Strategy Development

Why is strategy development the first step in social media?

Strategy development in social media means answering the questions “why, for whom and where” before the first post is prepared. The calendar, the design and the ad budget are built on these answers; when the answers stay vague, even the most carefully made content turns into a scattered account. At this stage we bring your brand’s goals, audience, competitors and channels together in a single frame.

A social media strategy does not have to be a long presentation file. A good strategy is a short, clear set of decisions that lets everyone on your team and the agency you work with give the same answer to the same question. All later steps, such as planning, production, community management and reporting, take shape according to these decisions.

The difference between strategy and plan

Strategy decides what you will do and why; the plan shows on which day and with which content you will do it. “Becoming a trusted expert in the eyes of corporate customers” is a strategy decision. “Sharing two project stories and one expert video every month” is how that decision shows up in the calendar. We describe the stage where decisions turn into a calendar in detail on our content planning page.

Signs of social media without a strategy

A lack of strategy shows itself through some signs before it shows through bad results. If a few of the situations below sound familiar, the problem is often not in the content but in the decisions the content rests on:

• A different tone, a different color language and a different target audience are tried every month.
• Posts get likes but bring no messages, quote requests or visits.
• Every innovation a competitor makes is repeated on your account soon after.
• No one on the team can clearly explain why you are on a given platform.
• The ad budget is being spent, but it is unclear which goal it serves.

What does a social media strategy include?

A strategy consists of several connected decisions. The framework that comes out at the end of the strategy development work varies by business, but it usually covers the same basic points:

• The main goal of the period and supporting goals.
• Priority audience profiles and the needs of each.
• Positioning that summarizes the points where you differ from competitors.
• The role and priority order of each channel.
• Brand voice, content pillars and key messages.
• Measurement indicators tied to the goals.

These points are connected. When the goal changes, channel priority and indicators change too; that is why we handle the parts of a social media strategy together, not one by one.

Goals: what do you expect from social media?

We always start the strategy development process with goals. “More followers” may look like a goal, but it does not tell you what it will bring the business. That is why we clarify together what job social media will take on in your business.

From business goal to social media goal

Social media usually takes on one or several of the jobs below. Each needs different content, a different channel and different measurement:

• Awareness: Reaching people who do not know your brand yet and staying in their minds.
• Trust: Giving enough proof to a person who checks your profile before buying.
• Demand: Generating messages, appointments, quote requests or website visits.
• Loyalty: Keeping the bond with existing customers and supporting repeat purchases.
• Employer brand: Being a preferred workplace in the eyes of qualified candidates.

Chasing all of these goals at once and with equal weight often means not focusing enough on any of them. Choosing one main goal and one or two supporting goals for the period makes a social media strategy workable.

Balancing the goal with resources

A goal gains meaning together with the resources that can be set aside for it. An awareness goal that requires producing several videos a week stays on paper in a business with no one to shoot. In the strategy development stage, we discuss goals together with the realities of time, team and budget and, if needed, scale the goal down to make it sustainable.

Choosing measurable indicators

Next to each goal, we write the indicators you can use to follow it. For awareness, reach and videos that reach new people; for demand, the number of messages and link clicks; for loyalty, saves, comments and repeat interactions are more meaningful. We cover how these indicators are read separately on our analytics and reporting page.

When choosing indicators, we do not promise numbers; we measure your starting position and evaluate progress against that point. As the industry, budget and account history change, the realistic expectation changes too.

Target audience analysis: who are you speaking to?

The sentence “Everyone can be our customer” may be true from a sales point of view, but on social media an account that speaks to everyone often does not speak fully to anyone. In target audience analysis, we do not stop at dividing your audience by age and city. We try to understand which problem they want to solve, what holds them back when they decide and what language they use.

Creating audience profiles

At the end of the audience analysis, a few audience profiles emerge that show who the social media strategy will focus on. For each profile, we write down the answers to these questions:

• What need brings this person to you, and when does that need arise?
• What questions do they ask before buying, and what concerns do they carry?
• Do they decide alone, or does a team or family also need to be convinced?
• On which platforms and with which types of content do they spend time?

