The 8 Steps to Create a Social Media Strategy (+Template)

What is a social media strategy?

A social media strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines a company's efforts on its social profiles. This strategy typically outlines the types of content that will be shared, which platforms will be used, the intended audience, marketing goals, and KPIs (key performance indicators).

Why do you need a social media strategy?

You need a social media strategy for the same reason you need a map for your road trip—without a guide in place, you might not make it to your end destination.

Without a clear strategy, your social media efforts can become disjointed and inefficient—and often, a huge time (and money) drain on the organization. Having a strategy in place provides a roadmap to help focus on objectives that align with your broader business goals, ensuring that every action has a purpose.

Having a proper plan in place can also help to:

• Establish clear goals and priorities
• Maintain a unified voice across all channels
• Create better content
• Identify trends and opportunities to stay ahead

TLDR: A social media strategy turns random acts of marketing into a structured plan that boosts visibility, engagement, and, ultimately, ROI.

Start With a Social Media Audit

Before you plan anything new, look at what you already have. An audit shows what is working, so you do not repeat old mistakes or drop things that already earn results.

• List every account your brand owns, including old ones nobody uses anymore.
• Find your five best posts from the last three months and note what they have in common.
• Check who follows you today: age, location and the times they are online.
• Write down the results for each channel: followers, reach, clicks and sales.
• Look for fake or copycat accounts that use your brand name.

Keep the audit to one page. You will use it in step 1 to set goals that fit your real starting point.

The 8 steps to create a killer social media strategy

1. Set clear goals and objectives

As we mentioned before, you need to have a plan in place if you want a chance at success. The very first thing you'll want to do is to plot out your objectives.

To that end, your social media objectives must support your overall business goals. For example, if you host a yearly conference and struggle with filling the event, you can use social media to help spread awareness and drive more registrations.

Some other popular objectives include:

• Improving sales
• Driving traffic to your website
• Providing customer support
• Enhancing community engagement
• Generating leads

You don't have to pick just one—more often than not, you'll likely use your social media channels to support more than one business objective.

The main thing you want to avoid is posting something that doesn't help to further any business goals. While it might not seem like a big deal at first, posting without a clear objective will nearly guarantee that the amount of time (and money) you invest in social media will never be recouped.

After you've made your decision, you need to get laser-focused on how you'll tackle those objectives by creating SMART goals. SMART stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Actionable
Relevant
Time-bound

Instead of saying, "We want to increase event registrations,” a SMARTer goal would be: "We want to increase event registrations by 20% by the end of Q3 using a combination of paid and organic social media posts."

See how different those two are?

The last piece of this puzzle will be your metrics, aka, how you will gauge your social media marketing progress. Make sure to track important social media metrics like clicks, engagement, conversion rates, and revenue with every goal.

This will help make sure you're on track to meet them or give you a heads-up that you need to pivot your strategy if you aren't.

2. Define your audience

Most sane individuals wouldn't go to a job interview without doing the legwork—researching the company, the position, and any other information that may help you enhance your interaction and further your relationship with the hiring manager.

Similarly, you wouldn't create a social media plan without researching what your target audience wants to see in the first place. This is where defining your audience (and buyer persona) comes into play.

A buyer persona is a fictionalized representation of your ideal customer that includes information like their interests, pain points, and behaviors.

Let's say that we're a marketer for KozyKnits, a sustainable clothing retailer specializing in eco-friendly knitwear.

Since we know that people who prioritize eco-friendly products are especially interested in us, we would create a buyer persona that would represent the people we'd like to attract, like Frugal Frankie:

With this in our back pocket, we can start to think about what sort of content would appeal to Frugal Frankie the most, like:

• Highlighting our local delivery options that reduce our carbon footprint with a carousel post
• Using Reels to give viewers an inside-scoop into how our eco-friendly products are made
• Creating coupons or offers to incentivize first-time purchases

The best part about using a buyer persona is that it helps with every other part of your online marketing strategy. Email campaigns, ads, blog posts, sales collateral, and even website copy should all be directed to speak to your buyer persona(s).

