Introduction: Why You Need a Social Media Strategy

Imagine spending hours creating social media posts and posting them on Facebook, Instagram, X or Tiktok, only to see 2 likes, 0 comments and no shares.

These posts barely reached anyone and, as a result, got no engagement or conversions.

All the time and budget you put into social media campaigns feel wasted.

That’s why businesses need an effective social media strategy.

Creating a social media strategy means planning what, when and how to post on social media, helping achieve business goals like brand awareness, lead generation or sales growth.

A solid social media marketing strategy assists you:

• To Align Your Brand Identity: Social media posts help tell your brand’s story to the audience. With a clear message and consistent look, audiences will recognize and build trust with your brand.

• Engage Your Audience: With a proper strategy, you can reach the right audiences at the right time, leading to more engagements such as likes, comments or shares. 

• Drive Conversion: As your social media plan begins to work, it will attract more visitors, leads and sales to your business.

At eLance, we understand every social media post should have a purpose behind it.

Here at this blog, we will walk you through everything you need to know about creating a social media marketing strategy- from what a social media strategy is and why you should have one to how to do it step by step and achieve your goals.

What is a Social Media Strategy and Why It Matters

Let’s start by understanding “What is a social media strategy?” 

Simply, it is a detailed plan that tells your business what content to post, when to share it, and which social media platforms to use to reach your target audience and fulfill business objectives.

Whether you want to post on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn, creating a social media strategy ensures that your efforts bring measurable results.

This strategy acts as a map that guides each step of your digital journey.

While we are focused on social media now, keep in mind that all social media efforts are part of the overall digital marketing strategy (click here to know why you need a digital marketing strategy).

Benefits of Having a Strong Social Media Strategy

Posting randomly on social media often leads to missed opportunities and wasted budget.

Therefore, creating a social media strategy is the perfect solution, whereby all your posts work to grow your business and engage your audience.

Below are some benefits of having a social media strategy:

Benefit 1: You Can Build a Consistent and Clear Brand Identity

When you stick with a social media strategy, every post has the same tone, style and look.

And with that consistency, your brand becomes more recognizable and credible to the social media audience, showcasing the importance of branding.

In short, your brand is always consistent whenever people see you, and that’s what you need to have a lasting impression and increase brand awareness.

Benefit 2: You Can Expand Your Digital Reach

A clever approach allows you to reach more social media users.

If you understand what, when and where to post, you reach your target audience even if they are not your current followers. 

With the right social media optimization techniques, your posts can go further to attract new clients and grow your online presence.

Benefit 3: You Get Data-Driven Results

When you plan your social media activities in detail, you can clearly see what works and what doesn’t.

With basic analytics from the social platforms, you can see the number of clicks, likes and shares on your posts. 
Additionally, digital marketing tools like Meta Business Suite provide deeper insights into the performance data of ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.

These insights help you adjust your strategy to improve engagement and conversion.

Benefit 4: You Can Engage With Your Audiences

Social media marketing strategy allows two-way engagement between businesses and customers.

 Gone are the days when you simply post and hope for the best.

You can engage your audiences by replying to the comments, seeking feedback and conducting Q&A sessions in real time.

This interactive approach creates genuine communication, helping build customer trust and loyalty.

Why it’s Essential for Businesses in Nepal

With over 16 million social media users in Nepal, creating a social media strategy is no longer an option; it’s critical.

Whether you want digital marketing for local businesses or a global brand, a robust social media strategy is necessary to cut through the noise and capture attention online. 

Let’s understand even further why it’s essential for businesses in Nepal:

Connect with Local Audiences and Target Audience

A strong social media plan helps businesses connect with online local audiences directly.

It leverages local keywords or geo-targeted ads to reach desired customers.

For example, a clothing store in Kathmandu can post with keywords like “Best quality clothes in KTM” and hashtags like #KTMClothing to attract local shoppers.

As you follow the strategy, you will get engagement data and learn what resonates with the local audiences.

These insights assist you in creating tailored messages that turn casual visitors into loyal customers. 

