REFINE YOUR 2022 SOCIAL STRATEGY

Happy New Year, blog readers! I want to thank you for your support + engagement with the content I put on this part of the internet. It means the world to me to have you here, and I’m always open to questions & suggestions. Without YOU, yes – YOU reading this – there would be no blog! So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading what I have to say 🙂

The beginning of the year is often times the most inspiring for many of us. If it isn’t that way for you, no pressure either way. Everyone is different, and that’s what makes life beautiful. As we jump into month 2 of 2022, I thought it would be great to talk about how you are refining your online strategy this year.

Going into this year I’ve become glaringly aware of how much I am craving to have a stronger, louder voice on my social media channels. Now more than ever, I think. After the past 2 years we’ve had, it’s made me question things like “what IS important to me, and my audience? What will resonate & add value to my followers, that I can confidently speak on?”

Though I know that list is endless, and goes way beyond the internet realm, I decided to start with what I know – and what I love to talk about the most with anyone that will listen.

LET’S TALK SOCIAL STRATEGY FOR 2022

You may, or may not, know that talking about social media is one of my passions. I get really intense about it in person, and if you’re down, I’ll talk about it for hours. I find it fascinating, frustrating, and incredibly necessary regardless of your niche (to some extent – I’m also very passionate about online/offline balance + mental health and how social media is severely threatening that, but we’ll leave that for a separate post).

As I sat down to write my own goals for the new year, defining and refining my social strategy for the year seemed to flow freely from me in that moment. It felt so amazing to see the year so clearly – when it usually feels very unclear. 

It’s been a while since we spoke business on here, and seeing as I consider it a passion of mine I decided it will be a regular thing on here this year. So here we go 🙂

WHERE DO I START?

REFLECTION IS KEY

Within yourself, and within your niche. More specifically – what is your niche? Do you feel comfortable/happy in this niche or do you see something different for your year ahead? Are you providing value with this niche? Can you expand on, define with specifics, and elaborate on said-niche? What kind of value are you bringing to your audience with the topics you post about?

I won’t lie, I struggle the most with this part myself. I definitely fall under the category of “but I love talking about SO many things, how am I supposed to niche down and just focus on one thing?”

Though I will always believe it’s fine to talk about whatever you are truly passionate about, even if that ranges from home decor to tech to vitamins to cars – I will admit it is still crucial to have a strategy about whatever you decide you do want to talk about online.

Consider this post sort of like a firsthand look into a personal journal entry for the new year: I don’t have it all perfectly figured out either, but I do have a clear vision of what I want my online presence to look like. At the end of the day, we’re all figuring it out as we go! 

Here’s what I consider when I’m refining my niche:

• I am passionate about sharing an attainable, elevated lifestyle: through sharing fashion, beauty, travel & lifestyle tips. That’s broad, yes, but I am very niche in my focus when it comes to the intersection of attainable yet elevated. I love to show looks-for-less that feel expensive, educate my audience on how to find budget-friendly airbnb’s that fit an elevated aesthetic, expand on (realistically) using credit card points for travel, finding the best coffee shops & restaurants in any area, making your small, probably-rented space feel like an ad for Architecture Digest – you get the picture. You can create a beautiful life while sticking to a budget. And don’t get me started on budgets! I can talk about money management for hours, too. 

CONTENT PILLARS ARE KING

I wish I focused on this from day 1 of blogging. Content pillars are vital for staying on track throughout the year, and will help you stay focused on adding maximum value to the content you’re posting about. Be sure to get specific as possible with your niche before you build out your content pillars so that everything is as relevant as possible to your target audience. 

Once you define what your pillars are (i.e. Fashion, Beauty, Food, Travel, Tech, etc) you can start building out your weekly topics & content goals for each pillar. 

If fashion is one of your pillars, an example of this outline could look like the following:

PILLAR 1: FASHION

• Daily Outfits
  • IG photos, IG stories, Reels (GRWM, Outfit in Motion), TikTok, Pinterest Idea Pins
• Sale Roundups
  • Blog post or newsletter every Monday or Friday
• New Arrivals Roundups/Hauls
  • IG stories (links), Reels (keep or return), TikTok (keep or return)
• Clothing Hauls
  • Reels, TikTok, YouTube videos + shorts
• Outfit Inspiration
  • Reels/TikTok (outfits for each day of the week, outfits based on a specific color, etc)
• Trend Forecasting
  • YouTube videos + shorts, Reels/TikTok 

For every content pillar, there are content buckets underneath that can be expanded on through whatever content you decide to create surrounding that topic.

The list goes on, but that’s the idea! You want to have pillars that you can talk about endlessly. It can be any topic under the sun, as long as you are the expert and can expand on anything under that pillar. 

