How to Create a Social Media Strategy for 2024 Step by Step

Here’s how to create a social media strategy for 2024! Check out Metricool’s 2023 Social Media Networks Study: https://metricool.com/social-network-study/?utm_source=latasha-podcast&utm_medium=influencers&utm_campaign=social_media_en&utm_term=q3
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0:00 – hello!
0:36 – set a goal
3:25 – know your audience
6:28 – social media manager accelerator
7:28 – choose platforms
9:21 – 2023 social media networks study
10:47 – look at your analytics
13:03 – trends and predictions for 2024
16:03 – decide on messaging
20:29 – create or curate content

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#SocialMediaManager #Freelancer #Entrepreneur

Hello, hello, and welcome back to the freelance Friday podcast today. I want to talk about how to build a social media strategy in 2024, because some things have definitely changed. In fact, that’s kind of the point they change every single year, different platforms, pop up different platforms, gain popularity.

Things go out of business or out of style. And it’s important that we make sure that we are updating our social media strategies at least every year, whether it’s for a client or for your own small business. So the first thing that you want to keep in mind when you are putting together

A social media strategy is first off, what is our goal with social media? And again, you want to make sure that you are updating this year over year, a very new business might have the primary goal of just gaining a following building awareness because they’re new in the market, right?

They might not be focused at this point on a huge amount of conversions or anything like that. They just might be wanting people to know who they are. So in those cases, you’re going to be looking at awareness focused metrics like reach, meaning how many people actually saw your post, like

Impressions, how many times were your posts seen, and that’s also going to drive your content strategy as well. So if you are really just focused on awareness, you’re going to be looking for those platforms and those content types that are super viral or have super viral potential, right?

Whereas if you were more Mid funnel, as we say, you know, the top of the funnel is very awareness focused. The middle of the funnel is more about engagement, actually getting those people who have followed you or have seen your content to like you to start to trust

You and start to move to the bottom of the funnel to the point of purchase. So if you’re in that middle funnel stage, you might be focusing on platforms that are more about. Brand affinity and engagement. So something like a YouTube or a podcast, those types of content allow

You to kind of sit with the, the person who’s hosting, get to know your brand a little bit better, build up that trust before they go ahead and, and bite. So this is really important to think about because like I said, your goals can change over time.

Your client’s goals can change over time. You’re one, you might be focused on awareness year two, you might be focused more on engagement year three, you might be focused on conversion. And of course, you know, you can move through that funnel faster too.

That can all happen within the span of a year or even, you know, a couple of months, but the actions that you take. The tactics that you recommend are going to be different depending on where they’re at. So it’s really important to keep that in mind and really important to keep in mind

Your KPIs or key performance indicators. Those were those metrics that I was just talking about, you know, impressions, reach engagement, because if you are reporting on the wrong thing to your client, if you’re saying, Hey client, we just gained a bunch of followers, but they’re really focused on conversions.

Or if you say, Hey, we got a bunch of engagements, but they’re really focused on, you know, awareness and how many people saw their post, you might be speaking the wrong language to them. And it can be a struggle to retain your clients.

And it can be a struggle for you to, to know how well you’re. Um, and then you’re going to want to make sure that you’re actually performing. Now, the next thing to think about is who you’re talking to. And obviously you should probably have this in mind when you’re

Thinking about your goal as well. But step two, I really want you to paint a detailed picture of who you are trying to reach with your social media content. Yes, most clients, most businesses are not going to be mad at anybody seeing their posts.

However, there are absolutely more likely customers or the most likely customers. That we can all kind of points you and knowing your target audience drives so much of this strategy. If I’m speaking to men in their sixties, I’m going to be on a different

Platform than if I’m speaking to young women, you know, ages 20 and under. Right. And I know those are two pretty extreme. Differences, stark differences, but there can even be subtleties. And are you trying to reach women in their thirties who are stay at home

Moms or women in their thirties who are mid career professionals, right? Those are two different platforms. Those are two different maybe looks and feels and sounds of your copy of your. Um, and if you’re looking for a way to get more content, you want to look at

Your images of your content types, right? Not always, there can absolutely be overlap in those things, but you want to keep those things in mind before you make any serious decisions about which platforms you’re going to be on, what style you’re going to post in, and so on.

I get this question a lot. What if my client doesn’t know who they want to reach? And first off, I consider this a little bit of a, I would say maybe like a pink flag or an orange flag. If your client comes to you and says, Hey, run my social media,

But I have no idea who I want to reach, or I want to reach everybody. That isn’t a great sign for me necessarily, because any business owner who. Really is about their business for lack of better words. They will be able to explain this to you.

