How to create a social media strategy in 6 steps
· 5 min read
A social media strategy is a short document that says why you post before it says what you post. A calendar tells you what goes out on which day; a strategy tells you why that post is there at all. Accounts without one often post a lot but don't know where they are heading. In this guide we build a practical strategy that fits on one page, in six steps.
A strategy is not the same as a content calendar
A content calendar answers "when". A strategy answers "why, for whom and on which channel". The strategy comes first and the calendar is built on top of it. When the order is reversed, the calendar fills up with whatever comes to mind that day, and at the end of the month it's hard to say which post worked.
A good strategy doesn't need to be long. One page that everyone on the team can read in five minutes and understand the same way is enough.
1. Start with a single business goal
Your social media goal should come from the business goal. "Gain followers" isn't a goal on its own; it doesn't say what those followers will do for the business. Write down what the business needs over the next three months first, then how social media will contribute to it.
- If you want more sales: visits to product pages and orders that come in through messages.
- If you want to be known in a new market: reach and profile visits.
- If you rely on bookings or quotes: direct messages and form submissions.
- If you are hiring: engagement on team and culture content, clicks to the careers page.
“Grow on Instagram”
- Unclear what to measure
- No time frame
- Unclear business impact
“Grow monthly visits from social media to the product page from 400 to 600 within three months”
- One metric
- A starting and a target number
- A clear time frame
- Tied to the business
2. Write down who you are talking to
"Everyone" is not an audience. Write down who uses your product most and what gets in their way. You don't need expensive research for this; the people on your team who talk to customers already know most of the answers.
- Who is this person? How old are they, what do they do, what does their day look like?
- What problem did they have before they found you?
- Which questions do they ask most often?
- Which channels do they spend time on, and what do they watch there?
- What language do they use: formal, casual or technical?
3. Choose channels based on the goal
You don't have to be everywhere. Being consistent on two or three channels where your audience is and that suit your goal works better than being scattered across five.
| Channel | Where it's strong | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Visual products, short video, selling through DMs | Busy feed; the first frame and first line decide a lot | |
| TikTok | Getting discovered with short video, reaching new people | Needs a steady flow of videos |
| YouTube | Long content found through search, plus Shorts | Titles and descriptions should be written for search |
| Local audiences and communities, announcements on a Page | Posts that start a conversation do better | |
| Taking people looking for inspiration to your site | Plan the Pin title and the link together |
4. Decide on your content themes
Once the goal and audience are clear, pick three to five content themes you will keep coming back to. These are also called content pillars: product tips, customer questions, behind the scenes, campaigns and so on. Write one sentence on how each theme serves the goal. Drop any theme that doesn't.
We cover how to choose content pillars and balance them in a separate guide.
5. Set a posting rhythm that matches your capacity
Rhythm should follow capacity, not ambition. Write down how many hours a week you can spend on content and estimate how long one post takes you on average. If you have four hours a week and a post takes about an hour, four posts a week is a realistic start.
The easiest way to put the rhythm on the calendar is to set fixed posting times for each channel. In Fourdeck you can define weekly queue times for each social account. Posts you don't give a specific date to drop into the next free time on their own, so the rhythm holds without a new decision for every post.
6. Decide up front what you will measure
For each goal, pick one main metric and at most two supporting ones. At the end of the month, look only at those. If the measurement plan isn't written in advance, the best-looking number gets picked at the end of the month and the plan seems to prove itself.
- On the first day of the month, note last month's numbers.
- Write the change in your goal metric and the reason for it in one sentence.
- Look at what your best and weakest three posts have in common.
- Change one thing for next month. If you change everything at once, you won't know what worked.
Keep the strategy on one page
Collect what you've written in a single document the team can find easily. These headings are enough:
- This quarter's main goal and its measurable version
- Audience: who, with which problem, in which language
- Channels and the role of each one
- Content themes and their rough share
- Weekly posting rhythm
- Metrics to track
- Who prepares, who approves, who publishes
The last item is often forgotten, yet it causes the most delays. In Fourdeck you can separate who drafts and who approves and publishes in a workspace, using roles such as editor, publisher and admin.