This is one of the most useful content on my blog. And at the same time useless. Knowing the right structure is good. But it is much more important to understand how and why you need each of the blocks in the strategy, instead of mindlessly filling in the slides in the presentation.
I am convinced and confident that only a specialist with 2-3 years of active practice in agencies (or on the side of a very good client) with the help of a more experienced specialist and a creative team can create a really working SMM strategy. Therefore, one should not expect miracles.
The honest truth, although sad. Sorry, but this is the truth.
What does a proper SMM strategy consist of?
It may only consist of a rubric and a media plan. However, there are certain laws and logic in a more elaborate structure:
1. the start of the strategy, i.e., introducing customers
2. field of competitors
3. analysis of the target audience
4. content section
5. promotional work
If we go to the higher level of associations, these are the answers to the following questions:
- What should be done? (initiation).
- Why do we choose this solution? (strategic induction: concrete + CA).
- What do we intend to do? (Content + promotion)
It is very easy to check the quality of the strategic induction and the consistency of the strategy itself. If you take the second section out of the strategy, "What are we going to do?" should raise many WHY questions? If there are no questions, then the content and promotion have nothing to do with the analytical part of the competition and CA. Or the analytical part provides no insight and there was no point in spending time on it.
In other words. The strategic introduction MUST provide food for thought and is the basis of the strategy, its foundation. If you throw out the basics, everything else falls apart. If you throw out the basics and everything else stays the same, something will go wrong.
A classic mistake in strategy
80/20 - but the wrong way. I often see in strategies a huge strategy block with a very detailed analysis of the competition, a kind of detailed analysis of the target audience with contrived and stereotypical characteristics of the audience, and then a dozen slides on content and promotion. From which nothing is clear.
This means that the strategy focuses not on what will be, but on what is. And customers often like that. There are a lot of slides, charts, tables with competitors' ERs, everything is interesting. And then "well, we'll do content and attract subscribers." What, how...
The strategy should be a document, after which you don't have to do ANYTHING (there may be differences, but that's generally how it goes).
A rubric? Great. Present it in detail and clearly. With examples of post ideas. If there is a budget and time in the strategy, it is best to write ready-made posts at all. Especially if the strategy is a tender. Customers buy with their eyes.
How it works with the example of one rubric. The purpose of the rubric comes from the brief. This means that what we do and why we do it comes from the customer. The better and more precisely the objectives are developed during the brief, the clearer it is how to work with them.
The essence and format of the rubric are chosen based on an analysis of the target audience. Not on the basis of "our audience is 18-35 years old," so they like travel, music and cinema. But based on one of the actual segments of the target group. With the solution to their problems (and the realization of the customer's goals). This means that the audience themselves tell the company what to write for them.
Brief and to the point on each strategy block:
Strategy Objectives.
The basis of everything. The customer may confuse goals and objectives. Goal: get subscribers. Goal: to acquire leads. You need goals, not tasks. That is, why we run social media pages, not what we need to do. This is important.
Current state.
If the client already has pages on social networks, the best option is to ask for reports + access to internal statistics. Often we find that the Target Group (GD) on the pages does not match the brief, there are no KPIs and there was no performance evaluation. Don't be afraid to rebuke, but also don't forget to praise.
Competitor analysis.
Don't copy! Mainly understand what works for them and what doesn't. Most often it happens that our competitors are not our competitors at all. If the volume of our GD is millions of people and there is a budget, and the competitor has 1000 reach per post, it makes no sense to consider it a threat. Plus the most important thing in the section is the lessons learned. What have we learned for ourselves from the competitive analysis. If nothing, it's easier to write that there is no competition (I did).
Spoiler: engagement from competitors shows nothing.
Spoiler2: competitors rarely understand an issue better than you do. So you shouldn't copy other people's mistakes.
Best practices
We can show how cool and interesting brands from other categories or our "competitors" in other markets are doing.
Trends
Trends apply to our audience, to content, to promotion. This is where market research and analytics help well.
Target audience analysis
10 times out of 10, a customer will come from a very broad GD. We need to segment the entire range of audiences and select the ones we focus on. Segmentation is necessary for a reason, but to create relevant content. If all segments are interested in the same thing, we have 1 segment, not several.The best option for getting to know the GD: surveys and polls. Plus hands on work. There are no services to analyze.
Brand Champion
The ideal representative of the GD segment. Not needed for a beautiful slide. But for explaining to copywriters and designers who we work for.
Insight
So much in that short word. It is needed and it is not in every strategy. It is invented, but through a full understanding of GD. Roughly speaking, it's a hidden problem. Moment of insight. When you read and think: ooo yes, this is about me. The best and most understandable example: standup comedians and their shows. They often bring up these issues where you realize I'm not the only one, right? That's the insight. But it has to have our product in it, and a great idea, if there is one, solves that problem.
Creative concept
Usually needed for big projects. It is born from insight. On the principle of Instay = Big Idea = RTB. This is well taught and discussed by ICRA.
Selection of places of presence and promotion strategy
We go to the ad offices and check how many of our GDs are on the sites through basic audience segmentation in targeting settings. If I can't, at least roughly, estimate my audience in the targeting settings, I may not find it at all. It's nice to define a "never put down a chair" segment, but how do I find them on social media?
TOV
Tone of communication. Almost always copied from the previous strategy, where the brand is friendly, but not family. etc. The best example to show TOV is to take old brand posts and rewrite how they will sound now. If there's a difference and it's not contrived, that's cool. If nothing changes, then that's how we write it, the TOV doesn't change.
Moodboard and visual concept
How and why we will look on social media.
Rubric
Each rubric has 5-7 elements to fill, otherwise it is just a set of ideas and fantasies, not a rubric.
Examples of posts and creations
This shows the client very well how the strategy will really work. In tenders, it's a must. In strategies - a matter of resources.
Promotion strategy and tools used
How advertising channels interact with each other, what we do with content and audiences. If your goal is to increase brand awareness, the size of GD is estimated in the millions, and you plan to attract 1,000 subscribers per month to meet the goal, you are doing in vain. Here's why.
Contest activation set, UGC and SMO approach
Contests are not always necessary. But if the business is offline and works with emotions, UGC is a mandatory part of the strategy.
Scenarios of cooperation with bloggers
We can show examples of bloggers, what we do with them. How we use content and what goals we set for seeding.
Special projects
Special projects are great for developing a client's SMM check:)
Media plan, KPIs
If something can't be measured in KPIs, it means it's not being implemented. And there is no such goal. Each section can have its own KPIs, the strategy will only benefit from it!
In general, the structure of the strategy is only the foundation of the foundation. Each block implies significant fulfillment and is present in the strategy for a reason. So every work should start with it and end with conclusions as to the fulfillment of what is listed there.
Comments