By Jevon Wooden

In the most recent episode of Design Your Life & Business – The Leaders Podcast, host Jevon Wooden chats with Hannah Acosta, the Social Media Manager at Ugly Mug Marketing. Together, they delve into all things social media marketing. From what you should post to understanding who your audience is – she knows it all. Learn how to build a social media strategy, what you should be posting, and why consistency is the key to doing all of it successfully.

Who is Hannah Acosta?

At Ugly Mug Marketing, Hannah Acosta is described as “the passionate and purposeful leader of the Social Media Department.” Since starting four years ago, Hannah has grown her department by over 340%, and has worked alongside hundreds of small business owners and entrepreneurs as they navigate the ever-changing digital marketing landscape. She has more than 4,000 social media campaigns and has had a front row seat to the challenges and rewards faced by marketers today. 

What Exactly is a Social Media Strategy?

It’s a common question, one that, depending on who you ask, is filled with a lot of ambiguity. Some will tell you it’s about keeping up with trends; some will say it’s all about the social media metrics and analytics you follow; and others will say it’s about posting regularly. Whilst these answers are technically correct, they’re laser-focused way too much on one aspect or another. They are all tactics, which some may not realize aren’t synonymous with a strategy. 

Your strategy is the overall plan you’ve laid out, and your tactics are the steps you take within the plan. 

“A lot of people think that strategy is actually tactics,” says Hannah in her interview with Jevon. “‘Oh, our strategy is we’re going to be on Facebook’, or ‘we’re going to be on Instagram’, or ‘we’re going to be on TikTok’, but in reality those are just tactics that are part of a bigger plan and a bigger strategy, right? Those are just tools that we can use as a part of our true strategy. True strategy comes from determining why or how you’re going to show up on certain platforms and what it is that you’re going to prepare.”

It’s important to remember this before you go on with your social media strategy, because there’s no point doing something with no goal in mind. You have to figure out the intricacies of what you’re going to do and how you’re going to attract the attention of your audience. Hannah goes on to say, “We can’t be everywhere at all times, and so, when we get on these platforms, it’s important for us to set a goal. It’s okay if our big picture goal at the end of the year is to be posting once a day, but for now, what’s realistic is to be posting twice a week. We need to set our goal so we can manage our expectations and not be too hard on ourselves.” 

Consistent is NOT the Same as Constant

When it comes to social media, you may hear a lot of people say ‘you need to be consistent with your posting’, and they couldn’t be more right: you really do need to be consistent with it. 

But please try to remember this: consistently posting on your social media accounts is not at all the same as constantly posting. If you are constantly posting then, we hate to break it to you, you are one of those annoying people online that people will immediately mute or unfollow. No one wants to see the same face of someone they don’t know, or the same brand over and over again. Consistent posting means that if your goal is to post every Tuesday and Friday, then you have to be consistent in doing so; if you want to interact with your followers on a regular basis, then you need to be consistent with it. 

It’s all about consistency and commitment. 

“But we want to be consistent for our followers, right? We don’t want them to see that our last post was from September. We need to regularly be showing up for them.” insists Hannah, rather adamantly. “So typically where I start with my consulting clients, I say, what’s feasible, like truly what’s realistic if we’re building out content based on photos that you have or photos that you can have taken or whatever, like what’s feasible two times a week?”

Check out the full podcast episode at theleaderspod.com to hear more of Hannah’s insights and lessons in way more depth. Be sure to subscribe, rate, review, and share!