How to build an SMM strategy: a step-by-step plan for promotion on social networks. What should be the SMM strategy?

Artem Senatorov

Content Marketing: Promotion Strategies in social networks

Editor Anton Nikolsky

Project Manager O. Ravdanis

Corrector S. Mozaleva

Computer layout M. Potashkin

Cover design S. Khozin

All rights reserved. The work is intended exclusively for private use. No part of the electronic copy of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for public or collective use without the written permission of the copyright owner. For violation of copyright, the law provides for payment of compensation to the copyright holder in the amount of up to 5 million rubles (Article 49 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), as well as criminal liability in the form of imprisonment for up to 6 years (Article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

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The book will help:

Learn to create selling content for posting on social networks;

Avoid the main mistakes made by the vast majority of SMM specialists;

Understand what you can and should save on, and what you shouldn’t;

Develop your own effective promotion strategy and actively use it in the future.

Introduction

I was very lucky. When I talk with my colleagues, authors of books on business topics, they often complain that it’s not always possible to really find worthwhile topic for a new work. Either it is too narrow, or its time has not come yet, or, on the contrary, the trend is ending and there is no point in writing anymore. In my case, everything turned out completely differently - the theme of the book, in a sense, found me itself. So I think there is a certain amount of luck involved.

You have in your hands my third work on marketing. The first two books published by Alpina Publisher were called “The Battle for a VKontakte Subscriber” and “Business on Instagram.” These books were received warmly by the public. Among the readers were those who decided to offer me cooperation. So I visited many corners of our vast Motherland as a speaker at conferences, a leader of trainings and a coach in personal corporate classes. Over time, I began to notice that the first dialogue with future partners is usually structured in a similar way. It looks something like this:

– Good afternoon, Artem! Thank you for finding time for us.

– No need for thanks, let's discuss matters.

– Of course. We read your books about VKontakte and Instagram and now we understand well WHAT we need to work on. And now we would like you to tell us in as much detail as possible HOW you need to work.

At some point, it became obvious that business owners and heads of marketing departments sometimes simply get lost in all the variety of social media. Intuitively, they understand that if a particular project gains popularity, then they need to open their accounts there too. Is this true? Partly. Different social networks have different audiences. Of course, there are overlaps. For example, most Instagram users are on at least one other network. But in general, if the same people were active in different projects, the social network market would not be able to support so many players. The fact is that the services are different and the people in them are also different (in any case, they use social networks for different tasks). Therefore, before actively engaging in SMM, you should decide on a presence strategy.

In our time, many meaningful and important words have been devalued due to overuse. Unfortunately, the word “strategy” is one of them. Now you can find any kind of strategy: and in personal finance, and in career growth, and even in gentrification summer cottage plot. Sometimes it seems that even when shopping in grocery store you can’t go without some newfangled “food investment strategy.” Therefore, I try not to use this word unless absolutely necessary. But the case with social media is one where you really can’t do without a strategy (if, of course, you want to achieve results). This is because, in my opinion, working in SMM is reminiscent of chess, where strategy and tactics are also necessary. At first glance, the comparison may seem unusual, but if you take a closer look, the similarities will be obvious. In both cases there is a position, attacking and defensive actions, effective combinations of moves, creative ideas, strong players, in the end! The only thing that is, perhaps, definitely not on the Internet is the final victory - “checkmate” of the enemy king. Yes, you will not be able to achieve absolute victory: any won battle will still be in the past, and the present will prepare new tests of strength. But this can also be considered a plus, because no one will ever be able to completely outplay you either. No matter what happens, by reviewing your actions, you can find a way to try again to achieve the result.

So if you look at work in social networks as black and white battles, a lot of things immediately become clearer. And this book will help you with the most important thing - choosing the right strategy for your brand. I have structured the narrative in such a way that you can find a description of the goals that this or that strategy helps to achieve, compare with what you would like to achieve yourself, and choose the most suitable presence option for yourself. In fact, you can read the book from any section. But still, I recommend (at least for the first time) reading it from the very beginning, because we will go from simple techniques to more complex ones, and it will be easier to perceive information in order.

We identify needs and plan work

1. First steps

What is content management and why is it important?