For example, for a fitness studio, “an adult who will try it for the first time and is worried about getting injured” and “someone who exercises regularly and is looking for a new studio” are two separate profiles. It is possible to reach both with the same post, but hard to convince both with the same message.

Where do we collect information?

In audience analysis, we start from existing data instead of assumptions. Account statistics, frequent messages, customer comments, your sales team’s observations and website data are the main sources of this work. The most valuable information is often in the questions you and your team hear every day; that is why we listen to these questions in particular in the first meeting.

Content by decision stage

Your audience does not buy before knowing you; they first notice a need, then compare options and finally decide. In the first stage, content that sparks curiosity and teaches works; in the comparison stage, examples and customer experiences; in the decision stage, clear offers and easy ways to get in touch. A social media strategy should give enough room to each of these three stages.

Competitor review and positioning

The purpose of a competitor review is not to copy the competitor but to see in which area you can stand apart. Besides your direct competitors, we also include in the review the indirect alternatives that catch your audience’s attention. A social media strategy settles into a much clearer position after this comparison.

What do we look at in a competitor review?

• Which platforms are they active on, and which have they abandoned?
• Which topics and formats get steady attention?
• In the comments, what does the audience praise and what do they complain about?
• How similar are their tones, visual languages and promises to one another?
• Which questions go unanswered, and which topics are left empty?

The last point is usually the most productive one. Questions that keep coming up in competitors’ comments but stay unanswered are a ready-made content opportunity for you.

Inspiration from outside your industry

Besides competitors, we also study successful accounts outside your industry. A storytelling style or series idea that works in a different industry may be an approach nobody has tried yet in your field. For an original social media strategy, inspiration often comes from outside your direct competitors.

The positioning statement

At the end of the review, we write a short positioning statement for your brand: for whom, on which problem and why you. This statement may not appear word for word in any post, but every content idea is tested against it. If an idea contradicts this statement, it needs to be rethought, however popular it is.

Brand voice and content pillars

Once the positioning is clear, we decide how the brand will speak and around which main topics it will produce content. Content pillars usually consist of a few main headings such as expertise, products and services, behind the scenes, customer experience and community. These pillars, set in the strategy development process, determine in what proportions the monthly calendar will be filled in the next stage.

Platform strategy: which channel, which role?

Platform strategy decides where you will be present and what role each channel will take. Publishing the same content on all channels looks easy, but each platform has different user expectations and a different content language. Regular content suited to the channel on a few channels is worth more than a half-kept presence on many.

The general character of platforms

• Instagram: Visually driven; offers a strong showcase for products, venues, services and brand atmosphere. Reels videos play a role in reaching new people, while posts and highlights carry the lasting face of the profile.
• TikTok: Centered on short vertical video; a fun, instructive and everyday storytelling language stands out. Suits brands that can produce video regularly.
• LinkedIn: Aimed at the business world; a suitable ground for corporate services, recruitment and expertise content.
• YouTube: Builds a lasting archive for longer storytelling, guides and searchable video content.
• Facebook: Still important for some age groups, local communities and groups; can be managed from the same business tools as Instagram.

The questions we ask when choosing channels

When building a social media strategy, we make the channel decision not by trends but by the answers to three questions. Does your audience really spend time there? Can you produce the content this channel expects on a regular basis? Does the channel directly serve the goal you chose?

We recommend postponing a channel where we cannot answer yes to all three. For example, while LinkedIn may be the main channel for an industrial company serving corporate customers, Instagram and Google Business Profile are more decisive for a cafe. You can find current information on LinkedIn pages and content tools through the LinkedIn Help Center.

How strategy differs by industry

The same strategy development method produces different results in each industry. A few examples show where this difference comes from:

• Corporate services and industry: The decision process is long and involves more than one person; expertise, reference projects and content that builds trust stand out.
• Local businesses: For businesses such as cafes, clinics or studios, location, atmosphere, team and easy contact are decisive.
• E-commerce: Product display, moments of use, customer reviews and campaign periods are at the center of the strategy.
• Tourism and hospitality: The audience can come from different cities and countries; language choice and visual storytelling become even more important.

Brand account or personal account?

