Video: Four core elements of a social media strategy

Developing an effective social media strategy with a small team

Posting on social media can sometimes feel like you’re throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it sticks. You’ve got important information to share, and you know that social media can help reach your audiences, but you’re struggling to see results. Only having one or two team members doesn’t make it any easier.

The good news is this: if you’re strategic, less can be more for your social channels. Rather than trying to do it all, the single best thing you can do for your team is to develop a strategy to make sure the effort you’re putting in on social media actually aligns with your organization’s goals.

If creating a strategy sounds like just another thing that you don’t have time for, take heart: it doesn’t need to be a fancy 50-page document. You can quickly put together a streamlined strategy that addresses the key details needed to be successful on social and gets your team on the same page.

We did a deep dive into the essential elements of a worthwhile social media strategy in our webinar.

Want a preview? Here are some highlights:

1. Goals

This is arguably the most important piece of your strategy, because this is where you tie your organization’s goals to your social media goals. Knowing what you’re trying to achieve helps you focus on the strategies that will actually make an impact for your organization.

2. Target Audiences

Knowing who you’re talking to is absolutely essential! Make sure to spend some time thinking about who your priority audiences are. We recommend focusing on just one or two—which audiences are most important to helping your organization reach its goals?

Jot down some notes about each audience: What are their demographics? What are their pain points and how can you help solve them? What do you want them to think or feel about your organization? What action do you want them to take?

3. Channel Prioritization

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, Threads, YouTube—there are so many social media channels to think about! You definitely do not need to be on all of them, though.

Once your audiences and goals are defined, you can make decisions on which channels to prioritize accordingly. That may mean only being on one or two platforms, and that’s totally okay! What’s most important is that you put your time into the channels where your audiences are spending their time, and where you can help them take the actions you need to help your organization meet its goals.

4. Content Pillars

Now we’re getting to the fun stuff! Content pillars are basically themes that are related to your organization’s mission. They’re a super helpful tool when it comes to creating content for social media because it helps you stay on track with posting relevant content.

For example, if your organization is a community garden, some potential content pillars could include gardening tips, neighbor garden spotlights, and sustainability practices. When you don’t know what to post, you can reference your content pillars for some quick ideas!

Ready to learn how to put this all together? Watch our hour-long webinar to get all the details on how to build an effective social media strategy.