And this is something you can take for your own business to like, get in the habit of, of talking about your ideal customer, really knowing who they are. You’ll be better for it. You’ll be more clear when talking to others who want to refer you to people or, you know.

So, yeah, I take it as a bit of a, you know, like I said, an orange flag. It doesn’t mean that you definitely shouldn’t work with that client. Definitely in startup phase, early days, they might just be a little all over the place and still be figuring these things out.

I think there are exercises you can do with them to help them figure it out. We go through a whole buyer persona lesson in the social media management accelerator. There’s some templates that you can use with your clients to kind of walk them through that process.

So that’s really helpful, but it’s definitely a conversation that you should be having before you sign a contract with a client, it should come as no surprise to them or to you that you’re going to need that information to make. Sound social media strategy decisions for them.

And by the way, if you are interested in joining the next round of the accelerator, I will leave a link for you down in the show notes where you can join the waitlist. You’ll be the first to know when we open doors for the next round,

And that’ll get you the absolute best deal on enrollment fees. As well as some fun bonuses. So be sure to check that out. The accelerator is my immersive program for social media managers or aspiring social media managers. We go through all of this strategy stuff, step by step together in

A cohort or group environment. It’s not just any other course where you get the material and you walk away with it and are left to your own devices. I am involved. I am there as your coach and you get to communicate with your peers as well. So it’s a good time.

And we’ve been able to help hundreds getting really close actually to the thousand student Mark, um, of students, you know, improve their careers, launch their social media management careers. And. Move up to the next level. All right the third step in this once you know who you’re talking

To you Know what you want to do. The third step is you want to decide which platforms you are going to focus on now There are a million platforms out there It feels like and it can be really challenging to decide which ones you’re gonna be on Or decide how much, you know,

Are, are you going to be on all of them? It can be very tempting to do that. My recommendation is to choose at least one longer form or more SEO friendly platform. I’m talking a YouTube. I’m talking Pinterest, which is a little bit of a, you know, it’s

Not really long form, but it’s definitely very search heavy. Even a podcast or a blog, I know there’s not really social media, but they’re going to help you create social media content. So choose one of those platforms if you can, and then choose one shorter form, more trendy, more potentially viral.

Platform like a tech talk, like Instagram reels, like YouTube shorts. If you’re doing long for YouTube, you should probably be doing YouTube shorts as well. So start there with two platforms to really focus on. And ideally they’re going to work well together. So for my example, I do YouTube, that’s my primary platform.

And then I repurposed to all of those other platforms. I really started by just repurposing to tech talk. And then once I realized, okay. I’m learning kind of how to edit for short form platforms and what’s really working over there. Then I started repurposing onto Instagram reels and, you know,

LinkedIn and other things like that. So that’s my best tip. Don’t overwhelm yourself, especially if you’re a one person team. If you’re either running social media for your own business. or, you know, your solopreneur, solo freelancer doing social media for a brand don’t overwhelm yourself unless you are already quite experienced.

Now, with that said, how, how did I decide on YouTube? Right. How might you decide between Pinterest and LinkedIn or TikTok and YouTube shorts? Well, what I really recommend doing is looking at the data. If you have been around for a while, you know, that Metro Cool is a sponsor of this podcast.

It is my favorite social media tool. They have scheduling, they have analytics. They have so much. You can always use my code Latasha at the link down in the description to get 30 days free on any of their premium plans. But I’ve actually got something a little bit more exciting even

To talk to you about today. They’re 2023 social media networks study. It is here and it is glorious. They analyzed over 20 million social media posts from nine different social media platforms. It’s their biggest study yet, and it’s packed with valuable insights and trend predictions for 2024.

You can get answers to questions like how has it evolved social media since 2023? What are the top performing content formats these days? Which platforms and strategies are working best for brands and businesses and so much more. So again, you can check that out down in the show notes.

I’ll leave a direct link to that study. It’s totally free to check out. There is so much good data in there. And if you want to try out Metro cool, use code Latasha. 30 days free on any of their premium plans. I’ll leave that link down below as well.

