Here are nine questions to ask yourself that will kick off your 2020 planning for your social media strategy. 

#1: Who is your target audience?

Describe your target audience who they are, what they do, why they’re on social media. 

#2: What are the key demographics of your target audience? 

Think about your audience in terms of their location, profession, education, age range and family. Determine the uncommon commonalities and what similarities overlap.

#3: What social platforms are most commonly used in your industry and where are you most likely to find your audience? 

It’s important to know what platforms you will find people in your industry. Use the Pew Internet Research link below to get started with an overview.

#4: What issues are most important to your audience? 

Define the problems the person you want to connect with faces and how it relates to your product or service. 

• Quora – Type in your keyword to see what kind of questions are being asked around the topic. 
• Facebook Groups – people talk about their issues and problems. Use the search bar in the group for keywords and copy and paste the information you run across for your own reference.
• Polls and Surveys – This is an easy way to get quick results and feedback from your audience.
• AnswerthePublic.com- Type in your keyword to get results of the questions people are typing into search engines.
• Soovle – Shows you the autocomplete results from multiple platforms in one place.

#5: What hashtags or keywords are most likely to grab the attention of your audience or that they are most likely to search for?

You can follow hashtags to determine if they’re a good fit and what other hashtags are being used by the people in your search. LinkedIn provides suggestions for hashtags to follow and which are trending. LinkedIn will also ask if you want to comment as your business page on a trending article in a hashtag you are following.

#6: Who should be on your list of 3-5 direct and indirect competitors?

Do an analysis around your competitors to see what content they’re putting out and how engaging it is. Here are a few ways you can keep up with them in Twitter and Facebook.

• Facebook Insights – You can follow up to 5 competitors
• Twitter List – Compile a private list to keep track of your competitors

#7: What have you seen these direct and indirect competitors do on social media that were engaging and attention-getting? 

After you identify your competitors, keep tabs on them and do a lot of listening (or snooping) to monitor what your competitors are doing. 

#8: How often do you think your audience accesses social media for professional reasons? What are their hobbies and interests? 

Before you begin running ads, it’s important to know how your audience’s interests intersect with the social media platform they’re on and the difference between their personal and professional social media habits.

#9: On a scale of 1-5, how likely are customers or potential customers going to reach out to you via social media versus another method? 

There are many other outlets for customers to reach out to you. 

• Email marketing- Having someone’s email is still gold
• Google Page- You can claim and post on your Google Page
• Word of Mouth- People will reach out to you because they’ve heard of you through someone else
• Direct Messages – Be available to people who reach out by DM with questions

Links Mentioned:

• Pew Internet Research
• Keywords Everywhere
• RiteTag
• Quick Start Plan
• 1,000 True Fans
• Quora
• Soovle
• Answer The Public

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How to reach Kami:

If you’d like to learn more about Kami Huyse, visit her website at www.zoeticamedia.com. You can contact her by email at kami@zoeticamedia.com or tweet to @kamichat.

How to reach Madalyn:

If you’d like to learn more about Madalyn Sklar, visit her website at www.madalynsklar.com. You can contact her by email at madalyn@madalynsklar.com or tweet to @MadalynSklar.