Cost-Effective Marketing

Social media marketing campaigns are way cost-effective than traditional ads.

Instead of spending the budget on print or TV ads, run targeted ads on Facebook, Instagram or Tiktok. 

For instance, a digital marketing agency in Nepal can boost their online courses during the new year or local festivals with a small budget and see remarkable results. 

Developing a social media strategy helps optimize ad budgets through precise targeting and delivers a higher ROI.

Businesses can use YouTube analytics or Meta Business Suite to track clicks and conversions, helping them understand what works and doesn’t work. 

Thereafter, you can create smart social media optimization strategies from the data that can lead to better returns.

Drive Business Growth

Creating a social media strategy that is well-defined will drive traffic to your website and boost online sales.

When you create social media content with clear goals, it produces magic for growing your business.

A travel agency, for example, can share short and engaging videos of trek adventures on social media to generate leads and bookings. 

By using analytics, you can understand what works best and use that information to refine your strategy to boost business growth in the long term.

Adaptability to Change and Trends

The digital landscape changes quickly with new features and trends emerging every month.

Social media marketing strategy lets you test new content formats like TikTok reels or Instagram stories.

Additionally, you can track performance with basic analytics tools to catch the trends early.

Based on these findings, you can tweak your posts to align with new customer interests 

For example, if short, funny and entertaining videos on TikTok gain popularity, local brands can start making such videos to capture customer interest.

This adaptability helps keep your content fresh and engaging.

Don’t know where to start?

Partner with top digital marketing agencies in Nepal, who will guide you towards your social media success.

How to Create a Social Media Strategy Step by Step

You would have gained something regarding social media marketing strategy.

Now we are going to talk about the process of creating a social media strategy.

It requires a systematic approach, rooted in objectives, content planning, audience understanding and recharged performance measurement.

Below is a 12-step roadmap on how to create a social media strategy.

This is the same process we, eLance, use to run successful campaigns for clients across Nepal and beyond.

Step 1: Conduct a Comprehensive Social Media Audit

When creating a social media plan, it’s essential to understand your baseline brand

If you’re new to it or already online, this first step sets the stage for your strategy.

If you’re a new brand:

• Start by conducting a competitor analysis.
• Take a look at the platforms they are using: Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
• What do they post, how often and at what time?
• Look for their best-performing content.

For established brands, take a look at your social pages.

• What media are you using?
• What site yields higher engagement?
• What content elicits the maximum likes, shares, comments and impressions?
• Are your hashtags, description and call-to-action (CTA) used effectively?

Use analytics software like Hootsuite or Meta Business Suite to check on metrics like reach, clicks, shares, and conversions.

Doing so will ensure that every post, platform and campaign from now on is based on facts, not assumptions.

Before we, eLance, create monthly plans for our clients, we first conduct an audit of the client’s current social presence and their competitors.

This two-way audit process allows us to see our strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities to take advantage of. 

Step 2: Set SMART  Social Media Strategy

Once you’ve conducted your audit of your social presence, your second stage is to set strategic goals.

You should set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

These goals help align content with realistic outcomes, measure ROI (return on investment) and keep the team focused on results and driving progress.

• Do you want to increase your brand awareness? 
• Do you want to increase your website traffic? 
• Or maybe grow your sales? 

Some examples of SMM goals are: 

• Grow Instagram followers by 30%.
• Increase web traffic from social channels by 15%. 

This goal will inform content creation, advertising investments and reporting.

Step 3: Understand Your Target Audience

Before you create content or run ads, you must know who you are trying to reach.

Identifying your target audience is the heart of creating a social media strategy. 

Businesses must research:

• Audience demographics: Age, location and gender
• Interests: What do they follow, search for and engage with? 
• Problems: What do they struggle with?
• Behaviors: Where and when are they active?

Tools like Meta Business Suite and Brand24 let you understand the audiences and create an audience persona.

Knowing who you’re creating content for helps your brand connect with them 

For example, we noticed that one of our clients had the most female followers on their Instagram page in the 18-34-year-old category.

