How to Build a Social Media Content Strategy in 2024

It’s no secret that a well-crafted social media content strategy is the compass that guides brands toward success. It’s not just about posting random updates; it’s a deliberate orchestration of creativity, data and audience insights. 

Not to sound negative, but crafting a social content strategy is not as straightforward as it may sound. There are a zillion challenges to overcome. Finding the right balance between promotional, informative, entertaining and engaging content is just the tip of the iceberg. Adjusting your strategy according to algorithmic updates, user behaviors and social media trends can also sap your energy.  

All of this makes social media a super-tough battleground where your content is competing with everyone - from virtual influencers to the Kardashians - for supremacy, claims social media guru Jay Baer. 

However, every dark cloud has a silver lining, and so does social media. If you’re able to establish a social media content strategy that combines creativity, data and adaptability, there are rich rewards to reap. Your engagement, credibility, reach and conversions multiply much faster than they would with traditional channels like email or print media. 

Sounds like a winning deal? Then, grab your favorite beverage and sit back while we explain step by step the process of creating a flawless social media content strategy. Let’s go. 

Step 1: Set clear goals

Apart from guiding you toward your desired destination, goals guide your budget as well. The internet is full of memes testifying that marketers struggle to secure an appropriate budget for their social media campaigns. 

Not to burst your bubble, but generating some sort of online buzz or making our brand famous with cat memes won’t cut it as goals. 

What do clear goals look like, you may ask? 
 
Here you go: 

• Increase brand awareness 
  🎯Goal: increase the number of followers, likes, shares and mentions 
  🔍Measure: track follower growth, reach, impressions and engagement rates 
• Drive website traffic 
  🎯Goal: generate more clicks to your website through social media posts 
  🔍Measure: monitor click-through rates (CTR) from social media to your website 
• Customer engagement 
  🎯Goal: encourage interactions such as comments, replies and discussions 
  🔍Measure: track comments, shares, replies and conversation rates 
• Lead generation 
  🎯Goal: collect contact information or inquiries from potential customers 
  🔍Measure: monitor form submissions, downloads and sign-up rates 
• Customer loyalty and advocacy 
  🎯Goal: foster relationships that turn customers into brand advocates 
  🔍Measure: track user-generated content (UGC), testimonials and referral rates 
• Educational content dissemination 
  🎯Goal: provide valuable information and insights to your audience 
  🔍Measure: assess engagement with informative posts and content shares 
• Product or service promotion 
  🎯Goal: increase sales or inquiries about your products/services 
  🔍Measure: monitor conversion rates, clicks on product links and inquiries 
• Influence and thought leadership 
  🎯Goal: establish your brand as an expert or influencer in your industry 
  🔍Measure: track mentions, shares and engagement on thought leadership content 
• Audience demographic growth 
  🎯Goal: attract a broader and more diverse audience 
  🔍Measure: analyze demographic data to identify changes in your follower base 

Clear social media goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART). The more explicit your marketing objectives become, the more skillfully you can tailor your social media content to achieve them. 

Step 2: Research your audience 

Creating social content without knowing your audience is like playing darts blindfolded — you're bound to miss the bullseye. 

Enter the superhero squad of marketing: buyer personas. These aren't just random avatars; they're your marketing Justice League, guiding your every move. 

Think of it this way: if your social media strategy were an office potluck, buyer personas would be your secret ingredient. 

First up, the basics – age, location and all that jazz. It's like knowing who prefers donuts over kale salad at the team breakfast. 

But hold onto your ergonomic chairs, there's more. 

You're about to dive into the Sherlock Holmes zone. You're digging for gold nuggets on how your personas chat about your brand, your industry and your products. It's like eavesdropping at the water cooler, but with less sneaking around.  Think of these insights as the cheat codes to their hearts: 

• What tickles their interests? 
• What makes them raise an eyebrow like the office dog when someone sneezes loudly? 

Armed with this knowledge, you're practically a mind reader. You know what they crave, what tickles their fancy and what keeps them up at night. 

So, brew that content like it's office coffee – strong, invigorating and tailored to each palate. 
 
With your personas by your side, you're not just posting; you're building relationships, one hilarious meme at a time. 
 
💡Pro Tip: An AI-driven social listening tool like Sprinklr’s can help you take this further by monitoring and analyzing conversations across social media platforms — EVEN WHEN YOU’RE NOT TAGGED. It gathers real-time insights on consumer sentiments, preferences and demographics, allowing you to understand your target audience's interests and needs. 

Step 3: Analyze your competitors 

To comprehend the effectiveness of your social media content strategy, it's imperative to extend your gaze beyond your own data. Conducting a social media competitive analysis will serve as a catalyst for generating fresh content ideas. This involves identifying aspects where you can potentially outshine your competitors by enhancing content quality and adopting more effective formats. 
 
By employing competitive benchmarking tools like Sprinklr’s, you can streamline the process of extracting insights from rivals, including metrics such as average engagement levels, growth rates and their most successful content pieces.

The automated nature of this tool simplifies the task and contributes to the formulation of well-informed objectives and strategies. This data-driven approach empowers you to refine your content creation. 

