social media strategy tips from social media experts
1. Extend social media’s influence beyond the social team
There’s no question that social media is becoming more cross-functional. And other teams have a lot to gain from using social media for business beyond marketing. But the social team has a lot to gain from working with other teams, too.
As Micah Mellander, Social Media Administrator at Visions Federal Credit Union put it, “I am always trying to find new departments within our organization that could benefit from social media.” To do this, he suggests setting up meetings to talk through other departments’ goals and what products or services they’re in charge of.
This helps the social team spark new ideas, too. Dasle Hong, Senior Brand Marketing Manager at DailyPay, builds on this idea. “Each week, we bring together individuals from product, design, customer support, client success, marketing and more to brainstorm on a certain topic, like a holiday, campaign, event, etc. Everyone comes to the call with an idea and/or example, and we spend the entire time ideating, collaborating and executing content for that week as a cross-functional group.”
2. Actively break down silos
Social teams must collaborate across multiple departments. And yet, it’s common for social teams to feel siloed.
“One of our main challenges as a team is collaborating with other departments and stakeholders on key initiatives or campaigns when it comes to organic social,” Kelly Bean, Social Media and Community Manager at Trustpilot, tells us. So one of the tips she has is to enhance these processes.
“What we’re aiming to do in 2024 is create a seamless internal process so that key stakeholders understand what is needed when briefing our team, how this ties into our overall business strategy and how our team operates when planning future content.”
“It’s very much in the testing phase,” she explains. “But we’re hoping that in time, these shared calendars can feed into our master calendar and make things much smoother for us as a team!”
3. Tap influencer, creator and advocate voices
A great way to target your audience on a more personal level is to partner with influencers in your niche to help you promote your products organically.
When you partner with an established influencer with an active following in your niche, you expose your brand to a new audience that might not be aware of your company.
Many brands are also turning to nanoinfluencers, who cultivate a small but passionate niche of followers. As influencer marketing becomes increasingly common, a micro- or nanoinfluencer can convey an extra level of authenticity. With an audience of loyal followers that know, like and trust them, a collaboration will let their followers know they recommend you as a brand to trust as well.
Pro tip: Discovering the right influencer can be challenging. Consider an influencer management tool to streamline all these efforts, speed up the process and enhance brand visibility and trust.
4. Use goals and pillars to guide intentional, purposeful content
Your content should always connect back to your brand’s goals. As Molly Rodin, Digital Marketing Manager in the Robotics industry explains, “My biggest piece of advice would be really know and understand what your social goals are and how they connect to the larger organization’s goals. It’s not enough to set a goal at the beginning of the year and check back in at the end of the year.”
Knowing specific goals for your team and beyond serves as a guiding light for your posts. As they explain, “For any campaign or collaboration or post, you should be able to intuitively answer: Who is the audience for this? Why do they care? What is the next step for them after this content? What is the specific measure of success for this and how does it connect to the big picture goals? And adjust your strategy based on the answers.”
Beyond helping social teams prioritize their own content, it also helps teams prioritize asks from other departments. After all, every social pro is familiar with the, “can you just post this on social?” question.
As Molly explains, “As social media managers, we get asked to do a lot. Having really clear objectives is the best way to prioritize what we’re doing, weed out low-value asks and make sure our content is set up for meaningful success.”
Having a focused message will help you create higher quality content that is on brand and resonates with your audience. When you have a solid message that you don’t stray from, you can count on your social media posts to stay relevant to your audience.