Because of this, we focused our campaigns toward this demographic with visual storytelling and offers that spoke their language, resulting in a 27% engagement increase.

Step 4: Choose the Right Platforms for Your Business

It’s not about being active on every platform, rather, it’s about being where your customers engage.

If you’re thinking, “Which platforms should a beginner focus on for social media marketing?”, then you are already thinking strategically.

To kick this off, here’s how you can decide:

• Where does your audience hang out?

Younger demographic = TikTok, Instagram

Professionals = LinkedIn

Native communities = Facebook

Creators, artists = YouTube, Pinterest

• What kind of content can you consistently create?

Reels, videos, carousels, infographics or stories

• What is the main goal of your business?

Getting leads? LinkedIn + Facebook.

Getting awareness? Instagram + TikTok.

Getting loyalty? YouTube or Twitter.

New businesses should start with 1 or 2 platforms, as it’s better to do well in fewer channels than do poorly in many.

By starting on the right platforms, you can communicate effectively with your audience and provide a better reach and return on investment.

Review industry trends, competitors’ channels and audience behavior prior to choosing a channel.

Step 5: Conduct a Competitive Analysis to Identify Opportunities

Competitor research is a valuable step when creating a social media strategy.

This research helps uncover what’s working in your industry and content gaps, as well as opportunities.

Here’s how to conduct competitor research: 

• Research 3-5 competitors in your industry that you can look to for inspiration. 
• Take note of your competitors’ voice tone, imagery, posting schedules and engagement levels. 
• Check campaigns by your competitors by utilizing the Meta Ad Library, Brand24 or Hootsuite to monitor.
• Observe the content formatting used by your competitors (e.g., reels, stories and static posts). 

Things to note: 

• Are your competitors ignoring reels? Great! A way to leverage.
• Are their brand voices boring? Be bold and stand out! 
• Are they failing to respond and engage with comments? You can own engagement!

Performing full audits helps identify content ideas that can boost performance beyond that of your competition.

Step 6: Define Your Content Pillars and Fill Content Gaps

After researching competitors, you must shape your identity by defining your pillars.

Your content pillars allow your business profile to be consistent, relevant and engaging for your audience.

Some common content pillars with examples are:

• Educational – tips, hacks and industry news

Example: “5 ways to grow conversions with social proof” 

• Engagement – polls, quizzes, questions and behind-the-scenes

Example: “Can you guess which design got the most engagement, A or B?”

• Promotional – offers, services and announcements

Example: “Flat 25% off on our branding packages this Dashain!”

• Testimonial/UGC – following client successes, reviews and UGC

Example: “Here’s what Bipin from ABC Studio had to say about our social media strategy.”

• Trending – memes, reels, viral formats and responses to events

Example: “What if dogs ran a digital marketing agency in Nepal?

Using these pillars, you can create a content calendar that balance both reach and conversion.

Step 7: Create a Social Media Content Calendar

You’ve got your content pillar; after which, the next step is to develop a social media content calendar.

What is a Content Calendar?

A content calendar is a visual guide that shows:

• What to post?
• When to post?
• Where to post?

So, you’re probably asking, “How do I create a social media content calendar?”

• Pick a Format: When posting on social media, either utilize Google Sheets or Notion and use a tool like Hootsuite Planner!

At eLance, we utilize Google Sheets to be flexible and collaborate with our team.

• Outline Your Content Pillars: Assign your content pillars for the week.

Example: Monday → Educational | Wednesday → Behind the Scenes | Friday → Promo

• Add Captions + Visuals: Jot down short, on-brand captions.

Add placeholders or links to your Canva graphics, Reels or motion designs.

• Align with Festivals & Events: Plan ahead for Dashain, Tihar, New Year and local festivals to get ahead of the chaos.

• Time it Right: Post when your audience is most active. 

Use Meta Business Suite or Hootsuite analytics to see when your best times are.

A content calendar is the link between strategy and execution.

Step 8: Allocate Resources and Budget for Your Social Media Initiatives

Once the content and the calendar are finalized, you need the right resources and budget to implement your social media marketing plan.

