By: Lindsay Nahmiache

Social media is a powerful tool that allows us to share bits and pieces of our lives from anywhere in the world -- in just seconds. These channels are expanded opportunities for your brand’s voice, content and engaging interactions. When you harness the power of social media, a well-strategized social plan can bring new opportunities to increase brand awareness and become a recognized leader in your space.

Lucky for us, social media is here to stay. But if you’re not fully engaged and emerged in accomplishing the goals set in your strategy, there will be serious effects on your desired results.

There some key factors that we have included in our own social media strategy at Jive PR + Digital to take our online presence to the next level. From our experience, here are a few tips. 

 1. Set Goals

It is true that social media can boost a business in many ways. But how do we ensure that the time and resources we put into our social media channels result in maximum value?

One key step in taking social media channels to the next level is to set and define the goals for your team. Without goals, it is hard to know how well your social media strategy is doing. Do you hope to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website or become a thought leader in your community space? Set these intentions ahead of time, and measure your success with metrics, such as reach, engagement, page growth, website traffic, return on investment (ROI), etc.

2. Build Content Themes

High-quality content is extremely important. By following the goals you’ve laid out as well as staying true to your brand’s voice, you can begin to create content that fits your identity.

At Jive, we know how difficult it can be to consistently create high-quality content on a daily basis, and we try to combat this by sticking to similar color designs, settings and tone of voice. We have found that Instagram is one of the best platforms for establishing visual content themes, and we have also found that working with these consistent themes helps to ensure that we always have a schedule of excellent content to publish.

3. Use Content Calendars

At Jive, we use content calendars to plan and organize upcoming content. These calendars ensure we never miss important dates, holidays and other opportunities to post relevant content our audiences will appreciate.

Staying organized with pre-planned calendars not only means you remember important moments; it also means that you know what you’re publishing, where you’re publishing it and when. It helps us stick to a routine cadence that can establish content themes our audience easily recognizes.

Another great thing -- and something we love -- about content calendars is that they’re extremely collaborative and make it easier to work with a team.

4. Beef Up Blogging

Blogging is a great way to not only drive traffic to your site but to establish authority as a thought leader. Your blog posts are a place to provide valuable content for your audience. And the quality of the posts should persuade your audience to share them on various social channels and other websites.

In order to differentiate your blog posts from others, make sure that your unique perspective on the industry shines through in the content you share. Create unique content by hosting Q&As and incorporating guest bloggers for fresh perspectives, and post regularly -- at least once a week.

5. Keep Learning

Stay on top of current trends by taking a class or attending a conference.

One of the primary ways we like to stay current is through our connections with other like-minded women in our industry. Displaying our business’ personality through social media is one of the best ways to connect with our target audience, and continuously finding new ways to showcase our values and character keeps our content fresh and our audience inspired.

All in all, if you can set goals and remain focused on reaching those goals, along with building out high-quality content, your social media activities will be worth the effort you put into them.

What tips do you have for taking a social media strategy to the next level? We’d love to hear from you!