According to Wikipedia, social media marketing is the process of increasing your website traffic through social media platforms. This definition is however only partially correct. Social Media allows you to interact and market your brand through a more personal medium. The platforms allow to target specific groups of people and run your campaigns only for the designated target groups.
Social Media Marketing strategies are developed, in accordance to the target audience of the business. A social media strategy is a summary of everything you plan to do and hope to achieve on social media. It guides your actions and lets you know whether you’re succeeding or failing.
In this article, we will learn how to develop a social media marketing strategy.

The Pre-Requisites
Social Media Marketing plans require special attention, as most of the time businesses divert from their original social media marketing campaigns. The reason for this is unclear strategy, and unknown ways to affix social media strategy with the existing marketing plan.
The simplest way to understand your activities on social media is to ask yourself these following questions;
• Why do you want to be on social media?
• Who is your target audience?
• What are you going to share?
• Where are you going share?
• When are you going share?

A basic understanding of the above questions, provides you with the further tools to formulate a complete social media marketing strategy.

Creating a Marketing Strategy
• Discover Where your Audience Is
There are many social media platforms that have a massive number of people. But each platform differs from one another. The type of campaign also differs as each platform is used for a distinctive type of content. For example, users on LinkedIn would probably be on the platform for professional purpose, so it would be meaningless to run an ad related to food.
• Standard for your Brand’s Presence
The presence of a business on social media platforms is defined by the type and standard of the post the business shares. Even when businesses have a conversation with prospective customers through social media platforms. It is necessary to maintain a level of conversation rather than being informal. For example, anybody who posts content on your brand’s behalf should understand and align their efforts to a single set of social media guidelines to maintain a consistency and quality standard across platforms.
• Best Time to Post
The integral part of a social media marketing strategy is to identify the best time to share your content. Many businesses have a set time to share their content, this time is decided by analyzing the target audience and considering the time they will be on social media platforms. For example, people who love to travel might be more active on social media during the weekends when they are planning for their next trip.
• Incorporating Social Events
While formulating a social media marketing strategy, there should be an alternative plan for unplanned social events. These type of events tend to drive more traffic, and are also effective to promote your brand. These events would include important events such as cultural events, social integrity events, etc. For example, the hashtag ‘911video’ was trending at an incredible rate due to brutality of police in USA.
• Set Measurement Parameters
The final part of any marketing plan is to create a measurement parameter for the activities performed during the whole of marketing campaign. The measurement parameter can be as simple as the ‘reach count’ or the final part like ‘completing a purchase through social media’.

In conclusion, no matter how far and wide your business intends to extend its reach, successful content marketing distribution often comes down to having a strategic, systematic, and scalable approach. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a sound social media marketing plan before you start your marketing campaign across social media platforms. To learn more read more at Odopod Marketing Institute.