Regardless of your team size or budget, this part is essential to maintain consistency and grow. 

To implement the strategy, you should decide who handles what tasks and what tools they’ll use.

Here is a basic outline that works:

• Designer – Design graphics and videos (Canva, Adobe or Capcut)
• Copywriter – Create captions and stories 
• Social Media Manager – Scheduling, monitoring and engagement 
• Ad Specialist – Paid campaigns, ad budget, track KPIs and monthly report 

So, how much budget should you set?

 Budgeting depends on your marketing objectives: 

• Are you only focusing on organic reach?
• Are you looking for quick results through paid ads?

Here is an example of a simple budgeting proposition: 

Now, where to allocate the budget?

Divide your social media budget into these buckets:

• Content Creation (Graphics, Reels and Animation)
• Paid Advertising (Boosts, Lead Ads and Video Ads)
• Tool Subscriptions (Hootsuite, Grammarly and Brand24)
• Influencer Collaborations (Optional but effective)
• Campaign Testing (A/B testing creatives and audiences)

Tip: eLance spends 70% of our customers’ ad spend on proven existing campaigns, and 30% on experimental ads that test new content and audience segments. 

Without a planned budget and resourcing, your plan is only an idea. 

Step 9: Establish a Content Approval Workflow

An amazing content plan is only part of the picture. 

If your content is stuck in an approval workflow, then you are losing momentum and energy.

That’s why social media strategy needs a workflow to approve content, particularly where you’re working with clients.

But why is approval workflow important?

• It saves time and ensures you aren’t making changes at the last minute.
• It ensures a consistent brand voice throughout all posts.
• It prevents mistakes, typos and off-brand content from being posted.
• It ensures the visuals, tone and calls to action are in line with your strategy.

So, how do you create an approval workflow?

A three-step approval workflow is relatively simple:

• Step one: Content creation

Copywriters and graphic designers create posts based on your posting schedule and planned content pillars.

• Step two: Internal review

Your social media lead checks for clarity, that branding is correct, proper hashtags are used and there are no spelling or grammatical issues.

• Step three: Client or stakeholder approval

Once you’re happy with your posts, the client signs off on everything via WhatsApp, email or online tools like Google Sheets.

Step 10: Prepare a Crisis Management Plan for Social Media Challenges

Every brand goes through rough patches. 

Social media is public, fast and emotional, which also means one mistake could lead to lost trust or viral outrage.

It’s important to respond quickly, as silence can be seen as guilt or ignorance.

That’s why part of your social media strategy must be concerned with crisis.

What to Include in Your Crisis Plan:

For instance, say you had a mistake in the pricing of a post you shared.

Rather than leaving it and hoping no one sees the error, you delete the post, do a new post within 30 minutes, with a caption that reads:

“Oops! Quick fix: Here’s the correct pricing for our deal in April – thanks for your patience 🙌”

That’s transparency, which helps build trust.

Step 11: Track KPIs and Monitor Performance

Now that your campaigns have been launched, it is time to measure performance.

After all, if you do not know what is working, how can you expect to grow your success? 

This is the stage where we transform speculation into strategy by placing focus on social media KPIs (key performance indicators) that are significant. 

What Are KPIs In Social Media? 

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are data that illustrate how effectively your posts, ads and profiles are performing. 

Likes and followers seem nice, but they do not always mean you are growing your business. 

KPIs For Social Media Strategy That You Must Track: 

• Reach, Impressions: How many people saw your post? 
• Engagement Rate: Are people liking, commenting, and sharing your content? 
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): How many people clicked your link? 
• Conversion Rate: How many people converted into leads or customers? 
• Follower Growth: Is your audience growing and at what rate? 
• Cost per Lead / Conversion (for Ads): Are you receiving value for your paid budget?  

You can use tools like Meta Business Suite, Hootsuite, Brand 24 and Google Analytics 4, which help to find analytics, sentiments and multi-channel tracking.

Do not just post, track everything! 

By concentrating on KPIs, you will be able to identify what to do more of, what to do less of and where you can improve.

