According to SproutSocial, 76% of adults use Facebook every day.

That means that at least three-quarters of your target audience hang out on the social media platform as well, so if you want to maximize your chances of reaching them, now is the time to get serious about your social media marketing strategy.

Whether you want a way to get a steady stream of new leads or want to build the presence of your online business in order to sell your website, social media marketing can be incredibly helpful.  

However, even though the benefits of getting in front of social media audiences are obvious, actually achieving success on Facebook and other platforms is a whole different story.

With more and more businesses making social media marketing the focus of their efforts, standing out and reaching your best customers is becoming increasingly difficult.

But it’s not just about the increasing competition.

Users are also becoming harder to persuade, as Facebook keeps tightening their rules about what kind of advertising is permitted, so to have any chance of succeeding, you need to map out a comprehensive strategy that doesn’t skip any of the essential steps.

Luckily, there are steps you can take that will instantly separate you from the majority of your competitors and give you the best shot at making your social media marketing campaigns bring the desired results.

To get you on the right track, here are a few of the most crucial steps for making your social media strategy work in 2019 and beyond.

Know Who You Want to Reach

It’s hard to develop an effective social media strategy if you don’t know who you want to target.

The good news is, Facebook and some other social media platforms make the process easier by allowing you to dig through their users and find the best prospects for your business.

But to make use of it, you need to know exactly who you want to reach because otherwise, you’ll be wasting your precious ad budget on campaigns that are based on guesses and assumptions.

But how can you figure out who you should target?

Well, if you already have a business in place, you should simply get to know the people that are your best customers.

Try to learn as much demographic information as possible – their age, income, location, education, occupation, and anything else that could help you narrow down your target audience.

Don’t be afraid to ask your best customers questions – try to learn more about who they are, what their biggest pain points are, and why they decided to work with you.

All of this information will be invaluable when you’re building your audiences on Facebook and other social media platforms, as you’ll know the exact habits and interests of your ideal customer and will be able to adjust your entire campaign to match what he is looking for.

Set Clear Objectives

Once you know who you want to reach, you have to figure out what you want your social media strategy to achieve.

The good thing about promoting your business on social media is that there are a lot of different ways you can engage your target prospects. But at the same time, if you don’t know what you want to do, the entire process can become complicated and confusing, hindering your progress.

Some of the common goals of social media campaigns include getting likes and follows for your profile pages, attaining engagement for your website or posts, or attracting leads and getting them to perform a specific action.

No matter which you pick for your campaigns, the important thing is that the goal is specific, can be realistically achieved, and can be measured. That way you can make adjustments on the go and tweak the campaign until it starts to bring the desired results.

There are plenty of analytics tools offered by social media sites, as well as third-party service providers, that should make tracking your progress and making adjustments easier.

Use Multiple Platforms

In the beginning, the diversity of social media platforms that you can market on may seem intimidating, so a lot of businesses choose to focus on just one platform, thinking they’ll eventually expand into others.

The problem with this approach is that in order to master marketing on any social media platform, you need actually try it out and see what works. So, while using Facebook or Twitter exclusively can be effective over time, the lessons that you learn won’t necessarily translate to other platforms as well.

But why is it essential to use multiple platforms, anyway?

Well, the main reason why it’s crucial for your success is that your audience is made up of different people who have their own online browsing habits.

Therefore, if you’re only targeting your audience on Facebook, you’re missing out on segments of your audience that hang out on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or even Tumblr.

Of course, not all audiences are the same, and different social media websites have their own tendencies in terms of audience diversity, so you might be able to eliminate some of the options if you know your prospects well.

But in general, it’s better not to keep all of your eggs in one basket and try to diversify your social media marketing efforts so that you can maximize results in the long run.

And if you’re not comfortable with marketing on a particular social media site, you can always outsource internet marketing services to help you get on the right track and quickly overcome obstacles.