What is a social media campaign strategy?

When it comes to digital marketing, traditional channels such as advertising or direct mail have to adapt to the new environment.

Unlike other channels, which are merely presented to an audience, digital marketing focuses on driving actions, be it a click-through or an email sign-up. This need to drive action will dictate the content you produce.

Why do we need a social media strategy?

Because social media channels are constantly ‘on’ the audience can access them whenever they want. For this reason, it is critical for social media channels to always have up to date content to respond to an audience’s every need.

To be successful, a social media strategy must plan two types of communication:

Ongoing communications

These give consistency to the channel.

Campaign specific communications

These run during a specified period.

Social media strategy planning

Most organisations will have a plan of key campaigns throughout the year, in particular around a new product launch, sale, or event.

This is separate from planning your channel strategy, as it will have its own objectives and budgets, but should still support or contribute to the channel objectives and channel success.

Social media strategies provide bursts of reach and engagement

Social media campaigns provide bursts of reach and engagement over and above the day-to-day posts and responses.

To explain this tiered approach to publishing in social media, Google popularised the ‘help, hub, hero’ framework for content planning.

Hero
Those big tent-pole moments in the year generate high levels of awareness among a much broader audience.

Hub
You publish Hub content that is tied to new initiatives, products and campaigns, providing a fresh perspective on your brand.

Help
You provide always-on content programming for your most engaged and loyal audience with Help content. This is designed to assist them in the use of your products or give them some other information or entertainment value relevant to your topic area. This falls into your channel strategy, while the following Hub and Hero approaches would fall into individual campaign strategies.

Usually, social media campaigns are tied to hub and hero content.

They are a fundamental part of your yearly plan as they give you spikes of activity that go beyond the day-to-day posting. Generating waves of interest and pushing the current wider business goals.