The first topic that I would like to cover is the topic of content. When I worked as a journalist and wrote materials for various glossy magazines, editor-in-chiefs liked to say that “articles are the lifeblood of publications.” It's hard to argue with that. Of course, no matter how successful an issue you put together, a new one should come out next month, and it should also be on par. In this sense, it’s a rather thankless job - you don’t have to rest on your laurels, like, for example, a musician who recorded one platinum album that will be sold (and performed at concerts) for many decades. The journalistic role in this regard is more like the work of a chef, who also has to create his masterpieces again and again every day. I write all this to the fact that working in SMM belongs to the category of precisely those jobs where you need to keep your finger on the pulse at all times. And here, accordingly, there must be its own “blood”, thanks to which the process will continue. This is His Majesty Content.

What's behind this word? I have my own definition quality content– this is relevant (and, if possible, original) information that can arouse interest among the audience and maintain its loyalty.

I would like to clarify the latter. The term "relevant" means that the content you publish meets your audience's expectations. Of course, if you created an Instagram account for the purpose of making money by selling advertising and called it “All the Most Interesting,” then you can post almost anything here - from humor to a video of a spaceship launch. If the page has the name of your brand and you produce, say, teapots, you need to be more careful and explain the appearance of this or that material on your pages. For example, if you want to post something funny, then mention that in Russian the phrases “The kettle takes a long time to boil” and “The kettle doesn’t boil for a long time” mean the same thing. And a video of the shuttle launch can only be provided if, for example, the same metal alloys were used in the production of your product as in the rocket that rushed into space.

Rice. 1. By the way, the so-called “Attacks” show phenomenal vitality - this content format has been well received by the audience for several years

When I write “as original as possible,” this does not necessarily mean “not published anywhere, ever, or by anyone before.” This is far from the case. "Original" in in this case- it is rather “inscribed in your behavioral style.” For example, if you wrote an article and published it, and then (a few months later) repeat it, this is still original content in a certain sense. Even if you just publish thematic quotes from classic books, but design them in a special way in a recognizable way(for example, in pictures with a watermark), then this is also suitable.

It forms a brand, tells potential buyers about the merits of a particular product and/or service, and encourages them to purchase (use the service).

Why do you need an SMM strategy?

One of the advertising options is the systematic promotion of goods through. Efficiency this method due to the high popularity and ease of using social networks for communication and work. Great amount people every day go to their own pages and the pages offered to them for review, as well as to their favorite groups to receive new information, entertainment and communication, and it is impossible not to take advantage of such a situation.

An SMM strategy allows you to work with groups to promote goods and services more effectively. Systematic activity always brings much greater results than unsystematized posting of posts “about the weather”.

In this article, you will learn how to make your audience love you.

How to build an SMM strategy

Working with a group based on building an SMM strategy will allow you to direct social network users in the right direction for the business owner. While an “independent” movement can lead them to competitors.

The following steps will help you achieve the desired results:

Drawing up a portrait of the target audience, creating marketing personas for each audience segment. This is necessary to understand with whom the work will be carried out, what needs they have potential client, that he is interested in what kind of life he leads, in which regions the work will be carried out.
What information is needed to make a purchase decision and form an image of a product or service. Information campaigns will be carried out based on this response of this business. Modeling the situation of a consumer searching for information will allow you to take into account all the details - what information, about what and where the consumer is looking.
Which social networks are used most often to communicate and search? necessary information representatives of the target audience. It is necessary to understand which social networks should be used for maximum efficiency promotion campaigns.
When and at what time of day do representatives of a certain target audience prefer to “log in” to social media? networks. The answer to this question will help you avoid extra costs to advertisements that no one sees.
And finally, the main question is - what are the goals of the SMM strategy? Having defined the goals, you should then write down the tasks, the solution of which will lead to achieving the goal. Creating goals is a real science, the main thesis of which is this: the goal must be urgent, that is, have a specific date for its planned execution, specific (without “if” and “after that”), real - that is, potentially achievable, measurable - 10,000 subscribers after 2 months, for example.

2. Choice of communication tactics.

It is very important to determine the style and tone of communication in a group right away, so that there is no miscellaneous communication, sometimes in “you” and “dear friend,” sometimes in “you” and “let me clarify.”

It is necessary to determine who and when will respond to comments and publish posts - if it is not one person, but a team, this issue is especially important. In addition, you need to immediately think about whether records will be kept on behalf of the group or on behalf of the administrator.

