Social media is a marathon. Okay, maybe more like a triathlon, with a flat tire or two thrown in there. You can’t just jump into a triathlon without any preparation; you need a plan to succeed at it.

Thankfully your social media content strategy doesn’t require months of training but simply a lot of thought and goal setting to help you succeed.

You may be wondering what the f**k is a content strategy? A content strategy is a goal-based, ongoing master plan for your social media. It helps you figure out all the steps necessary to accomplish your social media objectives.

So the first step is to come up with your goals. For example, do you want to increase brand awareness, grow sales, or foster a sense of community? It doesn’t have to be just one, but knowing your goals will help you create content that will achieve them.

Next, you need to determine who your target audience is. This will help you decide what platform is right for you. If you are trying to get people 50+ to buy your product, maybe TikTok isn’t the right place for you. Knowing your demographic will also help you figure out what content they would be interested in.

Now that you have those defined, it is time to start creating your content. At this point, it is quality over quantity. It is better to create content that will resonate with people than just pushing out content for the sake of it.

The most important step of all of this is to review what you have done, track your analytics and see what resonates with your audience. If something isn’t working, this is how you will find out and know what not to do next time.

Remember, your content strategy should be sustainable. If you start to get overwhelmed with it, look back at the goals you set. Ask yourself if this content I am planning will achieve that? If the answer is no, it is time to go back to the basics.