How to Build a Social Media Strategy for an Official Account: Purpose, Audience and Routine on One Page

What happens without a strategy

The first place managers of a new official account get stuck is not knowing what to post. They start with new products and announcements, run out of material, posting stops the following week, and a few months later it's "we're doing it, but we can't tell if it works." When the boss asks about results, they can't say what to compare against to call it good or bad.

This isn't a lack of effort by the manager. It happens because the things that should have been decided first weren't. If the purpose isn't decided, you can't decide which numbers to watch. If the audience isn't decided, you can't decide what words to write in. A strategy is putting these standards of judgment in place first.

Once decided, you spend less time hesitating over each post. You just check "does this post fit the purpose?" and "will these words reach this person?" Even when the manager changes, you can continue by the same standards.

Five things to decide

A strategy means deciding the following five things. The order matters; you can't decide the later ones until the earlier ones are set.

1. Purpose: what do you want social media to improve?
2. Audience: who do you want to read it?
3. Content: what themes, on which networks?
4. Routine: who posts how often, and how is it checked?
5. Measurement: which numbers, and when do you review?

Let's go through each.

1. Narrow your purpose to one

Social media can do many things: get you known, lead to visits or inquiries, increase job applicants, keep relationships with existing customers, act as a channel for support. Aiming at everything at once scatters your posts and leaves each half done.

First decide the single most important purpose, and put the rest below as "nice to have." A local restaurant might write "let people living nearby know about us and give them a reason to visit." A B2B manufacturer might write "let contacts at client companies know our technical ability and increase the pool of potential inquiries," and a company struggling with hiring might write "show job seekers the atmosphere of our workplace," working backward from the business problem.

Your purpose should connect to your overall business goals. "Reach 10,000 followers" is not a purpose, but one of the numbers for checking whether you're getting closer to it. How to choose numbers is explained in detail in how to set goals and KPIs.

2. Describe your audience specifically

Next, write who you want to read your posts. Beyond attributes like "women in their 20s to 40s," writing down when that person opens social media, what they're struggling with, and what information they'd find useful makes it easier to decide the words for your posts.

For a home renovation company, you could write "someone living in a house over 20 years old who's worried about exterior wall damage but doesn't know who to ask." Written like this, post themes come naturally: before-and-after photos, how to think about cost, and what to check when choosing a contractor.

You can have more than one audience, but keep it to two or three at most. Different audiences may use different networks. How usage differs by age is explained, with figures from official surveys, in which network to start with.

3. Decide what to post using content pillars

Once the purpose and audience are set, decide what to post. The key is to decide in advance 3 to 5 "pillars," themes you can post about repeatedly, rather than choosing on a whim each time. For a restaurant, for example: seasonal menus, behind the scenes in prep and cooking, staff introductions, customer voices, and opening-day notices.

Pillars make running out of ideas less likely. Deciding "this week, pillars A and C" settles half of what you write. How to set the proportions and build the pillars is covered in how to set content pillars.

Also decide which networks to use. Rather than spreading across every network from the start, choose one or two where your audience is and stick with them; that works even with few people.

4. Decide your routine

The part of a strategy most often overlooked is the routine. On social media, posting regularly over a long time tends to become a habit for the people who follow you more than posting a lot at once. For that, decide in advance who writes, who checks and when it goes out.

There are four things to decide: how often you post (posts per week), the days and times, who writes and who checks, and the deadline for checking. If one part-time manager runs it alone, start with a number they can sustain. How to think about frequency is in how to set posting frequency, and how to choose times is in how to choose when to post.

Decide the checking flow too. These are words that go outside the company, so it helps to have a system where someone reads a post for typos, factual errors and things you shouldn't say before it goes out. If no one is assigned to check, urgent posts are the ones that go out unchecked.

5. Decide how you'll measure and when you'll review

Finally, decide which numbers you'll use to judge, and when you'll look back. If your purpose is "get known," you watch impressions and reach; for "visits and inquiries," link clicks on your profile and the number of inquiries. The numbers depend on the purpose.

A monthly review is the guideline. Rather than watching daily and reacting to every swing, summarizing each month and seeing which pillars and posts drew reactions will help you plan the next month. How to read the numbers is in the basics of social media analytics, and how to summarize is in how to write a monthly report.

Put it on one page

Once the five are decided, write them on one sheet of paper or one document. You don't need a long proposal. A table like this is enough.

Share this one page with your boss and the shop staff. When requests like "we'd also like this kind of post" arrive, you can judge them against the purpose and pillars. It also works as a handover document when the manager changes.

A strategy is something you revisit

Your first strategy won't necessarily be right. After about three months you'll start to see pillars that get more reaction than expected, pillars that get almost none, and differences in who you're reaching. When that happens, rewrite the strategy.

When you revise, don't change everything at once. Keep the purpose and change only things like the proportions of pillars or posting times, one at a time, and you'll know what worked. Conversely, if you change the purpose every month, you can't compare the numbers.

Running your strategy with SNS TOWN

SNS TOWN has set places for the five things you've just decided. Write your purpose, audience and tone-of-voice rules in the Company profile, and add what you want to announce right now to "Key messages." When the AI writes drafts, it reads these two, so the drafts that line up follow your strategy.

Set your routine as slots of days and times in the Post cycle, and for the checking flow you can use draft mode so a person approves before anything goes out. If you have several companies or brands, each can have its own company profile and slots. For reviewing your measurement, use the Analytics screen, look at the monthly movement and decide again the next month's pillars and times.

Frequently asked questions