How to Build a Strong Social Media Strategy

If you're struggling with your social media strategy, you aren't alone.

We visited Liber8Fit in San Diego, California, to talk with them about social media and how building a strategy for their social channels can boost their brand awareness.

If you're like Liber8Fit, you can develop a marketing strategy for your social networks, too! Anyone can be a social media marketer—all you need is a phone, a target audience, and focus. After watching the video, sit down and follow these three simple steps:

1. Ask what social networks your target audience is on.

Different demographics utilize social media differently. Think about the big 5: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Where does your ideal customer spend the most time? Knowing which social media platforms to use is the first step to developing a strong, cohesive social media marketing plan.

Liber8Fit's marketing strategy focuses primarily on Instagram. They find their target audience engaging more with videos and photos that showcase the studio and its' clientele.

2. Determine what social content you will create.

Every brand is different. Some will leverage influencers, while others will focus more on blog posts. While you know your brand best, also consider how your target market uses social media. If they spend more time on Instagram, focus on video content and user-generated content from your customers. After all, your customers are micro-influencers! On the other hand, if your audience is all about health and wellness blogs, create shareable, long-form content on your own website. At the end of the day, your strategy is unique to your business, so don't copy someone else's social channels and marketing!

We advised Liber8Fit to create a social media contest with their customers, leveraging a branded hashtag to create user-generated content that was shareable on their account. When they used this strategy, they saw increased engagement with their followers and similar social profiles.

3. Decide how many resources you'll put on social media marketing.

Managing digital marketing can be time-consuming. Planning for how many resources you'll put towards social media will help you build a social media marketing plan. Will you hire someone to solely focus on your social media marketing strategy? Will you purchase a social media management tool like HootSuite or Sprout Social? The easiest way to determine if the effort is worth it is to set social media marketing goals and business objectives and align your team on how to hit them. 

Liber8Fit's team is small, so it's important that they spend their time, effort, and marketing dollars on the things that will help them grow the most efficiently. To do this, teachers take images of classes when there are breaks in the action, and post them on Instagram stories. If they do social media advertising, they make the ads time-bound with clear CTAs like joining their email list or taking a reduced-fee intro class.

Social media marketing doesn't have to be expensive or time-consuming. Following these tips will help you create a strong social media strategy.