Create a Social Media Strategy for a New Account

Creating a social media strategy for an existing account is really rather simple. That is in comparison to creating a social media strategy for a new account. Why is that? A new account does not have an audience yet. Instead of stressing about what your audience may or may not like, here are some tips for creating a social media strategy for a new account.

Chances are you are not the first person to launch social media for the specific niche group you are looking to reach. You are also not the first person to launch a social media account for a business. Use this to your advantage. How you may ask?

Steps to take before creating a social media strategy for a new account:

1. Study the competition

As you begin thinking about your business and what you are trying to accomplish on social media, understanding your competition is a great place to get started! Let’s say you make guitars and want to sell them on social media. You probably won’t end up with the number of followers Fender has, but it is a great place for you to see what content the audience is responding to!

Before creating a social media strategy for a new account, make a list of businesses that are like yours, big or small, and do a social media audit of those channels. It doesn’t need to be intense. Look at their posts, read the captions, examine the audience response, and build your strategy based on where they succeeded and avoid what fell flat. If this seems like a daunting task, we offer assistance in social media auditing of competition (and even develop a social media strategy for you – if you decide it’s easier to take that off your plate).

2. Know Your Audience

This might be difficult to understand since you have yet to create a social media strategy for a new account, but knowing your target audience is necessary! Maybe you own an ice cream shop and are located near the local high school. Your target audience would more than likely be ages 14-18 to reach those at the high school.

Think about in terms of where you’re located:

Do you have a product that is only sold in one physical location? Keep your audience local.
Are your services or product available to purchase online? Learn who your buyers are to better attract the same people online.

Think about your product or service:

Are you a candy store in a small neighborhood looking for new customers? Keep your audience local.
Are you a finance professional looking to help small businesses with all their finance needs? Target small businesses online and market straight to them.

You may not fit into the exact scenarios above, but you get the idea. Knowing your audience and where to find them is the BEST way to create a successful social media strategy.

3. Know Your Business

Especially when you are first starting, determining exactly what your business is might be difficult. For instance, you might be a freelancer who has a variety of skills and is not sure what you want to focus on.

Maybe you want to write exclusively, or maybe you want to create a menu of options to market out to small businesses and nonprofits. Whatever your business is, this needs to be determined before you can truly create a successful social media strategy for a new account.

Answer these questions and see if this helps you get to know your business better:

What are we trying to sell? (consulting, freelancing, physical product)
Who is our target marget? (Gen Z, Millenials, etc.)
What are our buisness goals? (growth, awareness, sales)
What is our mission?
What is our vision?

Once you have answers to these questions, you will be able to serve your customers better making creating a social media strategy for your new account easier!

Now you are ready to start creating a social media strategy!

Creating a Social Media Strategy for a New Account:

For starters, know that a social media strategy is different than a content strategy. You will want to work on a content strategy as well, but getting a social media strategy in order is important to understand why you have a social media account.

List out the social media accounts you have or want. (Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)
Determine a strategy for each of the platforms you have listed.
Start by looking at the audience. What is the age demographic, what is the reach, how can you obtain organic reach?
Understand that you will need to curate content specific to each platform in order for it to be truly successful.
Determine how often you will post, when you will post, and when you will engage with others.

Once you have completed these steps, your social media strategy will be ready. Major tips though, know that the strategy should not be deviated from while also understanding it may need to change based on trends. This usually comes into play when determining a content strategy, but that’s another post for another day!

If you have questions or want help in creating a social media strategy for a new account, we are here for hire in freelance and consulting!