Step 12: Regularly Analyze Performance and Adjust Your Strategy

Developing a social media plan does not end when you press ‘post.’ 

In fact, the real optimization process begins.  

You must continually analyze your performance and utilize data-driven decisions to make the best social media strategy.

Why is analysis important?

• Social media platforms are always changing.
• Trends are always changing.
• Algorithms are always changing.
• Audience behavior is always changing.  

As such, analysis becomes necessary to stay relevant, improve results and avoid wasting budget.

What Should You Analyze regularly?

• Successful Campaigns: Which posts had the highest engagement or conversions?  
• Unsuccessful Campaigns: Which posts failed and why?  
• Audience Behaviour: Have your demographics or behaviours changed?  
• Channel Efficiency: Is one platform proving to be more efficient than another?   
• Paid Media Efficiency: Is your cost per result in the range you have planned for? 

Let’s look at an example: If you discover that your carousels have a 60% higher engagement than single-image posts on Instagram, then produce more content in carousel format.  

How To Adjust Your Strategy:  

Here are some common adjustments that organizations will ultimately make after analyzing their data.  

• Optimize Posting Times: Post your content at the time when your audience is the most active.  
• Reallocate Budgets: Allocate more budget to high-performance ads or platforms.  
• Revisit Content Mix: Generate more reels, stories and testimonial posts based on your outreach.  
• Change Hashtags: Add more relevant or trending tags to increase discoverability.
• Change Tone or Format: If your engagement is dwindling, try a different voice or format. 

So that’s it!

Creating a social media strategy is not a one-time thing, but it’s an evolving document, shaped from the data of your audience. 

Review, rethink, refresh and repeat. 

Must-Have Tools to Build and Manage Your Strategy

Now that you have mapped out all the steps to create a social media marketing strategy, we will explore the tools that will help bring each phase to life. 

These tools help digital marketers to create content, schedule posts and track key digital marketing metrics.

Below are some best free tools to plan a social media strategy: 

Content Creation & Design Tools

High-quality content and graphic posts are critical elements that build engagement and brand trust.

However, working on quality work will likely take a couple of hours.

Not anymore!

These tools ease this process and offer polished captions or visuals that align with content pillars vital for creating a social media strategy.

Tool 1: Chat GPT or Grok [Free and Paid Option]

These generative AI tools revolutionize creating a social media strategy by suggesting ideas and generating content.

What once took a writer days to complete, this tool accomplishes that in seconds.

These tools help:

• Brainstorm content pillar ideas (educational, entertainment or promotional).
• Generate caption ideas for social media posts.
• Create AI images on the spot.  

For example, use this prompt in these generative AIs and see the result for yourself:

“Act as a social media manager for [Your brand] that prioritizes sustainability. Help me create a content calendar and please suggest five content pillars I can use on my social media profile to engage local customers, showcase my products and build a strong online presence. Include a brief description for each pillar and a few sample post ideas that tie back to my overall marketing strategy.”

Tool 2: Grammarly [Free and Paid Option]

Nothing destroys engagement faster than incorrect or awkward words.

That’s where Grammarly comes in.

It is a writing assistant that checks the grammar, spelling and content clarity in real time.

Using Grammarly, you can:

• Write error-free content and posts. 
• Adjust content tone to match the brand’s voice.
• Elevate your content quality.

Tool 3: Canva [Free and Paid Option]

Canva is an easy-to-use design platform with a drag-and-drop feature, customizable templates and an extensive image library. 

It lets you create stunning visual posts, reels and stories without requiring design skills.

This platform offers tailored templates for platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and many others.

You can use it for free, but you need a paid version if you want advanced templates and features.

With Canva, you can:

• Create platform-specific assets.
• Work easily and smoothly with teams.
• Access to thousands of templates.

Scheduling & Automation Platforms

Most people ask, “Can I automate my social media posts?”

The answer is Yes!

Here are some automation tools for social media marketing.

Tool 1: Hootsuite [Free and Paid Option]

Hootsuite is an all-in-one social media tool that lets you schedule posts on multiple platforms at peak audience times defined through analytics. 

