Five (5) Steps to create an effective social media strategy for your campaign

Step 1: Define Your Audience
It is essential to first determine how to segment your audience based on their region or language. The following are example questions that must be answered internally before you begin working on your social media strategy:

• Which countries/provinces/cities/regions do you want to focus on?
• Where does the majority of your current customer base live?
• Where does the majority of your non-domestic customer base live?
• Is there an opportunity for your product or service to extend to other nations?
• Are you already getting leads or prospect interest from other nations?

Step 2: Set Your Social Media Goals

Define the goals of your social media strategy. Setting goals in advance will help keep your social media team accountable and increase your likelihood of success. Having a strong unified approach will help you shape the strategy for each region you’re targeting.

Decide if the primary goal of your social media campaign is to:

• Generate more traffic for your website from social media platforms;
• Increase your brand exposure by getting more followers and engagement;
• Tap into new markets via social endorsements and paid advertising; or
• Provide a customer service platform on your social profiles.

TIP: You might decide that one of these goals is a higher priority than the other three, and this could help you decide how to cater to your audience across multiple countries.

Step 3: Learn Cultural and Religious Differences
If your business targets customers in countries foreign to yours, learn about the different countries’ cultures to understand what appeals to them versus your country.

Certain markets are much more difficult to break into than others and may require an agency to get you a head start. If the business culture requires an agency to get you started, don’t be afraid to work with one.

TIP: You will not be able to tap into the white community if you are using the black community’s cultural norms and language. The reality is that there are cultural barriers to communication that you need to learn about and adhere to. The use of slang in your campaigns can either make you or break you, depending on the cultural target market you have set for your social media campaigns.

Step 4: Choose the right social network for your strategy
Identify the most relevant social networks in each region you’re targeting. Don’t feel pressured to set up a new profile on each social network for every region you’re targeting. This is the wrong way to implement your social media strategy. Instead, choose your social networks wisely. You can always grow your reach across more platforms as you prove the ROI of the networks you get started with. Know which region uses which social network and their reasons for using it.

TIP: Don’t be afraid to test the waters in different social networks. If you have the bandwidth to test out a new social network, go for it. After three months, you can look at the data and see if it’s worth continuing your efforts on that network.

Step 5: Do Research
In order to come up with brilliant social media strategies to kick-start your campaigns, you need to invest much time in finding out what your competitors are doing to get it right. Research, analyse, take tips, and be open to suggestions.