Did you know? Approximately 53.6% of the world’s population uses social media. That’s about 4.23 billion people. Hence, it’s crucial that you use the right social media strategies for your business.

While social media seems promising, there are a lot of brands competing for attention out there.

But how exactly do you stand out? How do you get the attention of your prospects?

If you want to tap the power of social media but don’t know where to start, we’re here to help.

In this article, we will talk about what a social media strategy is and why you need to create one. We will also give you some ideas you can copy for your social media strategy.

A social media strategy contains everything you plan to do and want to achieve through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

In a gist, a social media strategy guides your actions. It also lets you know whether you are succeeding or failing at your social media efforts.

When it comes to creating social media strategies, you need to be as specific as possible. Do not employ broad strategies that are difficult or impossible to measure. The more specific you are, the more effective your strategies will be.

You also need to be as concise as possible. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to create a 100-page social media strategy.

In a nutshell, a social media strategy outlines your social media goals, objectives, tactics, and metrics.

In particular, a social media strategy requires you to answer the following questions:

Who is your target audience?
What do you want to achieve through social media?
How long will it take you to achieve your goals through social media?
What are you going to do to achieve your goals?
How are you going to measure your performance on social media?
What social media platforms are you going to use?

Take note, these questions serve as base guidelines for your social media strategy. You can add questions depending on your branding and company goals.

Now that you know what a social media strategy is, it’s time to know why it is relevant to your business.

Times have changed and because of this, the way we market our products and services to consumers also has to change.

This is where social media strategies come in.

As we mentioned, billions of people use social media. Hence, it’s just fitting for you to use social media to reach your target audience.

But with thousands if not hundreds of your competitors vying for people’s attention on social media platforms, how do you gain market share?

Simple. Use iron-clad social media strategies.

And if you are wondering why you need such strategies when you can just post random content online, we’re here to explain why.

For one, having a social media strategy gives you clarity.

With many other brands on social media, you should know who you want to target. Contrary to popular belief, targeting a segment of a population allows you to bring in more customers.

For instance, if you are selling vegan cookies, you need to target vegans. You might want to spend your time selling your vegan cookies to everyone since not everyone will benefit from your product.

Next, a social media strategy allows you to get measurable results. If you are simply posting or putting out ads on social media for the sake of doing it, you won’t know how to measure your success or failure.

When you have a clear social media strategy, you will know how to measure your results. This makes it easier for you to align your efforts with your goals.

A social media strategy also allows you to get in front of the right people.

As we mentioned, trying to get everyone’s attention on social media is a brewing disaster. Instead, you should direct your effort to people who will likely buy your products or services.

When you get the attention of your target audience, you get more qualified leads. When you get more qualified leads, you get more leads. This is because those qualified leads will most likely tell other qualified leads about your product or service.

Create some graphics.
Tell stories.
Use photos.
Go live.
Publish informational videos.
Create a community.
Use SEO to your advantage.
Publish ads.
Connect with social media influencers.
Run promos and challenges.

Now that you know why you need social media strategies, it’s time to decide what strategies to use for your business.

Contrary to popular belief, you need many social media strategies to succeed in social media. Given this, here are some effective social media strategies you can use for your brand:

1. Create some graphics.

Graphics are a combination of pictures and text. Professionals use them to visually attract people and make them read what’s on the graphic.

Professionals also use graphics to help readers understand a certain concept in an easy, interesting way.

While graphics started out as visual elements for print, professionals now widely use them online. Hence, you should consider posting graphics as one of your social media strategies.

Thanks to technology, you can use different tools to easily create graphics. From beginner-friendly tools like Canva to advanced tools such as Photoshop, you have many choices.

If you have the budget for it, hire a professional graphic designer. Professional graphic designers can set the right branding colors for your business and make excellent branding templates for you.

2. Tell stories.

Stories are another social media strategy you can use for your business.

Humans as we are, we are all attracted to engaging stories. That’s why excellent storytellers are among the most successful people in the business world.

Plus, think about this, when someone tells you an interesting story, you cannot help but stay and listen, right?

While people get attracted through visual elements, good old stories remain helpful. For decades, interesting stories have helped digital marketers scale businesses. Stories also make your brand more likable, so using them is like hitting two birds with one stone― making your brand more likable and reaching more people.

So, if you want to use effective social media strategies, start telling stories through your social media accounts now.

3. Use photos.

Investing in high-quality photos is another excellent social media strategy.

In this digital age, people look at photos online a lot. This is what makes Instagram so successful. So, using photos to your advantage is a great way to take your Instagram game to the next level.

For instance, if you are selling minimalist cakes, you must take amazing photos. People eat with their eyes online, so hiring a professional photographer or getting a great camera helps.

