Start with goals, not posts
Social media can support many goals: brand awareness, community, customer support, traffic, lead generation and recruitment. Pick one or two primary goals per platform and the metrics that show progress.
Know how platforms distribute content
Most social feeds are ranked by algorithms that predict what each person will find interesting, using signals such as past engagement, relationships, content type and recency. Organic reach for brand pages is often small, and many platforms increasingly recommend content from accounts people do not follow. This means each post must earn attention on its own merits.
Strategy essentials
- Audience: who you want to reach and what they want from social (entertainment, inspiration, information, connection).
- Positioning: your brand’s voice and what you will be known for.
- Platforms: where your audience is active and where your content fits.
- Content pillars and formats.
- Cadence: a frequency you can maintain with quality.
- Community management: who replies, how quickly, and escalation rules.
- Measurement.
Key takeaways
- Set one or two goals per platform with matching metrics.
- Algorithmic feeds reward content people find genuinely engaging.
- A strategy covers audience, voice, platforms, pillars, cadence, community and measurement.
Practice: Draft your social strategy
- Write your primary social goal and metric.
- Describe what your audience wants from social.
- Describe your brand voice in three words.
- Choose a sustainable weekly cadence.
Go further: Review your last 20 posts: which served your goal?