Reasons Why You Should Update Your Social Strategy

On average, 77% of businesses use social media to reach customers and have been since the mid-2000s. Ever since Facebook opened its doors to online advertising in 2006, a new wave of marketing emerged and has only continued to grow. As of 2022, the social media advertising market is the second largest market in digital advertising, bringing in a total of $226 billion and expected to grow to more than $385 billion by 2027.

Although businesses have promoted themselves on social media for more than a decade-the rapid pace at which social media changes requires companies to stay on top of trends, requirements and entire platform shifts. No matter the number of platforms you use and the amount of posts you share, it is essential to update your social strategy on a regular basis.

Why? Sticking to the status quo is not an option when it comes to social media marketing. By staying with the same strategy, you risk missing out on new opportunities, and the algorithm could begin to show your content to fewer and fewer followers.

What is a Social Strategy, Exactly?

At its core, a social strategy is a way to plan out your content and ensure consistency across platforms. It also plays a crucial role in reaching your KPIs. Your social strategy should reflect your business and its brand. How you promote your products, how often you share news and how you engage with customers are all key components of your social strategy.

Reasons Your Social Needs a Refresh

Your social strategy should change and evolve with your business, current trends and software updates from the platforms themselves. For example, when Facebook decided to launch a competitor to X (formerly Twitter), people were quick to jump to the newest platform, with over 120 million users in under one month. Refusing to update your social strategy means potentially losing out on getting your content in front of millions of consumers. Similarly, when Instagram introduced Reels, the algorithm switched gears and prioritized video content over static images, forcing companies to re-think their content.

There are more reasons to update your social strategy besides platform and software updates. Here are a few reasons we feel it is important to keep your strategy ever-evolving:

• Brand guidelines - Odds are your brand has evolved over the years, but is that reflected on social platforms? In addition to your logo, tagline and mission, the content you put out directly reflects who your company is, down to the verbiage you use and the imagery you share.
• Target audience - Where does your target audience spend most of its time? Instead of posting across all platforms, invest your time and resources into identifying where your audience spends its time and tailor content for a platform or two rather than six or more.
• Posting cadence - Some platforms like TikTok favor those who post daily. In contrast, other platforms like Facebook may not have such high demands. Take a look at your analytics over the last several months and find out when your posts did best, which posts were most engaging and any areas you could improve.
• Marketing campaigns - Your social posts should always align with upcoming campaigns, product promotions, events and overall business goals. If you have developed your social posts on a weekly or monthly basis, make sure you have a healthy balance of both promotional posts and engagement-driven posts. Both types of posts allow followers to join the dialogue, feel a personal relationship with your brand and provide powerful, ongoing feedback throughout the conversation loop.
• Engagement plans - The way people interact with brands online has changed drastically over the years. With countless companies vying for your customer's attention, keeping engagement rates up has become more complicated- but that does not mean it is impossible. It likely just means you need to update your engagement policies and direct efforts into interacting with your followers to encourage that discourse.

Create a (New) Winning Strategy

Staying on top of social media trends is not just about posting a timely meme–it is about ensuring your marketing and advertising strategies align with the current demands and expectations. Instead of worrying about whether your social strategy will work, it can be cost-efficient and beneficial to put your social media strategy into the hands of a well-versed digital marketing agency.

Agencies like ours have your best interests in mind, along with the knowledge and tools to help you succeed. Reach out to us today to learn about our social media and reputation management offerings.