A lesson from Google’s Digital Garage Workshop: Developing your social media strategy
Google’s Digital Garage team held a talk focusing on social media. It was incredibly successful, with over 200 seats requested for the 2 hour talk, I’m lucky to have signed up early!
For those who missed it, here all are the key bits of information from the talk about creating your social media strategy.
The strategy considerations are broken down into the following:
- Your audience
- Your platform(s)
- Your goals
Your audience
As with any marketing strategy, it’s important to know who you’re aiming at. This helps you speak to your audience in the most appropriate way possible, and therefore gain the most impact.
A great way to help develop a clear image of your audience is to create personas. Preferably one or two characters, but more are necessary if your company aims at multiple groups.
These should focus on the things your target audience have in common, this can include:
- Their hobbies
- Common periods they’re online
- What social media platforms they use
These personas represent a core member of your audience. By speaking to them, you’re speaking to the majority.
Your platform
This often coincides with your choice of audience. The choice of social media to use is important as content needs to appeal to the general style and audience of the platform.
For large brands, having multiple social media platforms is easier to manage with a large team. However, for smaller companies, it’s best to stick to one or two platforms. This way you can remain consistent and more importantly, maintain a consistent tone of voice for your brand.
Your tone of voice is essential to ensure a clear brand image is portrayed to your audience.
Can you identify the differences and similarities between these four companies online?
Speak directly to your personas. Consider:
- Whether your content is relatable
- If they will be interested in what you’re offering
- Your choice of language
Whilst your forms of content should adapt to the given platform, your tone of voice should remain consistent across all platforms. If you’re on Instagram or YouTube, focus on the visuals. Are they representative of what you do? Are the people and situations relatable to those you target?
Your goals
It’s important to set goals so you know what you’re working towards!
Ensure your goals are SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realisted
- Time scaled
For example: Gain 200 twitter followers by the 22nd of February.
Setting goals makes your social media strategy easier to monitor, because you know what you’re aiming for. Set as many as you feel appropriate, but always make sure that they have your company’s main goals in mind.
