Social Media Strategy for 2021
Megan Garmers from The Bridal Masterclass shares her three step plan for a practical social media strategy
So many business owners ask me the same question: Do I really need a social media strategy? Isn’t it like a phone book listing and website? I don’t have a strategy for either and they work just fine.
But do they?
I would challenge that just having a phone book listing and website do not work “just fine” for your business.
Think back to 30 years ago when you didn’t have a website and only had a listing in the phone book? How did people hear about your business? Word of mouth? An advertisement in a magazine, on tv or a billboard? And they worked just fine. Back then.
The reason they worked is because they were where your ideal clients were. Your ideal clients were in physical locations or places and had their heads up and looking around to see your ad so they could later remember you and come in to see you in person or tell a friend about you.
Social media is all of that and more, except now instead of having their heads up and looking around, they have their heads down in their phones and are looking around by scrolling. So why would you NOT have a strategy around what, how, when and why you post and engage on social media?
You want to be where your ideal clients already are, where they spend lots of time and can be easily influenced. That location is exactly dead center in social media.
However, one of the things to keep in mind, specifically for millennials and Gen Z is that they expect you to speak directly to them. They don’t have time for generic weddings. They want a business to literally crawl inside of their brain and then create solutions to fit their life’s pain points. If you are not doing this, you are missing out and quite honestly, your business has a shortened lifespan.
Planning Your Work and Working Your Plan
Creating a social media strategy is like making sure you know your destination and the best route to get there. You wouldn’t set out to go to Morrison’s and not know which location you were going to, right? And you wouldn’t go there if you didn’t know what you wanted to buy and how much time you had to get there, shop and get back to the rest of your day, right? You wouldn’t waste the time or gas just aimlessly driving around and not know whether or not you could actually accomplish your goals. Why would you do that with your business?
Your social media strategy needs to be aligned with your business goals for the short- and long-term.
Remember that your social media strategy is the biggest aspect of your marketing and advertising strategy.
This year is almost over and your 2021 success will be greatly influenced by what you are doing right now in the midst of engagement season.
Three steps to approaching your 2021 social media strategy:
Step 1: Define your business goals for the next 5 years, 2021, and this month.
Your business goals and your personal goals should be aligned or your business success will not make you personally happy. You need to know where you want to be in the future so you can point yourself and your business in the right direction.
Step 2: Create a plan to achieve your goals that includes daily, weekly, and monthly objectives.
It really is this simple however the biggest mistake most business owners make is that they do not create the right plan for their business goals.
Step 3: Work your plan and evaluate how you did the day before and what you need to change going forward.
Plans don’t always go as planned. This year is a prime example of that. If you don’t evaluate and re-evaluate what actually occurred each day and what you can do (or not do) to move your business forward, you are operating in the dark. You can’t even tell if you are on the right path—or any path for that matter—for your goals.
This all seems so simple when you read it, right? Except how often do you read something that makes sense about social media and yet it doesn’t seem to be working for you? Sometimes having an outside perspective to point out your blind spots or to help you create a plan for implementing what you learned is the only way out of your rut.
If you don’t have someone to help you with that, email me and let me help get you pointed in the right direction for 2021: hello@thebridalmasterclass.com
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