IG AUDIT C/O YOUR FRIENDS

Your friends and family know you the best. You can have an audience of over 500k humans but at the end of the day, no one knows you better than your offline relationships. They also know when you’re not showing your true self, which is your superpower!! NO ONE can be YOU, so if you are showing up online as someone else, that’s going to translate. Or worse, you’ll grow an audience that isn’t following you for YOU – eventually that is going to catch up to you when it gets to be too hard to show up as anyone else. Ask a handful of friends or family members to look at your IG/TikTok/YouTube, whatever platform you’re feeling stuck on or want to grow more in 2022, and ask them “what stands out?” What could I be doing more or less of? What do you think of when you think of my social media content? What do you think of when you think of ME, IRL? Again, the list of questions goes on, so just lean into what your biggest pressure points may be at the time. Leave it open for them to give you constructive criticism and honest feedback. Mentally prepare yourself to take in whatever they have to say and use if for good – use it to fuel your 2022 strategy starting today. Even if it hurts to hear, it’ll just help you in the long run. 

Shoutout to my sister who consistently sends me IG/TikTok audits even when they’re hard to hear 😉 I love you and I need you to keep it up.

AUDIT YOUR OWN SOCIALS

As important as it is to get an outside perspective on the content you’re putting out into the world, it’s equally as crucial to constantly be auditing yourself, too. You should be pulling numbers every month to see what posts & stories did the best, and how to they compare to the last 3, 6, 12 months? Focus on saves, shares, and link clicks. Then check out reach + impressions. IG is ever-changing (Lord help us), but as it stands for early 2022, they’re going to be focused on Reels, DMs, and content saves. You should be creating SHARABLE/SAVABLE (THIS IS KEY) video content as much as possible, posts that people will want to reference in the future (a cool pose, a great outfit, an informative caption, a memorable location), and DMing your audience whenever you can. These key factors will keep you top of mind and showing up in your audience’s feed, which if you haven’t heard, is also changing soon (Home Feed, Following Feed, and Favorites Feed).

Aside from a content audit, make sure your bios are all fresh for the new year. Are you easy to get in contact with? Is your email or website visible or clickable in multiple places? Is your niche easy to identify at first glance? Are your social channels discoverable / linked everywhere? Don’t make it hard for potential brand partners, or leave your new, incoming audience wondering who you are and what you’re about. 

STICK TO A SCHEDULE

Whether you are blogging/influencing full time, or you’re balancing your online life with your 9-5 life, having a strict schedule will keep you afloat when things get hectic, and keep you on track when things are slow. 

I tend to alter my schedule as needed each week depending on events, travel, and shoot days, but I’m actually really excited about my 2022 schedule so I’ll share it below for reference: 

2022 WEEKLY SCHEDULE ✨

MONDAY

ADMIN DAY

• Emails
• DM’s
• Comments
• Engagement with new accounts 
• Outfit planning for weekly content
• Calendarization
• New partnership scouting

TUESDAY

PRODUCTION DAY

• 3-5 Videos (Reels, TikTok, YT Shorts, Idea Pins)
• Photos for IG/Pinterest at home 

WEDNESDAY

ADMIN DAY

• Grid planning
• Poshmark Listings
• 2-3 Blog Posts 
  • Monday: Industry Talk
  • Wednesday: Misc Topic (Lifestyle, Travel, Fashion, Beauty)
  • Friday: Weekly Roundup (Links, wishlist, favorite items, quotes)

THURSDAY

PRODUCTION DAY

• Content with Brennan (IG, TikTok, YT)
• 2 YouTube Videos 

FRIDAY

ADMIN  DAY

• Review the past week (content, numbers, incoming partnerships)
• Send off blog posts for graphics
• Pinterest uploads (Idea pins, IG photos to Pinterest, unique content pins)
• Edit YT videos / schedule for posting  

This schedule will continue to evolve as I ease into how it realistically works each week, but when I look at it I feel peace and structure. When you manage an online business (again – whether you’re full time or part time) you MUST implement systems and strategies to succeed. I am still learning and leaning into this, but I do know it to be true, even if I am no expert at following my own advice all the time. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

At the end of the day, your success is up to the effort you put into your passions. You can really LOVE something, but if you aren’t willing to put in the work to share that love with the world, it’ll continue to be a hobby you keep to yourself. Which – let me be clear – is absolutely okay, too! I am simply here to say that if you want to be successful online in 2022, you need to constantly be evolving, challenging yourself, learning, being open to new things, and willing to work your ass off. Even when you’re tired, even when it feels like it’s going nowhere, even when you face ridicule, and especially when you have FOMO because your friends are doing something else. I promise you that if you push through the noise, focus on your end goal, and keep taking it one day at a time, you WILL get there.

As I read through this, a ton more strategy ideas are flooding my brain but I need to cut it off at some point ha – if you want more topics about strategy then be sure to comment below and let me know if you have any questions!

I am always always ALWAYS here to talk, so please do not hesitate to reach out so we can chat more 🙂

2022 WE SEE YOU!!! Xx

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