Step 4: Review your current social content 

Once fully aware of your audience and objectives, it is time to perform a social media content audit on your existing posts.  

Conducting a content audit offers valuable insight for devising a tailored social media content strategy aligned with your brand. This process provides quantitative data on post-performance, enabling you to identify successful elements. 

Scrutinize posts that garnered favorable outcomes and those that fell short, across each platform. 
 
Your audit criteria should harmonize directly with your content goals. For instance, if enhancing brand recognition is a goal, analyze follower count and impressions on each platform. Discern posts that contributed to gaining new followers. 
 
💡 Pro Tip: If you aren’t employing a social media management tool like Sprinklr Social, an alternative approach is to extract and analyze data by exporting the analytics from each platform into a spreadsheet. 

Notably, platforms such as Facebook, X, Pinterest Business and LinkedIn Business facilitate the direct export of post and page analytics. 
 
If you’re using a social media management platform like Sprinklr’s, you can look at all of your social media data and analytics on one, unified platform. 

Step 5: Choose your content types and formats

This step is about diving into the data-driven creativity pool. 
 
When planning social content, align with those buyer personas. Think about their preferred content formats. Keep it diverse. 
 
Here are some ideas: 

• Collaborate with content creators 
• Go live for real-time interaction 
• Feature employees or offer glimpses of the office for authenticity 
• Create polls or quizzes in your posts or stories 
• Utilize UGC 
• Share educational how-to videos featuring your products 
• Organize contests for engagement 
• Join relevant trends (if they suit your brand) 
• Give a behind-the-scenes look 

How to find your audience’s preferred content formats? 
The pathway to understanding which content types and formats resonate lies in your data analysis. Examining your top posts empowers you to make informed decisions about your content approach. 
 
Sprinklr Social, for example, can identify your most successful posts across channels, sorted by your top metrics. This might include looking at which posts received the most engagement, which formats led to higher click-through rates and so on.

Step 6: Build your content calendar

Once you've got a handle on what strategies work best and your main goals are set, it's time to dive into creating a social media content calendar. This calendar is like your roadmap for your content plan, giving you a bird's-eye view. 

It's a great way to organize your ideas and make executing your strategy a smoother ride. Think of a social media posting schedule as the heart of all your posting activities. 

And what if we tell you a Social Media Calendar Platform like Sprinklr’s could be the solution you need? Yes, you heard that right!

Just imagine:  

📅 Seeing all your social posts, events and campaigns in a unified calendar view 

🗂️ Easily organizing your content  

🌍 Teaming up with global teams 

⚙️ Tweaking your workspace to turbocharge your efficiency 

Don't hesitate to give your content a second life. Repurpose and share it across different platforms for maximum impact. And when deciding where to share what, remember to consider how well certain types of content perform on specific platforms, based on your audit results. This way, you're not just posting content, you're strategically curating it for success.

Pro Tip:
If you want to make finding the right posting times easier, let Sprinklr’s AI-driven Smart Scheduling worry about getting your posts out at the highest traffic times for each social account.

Step 7: Promote and share your content

Your social media plan is more than just posts. It's about sharing content actively to boost brand visibility. To distribute effectively, consider these three ways:

A. Set up content scheduling

Get ahead with your content planning using social media tools. Sprinklr has cool scheduling and publishing features that make sharing your content a breeze. Perfect for those busy posting days, just like Nike’s on Instagram. And don't forget, Sprinklr's Smart Scheduling also helps you know the best times to post on social media.

B. Get others to spread your posts

Having others share your stuff is like high-fives at work. Your plan: talk back or reshare when folks share your stuff. Get your crowd chatting by tossing them a question. Ask for their stories on socials or in blog comments. 

And don't forget your team – they're your megaphones. A crew-powered plan can shoot your stuff way out there. Your team? They're like your brand's cool spokespeople. Try Sprinklr’s Employee Advocacy. It makes big ideas easy and fits right into how you do

C. Work together with creators

Here's a smart way to spread your stuff: connect with bloggers and content creators in your field. When you're buddies with other brands, they'll probably pass your stuff to their crowd, and you'll do the same for them. Keep in mind, that whatever you dish out to your peeps, make sure it's useful and fits your style.

Interesting Read: How to kickstart your social media collaboration

Step 8: Gauge the effectiveness of your content 

Performance tracking is key for a long-lasting strategy. Inspect your content's performance every month. Check how each piece did and what drove it. Judge how well it backed your step one goals.

Notable social media metrics are: 

• Awareness: how often people viewed, via impressions and reach 
• Engagement: reactions, comments, clicks and shares 
• ROI: conversions and referrals from outside 

Also, the competitor benchmarking tools within the social listening solution by Sprinklr also unveils how your audience perceives competitors versus you. It displays your share of voice (SoV). 

Final Thoughts

So, if you find yourself lost in the wilderness of social media uncertainty, remember a pinch of creativity and the unwavering belief that hilarious memes can indeed change the world (but with a little planning on the side), you too can master the art of crafting a social media content strategy that goes on to become the stuff of legends. 

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