The appointment of a chief expert will help create the image of a serious organization, even if the role of chief and administrator will be played by the same person who is under different accounts. But it’s still better if this is a real specialist in his field, a key manager or head of a department. The expert will need to answer the most complex questions and resolve conflict situations.

Creation of a single brand, its visual design, by which users will be able to “recognize” the organization in all social networks. networks, will simplify the task of forming the image of the organization and its activities as a whole.

3. Content creation

Content is the basis of business promotion through social media activities. networks.

Content planning will help you correctly and accordingly develop a strategy for posting posts.

The following actions will help achieve the effectiveness of your content campaign:

Announcements created and presented on other resources of the organization, repeating the materials most liked by the audience, notifying the audience about changes in the information of already published posts after time has passed.
The visual appeal of materials will help attract more users to view it. The most interesting in this regard will be video materials, infographics, photos, and presentations.
Users more often become “zealous followers” of those groups where they can participate in competitions and discussions on a particular topic. By doing so, administrators and moderators involve users in the content creation process and show that users' opinions are very valuable.
Reposts from friends and acquaintances will help increase the number of visitors and subscribers to the group.

4. Content optimization.

This implies correct design publications to attract the largest number their reposts and attracting new ones:

Interesting title.
Readability of content - its compliance with the rules of text formatting, compliance optimal sizes pictures, text, free space.
Unique bright images for posts.
Appealing phrases that help the reader make a purchasing decision or switch to another resource.
Subscription widgets on the main resource will lead the site visitor to a group on social networks. Such integration creates user loyalty. Many users find it more convenient to receive operational information about new products, promotions and other events of the organization in the group, and the convenience and comfort of resource visitors is the basis for their trust.
By keywords will ensure the visibility of publications for both search engines inside social networks, and for search engines Google systems and Yandex.

This material can be used as instructions for use. If you need to promote your page on a social network, just open the text and proceed step by step!

I tell you how to use it in promoting your business A complex approach based on statistics, analysis and engagement effective tools for SMM promotion. I have developed 7 steps that will help you develop your page from scratch and make it interesting for your customers.

Step 1. Defining the concept of community

Your page should convey a certain concept. If this concept has already been formed within your business, this is a significant plus. The concept should represent the leading idea, a set of views of the company’s management on current issues customers, and how your business or product can solve these problems.

For example: there is no effective and fast service for pizza delivery. Our service helps restaurants deliver their goods to the consumer on time, and for the consumer it ensures fast and inexpensive delivery of pizza, preserving its taste, temperature and taste properties.

Remember that the concept determines the strategy of action and influences further methods of promotion on social networks.

Step #2. Setting goals

We set ourselves goals that will increase key business performance indicators. Goals need to be set and based on SMART system, that is, they must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, controllable.

In our case, we write the following goals:

Identify our competitors and analyze their activity on social networks.
Identify and analyze our target audience.
Optimize our page for the audience.
Develop a content plan for all segments of our target audience.
Identify the most effective and profitable tools for page development.
Test the tools and analyze their effectiveness.
Start leading a group.

Step #3. Data collection and analytics

This can be done by an individual specialist, an agency, or you yourself. This period includes the following activities:

Identify all possible competitors and analyze what they are doing to attract users and how effectively. Based on monitoring key queries(wordstat), the number of users and measurement of user activity can determine the leading market players.
Selection based SMM tools and statistics of audience cores of competitor groups (active core, moderately active core, inactive core). What is the core audience? It often happens that in a group or page, 10-15% of users from the total number of subscribers regularly engage in user activity: liking posts, leaving comments, reposting on their pages, or actively conducting discussions. If we consider the most active users, it is possible to identify certain patterns in their behavior and preferences.
Conduct and collection user requirements for each core and develop custom scripts.

For example: Masha Ivanova, 23 years old, works in sales in Moscow, is single, loves smart solutions and life hacks for the home, loves beautiful interior design, cats on Instagram and short useful texts.

Of course, these scenarios will be conditional, but they will help us develop content in the future that will take into account maximum user preferences.

Identification of effective times for posting content (daily, weekly, monthly, holidays), using analysis of user activity in similar communities. For example, on Saturday morning you can publish material at 12:00, since only at this time your subscribers wake up.

Step #4. Page optimization

Optimization based on user page scenarios for all audience cores (Wiki markup, design, description, short URL, album titles, discussion titles, etc.). Here you need to really invest in a beautiful and pleasant design and if you have completed previous steps, it will be much easier for you to explain to the designer what audience he is working for.