It’s a free option that supports small-scale automation necessary for designing a social media strategy.

Trained teams run scheduling procedures and use them to post weeks in advance so that no post is missed.

Hootsuite allows you to:

• Schedule up to 30 posts free of charge. 

• Preview content calendars.
• Monitor basic engagement metrics.

Tool 2: Meta Business Suite [Free, Built-in for Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram]

Developed by Meta, this tool manages and tracks all your business insights and activities across Facebook, Instagram or Messenger.

What’s unique is that all these accounts can be managed under one dashboard.

It automates posting and provides post performance data to ease the creation of a social media strategy based on real-time data.

It also has ad integration that amplifies targeted campaigns and offers:

• Total control of Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns.
• Analytics in your pocket.
• Post and story planning

Social Listening & Analytics Tools

Are you wondering, “How can I track my social media performance?”

Social listening is necessary to find emerging trends, manage PR issues and engage user who mentions your brand.

Below are some tools that will help you listen to what your audience is saying about your brand and measure your marketing performance. 

Tool 1: Brand 24 [Free and Paid Option]

It tracks brand mentions, keywords and competitors’ activity across multiple platforms such as social networks, blogs or news sites.

Brand24 allows digital marketers to find trending hashtags and competitors’ gaps that help them understand how to plan a social media campaign with real-time analytics. 

Some features of Brand24 are:

• Instantly track brand conversations.
• Reveal high-impact hashtags.
• Accurately measure audience sentiment.

Tool 2: Hootsuite Analytics

Hootsuite not only automates scheduling posts but also provides data on the performance of the posts.

It offers detailed engagement, reach and clicks reports.

This tool also offers customizable dashboards that make creating a social media strategy accessible to all.

• Monitor KPIs such as clicks on a weekly basis.
• Compare effectiveness platforms.
• Export insights for presentations.

Does these tools look complex to you?

Join forces with the experts of eLance who will handle these tasks so you can focus only on your business.

Best Practice for Social Media Marketing

There is more to having a social media marketing strategy than just posting every day.

It’s about offering value to your audiences and building a strong trust with them.

Below are some social media best practices that you can follow to see effective results:

Practice 1: Focus on Two-way Communication, Not Just Promotions

Talking only about your product bores the audience.

Instead, you should focus on two-way engagement so that your audience feels heard.

By doing so, you can build a community who are loyal to your brand.

• Respond to comments and messages promptly, ideally within 1-2 hours.
• Share stories, tips and UGC (User Generated Content) to build rapport with the audience. 
• Ask questions or conduct surveys in your posts or stories, encouraging people to share their experiences.

Practice 2: Partner with an Influencer to Improve Brand Visibility

Collaborating with an established influencer helps your brand stand out in the crowded market.

You can tap into the loyal and engaged followers of the influencer with whom you partner.

Creating a social media strategy helps reach a broader audience without spending on hefty ads, especially for local brands.

• Identify authentic influencers with a voice, tone and audience profile aligned with your brand identity.
• Communicate what you’re looking to get out of the partnership, whether it’s conversions or brand awareness. This will help you and the influencer track performance down the line.
• The influencers already know their audience. Provide them with brand guidelines, but let them speak about your product or service in a way that will apply to their followers.

Practice 3: Be Informed about Social Media Platforms Updates and Trends 

The digital marketing trends and algorithms change frequently.

Staying up to date makes sure that your approach doesn’t lag behind.

Adapting to these changes makes your brand look fresh, innovative and ready to engage followers in exciting ways.

• Follow official blogs and news to learn about updates and what it mean for your business.
• Keep experimenting with new features like Instagram reels and Tiktok duet sometimes to understand their performance.
• Check your competitors’ activities for new ideas in your social media strategy. 

Practice 4: Focus on Key Marketing Metrics

While increasing likes and followers can feel flattering, it doesn’t guarantee a profitable outcome.

Rather than those, focus on meaningful metrics like click-through, engagement and conversion rate.

