Your brand needs an active, differentiated voice to cut through the noise on social media. But that won’t happen by accident. You need a clear and focused social media marketing strategy. Otherwise, you and your team will waste time throwing spaghetti at the wall.
By documenting your strategy, you make it easy for anyone at your organization to follow and update as your brand evolves. Social media marketing strategies will differ from brand to brand, but the best ones have a strong foundation grounded in a deep understanding of the audience at hand.
What is an organic social media marketing strategy?
An organic social media marketing strategy defines how a brand will use social media platforms to engage target audiences and achieve specific business objectives, such as raising brand awareness. Unlike paid social media strategy, it relies on organic reach and growth, posting content on regular feeds.
While organic and paid strategies will differ, they should be complementary. Many of the most successful paid campaigns boost content that’s already performing well organically.
How to create a winning social media marketing strategy
Your brand’s social media strategy should focus your marketing efforts on the actions that will, over time, achieve your goals. Let’s get into the steps you need to follow to create one for your brand.
Step 1: Conduct a comprehensive social media audit
To lay the groundwork for your social media strategy, take stock of what you already have.
A social media audit is the compass guiding your new strategy.
Here’s a checklist for your audit:
- Platform performance metrics (reach, engagement, conversion)
- Content performance analysis (by format, topic, posting time)
- Competitor benchmark comparison
- Audience demographics and behavior analysis
- Average response time and resolution rate for social customer care
- Platform-specific opportunities (e.g., Reels performance)
- AI tool integration assessment
Once you have your baseline data and a full understanding of your social platform performance, you can set benchmarks and goals to improve your future strategy.
Step 2: Set SMART social media marketing goals
Are you looking to grow your brand’s social presence and online community? Turn social media into one of your company’s top lead-generation channels? Launch a social shop to sell directly to your followers?
Whatever your ultimate goals are, you’ll want to define them using the SMART format:
- Specific: Think “increase TikTok followers by 20% by Q4” rather than “grow followers.”
- Measurable: Instead of “boost brand awareness,” decide what metrics taken together will indicate you’ve met your goal.
- Attainable: If you’re at 5,000 followers, getting to 5 million within a year may not be realistic. Study your competitors for reasonable benchmarks.
- Relevant: Ensure your social media goals align with your brand’s direction. For example, impressions on TikTok might not matter if you’re trying to reach Boomers.
- Time-bound: Choose goals for each month, quarter, and year. Check in frequently to ensure you’re on track.
Once your goals are established, you’ll want to pair them with the right KPIs. Here are some examples of SMART goals.
Example 1: Brand awareness
Weak goal: “Increase our social media presence.”
SMART goal: “Increase blog traffic from social channels by 25% within 3 months by publishing 10 new articles, refreshing 10 existing articles, and creating 20 targeted thought leadership posts to establish our reputation as an industry leader.”
Example 2: Audience growth
Weak goal: “Get more followers.”
SMART goal: “Gain 2,000 new Instagram followers within 3 months by posting three reels weekly during peak hours for our audience, running a social media contest, and collaborating with two industry influencers.”
Example 3: Lead generation
Weak goal: “Use social media to get more leads.”
SMART goal: “Generate 500 new email sign-ups through LinkedIn campaigns by December 31, 2025, by publishing 2 video posts weekly (optimal as LinkedIn reports 1.4 times higher engagement on video versus text posts), creating a lead magnet addressing industry pain points, and allocating $2,500 to promoted posts.”
Once you confirm your social media goals – the ‘why’ behind your strategy – ensure all stakeholders are on the same page and that all efforts remain focused.
Finally, establish a systematic approach to tracking performance:
- Create a centralized dashboard aggregating KPIs across platforms.
- Schedule regular performance reviews to identify trends.
- Implement A/B testing to optimize underperforming content.
- Communicate them to all relevant internal teams.
- Adjust posting frequency based on engagement data.
- Reallocate resources toward the highest-performing content types and platforms.
This data-driven approach ensures you allocate resources efficiently and can communicate clear results to stakeholders.
Step 3: Identify and understand your target audience inside and out
Rule No. 1 of content marketing: know your audience. After all, how can you get the desired action from them if you don’t know what needs of theirs you are addressing?