So yeah, look at the data, look at reports like this one from Metricool, but also look at your own data or your client’s own data. So go through their past performance and. Take a look and really break things down. For me, this was not just looking at my on platform, social media

Data, which can be helpful. You know, if you go into Instagram insights, for example, or Facebook insights, or if you hook your social media up to a tool like metrical, you can get some reports that you can scan through, but I like to even take it a step

Further than that and look at my Google. Analytics. So if you can get access to your clients, Google analytics, or you can install it on your own website and see which social media platforms are referring the most traffic. To the website that is the end goal, if that is indeed your end goal.

So example, if you are doing social media for an e commerce brand, well, you don’t really need to care all of that much about how many, you know, impressions or how many engagements are getting on Instagram. You want to know how many add to carts you’re getting, or at least

How many landing page visits are getting over on your website, right? So Google analytics will enable you to be able to see which platforms are, are indeed referring traffic your way. And that’ll help you decide where to pull the lever, where to, you know,

Invest more time in and so on, and where not to invest a ton of time. When I look at my Google analytics report for my course website, at least. I see that YouTube is really doing double duty for me. It is referring almost all of my traffic, that and Google.

So that’s why I’m still doing YouTube. That is why I invest so much time and energy into YouTube because it, it works for me in terms of referring traffic. Meanwhile, Instagram does almost nothing for me. And that doesn’t mean that Instagram isn’t valuable.

Again, we got to go back to our goals here and think. What do we really want to do with these platforms? And for me, Instagram is a customer service channel. It’s a communication channel. It’s a branding channel for me, whereas YouTube is more about conversions and

That kind of mid to down funnel type of content, there is a ton of data in that metrical study, but some of the. Um, kind of insights that I found the most interesting and most relevant to this conversation when we’re thinking about overall strategic planning for

Next year, number one, that reels are really essential to growth, either on Facebook and or on Instagram. still are really important to those strategies. So keep that in mind. If you’re planning out social media content for Instagram or Facebook, you want to make sure that reels are included in that.

Another one that’s very interesting to me is that tick tocks video length is steadily increasing. It seems like tech talk is like. We are ready to, uh, you know, make advertising money. We’re ready to increase some of that brand affinity. And they are up to an average of 55 seconds.

Now, a lot of us got introduced to Tik TOK as like a 15 second, sometimes even like seven second video app. Well, they are. Looking to compete, I think with YouTube, with podcasts, with, with all the things. And the average is up to 55 seconds.

YouTube, YouTube uploads are up for most creators, so we’re uploading more often, but engagement is down. So this gave me a little bit of reassurance that it’s not just me, but. Yeah, I still think that YouTube is incredibly valuable. Maybe we’ll have this conversation at another time.

Let me know if you’re interested in it, but yeah, I think it’s getting a little bit harder to keep people’s attention on this platform. So that might mean that if you are going to choose YouTube as a platform that you

Focus on, that you’re also investing in an editor, that you’re also investing in a team who can be on camera and be really engaging and keep people’s attention. You know, Goodbye are the days of just posting boring corporate webinars on YouTube and really expecting that to grow your channel to anything significant, right?

So this is an investment, both time, both financial, uh, people investment, all of that, even though I do think it is incredibly valuable. Twitter or X has had quite, quite a year, quite, quite a, quite a time lately. Well, it looks like even though there have been lower posts, the lower post

Frequency for most brands engagement is actually up on those posts. So it seems like the people who are sticking around or like really sticking around, and I think some of, uh, the, you know, Exodus from the platform, a lot of people, a lot of brands have left Twitter.

Over the past year, I think it’s made, uh, Twitter a little bit less overwhelming. So the people that you are following, you’re excited when you see them in their feed. So still could be a very viable strategy. And the last point that I wanted to share with you is that LinkedIn

Shares are up significantly this year. I feel like we never talk about LinkedIn, you know, the proverbial we, as in. Uh, the marketing community, the social media community, the YouTube community, I feel like LinkedIn is kind of forgotten about sometimes, but it is an incredibly valuable platform.

And people are wanting to share content over there. So post content for them to share. After you decide on your platforms, you need to decide what you’re actually going to say. How are you actually going to achieve those goals on those platforms and reach the right people?

First, I think we got to start with messaging, like What is our overall promise? What is our brand promise? What is our offer? What is our unique value proposition? Making sure that you really figure that out. And again, as a social media manager, if you’re like a freelance

Social media manager, that’s not necessarily your job to come up with brand boilerplate messaging. But again, just like the audience, this should be something that you are comfortable communicating about. This should be something that you are comfortable asking for, sending them through an onboarding form that asks for this information, having that conversation.