If you're unsure who your ideal buyer is, start analyzing data from your current customer lists and social media followers or ask your sales or support teams.

3. Select the right social media platforms

People have different preferences—and inevitably, so will your buyer persona. And since most of us don't have the budget to create and maintain profiles on every app, we need to be picky about which social media platforms we use.

While they may seem similar, each social media platform has a specific user base and requires a unique content strategy. Here's a quick rundown of the top social media sites in 2024 so you can select the right one for your needs.

Facebook: Predominantly used by adults aged 25-34 and has a broad global user base; it appeals to a wide demographic, including older generations; popular for community engagement and long-form content.

Instagram: Strongly favored by younger audiences, especially 18-34; visual-centric, appealing to lifestyle, fashion, and beauty brands; high engagement with photo and video content.

X(Twitter): Used by a diverse age group, with a slight skew towards younger adults (18-29), the majority of which are male; known for real-time updates, news, and short-form content; popular among tech-savvy and politically engaged users.

TikTok: Extremely popular with Gen Z/A (ages 10-24) and Millenials (25-34), though growing among older users; focuses on short, viral video content and uses catchy song clips to enhance virality; best for creative, trend-driven marketing.

LinkedIn: Primarily used by professionals, with the largest demographic being 25-34 and male; ideal for B2B marketing, professional networking, and industry-specific content.

Pinterest: Dominated by women, especially aged 18-34; popular for home decor, fashion, and food inspiration; highly visual, with a focus on discovery and DIY planning.

Snapchat: Primarily used by younger audiences, particularly 13-34; It's ideal for brands in industries like fashion, beauty, entertainment, and lifestyle that can leverage the platform’s casual, behind-the-scenes content style.

YouTube: Broad demographic appeal, with a strong user base among 18-34 year-olds; ideal for long-form video content, tutorials, entertainment, and product reviews.

With the information above, it should be pretty easy to nail down the platforms you need to post on, based on the buyer persona we created before. You can also ask yourself the following questions to help narrow it down even further:

• Do I sell to businesses (B2B) or directly to customers (B2C)?
• Where does my target audience spend their time online?
• What type of content (visual, written, video) resonates most with my audience?
• Are there industry-specific platforms where my audience might be more concentrated?

Remember: It's okay to leave or add new platforms later if you're not getting the results you need.

4. Run a competitive analysis

In business, it's okay to peek at your competition—in fact, it's a necessity. Today, we're going to take a lesson or two from James Bond's playbook and learn how to conduct some social media espionage.

To start, you first need to define who your competition is. This can be other businesses that offer similar products or services to the same clientele or ones your sales team considers their biggest rival. You can also use tools like Google Analytics to get the inside scoop on your search competition.

Once you have a few names, you can take out your magnifying glass and research their presence on social media. You'll want to capture some of the following data during your social media audit:

• Which social media platforms your competitors are active on
• The types of content they post (e.g., images, videos, blogs) and the themes or messages they emphasize
• How often they post, and at what times
• Likes, shares, comments, and overall engagement
• The consistency and style of their visual elements, such as logos, colors, and overall aesthetic
• The hashtags and keywords they frequently use
• Data on their paid ad campaigns, including the type of ads they run and how often they promote posts (you can use the Ad Library for this)
• How they respond to customer comments, complaints, and questions
• If they collaborate with influencers or brand ambassadors, and how effective these partnerships appear to be
• Reviews, testimonials, or user-generated content that they feature

Once you start diving into this information, you'll likely notice huge opportunities (or weaknesses) that your brand has compared to others.

This information is extremely valuable when creating your social media marketing plan, as it can prevent you from making the same mistakes as your competition or provide insights on how you can stand out in today's crowded markets.

5. Develop your social media content strategy

Since we've done all the leg work on figuring out why we should be posting, we just need to figure out what type of content would best fit those plans. 