Step #5. Content plan development

The most interesting and difficult part of the work is developing a content plan for each core audience. You identify the topic and format of the post.

Example: Monday at 18:31 the history of the creation of the gadget should be published.

Now you must find sources of content. These could be RSS feeds, public pages, blogs, news publications, opinion leaders, copywriters, videographers, photographers, artists.

Describe the content requirements based on the text and title of posts. Indicate what media materials should be present in the group’s posts and albums. What topics should be raised by group members? Ideally, you receive a completed grid of post formats in a content plan, for example, for a month to post. Based on these requirements, you can draw up requirements for outsourced performers: photographers, designers, etc.

Step #6. Testing and identifying effective tools

At this stage, you begin publishing your content on the page. To determine the effectiveness of the tools, you must not forget about collecting statistics. For example, track the number of transitions, count coverage, attract new users per day, week or other specific period of time.

Here you should focus on the ROI (return of investment) indicator - the ratio of the amount of profit or loss to the amount of investment. This indicator is expressed in % and will show you the most effective and ineffective channels for attracting audiences on the Internet (advertising exchange, banners, partnership programs, paid publications and posts) for your page. From all these attraction channels, you remove ineffective, time-consuming and expensive ones.

Step #7. Resource development

You have done the almost impossible! You have collected content and systems approach for its publication on social networks. You know your audience almost by sight and know what they like. Considering that quite a lot of money has been spent on analysis, a reasonable question arises: what more can be done? Using the data from these studies, you can not only improve your website, but also expand your business by offering New Product or service.

At the initial stage of community development and business promotion on social networks, fill the group with content for about 20-30 posts. Coming by invitation or contextual advertising the user will want to scroll through the community feed and if you have 1-2 news, then most likely he will not subscribe to it.

On VKontakte it is better to first create a group (in Facebook is better create a page). VKontakte allows you to convert a group into a page and vice versa. The group will give you the opportunity to invite users for initial content. Invite only those users who may be interested in the group's materials or your business. Do not wait high conversion at the initial stage, create a comprehensive advertising campaign using an advertising exchange or direct placement through administrators of similar communities. Please pay attention Special attention advertising post, place a “shooting” picture in the context of the community in which you are advertising. Here's an example -

Strategic planning in SMM is often given less attention than the content or media component. This is a big mistake that can lead to negative consequences for the entire project. Strategic planning is the basis, thanks to it we can understand what the content should be, for which audience we are producing it, or how to plan media flights so that they are more effective, etc.

1. Goals and objectives

The first thing to do is to clearly formulate global goals, and then determine a list specific tasks, the solution of which will allow these goals to be achieved. It seems like it couldn’t be easier, but this point is often forgotten.

2. Segmentation of target audience

Suppose you know that your audience is women and men from 20 to 45 years old with an average income level, living in large cities of Russia. This is already something, but it is not enough to develop a full-fledged strategy. You need to dig deeper, and for this there is audience segmentation. Its essence is to divide the existing target audience into narrower segments and give them names in accordance with the principle by which we divided them.

For example:

Given: m/f, 20-45, Russia, big cities

Segmentation result:

3. Target audience profile

When the target audience already segmented, you can go even further - describe the profile of each user group. This means that you need to highlight any characteristics, interests and character traits inherent in target audience segments.

For example:

This is a simplified example. You can do more detailed descriptions, with breakdowns by territory: home and family, career, travel and leisure.

4. Behavioral trends

The next step for an even more complete understanding of the audience is to describe the bright trends in the behavior of people who fall into the segments of our target audience.

5. Media consumption

Media consumption is one of the non-trivial blocks of strategy, which is often neglected, but knowledge about what informational resources consumed by the target audience can be very useful for building successful work. This is especially important in order to correctly identify the sites on which it is necessary to build work with each audience segment.

An example of media consumption might look like this:

6. Drivers and barriers

Drivers are what stimulates the target audience to consume your product, and barriers are what holds them back from this consumption.

To get a clearer picture, you can consider drivers and barriers in terms of both the audience itself and the product.

Here's what such a diagram might look like.

7. Communication plan

The communication plan clearly shows in what periods certain tools and platforms will be used. This makes it possible to plan the chronology of actions and avoid any overlaps.