If they maybe have a very long, this is something that I had to do a lot when I worked in corporate is like, we would have this very long boiler plate kind of Wikipedia style messaging. And I’m like, we got a. Socialize this, we’ve got to condense this down for social media.

Cause I only have a certain number of characters to put into my Instagram bio. So while you might not be responsible for that per se, you are responsible for getting that information and communicating that information. From there, I like to create content pillars.

So I recommend coming up with two to three kind of buckets of content or categories of content, whatever you want to call it. And again, go back to your goal. If you want to sell stuff, if you are doing social for an e commerce company,

Well, then you want to make sure that you were showcasing social proof. You can do this through testimonials. You can do this through user generated content, customer. Driven content, right? That’s a great way to kind of show your product in action, show that people are loving it.

You might also create a pillar that’s about ingredients or methodology. If it is not a physical product, maybe if it’s like a education product or something like that, it might be, Hey, here’s what we teach. Here’s what’s included kind of a look under the hood, if you will,

Because people want to sort of try before they buy, they want to know what’s inside before they buy, so that might be a pillar for you. You might leave a pillar on the calendar for promotions or just kind of things that are going on in the business. Maybe there’s a special event.

If you run social media for a coffee shop, there’s an arts event, a local community event that you want to include in that pillar, or maybe you are doing BOGO lattes one day. So making sure that you have space for that and that you’re

Just planning and leaving room in your calendar and planning ahead. So if your clients so that you can communicate about those promotions or those events or that UGC or whatever you choose as a pillar. If your goal is more about just growing followers, building up that

Awareness, that top of the funnel type content, well, you really want to lean heavy on the value, right? Education. If you have an online business, you want to make sure that you are really. Telling, showing, you know, explaining, kind of doing that, what, why type content.

So maybe I am a, I teach a course on gardening, let’s just say, uh, I’m going to be talking about why you need a garden. What a garden is, what you can grow in a garden, what some of the possibilities

Are, you know, what some of the recipes are that I’ve grown from my garden. And the idea is that that educational content, that top of the funnel content will gain a following, help you gain a following. And then you can do some of that, how type of content, that next level content.

And in your paid materials in your paid courses, or even just in future pieces of content that people choose to continue to watch. So know where you’re at in the funnel, know what the goal is, know who you’re talking to, and know what you want to say.

And just break that up into content pillars and then just cycle through that content. You know, making sure that. You’re not doing all educational content for an entire month or all UGC content for an entire month. You’re able to look at those other pillars that you’ve identified for

Yourself and can cycle between those just to keep content fresh and to make sure that you are kind of hitting all of your, all of your goals, if you will. After you’ve done all that, it’s really about creating content or doing whatever you need to get content. There’s.

There’s content creation, there’s content curation, and technically speaking, content creation is not really a social media manager’s job. If you’re doing this, if you’re watching this for your own business, then yeah, like you got to get scrappy more than likely, unless you have a huge budget and can hire out content creation.

But if you’re a social media manager or freelance social media manager, or even an in house social media manager, you know, depending on your job description. Creation might not technically be in your role. However, I do think it is important that we know enough to be dangerous.

As I like to say that we know how to use Canva, that we know how to browse stock image sites, or take like a basic photo at a company event or whatever you need to do so that you have stuff to at least pull from in the beginning.

It also might be a part of your job to work with other teams. So if they’re, if you’re working in corporate, or even if you’re working as a freelancer, they have a larger team with a, you know, maybe creative team, a video team, a photo team, a graphic design team, you need to

Communicate to them what you need. Hey, I need a batch of 30 testimonial graphics. You know, we need to plan a video shoot where we can. Create some B roll video of product features, that kind of thing. So that’s kind of the next stage is really bringing this whole

Strategy to life because without action, it’s just a piece of paper. It’s just a PDF. It’s just a deck that you put together. So that’s really the fun part. That’s the part that I actually love is the content creation. So yeah, that is really what goes into a social media strategy.

I hope this was helpful. Again, if you want to check out metrical study. With all of their findings from 2023, you can click the link down in the show notes. I will also leave a link to the wait list for the social media management accelerator. It’ll be back early in 2024.

I’m so excited to teach this course again, and to, uh, be able to help you through some of these. Um, so I’m going to be talking about a lot of these things that we talked about. And if you have any questions for me, feel free to leave them down in the comments.

If you’re on YouTube, please subscribe to the podcast channel. And I will talk to you in my next episode. Bye.