By Evans Dakwa,News Editor
When social media arrived in Zimbabwe, it was used primarily for social interactions, connecting us with long-lost friends. Fast forward to today, social media platforms have become a hub of commerce, with millions of businesses conducted daily.
Social media has become the go-to marketing platform for most businesses in Zimbabwe, adopted with varying degrees of success. Undoubtedly, social media has transformed the way we do business and changed marketing strategies.
A deliberate strategy and plan for content creation and distribution are crucial for success. Content quality and quantity are determined by a Social Media Strategy – not just any strategy, but an effective one.
For this article , let’s start by defining what a Social Media Strategy is. Simply put, it’s a document that guides a business’s plan for creating and distributing marketing content for its products or services.
Before posting haphazardly, a great social media strategy in the Zimbabwean context should be guided by what targets the business has set. Business targets and social media goals must align.
Understanding and defining your social media goals will determine the rest of your strategy. Failure to do so means your strategy will lack a solid foundation. You may need to think about what your business wants to achieve from social media and understand that marketing and business goals differ.
Is it greater brand awareness, learning more about your audience, expanding your following, or generating leads? You may want to achieve all these goals, but it’s crucial to note each one, as they involve different content and tactics on social media.
When setting goals, define your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to understand which social media metrics are important.
After setting the foundation of your Social Media Strategy by marrying your business goals with social media goals, it’s time to define your target audience. Very few businesses cater to all facets and strata of society, so understanding your target audience is crucial.
Identifying and segmenting your audience will help create personalized messaging and content. You need to understand who your audience is and what they want to deliver customized messaging that can have a greater impact for your business.
The ultimate goal is to have customers talk about your brand or product/service positively, influencing others through word-of-mouth marketing.
When you’ve successfully defined your target audience, it’s time to choose your social media platform. Whilst many argue that being active on all platforms is best, it’s crucial to know which medium should be your main focus.
In Zimbabwe, one of the main challenges is the pricing of data. Minus promotional bundles, many people cannot afford to go on most platforms outside of WhatsApp and Facebook. The question is not about being active on social media but choosing the best channels for your business.
Research your competitors, as competition analysis is crucial for developing your social marketing strategy. It helps you understand what your competitors are doing in the social space, assisting you in developing your own strategy.
Nothing is new under the sun, and reinventing the wheel is not always best. Research what your competitors are doing, gaining valuable insights about the product and industry.
Plan your content now that you’ve done your research and decided on the right social media platforms. With the increasing popularity of short-form video content, people no longer have the patience to wade through long pieces of content.
Create a tone for your pages, are you formal or informal? Do you use humor or is your business more serious? Each platform has its own personality, so do you want to speak differently on each and showcase your brand’s personality?
Create content themes or content buckets, looking at what your USP is and creating content themes or buckets around it. Create a content calendar to keep track of your content across channels.
Schedule your content, as consistency is key. These steps may seem tedious, but they need to be part of your deliberately made social media strategy. Remember, simplicity is best, as sophistication can lead to failure.
Manage and engage your community, as social media builds connections that can become communities. Communities drive engagement and brand awareness. An active community creates brand advocates and draws in new customers.
Be responsive, as a key element to managing and engaging a social media community is to be helpful. If a customer has a query or comment, get back quickly.
Growing your audience is crucial, and you need to use tactics to achieve it. There are two ways to grow your audience: organically or through paid advertising.
Work the social media algorithms, as your social media strategy won’t work if you don’t understand how they work. Funding the strategy is crucial, as a successful Social Media Strategy needs monetary investment.
Allocate resources and budget, as paid ads need funding, and personnel involved in managing and implementing the Social Media Strategy need to be paid.
Following these steps will help your brand create an effective Social Media Strategy that will grow your business in the Zimbabwean context.