How To Craft a Simple Social Media Strategy for Content Businesses

Jessica Dante didn’t have the money for her content startup. So, the blogger took social media into her own hands, spending her evenings learning how to do YouTube and Instagram. Over 10 years later, Love and London boasts 332K YouTube subscribers and 519K Instagram followers. 

Ayman Chaudhary has ranked as the No. 1 influencer for #BookTok and has amassed over 915K followers. Though she started on TikTok out of boredom, she’s gone beyond her social content to create a full-time business.

Social media is an attractive option for most content entrepreneurs. It doesn’t cost any money. It also provides access to audiences who are interested in consuming content. However, free doesn’t mean it’s easy, and their users’ interest in content doesn’t mean they will find (or want) yours.

While we don’t advocate building your business on social media because you’re constructing something under others’ control, we see value in using social media as a marketing channel.

You need a strategy to get the most out of social media marketing. Here’s a seven-step process to simplify the process.

1. What’s in it for the business?

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of starting their social media plans by selecting the platform or creating the content. Before you do that, though, you must establish clear objectives related to your business. What do you want to achieve with your social media presence? 

According to a HubSpot survey, the top goals for businesses on social media are increasing revenue and sales (23%), improving the customer experience (19%), increasing brand awareness and reaching new audiences (19%), increasing engagement (18%), and improving sales/marketing alignment (16%).

I bet you’d like to do all that (though since you’re a content entrepreneur, you probably don’t have the marketing-sales alignment dilemma).

But having a singular focus is a must. (Sure, you may see other benefits, and that’s great. They’re just not what your social media activity will be centered around.)

Ask these questions:

• Which business objective do you want social media to help with?
• What is the marketing goal related to that?
• What is the purpose of your brand being on social media?

Example:

Let’s construct a social media marketing strategy for an entrepreneur specializing in career-related content.

• My business objective is to increase the belief that my brand is a valuable resource for information about attaining your career goals.
• My marketing goal is to increase subscribers to the monthly newsletter.
• My social media purpose is to establish this brand as a go-to expert for information about how to attain career goals.

At this point, I’m not adding numbers to these objectives and goals – that comes in Step 6.

2. Who is the audience? [Who are they really?]

Now that you know the why, you must describe the who. After all, you can’t create an effective social media plan if you don’t understand your audience and their online behavior. Beyond basic demographics, delve into their psychographics, interests, and online behavior.

• Psychographic profiling: Tools like Facebook Audience Insights and surveys can help you uncover your audience’s values, lifestyles, and aspirations. With this knowledge, you can create content that resonates more deeply.
• Content consumption habits: Pay attention to the types of content your audience engages with. Are they more likely to watch videos, read blog posts, or interact with images? 
• Social media behavior: Does this audience use social media? (If not, you can stop this strategy now.) Which platforms do they prefer? Are they more likely to use YouTube or TikTok? What topics and activities do they expect to see on Facebook vs. LinkedIn?

I added a second question in the header – who are they really – for a reason. After you think you have your target audience, narrow it further. For example, if you’re that career content entrepreneur in the example above, your initial target might be early-stage professionals. Next, narrow the group to early-stage professionals in their first post-graduate roles.

Example:

Early-stage professionals who are employed in their first post-graduate roles. They seek to take on a new role in the next two years and put time outside of work hours to expand their professional skills. They are active on LinkedIn and Instagram for career-related content. They prefer short-form video content and informative articles.

Advertisement

Earn More From Your Newsletters, Podcasts, and More.

Earning revenue from your content shouldn’t mean sacrificing control of your brand, audience, or finances. With Memberful, content entrepreneurs can keep more of what they earn while building their own independent media businesses.

Using Memberful, an independent creator or publisher with 2,500 subscribers paying $10/month can make $14,700 more per year compared to other leading publishing platforms — thanks to Memberful’s lower transaction fees, built-in publishing features, and a host of integrations with popular tools. 

Don’t leave money on the table — turn your content into a membership business and grow on your own terms.

Learn More About Memberful

3. What content will you create?

At this stage, you can draw a Venn diagram. One circle includes the topics your business is interested in, and the other includes the topics your audience is interested in. The shared center contains the topics for your content–that’s the content that will make them view you as a valuable resource and motivate them to do what you want (like, share, follow, etc.)

I recommend picking three to five overarching categories. In your strategy, detail examples of content posts that fit into those categories. (This also makes content planning easier.)

Example:

• Skill development
  • Struggling with public speaking? Actionable tips to overcome your fear
  • Master data analysis with these free resources
• Networking and professional relationships
  • Craft a LinkedIn invitation worthy of a yes response
  • How to navigate challenging workplace relationships
• Career planning
  • Define your career vision and create a roadmap to achieve it.
  • Identify transferable skills for new opportunities.

4. Where will you publish?

Select one primary channel where your audience expects to see and consume your topic on social media. Then, select two to three secondary channels where you can cross-post content.

Among the most common options are LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, X, Pinterest, and Bluesky.

Make sure you have the resources to publish on the preferred platform. So, if your audience prefers video, you might pick TikTok. However, if you don’t have the skills or resources to craft videos, that’s not a good option.

Example: 

• My primary social media platform is LinkedIn. Instagram is the secondary channel.

5. When will you post?

Consistency is key. Identify the minimum number of times you can create and publish weekly posts. Don’t get ambitious. You can always publish more frequently, but posting less frequently will frustrate you (and, hopefully, your audience).

Also, determine how frequently you’ll publish content for each category. This information helps inform your content calendar planning.

Example:

• I will publish twice a week on LinkedIn and Instagram. Each weekly rotation will include a skills post and alternate between networking and career planning categories.

6. Why?

Revisit your business purpose in the first step. Based on your business, marketing, and social media purposes, what do you want the audience to do after consuming the social media content?

Potential calls to action include follow, subscribe, like, share, visit website, sign up for email, and redeem coupon code.

At this step, you also want to put numbers and timing to your goals. Pick a metric relevant to your goal, identify the increase or amount to achieve, and set the time in which it should be completed. For example, increase email subscribers from social media posts by 10% in the next quarter.

Example:

To become the go-to content resource for early-stage professionals interested in advancing their careers, my business will:

• Grow followers to the LinkedIn page by 50% in the next six months.
• Increase newsletter subscribers from social media traffic by 5% in the next three months.

7. Review and adjust

Using your measurable goals as the timeline, add an appointment on your calendar to check in to see how well you achieved them. (Weekly check-ins are also helpful in identifying positive and negative trends.)

Revisit your goals as needed based on external or internal triggering events. For example, if your target audience is focused on government-related work, current activities on the federal level might change the information they want. Or perhaps you discover that paying audience members prefer one topic over another. 

By implementing these steps, you can get your social media guidance in writing and improve your opportunities for success.

Helpful Resources:

• 5 Social Media Strategy Tips [The Tilt]
• A Social Strategy for Real Life From Katie Brinkley [The Tilt]
• Get More and Do Less Social [The Tilt]
• 5 Things To Do To Convert Your Viewers Into an Audience You Own [The Tilt]
• 7-Step Social Media Marketing Template [Ann Gynn] 
• The Social Shift: The Road Back to Community [Tilt Publishing author Katie Brinkley]
• Simple Social Media [Tilt Publishing author Annie Schiffmann]

The post How To Craft a Simple Social Media Strategy for Content Businesses appeared first on The Tilt Publishing.