Let’s say that the goal of our business this year is three-fold—to drive more sales, spread brand awareness, and protect and enhance our brand reputation. 

Content themes to support this would likely look like the following:

Drive more sales

Spread brand awareness

Protect and enhance brand reputation

• Create posts that feature our most popular products
• Optimize social media pages by adding shop functionality
• Share sneak peeks or behind-the-scenes content of upcoming products or collections

• Partner with influencers and thought leaders on sponsored posts
• Run product giveaways 
• Offer an affiliate program that provides discounts for social media shares
• Post regular FAQ sessions, tutorial videos, or step-by-step guides

• Provide customer support or inquiries through DMs or comments
• Use social listening tools to monitor mentions of our brand
• Share company culture and community involvement and highlight employees

Pro tip: Some brands may also want to bring in a social media advertising component if they wish to scale quicker than is typically achievable through organic posting.

Social media is never a one-and-done activity—so after choosing the type of content you’ll post, you’ll need to determine when you’re going to post, and how often.

Most platforms recommend posting at least once a day. However, if your team can’t create that amount of content, don’t stretch yourself too thin. Quality over quantity matters here.

Additionally, the team at Sprout Social has found that specific times of the day have more action than others, which should be factored into your content strategy.

While the above plan should be enough to get stakeholder approval, you’ll likely want to create a social media content calendar every month that formally plots out the content of the specific posts you will be creating. 

P.S. If you went with our recommendation for a social media management tool below, it’s very likely that they have a built-in tool that will help you do just that.

How to Split Your Content: The 50-30-20 and 70-20-10 Rules

A content mix rule keeps your feed from turning into nonstop selling. Two simple rules are popular, and both give you a starting point when you are unsure what to post.

The 50-30-20 rule

• 50% value content: tips, how-tos and education that help your audience.
• 30% shared content: posts from partners, customers or industry news.
• 20% promotional content: your products, offers and sales.

The 70-20-10 rule

• 70% core content that supports your main goals.
• 20% shared or customer content, such as customer photos.
• 10% experiments, such as new formats you want to test.

For example, an online skincare store using 50-30-20 could post skin tips (50%), share customer photos and reviews (30%) and show new products and discounts (20%). These rules are starting points, not laws. Check your results after a month and shift the mix toward what your audience likes.

6. Assign roles and responsibilities and involve stakeholders

There's nothing quite like walking into work on a dreary Monday to find out that you've been given a huge list of other job duties with no additional warning. And trust me, you don't want to be the person responsible for doing that to entire departments.

That's why you should always have a frank and open conversation with any teams that will be affected by your new social media marketing strategy BEFORE you launch it.

While each business can have a completely different team structure than the next, these teams and departments typically have some stake in social media execution:

• Social media managers - Experts who manage day-to-day social media operations, including posting, engagement, monitoring trends and analytics, and creating content strategies
• Marketing executives and managers - Social media teams are usually part of the broader marketing organization, which is responsible for departmental KPIs and yearly objectives
• Creative team - Writers, graphic designers, photographers, and videographers who produce the content shared on social media platforms
• Customer service team - Engages with customers on social media to handle inquiries, complaints, and feedback
• Legal team - Reviews content to ensure compliance with regulations, copyright laws, and company policies
• IT and security teams - Protects social media accounts from hacking and ensures secure access for authorized personnel
• Advertising and media buyers - Manage paid social campaigns, including budget allocation and ad targeting

Any social media plan should outline, in complete detail, who is responsible for what tasks and operating procedures for those tasks to ensure clarity and accountability within the broader organization.

How to Plan Your Social Media Budget

Your budget decides how much you can do, so plan it before you promise results. Most social media budgets cover four areas:

• Content: photos, video, design help or freelancers.
• Tools: scheduling, design and reporting tools.
• Paid promotion: ads and boosted posts.
• People: your own time or your team's time.

Start by deciding how much you can spend each month, then split it across these areas. If you are new, put more into content and a small test amount into paid promotion. Review the split after three months and move money from what is not working to what is.

