Social Strategy
This is the top-level plan: which channels, what for, how to win, and at what cadence. It sits
above content-pillars (what themes) and batch-content-plan (what posts) and tells them where
to point. Everything downstream inherits the choices made here.
The core idea, and what separates strategy from a to-do list:
Strategy is choices and trade-offs — above all, what not to do. "Be on every platform, post consistently, engage your audience" is not a strategy; it's a list of platitudes that spreads a brand thin and wins nowhere. A real strategy picks the few channels where the audience is and the brand can win, deliberately drops the rest, and commits to one clear objective and a differentiated angle.
When to use this
- Starting a social presence from scratch, or resetting a scattered one.
- Deciding which platforms to be on (and which to quit).
- Before
content-pillars/batch-content-plan, to set the objective and channels they serve.
When NOT to use it: if a current social-strategy.md exists and is sound, load it and move
on unless the user wants to revisit.
Step 0 — Read the foundation first
Load brand-profile.md, audience-research (audience.md), and content-pillars if present.
Strategy is downstream of who you are, who you're for, and what you talk about — without
those it's guesswork. Run the missing ones first where it matters.
Step 1 — Set one primary objective (tied to the business)
Pick one primary objective social must serve right now — awareness, audience growth,
community, authority/positioning, leads, or sales — chosen from what the business actually
needs (a pre-launch startup needs awareness/audience; an established one needs leads/sales).
Add at most one secondary. Define a meaningful metric, not a vanity one, and be honest about
measurement (see references/goals-and-measurement.md). To cascade the objective into SMART
targets, per-channel North Stars, and action thresholds, hand off to goals-and-kpis — this
skill names the objective; that one sets the numbers.
Step 2 — Select channels (focus, don't spread)
The central decision. Score each candidate platform on four dimensions (see
references/channel-selection.md):
- Audience presence — is the target audience actually there? (from
audience.md) - Format fit — does the brand's natural content strength suit it? (don't lead with TikTok if the brand won't make video)
- Goal fit — does the platform serve the objective?
- Capacity fit — can the brand sustain quality there?
Pick the 1–3 that win on all four. Name what you're deliberately dropping (or running as repurpose-only maintenance). Most brands should start with one primary channel.
Step 3 — Define the strategic wedge
How does this brand win on its chosen channels, given everyone else? The wedge comes from the
brand's POV and positioning — a differentiated angle, a distinctive format, a consistent stance —
not "post good content" (that's table stakes, not a wedge). See references/operating-model.md.
Step 4 — Set the operating model
A strategy you can't sustain is a wish. Define (see references/operating-model.md):
- Cadence per chosen channel — realistic, matched to capacity; consistency over volume.
- The content engine — how foundation → pillars → plan → produce → repurpose → schedule fit together.
- Phasing — Phase 1 nail one channel; expand only once it works. Don't launch everywhere.
- Capacity/roles — who makes and who engages, and how much time.
Step 5 — Write the artifact
Produce social-strategy.md: the objective + metric, the chosen channels (and the dropped ones,
with reasons), the wedge, the operating model and phasing. Summarize back and invite edits.
content-pillars and batch-content-plan read this to stay aligned.
Quality bar — self-check
- Is there one clear objective, tied to the business (not "grow followers" for its own sake)?
- Are channels chosen by the fit framework, with the dropped ones named? (Not "all of them.")
- Is there a real wedge — a differentiated way to win, from the brand's POV?
- Is the operating model sustainable and phased (start focused, then expand)?
- Is measurement honest — meaningful metrics, read from the platforms' native analytics, and no analytics promised that WoopSocial doesn't have?
- Would following this make the brand choose — or just do everything everywhere?
If the "strategy" doesn't say no to anything, it isn't one.
Edge cases
- "We should be on every platform" → push back: focus beats spread; pick where the audience is and the brand can win; name what to drop or run as maintenance.
- Wrong-format pressure (wants TikTok but won't/can't make video) → match channels to the brand's real content strengths, or plan to build the capability first.
- No clear business goal → help define one from the brand's stage; a strategy without an objective optimizes nothing.
- Already spread thin across 6 platforms → recommend consolidating to the 1–2 that work; it's often a subtraction strategy.
- B2B vs B2C → channel and goal differ sharply (LinkedIn/X authority+leads vs IG/TikTok awareness); use the audience profile.
- Measurement expectations → be clear WoopSocial publishes; measurement is the platforms' native analytics (read manually) — don't promise dashboards.
Related skills
brand-profile,audience-research,content-pillars— read first; supply the inputs.goals-and-kpis— turns this strategy's objective into SMART targets, per-channel North Stars, and thresholds ("set our goals/KPIs" requests route there).content-pillars— the themes that serve this strategy.batch-content-plan— turns the strategy + pillars into a calendar.cross-platform-repurposing— makes a focused multi-channel strategy sustainable.- The platform-growth skills (
instagram-growth,linkedin-growth, …) — execute per channel.
References
references/channel-selection.md— the channel-fit framework and platform strengths.references/goals-and-measurement.md— objectives, meaningful vs vanity metrics, honest measurement.references/operating-model.md— the content engine, cadence, phasing, the wedge in practice.references/examples.md— worked strategies (with real trade-offs) across business types.