• Use free analytics tools like Meta Business Suite to get weekly insights.
• Look at click-through rates, video watch times and comment quality to gauge genuine interest.
• If a particular content format consistently generates clicks or conversions, replicate it.

Practice 5: Leverage Social Listening to Understand Your Audience

Social media is not just a place to talk, it’s also a place to listen.

Social listening helps you identify what is being said about your business, after which you can create a responsive social media strategy. 

• Tools like Brand24 or Hootsuite let marketers monitor brand mentions, hashtags and relevant keywords. 
• Spot repeated questions or complaints and address them through FAQ posts, how-to videos and direct outreach.
• Social listening also helps identify opportunities, letting you refine your unique selling points.

Social Media Strategy for Small Businesses and Startups

Small businesses and startups often ask, ‘What’s a good social media strategy for small businesses?”

A good SMM strategy should be clear, targeted and cost-effective. 

Creating a social media strategy empowers small businesses to connect with potential audiences and build trust.

Let’s explore 2 approaches startups can get started with.

Start Small- Focus on 1-2 Platforms

As small businesses have limited resources, they should channel their efforts into platforms with maximum impact.

Instead of focusing on every platform, first you should focus on the platforms where your prospects spend most of their time.

This focus lays the foundation for creating an effective social media strategy that delivers quick and measurable results.

• Find where your customers hang out, like Instagram or Facebook, so you don’t waste time on empty channels. For example, a shop in Kathmandu can find young customers(18-35) sharing posts on Instagram and invest their efforts there.
• Create a clear bio, like “Best cafe house in Kathmandu,” and fill your profile with the right business details such as address, email and phone number.
• Create content and graphics to post on that platform. You can focus on short-form videos, which are highly popular these days.

Cost-Effective Tactics that Work

Small businesses no longer need a big budget to create a good social media strategy.

Consider these tactics:

• User-Generated Content (UGC): Encourage customers to share their newly purchased earrings from your store and reshare them on your profile as stories. This quality-tested UGC tactic adds to your social media strategy for free and acts as a magnet for trust.

• Local Partnerships: Collaborate with local businesses to expand your reach. For example, a coffee shop can pair up with an earring store for a New Year giveaway. This collab can increase your followers at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing.

• Behind the scenes: Share how your products are made, introduce your team and showcase daily activities of your business. This approach helps the audience connect with your brand.

• Storytelling: Tell compelling stories about your company. Share the history of your business in a storytelling way, helping you connect with your audience on an emotional level. You can also produce a short video on why you started.

Where does Social Media Fit in the Marketing Mix?

Social media is the most critical bridge between branding and performance marketing in today’s evolving digital landscape.

It helps create a lasting impression and offers measurable business results.

Social media is not singular- it’s utilized alongside other digital media in order to optimize a campaign’s overall performance.

A smart digital marketing agency in Nepal knows that combining SEO, SMM and influencer marketing creates a holistic digital marketing strategy that brings sustainable growth.

By bridging Traditional and digital marketing, your social media efforts help turn awareness into sales.

Social Media as a Bridge Between Awareness and Conversion

Social media not only introduces your brand to audiences but also plays a key role in converting brand awareness into sales.

Social platforms are not only for posting updates, but they’re a space where customers engage with your brand.

Make a First Impression

Create an Instagram Reel or Facebook post that grabs the attention of the social media audience. 

These early interactions help spread awareness, making people curious about who you are.

Establish and Reinforce Trust

Consistently sharing helpful tips, behind-the-scenes and customer reviews on social channels shows you are an expert.

When your audience sees valuable content repeatedly, they view your brand as reliable and authoritative.

Prompt Action

Launch a targeted ad campaign and give a Call-to-Action to make viewers take action, such as sign up or purchase.

For example, giving a time-limited offer on Instagram or Facebook stories helps convert interest to intent.

This bridge is required to bring sales and grow your business to the next level.

Complements your SEO, PPC and Influencer Marketing

After creating a social media strategy and pairing it with SEO, PPC ads and Influencer marketing, it becomes an unstoppable force for business growth.