Plans may vary in detail, but basic version there should be a division into three main blocks: Paid, Owned and Earned, which are located on one scale, and on the other - time periods, the number of which depends on the planning period.

*Paid - Owned - Earned - Purchased - Owned - Acquired media.

8. KPI planning

One of the most pressing questions. Simply putting some nice number and saying that this is a KPI will not be correct, because planning is a more meaningful process.

Here are the key questions to ask yourself during the planning stage:

9. Insight

Insight is a deep consumer need that is difficult to realize due to existing problems or restrictions. It is best to formulate it in one, maximum two sentences.

Insight example:

10. The role of the brand

A meaningful SMM strategy always declares some role the brand/product plays in interacting with users on social media. Simply put, the role of a brand is the role that a brand plays in communicating with its consumer on social media. An example of a brand's role: a guide to the world high technology, friend and assistant in matters of healthy eating, etc.

Red Keds has historically had strong strategic expertise: the strategy department has formed good team specialists who deal with a wide range of tasks within their profile. In my opinion, very important point successful work on an SMM project is the interaction between strategists and SMM specialists. We managed to build an effective scheme for the work of two departments, formalizing this into a single process, but this is a topic for a separate publication.

This article is an example of such interaction. I would like to express special gratitude to Red Keds strategist Lena Nenasheva for her help in preparing this material.

Marketing strategy for social networks.

The human mind is like a small fragile shell - and physically cannot accommodate the bottomless abyss of social networks.

If you have all these elements, then you can start developing a marketing strategy

Step 1: Setting Goals

This may sound like a phrase from the book “Marketing for Dummies,” but any strategy begins with setting goals, and there’s no getting around it. For example, what do you want from your Facebook pages? Sales are obvious choice, but they cannot always be achieved directly. Therefore, pay attention to secondary goals that lead to increased sales, here are some of the possible ones:

Increasing general awareness of your business or products. This goal can be a little difficult to measure, but another option is to monitor the increase in the number of likes on your page. Set specific, and most importantly achievable goals (for example, 300 new “likers” in the next 3 months).
Creating a community of loyal consumers. Pareto's Law more or less works in any field, and it can be argued that 20% of loyal customers will generate 80% of your sales. To measure this indicator, look at how many people are discussing your page, how many people “like” and discuss individual posts - these caring people are your loyal consumers.
Strengthening authority and demonstrating professionalism. Social networks are great place to showcase your past achievements, your deep expertise and prove your company's uniqueness.
Identifying people who might be interested in your product or service. You can give out samples of products to your subscribers for free, you can give a discount coupon for new “likers” or hold a competition with prizes from your products. This way you will have a base of people who are interested in your product or service.

Direct sales. Selling directly from social networks is not easy. If only because you cannot bombard your subscribers with advertising messages - it is believed that the maximum share of advertising messages should not exceed 20% of all content on a social network, and possibly less. To determine effectiveness advertising posts, provide them with links to special pages on your site, and then track conversions (transitions) from using Google Analytics, or traffic counter (which, in addition to the main one, must be installed on this page).

Regardless of the goals you set, make sure you set specific numbers and deadlines for each. Also make sure you know exactly how you will measure each of these metrics.

Step 2: Marketing Research

Your research will include the following areas:

Defining your audience. Look at the demographics of your subscribers and create a portrait of the “average liker” - perhaps after this you will understand that you need to adjust your strategy or, at least, your content.
Research the activities of your competitors. See what they do and what works for them and what doesn't.
Research of the social network itself. There's something new on social media all the time—keep an eye on the trends so you know what works for others and can work for you.

Step 3: Operational Plan

Now you have your goals set. Move in reverse direction from these goals to determine how you will achieve them. Want to get 300 new fans in the next 3 months? Make sure you either provide adequate levels of activity or allocate advertising budget, such as on , to support this goal.

Content calendar

A bad plan is better than no plan. Having a calendar plan of what you are going to post on social networks will help you organize yourself, optimize your search and preparation necessary materials, correctly position advertising messages among infotainment content.

Calendar of promotional events

Another thing to do is plan your promotional activities: when will the competition be held, when will the advertising be launched, when will the discounts be given out, etc.

Social networks are a “time killer”, and in order not to discover that instead of 5 minutes, 3 hours have passed unnoticed while looking at cats, it is better to spend time preparing plans and try to act in accordance with it. In the long run, this will save you much more time than it took to prepare it.