When creating audience personas of your target (ideal) followers on social media:
- Paint a picture of who you are targeting with your strategy. Think about demographics such as age, generation, location, and occupation.
- Think of their stage in the customer journey. What challenges can you help them address?
- Consider how they spend their time on social media. Identify their interests and what influencers they follow.
- Consider psychographic information, such as your audience’s pain points and desires. Ask yourself: What do they really want? And regardless of what they want, what do they really need?
One way to reliably gather these insights is to regularly hear the voice of your customers, followers, and even prospects through surveys. Voice of the customer (VoC) programs provide continuous insights that help you identify new opportunities and trends and guide future marketing efforts.
Step 4: Choose the right social platforms for your brand
The next step is to choose the right social platforms for your audience.
For each of your target personas, ask yourself which networks are part of their daily routines. Start with the most popular social media networks (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok) and assess how engaged your target audience is on each. Consider the demographics you painted a picture of in step 3.
Next, determine how to best use each platform for your business goals. Consider the nuances and differences between each channel.
For example:
- How do users navigate the platform, and what do they look for in their social experiences on each?
- What do you know about each platform’s algorithm. How can you adapt your efforts accordingly?
- What content types generate more engagement than others on each platform? For example, Instagram Reels are getting higher engagement than TikTok. On Facebook, the best video length is 30-60 seconds, with a strong hook in the first few seconds. TikTok recommends videos between 21 and 34 seconds for the best performance.
Monitor the latest updates to each platform to stay on top of any changes that present opportunities to boost engagement or require you to adjust your strategy.
Need help finding the right social media management solution? Talk to our experts today.
Step 5: Create and deploy an engaging content strategy
A robust social media content strategy can transform a scattershot posting schedule into a laser-focused marketing channel. Begin by establishing a clear content mix ratio. Industry benchmarks suggest this ideal mix. 70% educational content, 20% promotional content, and 10% entertaining content.
Don’t be afraid to post frequently. Emplifi survey data shows that 46% of regular social media users prefer that brands they follow post at least once per day.
Establish a structured content calendar that aligns with your SMART goals. Incorporate seasonal trends and industry events. Document your content pillars — the core themes that reflect your expertise. Ensure each piece maps to specific audience segments and funnel stages.
The right content strategy transforms content from a creative exercise into a strategic business asset that delivers measurable results.
Step 6: Analyze results and optimize your strategy
Establish a structured review cadence. Here is an example you can use like a template and adapt:
- Weekly: Review individual post performance and engagement. Use the data to make immediate adjustments to upcoming content. For example, if a certain post topic saw a big spike in engagement, plan another post on the same topic from a different angle. Create new content to jump into trends that make sense for your brand.
- Monthly: Look at larger patterns in your data. For example, when is your audience most active? Consider adjusting your posting schedule to match it. What format is resonating best with your core customers? Plan more of that. Take a look at competitor benchmarks and see where you could allocate more resources to compete.
- Quarterly: This is the time to make big, strategic pivots. Evaluate every platform and reconfirm that you have the right mix. Decide if you’ll jump into emerging platforms. Ensure that your social strategy remains aligned with the overall marketing strategy and company goals.
Pre-planned check-ins prevent reactive decision-making and ensure consistent progress toward your established KPIs.
To make the most of your team’s resources, consider utilizing AI-powered analytics tools that excel at pattern recognition across vast datasets, detecting subtle correlations between posting variables and performance outcomes that human analysis might miss. The best approach combines AI-driven insights with intuitive human interpretation and oversight.
To optimize your social media strategy, you can experiment smartly through A/B testing. Change just one thing at a time (post times, content format, or caption style, for instance), and make sure you’ve got enough data to work with (aim for at least 1,000 impressions per variant).
Final thoughts on social media strategies
A well-executed social media marketing strategy is essential for business growth. By following the six steps outlined in this guide, you’ll be well-positioned to outperform your competition.
Your strategy should embrace innovation and trends while keeping authentic human connection at its core. Start implementing these steps today, and continuously refine your approach based on performance data and emerging trends.
Ready to take your social media strategy to the next level? Request a demo to see how Emplifi’s AI-powered social media marketing tools can grow and nurture your target audience across platforms.