Lifts SEO with Social Insights: 

Share your fresh blog posts or SEO articles on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) or LinkedIn to get organic traffic and backlinks.

Each like, share, and comment is a search engine relevancy signal that allows your pages to rise in search rankings.

Boost PPC: 

You can convert your most effective organic posts into targeted ads. 

As these creatives have already demonstrated their appeal, they will usually net you a higher click‐through rate at a lower cost. 

Then use social demographics to improve the PPC targeting campaign.

For example, retarget Instagram engagers with Google Search Ads showcasing your newest offer, keeping your brand top‑of‑mind along the customer journey.

Magnify Influencer Buzz: 

When an influencer mentions your brand, don’t let the light fade.

Repost their content, tag them and include applicable hashtags to boost brand discovery. 

When you combine the authority of your brand and a partnered influencer, it creates credibility and drives engagement in your social channels.

Unifying all the channels assists you in creating a cohesive digital marketing strategy that drives measurable business growth. 

Proving Results in Your Social Media Reports for Clients

If you work as a social media manager, you must show the results of your efforts to your clients.

You must create an insightful social media report that highlights the impacts.

Creating Insightful Social Media Reports

An insightful report can convey social media engagement with client goals and demonstrate the value of branding and performance.

A social media plan is built around conveying information easily and visually telling a story, like a campaign that increased leads by 15%.

Below, we have listed a brief way to create a social media report:

• Focus on Goals: Emphasize goal-based metrics, such as a 10% boost in engagement, so ROI measurement is oriented to their goals.  

• Use visuals: Include a chart of the increase in 500 new followers from a reel, making your social media plan stand out.  

• Tell the story: Explain how 200 clicks on the ad strategy generated $2,000 in sales, which connects your efforts to social media strategy outcomes.

Metrics and Tools for Client Confidence

To gain client trust, your social media marketing strategy must show clear results 

Clients do not care about vanity metrics, they just want to see these vanity metrics attached to growth. 

Here is how to use the right metrics and tools to keep clients feeling informed and confident:  

Measure Actionable Metrics (Not Vanity Metrics)

You should look beyond vanity of impressions and likes. 

To measure reults, look at:

• Engagement Rate – Is anyone engaging with your posts like comments and messages?   
• Click-through rate (CTR) – Are they actually clicking through the links?  
• Conversion Rate – Are engagements or clicks converting to leads or sales?

Use the Right Tools for Reporting

Pick reporting tools that immediately turn data into accessible, visual client-facing dashboards.

Recommended tools to use are:  

• Hootsuite Analytics – Provides data on engagement, growth and top performing content.  
• Meta Business Suite – Performance on Facebook/Instagram & audience behavior.  
• Google Analytics – Connect social traffic to page-conversion metrics and time-spent-on-page. 

These tools helps make ROI measurement simple.

Connect Metrics with Campaign Goals

When reporting performance, your reporting must always connect back to the social media strategy you presented to your clients, including:  

• Did the “Brand Awareness” campaign result in more profile visits or reach?
• Did the “Lead Gen” campaign result in more form submissions or video views? 

By doing so, clients can focus on results, showcasing how your social media drives traffic.

Conclusion – Don’t Wing It. Strategize It

Creating a social media strategy is the ticket to successful business.

It offers your brand with a roadmap, from understanding your goals and setting smart goals to tracking the results.

A strategy helps post content with a purpose, keep your brand consistent and get measurable outcomes.

Starting from ground zero or to scale  up, this blueprint imposes order on disorder, turning likes and shares into measurable outcomes.

An effective SMM strategy ensure your business gets more leads, increased brand recognition and bigger ROI.

Remember, great plans don’t remain static, they evolve with your audience, trends and the tools available.

Creating a SMM strategy seems tricky and overwhelming?

At eLance, we collaborate with clients across Nepal and around the world to build social media strategies that don’t simply appear effective but deliver results.

What are you waiting for?

Connect with eLance and we will assist you map the next step of your business.

FAQs – Quick Answers for Beginners