Simplifying Social Media​

I think we both know why you’re here… you want to learn how to create an incredible social media strategy for your small business that is going to take it to the next level!

Now I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, but I am willing to bet you fit into one of these categories when it comes to social media marketing:

• You are just starting out and are wondering where to begin
• You have already started, but you just aren’t finding the success you expected
• You’ve been trying to learn, but all the content out there makes social media marketing seem incredibly complicated and time-consuming
• You’re really trying to sleep and this guide seemed like a good way to make you tired

Did I nail it?

No matter which one of these applies to you, or even if your reasons are different, we made this guide just for you.

The truth is, social media marketing really isn’t that complicated.

Yes I know, there are many marketing “gurus” out there that will tell you that you need a complicated strategy that requires 100 posts per week, complex content, and hours of maintenance work. These ideas couldn’t be further from the truth – a SIMPLE strategy can be far more EFFECTIVE than a complicated one.

That is why we created SocialSurge Marketing in the first place – to provide simple and effective social media strategies that are easy to understand and get results. Our goal has always been to take some of the more complex aspects of social media marketing and boil them down to something that our clients could implement themselves if they wanted to put in the time and effort to do so.

I know, it seems weird for a social media agency to say that many small business owners could do social media on their own, but it’s the truth. This is how we have been able to develop such great relationships with our clients.

View social media as an ecosystem

Social media marketing is far more than randomly making content and posting it. In order to be effective with your social media strategy, you need to start thinking about it in a totally different way.

The way I see it is kind of like an ecosystem. In nature, ecosystems are perfectly structured and balanced with every part of it as important as the next. Taking one piece out of that system means disaster and makes the whole thing fall apart.

While our social media ecosystem is far less complicated than what you would find in nature, it is important to think of your strategy in this way. The balance of content, strategy, paid advertising, and your website is what will make or break your entire overall strategy.

While your strategy might work to some extent if you remove one of these pieces or don’t give it the attention it deserves, you certainly won’t see the full benefit of what social media has to offer.
In this guide we are going to talk about each of these pieces and show you just why this ecosystem idea is so important.

What is the goal of your social media strategy? (set expectations for yourself)

Now that we are done getting all philosophical talking about the ecosystem, let’s get down to the details of setting expectations and understanding the goal of social media.

Now there are many goals that you could pick for your social media strategy, and each business is going to be a little different with how they want to approach this. Some businesses might choose sales as their #1 goal. Others might just want to get in front of as many people as possible. You might want to increase brand awareness or direct more people from your social media channels to your website. You could also want to generate leads or increase conversion.

Even with all the possible goals at your disposal, it is important that you choose one (MAYBE two) to focus on. Putting energy into multiple goals will only spread your efforts thin and put you at a disadvantage with trying to accomplish any of them. So, it is important to hone in and focus on one explicit goal.

To us, there is one goal that stands above the rest and accomplishes both of those things at the same time.

Engagement.

This is by far the most important goal that the vast majority of businesses should have when it comes to their social media strategy.

I know… shocking that the goal of social media is to be SOCIAL, right? In all seriousness, engagement should almost always be your number one priority because it is the baseline for making social media work.

When we talk about engagement, we are primarily talking about things like likes, reactions, comments, and shares, but engagement also includes things like clicks, video views, and a few other things that show an interaction with your content.

Almost all social media platforms prioritize content based on the amount of engagement it receives. This means that making your strategy engagement-focused should make social media platforms want to prioritize your content over others.

While not perfect 100% of the time, the general rule of thumb is More Engagement = More Reach.

And what does more reach mean? More people learn about your business and brand, which in turn should lead to more sales. It is important to remember that organic social media marketing is a top of funnel activity. That means that your goal isn’t also to get the person to buy immediately. You’re playing the long game here, but trust me when I say it will pay off!

We will get more into this topic later, but just know engagement is almost always the #1 goal of a social media strategy (Unless you are using paid advertising… but again… we’ll get into that later!)

By the end of this guide, we want you to see that with a little work and knowledge, developing a simple and effective social media strategy really isn’t that hard to do. We want you to forget about all the “hacks”, “marketing secrets”, and complicated jargon that you have heard about social media marketing and help you get back to the basics of what social media is all about. Being social!

By doing this, we hope to give you the confidence to develop your own strategy and see the results you always dreamed of.