In some businesses, the personal accounts of the founder or expert employees can gather more trust and attention than the brand account. This possibility is worth evaluating in consulting, health, education and corporate services. A social media strategy can also define which topics the brand account and personal accounts will speak about and how they will support each other.

The role of organic content and advertising

A social media strategy does not think of organic content and advertising separately. Organic posts carry the relationship with current followers and the credibility of the profile; ads let you reach the right people at scale. We decide in the strategy stage at which point advertising will come in, and we detail the campaign structure in our social media ads service.

Social media strategy and other channels

Social media does not work independently of the business’s other touchpoints. A visitor coming from a profile should meet the same message on the website, on the WhatsApp line or in the store. During strategy development, we also plan where the paths leaving social media lead, and we make sure that links and contact channels carry this path forward without breaks.

How does the strategy development process work?

Strategy development in social media is a sequential piece of work made up of a few rounds of meetings and review. The steps deepen with the size of the business and the number of channels, but the flow is usually the same:

1. Intro call: We listen to your business, your customers, your seasons and your expectations.
2. Review of the current situation: We go over the history of your accounts, the profile setup and content performance.
3. Audience and competitor analysis: We carry out the reviews described above and summarize the findings.
4. Strategy draft: Goals, positioning, channels, content pillars and indicators are brought together in a single frame.
5. Joint review: We go over the draft with you and correct points that do not fit the realities of the business.
6. Moving to implementation: The strategy is turned into a calendar and a production plan.

Who needs strategy development work?

• Managers who cannot see what the effort put into social media brings the business.
• Accounts that lost their direction after an agency or staff change.
• Companies that want to sharpen their message when launching a new product group or entering a new market.
• Brands that want to strengthen their organic base before raising the ad budget.
• Businesses that post with their own team but need a shared roadmap.

How should you prepare for the strategy work?

The quality of the strategy work depends on the accuracy of the information you share. To prepare, we recommend collecting the following:

• A short description of your business, your product and service groups and what you most want to sell.
• The general traits of your best customers and the questions you hear often.
• The businesses you see as competitors and the accounts you like.
• Your busy and quiet periods during the year, and planned openings or campaigns.
• A realistic idea of the time, team and budget you can set aside for social media.

When is the strategy updated?

A strategy is not a document written once and put on the shelf. A new product group, a new market, a changing audience or a significant change on the platforms calls for revisiting the strategy. Regular reports also show which assumption held and which did not; we update the social media strategy from time to time with these findings.

Common mistakes in strategy development

• Starting with tactics: A decision such as “let’s do Reels”, made before the goal and audience are clear, often leads to a loss of direction.
• Not accounting for capacity: Planning a content load that cannot be produced leads to the strategy being abandoned within a few weeks.
• Imitating competitors: Between two brands that speak the same language, followers struggle to choose.
• Looking at a single indicator: Focusing only on follower count makes it harder to see the value that returns to the business.
• Not involving the team: If the knowledge of the sales and customer service teams is not reflected in the strategy, the content loses touch with the reality on the ground.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to prepare a social media strategy?

The time depends on the number of channels, the size of the business and how ready the information is. We clarify the scope after the first meeting and set the work schedule together with you.

Can I get only the strategy development service?

Yes. For businesses that want to carry out the strategy with their own team, strategy development work alone can be done. Support for planning, production or account management can be added separately later.

What will I have at the end of the strategy development work?

A written framework that brings together goals, audience profiles, positioning, channel roles, content pillars and measurement indicators. This framework is the starting point for the content calendar and the production plan.

Does the strategy cover the ad plan too?

The strategy decides which goal and which stage advertising will serve. Campaign setup, targeting and budget management are the subject of the ad service.

Do I need to be on every social media platform?

No. It is usually more efficient to focus on the channels where your audience is and where you can produce content regularly. We decide which channels take priority together with the audience and goal analysis.

Is strategy development needed when I already have an account?

An existing account is a valuable data source for strategy. The results of past posts make it easier to see what should be kept and what should change.

Let’s build your strategy together

Telling us where you want to go on social media and where you are right now is enough to start the strategy work. Share your account links and goals; we will review the current situation and suggest a scope that suits you. You can reach us through our contact page.