Let’s face it - has officially achieved world domination. Not since the invention of the printing press has society and culture changed as radically as through the effects of social media. The powerful engine of the social media world has seen stars born and governments toppled. As 2020 kicks off, we have over 2 billion individual accounts across multiple social media channels - and the number is growing exponentially! social media “Social media has had a real and irreversible impact on our lives, both personal and professional. In a marketing context, the priority given to social media continues to grow, as marketers and managers seek to reap the benefits of its for their own businesses.” unique potential for virality - The Digital Marketing Institute The most unique element of social media has been the ability to create grassroots movements . Gone are the days of hiring expensive marketing firms and publicists in order to spread the message of a brand or individual. with little money With a simple , your small business can share your message and products with a ready audience that is already looking at their devices. With a simple post, you can instead of hoping they show up on their own! social media strategy bring your company to your customers in 2020 Let’s look at a that your small business can implement for the new year! simple social media strategy Step One: Set Your Goals If you set out on a journey without an end goal, you will end up nowhere. Before you begin implementing a social media campaign for your business, you need to . make sure you’ve clearly set your goals Goal setting for your social strategy can include two steps - defining your long-term goals and short-term objectives. Having an end goal - be it sales figures or engagement numbers - can give you and your team an end goal as well as milestones to strive for as you implement your strategy. Once you have a goal or two in place, you need to take time to sit down and... Step 2: Research your audience. Once you set your goals, you must begin to As you begin to develop your strategy, you need to ask yourself some very important questions: research your audience! ●	Who are you trying to reach with your message or product? ●	What social media channels your audience uses most? ●	When are they most active online? ●	Where are they located? ●	Why would they be interested in what you have to offer? Once you land on the answers to these important questions, you can then for how best to reach your customers through the proper social media channels. Now that you know your audience well, you can... develop a winning marketing strategy Step 3: Establish your most important metrics. What are those areas that are ? What does success look like for you personally? most important to your business Image: https://outsmart.io/ The most common and important metrics to pay attention to are: ● (who is actually clicking your content) Engagement ●	Impressions and Reach (who is seeing your content) ●	Share of Voice (what type of content is working) ●	Referrals and Conversions (what content is leading people to your website) ●	Response Rate and Time (how fast they click, order, and make a sale) By taking each of these areas into consideration individually and together, you will begin to get a full picture of what areas are most . Begin tracking these metrics using a basic excel spreadsheet or a robust system such as or to keep an eye on how your content it working for you and your business. important for reaching your specific audience Hootsuite Sprout Social <iframe width= height= src= frameborder= allow= allowfullscreen> "560" "315" "https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/G5ITaLvMqI4?controls=0" "0" "accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" </ > iframe Speaking of keeping an eye on things, it is smart to always... Step 4: Analyze your competition. Knowing what is working for your competitors is a great way to stay up on how you can better use social media to reach your customer base! Don’t dwell on how your competitors are doing it better - take the chance to learn from them! Once you begin to run your social media strategy for 2020, take time to . A competitor or competitive analysis is an evaluation of the competition’s strengths and weaknesses relative to your own. complete a “competitor analysis” image: http://brandfluencer.com/ For social media, a competitive analysis will help you: ●	Identify which of your competitors are using social media ●	Know which platforms they’re using regularly ●	Know what they’re doing on those platforms now ●	See what content they used to use ●	Discover how well their social strategy is working ●	Know their threats to your business ●	Learn and identify gaps in your own strategy Knowing the competition is a great way to become a better social media user. Don’t be discouraged when your competition has ten times as many followers as you. That list is a healthy crop of new customers ready to be harvested! How will you ? You can begin by... bring your competitor’s followers into your social feed Step 5: Create and curate engaging content. Now the real fun begins! In this part of the process, you will begin to create engaging content that will “stop the scroll” of your customers on their social media channels. Common content looks like funny videos, professional images featuring products and faces, and fun, quirky content such as quizzes and comics. There is no end to the types of content you can create to promote your social media. Need some help to or Twitter? Look at your competitor analysis and see what is working for them. Hire freelance graphic designers and videographers who are ready to create content to reach your goals. You never know, you may have the next viral tweet! develop content for Instagram You never know what will work until you try - and must try often. That is why you must... Step 6: Make timeliness a top priority. Social media is changing and morphing constantly. What was popular today will be old news tomorrow. Attention spans of those scrolling the endless new feeds online are getting shorter, and . online algorithms reward those social media channels that are novel and consistent In order to keep your content before hungry eyes, you must post and post often. An easy way to keep social media content going out consistently is to utilize social schedulers such as and . These online systems will allow you to schedule your curated content and schedule posts ahead of time, freeing you of the stress of posting constantly. Buffer Hootsuite Need to send out a quick update? A limited-time offer? will keep your engagement with your customers feeling personal and friendly. Posting in a timely manner Now that your strategy is alive and kicking, its time to stay fresh and... Step 7: Assess your results and optimize as needed. Don’t stand still! Bob and weave! As quick as viral social media changes so do the best ways to reach and engage your audience. Now that your strategy has been developed and put into motion, you must of which areas are still effective and which are starting to lag behind. Don’t be afraid to pull the plug on a specific part of your strategy that seems to be slowing down or not working as well as it once did. Those businesses that are willing to be brave and will see the greatest return on investment! be diligent to stay on top try new things when it comes to social media The big picture? When it comes to and beyond, you have an opportunity to stand out against your competition and reach a growing audience. social media in 2020 Don’t let the fear of being overwhelmed stop you from wading into the waters of social media. By following this simple guide and going a step at a time, you will have a growing and thriving social media following in no time!

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