Let us convince you why you need a digital strategy
You need a digital strategy. Yes, you. Whether you’re a working professional or small business owner, entrepreneur or CMO, whether you are aggressively online or mostly private, the fact is, you need a purpose and a plan behind what you post.
Let’s start with the elephant in the room. If you are active on [cough addicted to] social media platforms - including for personal reasons - and there’s a part of you that is aware having a larger or more engaged following would help you in some way - whether it’s through selling your future book or expanding your network - then listen up. You are wasting your time, and we mean seriously wasting if you’re not operating with some sort of blueprint and goals.
Meditate on this → If you are spending so much time on social, why not get something out of it?
And by something, we mean one very specific thing first and foremost. After three years of fielding a huge range of clientele for M.T. Deco, the holy grail of what everything comes down to is community. This idea of growing and nurturing a group of people who are invested in you, care about what you care about, and will pre-buy your book, show up to the pizza place you open or buy tickets to your events - or at a minimum, comment honestly on your posts - is incredibly valuable. It’s what everyone is going for and if you pause for a moment and look in the mirror, it probably makes sense for you too.
If your gut reaction to that is “I’m a nobody,” just stop. Every individual has a unique perspective and value add to this world. There is a community for everyone and more often than not, size is completely irrelevant. We are in an age of subcultures - which are less about macro subjects like gaming or music and are far more specific like deep dives on the Kardashians, data privacy, or the royal family. This trend is perpetuated by Gen Z who put an incredible value on these tight-knit communities.
It’s far better to have a small group of people who are engaged [liking, commenting, sharing, linking to, etc.] instead of a large following that doesn’t do anything. With the emergence of companies like Grin -- that measures your level of influence -- we’re finally - slowly - but finally, moving away from those overhyped follower numbers (hallelujah). [Hot tip - Grin has a free analysis tool on the homepage and it’s fun to see what your own stats reveal]
The days of posting at random or tweeting whatever thought comes to your mind are gone. With the emergence of cancel culture, the #metoo movement, and the proliferation of “watchdog” influencers calling individuals out (for example, Diet Prada on Instagram keeping an eye on the fashion industry or Sophie Ross monitoring pop culture on Twitter), you’ve got to have not only a clear sense of self and purpose but also an awareness of what’s going on in the world.
But don’t let that freak you out. Instead, get energized and organized, recognize this opportunity in front of you (this IS a moment in time to capitalize on), and scroll down to find which role best reflects you. Below that you’ll find the next three immediate steps to get you on your way:
Working professional. Your objective is to expand your professional network through personal brand development, primarily by over-indexing on your professional work experience. You want to create opportunities, mostly through professional channels, that offer new opportunities, leverage, and more money. Here’s where to begin:
Identify measurable goals. Tangible things to track (new connections, PR mentions, high-value conversation in comments, viral posts)
Plan content. Showcase thought leadership (industry articles with your POV, tips & tricks, recommendations, champion others)
Choose appropriate platforms. LinkedIn and Twitter first (use your industry to help decide where to expand beyond these two)
Entrepreneurs + business owners. Your objective is to build awareness and affinity for your company and yourself. This is the classic “building the airplane while flying it” approach and requires content planning and publishing on both brand and personnel platforms. Here’s where to begin:
Set digital goals that align with business goals. Your digital strategy needs to support your business goals, 100% (new clients, sales, subscriptions)
Identify content pillars. Choose roughly 5 areas of content to focus on (marketing, behind-the-scenes, founder-focused, community, philanthropy)
Plan out editorial and platforms. Figure out the best ways to bring these content pillars to life on the platforms that offer the best opportunity for ROI + thought leadership (LinkedIn strategy, Instagram strategy, Twitter strategy, Facebook strategy)
Aspirational influencer. Your objective is to build a community around the things you care most deeply about, which are reflected in high-quality content. You want people to feel emotionally connected to you and become invested in your journey, and in order to do this, it’s a two-way street. Social platforms are not talking at people, it’s talking with them, so engagement is the key to powering the engine. Here’s where to begin:
Identify content pillars. Choose roughly 5 areas of content to focus on (subcultures, aesthetics, lifestyle, behind-the-scenes, community, philanthropy)
Content planning. Plan out content around the content pillars in deep and meaningful ways. Lead with your POV, showcase thought leadership, and post a lot (leverage all the in-platform tools including questions, polls, live, reels; you’ve got to upgrade and optimize always)
Engage, engage, engage. Set up your content so that it perpetuates valuable conversation and always respond to keep it in motion (your community IS your business, they are everything so treat them as such)
Side-hustler with dreams. Your objective is to build out your personal brand while over-indexing on the side-hustle content. The idea is to introduce this part of you to your community in an ongoing and authentic way so that one day you could make your side hustle your main hustle. Here’s where to begin:
Lock in content pillars. Choose roughly 5 areas of content to focus on (side-hustle-centric, collaborations, behind-the-scenes, community, philanthropy)
Strategically choose platforms. Figure out how to bring the content pillars to life on platforms where there is a community aligned with your side-hustle (Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter). Since time is challenging with a side-hustle, choose wisely and remember, quality over quantity
Plan out editorial and publish. Produce content based on the content pillars. Go deep and specific, and stay focused on building a small, highly-engaged community
And as you move through your process, head over to the M.T. Deco blog to check out all kinds of resources to help refine your strategy. Once you’ve made it through your first three steps, consider a competitive analysis so that you can outsmart your competition or at least play at the same level as them. From there, get manic about your target audience, aka your community, and how to level up for them. And of course don’t forget about your owned platforms versus social, aka ones that you control instead of a random algorithm. Get those in order as well.
And of course, let us know what else you need in the comments section. As mentioned, this is a two-way conversation and we want to help you live your best life and do your best work. And yes, it’s all hard, we get it, but it’s worth it and you’ve got this 💪