Success does not look the same for everyone, yet we tend to copy the path others have taken because we believe that it will help us reach success faster. Then when it doesn’t we feel like a failure, we ask ourselves “why them and not me,” and the answer is simple, you are not them and your content strategy is not theirs.
On social media, if you want to succeed, you have to have a strategy for success, because as Benjamin Franklin said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” So let’s walk through the most important things when it comes to creating a successful social media content strategy in 2021.
What is a social media content strategy?
Social media content strategy is the art of taking your personal brand and business goals and laying out a roadmap of how you will achieve those goals using content on social media to get you there.
You social media strategy will typically consist of the following:
- What your social media goals are
- How you plan to reach your goals
- The KPIs (key performance indicators) you will use to track your progress
Now if you have never heard of KPIs before, these are the key performance indicators, also known as your metrics, that you will track on a regular basis to gauge if your content strategy is working and helping you reach your goals, or if they are pulling you further away.
Some examples of KPIs include
- Your watch time on YouTube
- Your impressions on Instagram
- Retweets on Twitter
The best thing to do when creating a successful Social Media Content Strategy is to reverse engineer your goals so your road map is free of distraction and unnecessary tasks.
How To reverse engineer your strategy
To reverse engineer your goals, you will want to start with the end goal in mind and work backwards to see how you will achieve that goal.
For example, if you are trying to enter into the YouTube Partner Program and your goal is to do it in under a year, then you will need to reverse engineer everything you need to hit that goal, such as the eligibility requirements, and then see what you would need each month to get to your goal.
So if you did not know, you need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours to be eligible to apply for the YouTube Partner Program. If you want to reach this in a year, then you will need about 84 subscribers a month and about 334 watch hours each month.
So now, instead of focusing on the bigger picture goal of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours, you can focus on the more tangible goal of 84 subscribers a month and 334 watch hours a month and produce content that helps you achieve those metrics each month. This is your social media content strategy plan for reaching your goal of entering the YouTube Partner Program in one year.
You can even do this with goals that are not just platform based. For example, if you are running a product or service based business and you want to make $100,000 in sales using social media as your funnel, then you break things down into smaller tangible goals that you will need to achieve each month. This also allows you to measure your KPIs for success better and know exactly where you need to pivot if things are not going to plan.
One of the best ways to use a social media content strategy to help you reach your goals quicker is to give each piece of content a purpose for your audience and your brand.
What is your social content’s purpose?
Each piece of social media content has a specific purpose and without knowing what this purpose is, no matter how many goals you write down, or how often you reverse engineer, you miss a very important step in making your goal a reality.
Some content creators will think their content’s purpose is only for their audience because on social media, we have followers who look for content to add value in their life in the form of:
- Education
- Inspiration
- Motivation
- Relaxation
- Entertainment
So when you go to produce content you have to think about which of these value propositions does your content fall under.
Then you want to think about what this content will do for your brand. This can include:
- showing your audience you are an authority in your space
- boost engagement through likes, comments, and shares
- help your audience relate to you on a deeper level
- it can even build social proof around a product or service you offer
- or a product or service that you love and are promoting for other brands
Having these “value adds” for your audience and your brand will make things so much easier when it comes to drafting a successful content media strategy. It also makes it easier to balance your content calendar and streamline your workflow.
How do you streamline your workflow?
Your content strategy workflow is the process of taking your written content strategy ideas and executing them with actionable steps that help you reach your goals.
This will look like:
- Researching topics to cover in your niche
- Recording and editing videos
- Making graphics for social media
- Creating copy for email, social media, and podcast
- Repurposing your content to expand its reach
- Tracking KPIs for successful content
Now this is definitely something you can do every day, but that is also a fast track way to create burnout, which will stop you from reaching your goals even more.
Something I like to do is batch my work and place things on autopilot for the month. So for example I produce weekly YouTube videos which means I need 4-5 videos per month. So in the last week of the month, I plan a production week so that all my videos are scheduled on my channel for the following month.
My production week is as follows:
- On Monday I do all my keyword research and pick my topics
- On Tuesday I script out all my videos and make thumbnails
- On Wednesday I film my videos
- On Thursday I edit and schedule out all my videos
- On Friday I repurpose my content into Instagram post, reels, IGTV and schedule it to Later
This allows me to be more present during the month and focus on other things in my business such as negotiate brand deals, work with clients, and watch KPIs closely so I can pivot my strategy.
It also allows me to track trends throughout the month and have a faster turn around since I am not producing content every single day as my social media content strategy allows me to have more free time in my business.
Lather, Rinse, Repeat
Of course, it would be easy to tell you that you just need to make a social media content strategy once and then you are all set to go viral, but that is simply not the case.
Running a content creator business on social media is a never ending cycle of goal setting, strategy execution, content creating, and KPI tracking. I like to call this the lather, rinse, and repeat cycle.
Just remember as you repeat, avoid repeating any mistakes, and pivot as you go so your content strategy will be a success.