7. Decide on which tools to use for your social media campaigns

With enough determination, you can drive a nail into a wall with a plank of wood. But why would you, when hammers make the process more efficient?

The same can be true for managing your social media presence.

Given that brands typically manage more than one social media channel, using social media management tools allows you to cross-post your content across multiple channels, which will save you precious time and energy.

These tools typically contain advanced features like post scheduling, social media listening, inbox management, reporting, and even storage for all of your brand's creative assets—all things you might not find natively, depending on the platform.

The best part about these tools is that there are dozens available, with a variety of features (and price points) to suit every need. G2, a software review company, is a fantastic place to start to review different social media management tools. A few I can personally recommend are Loomly, Agorapulse, and Sprout Social.

8. Analyze and report your social media marketing performance

In the land of social media, the work doesn't stop when you hit publish—it's just beginning.

The last thing you'll need to account for in your social media strategy is how you'll choose to analyze and report your social media marketing performance.

A social media report gives a full rundown of how your social media efforts are doing across all platforms—covering your KPIs, broader goals, and a summary of what you’ve found during your report time frame. These reports are typically shared with the stakeholders we identified above on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.

Of course, we know a few things about social media reporting—in fact, we've created an entire social media report guide (with a free customizable report template!) that you can use right now.

If you're not sure what to report on, you can also check out our list of the top social media KPIs you need to track in 2027.

(You can copy our homework—we'll never tell ;))

After you've created your report, your next steps are to decide how you're going to improve the results you have so far. When viewing the data, ask yourself:

• Are we hitting the targets we set for engagement, reach, or conversions?
• Where are we seeing the most engagement or growth? Should we double down on certain channels?
• Which posts or types of content are getting the most interaction? What can we learn from that?
• Are there any platforms or types of content underperforming? What might be the reason?
• Are we reaching the right audience? How does our actual audience compare to our target demographic?
• Are we staying on top of trends and updating our strategy to keep content engaging and timely?
• Are the time and resources we’re investing in social media paying off in terms of leads, sales, or brand awareness?
• What new strategies, content types, or platforms could we experiment with to improve our results?

The answers to these questions will provide you with guidelines for your next steps. After that, you simply rinse and repeat this process and enjoy your new life as a successful social media manager.

Social Media Strategy for E-commerce Brands

Online stores have one big advantage on social media: the product is the content. A good strategy uses that to turn scrolling into shopping.

• Show products in use. Photos and short videos of real people using the product answer questions before customers ask them.
• Share customer photos and reviews. People trust other buyers more than they trust brand claims.
• Use paid social to reach new buyers. Organic posts keep current customers engaged, while ads reach people who have never heard of you.
• Make buying easy. Link straight to the product page and keep the path to checkout short.
• Track sales, not just likes. Connect your posts and ads to orders so you can see what really earns money.

Social media strategy template

Without further ado, the Madgicx team proudly presents your new social media strategy template!

To use this template, make a copy of the slides, adjust the branding to match your own, and presto! Your new social media strategy is ready to go.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a social media strategy be?

One to three pages is enough for most businesses. A short strategy gets read and used, while a long one gets ignored. Cover your goals, audience, channels, content plan and how you will measure results.

How often should I update my social media strategy?

Review it every three months and make bigger updates once a year or when your goals change. Social platforms change fast, so a regular review keeps your plan from going stale.

How much should I budget for social media?

There is no single right number. Start with an amount you can spend steadily, run small tests, and grow the budget where you see results. See the budget section above for what to cover.

What is a social media strategy template?

It is a ready-made document with sections for goals, audience, channels, content plan and reporting. It saves you from starting with a blank page. You can use the template in the section above.

Conclusion

...and that's a wrap!

As we learned today, creating a social media strategy is the key component that ensures that every post and interaction is aligned with your broader business objectives.

By adopting a structured approach to social media, businesses can enhance brand recognition, engage more deeply with their audience, and achieve measurable returns on their investment.

(and create better brand memes for the rest of us ;))