy will align your social media efforts with business objectives, ensure brand consistency online and maximize efficiency. 

Need some experienced guidance to get your strategy or playbook ready for action? We know a few experts who can help you out. Let’s chat!