5 Steps to an effective social media strategy for small Businesses – Social media managers face a lot of prejudice. Many people imagine the work to be like this: leaving a few comments on Facebook, uploading a picture to Instagram every now and then – and, of course, retweeting cute cat videos. Right?

In truth, everyday life couldn’t be more different! Because, unlike private users, companies try to proceed with a concept. Regular content, community management, and support – all building blocks follow a strategy.

Sounds like a full-time job? In large companies, certainly. But even the self-employed and small companies are already demonstrating how a lot can be achieved with little time and limited effort – for example, more visitors to your own website.

Ikonotes will show you how to create your effective social media strategy in 5 steps!

1. Define the target group – easily with a “marketing persona”

It sounds complicated, but it’s quite uncomplicated: The term “marketing persona” is basically just the definition of your target group. Because, strictly speaking, a “persona” is simply a model for your “typical customer” with all their characteristics.

The model makes it easier for you to target your advertising and social media activities to your target group. Large companies such as supermarkets or restaurant chains usually use a more complex model with multiple personas. For smaller companies, however, one persona is often enough to make their own target group “tangible.”

2. Determine the right social media channels

Facebook or Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter – which channel is best for you? The decisive factor is which target group (your persona!) you want to reach and what the goal of your activities should be.

Is your ideal customer z. For example, a businessman in his late 50s is less likely to find him on Snapchat and engage in a retirement conversation.

Therefore, decide on the main network through which you will most likely reach your persona. Also, think carefully about whether you can raise the resources to “play” on other platforms.

3. Develop ideas for your posts

You have already completed two steps:

1. you know who you want to reach

2. you know which network is suitable for your goals

Now it’s about developing ideas for the content that you can post later. The two previous steps are crucial: Because your posts should correspond to both your persona (target group) and your goals.

For example, funny cat videos usually get a lot of likes. That’s all well and good – but does it also help you achieve your goals? Rather questionable.

A little “cat content” is, of course, not forbidden. As a rule, however, it is advisable to choose your own contributions more carefully.

And last but not least: Take a look at what your competition is posting. It always helps to be inspired and develop the ideas of others for yourself.

4. Create an editorial plan

Creating your own social media plan saves time and increases the quality of your posts. Because nothing is more exhausting than sucking content out of your fingers every day. And by the way, it’s incredibly difficult to keep the target group and objective in mind.

It is, therefore, advisable to create an editorial plan for the coming month. A simple Excel table is sufficient for this, in which you enter or link texts and images “ready to use”

A key question is often how many posts per week are advisable. A perfect number is, unfortunately, difficult to determine in general. With about three posts a week, you’re definitely on the right track – and you can try out whether more publications bring more reactions!

5. Content recycling

It doesn’t always have to be something new! While some breaking news posts really only make sense today, there is a great deal of content that will still be relevant after some time.

You can always post an interesting blog article or a reference to your weekly action day – so-called “evergreen content” that arouses interest and saves you time!

An idea: I’m sure you still have photos of your beginnings, your first shop – or maybe the very first version of your website! The users out there love such insights. Especially if they get to know the “people behind the product” in the process. For example, the hashtag #throwbackthursday or #tbt has long been a classic on Instagram.