The same goes for people running restaurants selling Filipino desserts. Since food is your product, you should invest in great Filipino food photography practices.

However, if you have a limited budget, you can use a ring light and your smartphone to take photos. Once your budget increases, you can hire a photographer or get a better camera.

4. Go live.

Even if this strategy came into light recently, it has helped businesses make sales. Going live via Facebook or through a webinar has been proven to be another effective social media strategy.

There are many reasons why going live works so well.

For one, it enables people to feel more at ease with the seller. While recorded videos work well as promotional materials, going live lets people relate to the speaker more.

Going live also gives people the urgency to buy on the spot. Since many people forget or neglect a certain product over time, going live avoids this sales pitfall.

While this strategy has been mainly used by business owners selling products, it can be used to sell services as well.

5. Publish informational videos.

Whether you publish a long video on Youtube or short clips on TikTok, videos undoubtedly help scale your business.

While it’s tempting to create videos that are mostly fun, you must remember that they must be informational as well. After all, this social media strategy must be used to advance your business.

For instance, if you are selling sushi bake, creating videos around your product helps scale your business. To begin with, you can make a video about how nutritious sushi bake is. You can also make a short clip of how you prepare your product.

Doing these increases brand awareness and lets people see the benefit of your product.

6. Create a community.

Another untapped social media strategy you must consider is creating a community around your product.

Doing so lets you promote your products for free to people who have the intent to buy them. But how do you do this?

Use Facebook groups.

First, promote your group to people who might be interested. Make sure that the Facebook group is something useful to your target audience.

For instance, if you are selling kitchen tools and equipment, create a Facebook group that gives tips on how to use these tools and equipment properly. You can also use the group to give away recipes involving these tools for free.

By giving value for free, people will consider checking out and buying your products.

7. Use SEO to your advantage.

Interestingly, social media platforms also function as search engines for some people. For instance, people who want to know how to cook certain food often go to Youtube.

Hence, you must take advantage of SEO, which stands for search engine optimization.

While SEO is not often used as a social media strategy, it helps. For instance, you can use keyword research to know what your target audience looks for on Youtube.

Then, you can use the said keywords to optimize your video. When done right, your video should come up in the search results whenever people type in the keywords.

In addition, you can use hashtag research to optimize your social media posts. Since people do social media challenges nowadays, riding the trend can help scale your business.

8. Publish ads.

The last three social media strategies in this list cannot be done for free, so you have to set a budget to execute them.

Speaking of paid social media strategies, running ads is one of the best things you can do for your business.

Let’s face it: getting the attention of your target audience is hard especially if you are new to the game. The fastest way to get their attention? Running ads.

By running ads, you get a fraction of your target audience’s time. When done right, this could give you a high conversion rate.

In addition, social media ads are highly targeted. Thanks to the extensive data available on social media platforms, you can target prospects in a few clicks. And winning through Facebook ads for food business is now possible.

Social media influencers are the new celebrities of this digital age. With social media influencers popping in and out of many platforms, asking them for help can take your business to the moon.

However, you need to pay social media influencers to promote your product. You should also carefully choose the social media influencer for your campaign. After all, you must get in front of the right audience.

If you are selling cute cupcakes, you must choose an influencer that bakes or reviews baked desserts. By doing this, your product gets in front of people who are likely interested in cupcakes.

10. Run promos and challenges.

Last but not least on our list of social media strategies is running promos and challenges.

To do these, you can give special discounts to prepare your business for the holidays, do promos, conduct giveaways, and do challenges.

While this sounds promising, you must carefully choose the stuff you’re giving away. Make sure that the discount you’re giving won’t hurt your business. In addition, make sure that your challenges are appealing enough for people to participate.

Conclusion

Social media strategies, when done right, can take your business to new heights. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok can make or break your business. So, carefully choose the right strategies for your brand.

About HICAPS

Over the years, HICAPS has helped bakers and businesses make delicious products by offering ingredients like ChiffonAide Cake Oil, Magic Whizk Whipping Cream, Red Velvet Flavor Emulco, and Instabake Brownie Mix.

HICAPS also provides tools and resources to valued partners such as the FREE Bakery Business Plan E-book, Filipino Food Photography: The Ultimate Guide, 18 Free Digital Marketing Tools, Conversion charts for ml to grams and tablespoon to cup, and dealer locator that helps look for baking supplies stores near me.

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About the Author
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Lysias Legarde

Lysias (Lysh for short) is a Social Work graduate from the University of the Philippines Diliman. She has over seven years of experience in content marketing.

With a sweet tooth and thirst for mind-blowing content, she is the resident SEO content strategist for HICAPS. Lysias is also the founder of a digital marketing agency called Digifolia. When she’s not in front of the computer, Lysias bakes melt-in-your-mouth donuts and plays with her sweet, adorable dogs.