What’s a Social Media Strategist and 10 Reasons You Need One

As a small business owner, you may think that hiring a social media strategist isn’t necessary. But with millions of people going online every day, you may want to reconsider.

More businesses are connecting with customers online and it’s about time that you start doing the same too!

We’ll go over some reasons why you may want to hire a strategist but wait…

Why do you need a strategist for social media anyways?

A strategist is a creative person that is able to identify new and innovative ways of using the social web to grow a business based on the type of company or product.

They also understand that there is a real world and social media is only a tool that connects people. Therefore, they create specific strategies that compliment your online and real world marketing efforts.

All right, without any further delays, here we go!

1. Focus on Your Target Audience

Social networks contain a lot of information about current or potential buyers. This includes age, gender, location, occupation, interests, salary and more.

By using this data effectively, you can identify a group that is most likely to find your products relevant. You can then channel your marketing efforts to target the members of that group.

2. Identify Your Social Media Goals

What are your goals for using social media? You see it’s not just about getting as many “likes” or “tweets” as possible.

You could have 1,000 followers but only have 10 regular customers or worse, zero.

Instead of focusing on the numbers, a social media strategist can help you with building brand awareness, gaining new customers and increasing your engagement with them.

3. Select The Best Social Channels

There are many social networks out there but which ones should you use?

Some networks allow the posting of text, photos and videos, while others are limited to either text or images.

The key here is to find out, which platforms your target audience use most often. Once you have become successful in using those channels, you can try others.

4. Create Fresh Content for Your Website or Blog

One of the secrets to creating brand awareness is to have a consistent online presence.

A strategist can help you with this by creating fresh content for your website or blog. The more fresh content you publish, the more things you’ll have to share on social media.

This means greater chances of new visitors finding out about your products or services and attracting new followers.

5. Emphasize Quality Over Quantity

Aside from regular posts, you shouldn’t forget about quality. In this case, “quality content” refers to information that your target audience will find helpful and engaging.

It also involves posting a variety of content such as trivia, contests, videos and more, depending on the interests of your customers.

You don’t want to bore your audience.

6. Schedule Your Posts

A social media strategist can help you keep track of your posts, be it daily, weekly or even several times a day.

For this, you’ll need a social media calendar to help monitor the frequency of your posts.

You may not see results right away but with a regular schedule, you’re bound to attract new visitors and buyers.

7. Develop Educational Materials.

Nowadays, people often search online for e-books, recipes, “how to” videos and other instructional materials.

These types of posts are useful, relevant and easy to follow. You should consider developing educational materials to promote awareness and gain new website visitors.

8. Analyze Your Performance.

There are many things that you can analyze based on data gathered through social media. These include the number of site visits, likes, shares, tweets and engagements, to name a few.

A strategist can help you make sense of all of that information so you can make well-informed business decisions.

9. Monitor The Competition

The great thing about social media is that not only can you monitor your customers, but your competitors as well.

By “following” their social media profiles, you can learn about their latest products and marketing campaigns.

You can find out which of their posts are most popular and which ones are not.

You’ll also see how your social media performance compares to theirs.

10. Come Up With New Strategies

Social media success doesn’t happen overnight except for the rare cases where something becomes super viral online.

Otherwise, it takes plenty of time, planning and creativity for social media channels to take off.

You may need to go through trial and error first before arriving at a formula that works.

And even then, you shouldn’t stop thinking of new ways to keep your customers satisfied. A strategist is creative so they can come up with new ideas fairly quickly.

These are 10 reasons why you should hire a social media strategist for your business. Once you gain a regular following, some new clients and more loyal customers, who knows? Your small business could expand to a bigger enterprise in the future!

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.