DIY Social Media Tactics for 2021

Featured image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

A digital world is our new reality. Your social footprint is an important part of your ability to establish a connection with potential consumers, collaborators, and employees. In order to boost engagement and develop meaningful connections with an active audience, you need to build out a strategic plan that ties insight to aesthetic. Whether it’s for your small business, a non-profit organization, or your next startup idea, are our top five tactics to help you win at social media in 2021.

1. Set the Right Benchmarks

One of the biggest mistakes a social media marketer can make is to set benchmarks that don’t actually contribute to company goals. Proving value and return-on-investment with digital tactics for social media isn’t rocket science. However, it does require a little math and strategic planning.

For example, if you want to improve your brand awareness, calculate the reach and engagement of your content. Seek to understand how many people saw or potentially interacted with your content. In contrast, if you need to increase revenue, set goals for total engagements and conversions. This will provide you with a stronger data reporting system.

2. Understand Your Target Audience

Instead of posting what you want to say, reframe your thinking and post what the consumer wants to see (without losing your own authentic angle). In order to use this social media tactic, you’ll need to have a strong understanding of who you want to target. You’ll need to know their behaviors, interests, and needs inside and out.

As you build an audience profile, consider the following questions in terms of your ideal consumer:

What is their background?
What do they care about?
How would they define their lifestyle?
What kind of media do they consume or engage with?
Where do they go to get their information?
What is their purchasing power and subsequent purchasing behavior?

With the answers to these questions in hand, you’ll be able to employ a tactic whereby you map and publish a smart series of social media content. Moreover, you’ll be using the right platform and messaging to speak directly to your target audience—because you’ll know them, almost better than they know themselves. This is why a tactic like buying followers doesn’t work. Aside from being illegal on all the major platforms, you are getting an audience that doesn’t really care.

3. Focus on Time and Relevance

The cadence you follow as you post on your social media should be a mix of reactive and proactive content. To keep a steady stream of regular posts on deck, create a content calendar detailing out your publishing schedule with topics and captions six months in advance. Combine this regular calendar with a concerted effort to monitor trends and react to specific, relevant topics as necessary.

For example, let’s say your target audience is concerned about staying healthy while remaining socially distant, and you offer a vitamin supplement. In this case, you might reposition some new content to talk about how to improve health from home with nutrition. This social media tactic will let your followers know you’re concerned about their health in specific ways. Rely on a content calendar template to keep regular posting simple and care-free.

4. Invest in the Right Tools

While it may seem like an oversimplification, we know one thing is true: Good visual content performs well. The videos and photos you share are how you’ll capture a viewer’s attention mid-scroll to then stop, read, like, and engage with your content. Selfie-sticks, tripods, professional-grade phone lenses, and microphones are all tools that will help you produce high-quality visuals. Use tactics such as these to complement your social media strategy.

5. Report, Optimize, and Refresh All of Your Social Media Tactics

The social media industry is constantly changing. One minute, Snapchat is popular—the next, TikTok is taking over. Be diligent as you measure your success over time and keep an open mind to new ideas when challenges arrive. It’s likely that you’ll pivot and re-pivot your social media strategy multiple times and modify your tactics to keep up with the newest technology or trend. And that’s totally okay.

Anchor yourself in your brand message and objectives, while finding new ways to adapt that core message to new spaces. You might find that certain tactics will work well with your social media audience, while others won’t produce the intended results. Adapt an agile mindset and approach now: It’s time to think like a social strategist.