# Social Strategy > Use to set a brand's overall social media strategy — which channels to focus on (and which to ignore), what to achieve, the angle to win, and a realistic operating cadence. The top-level plan that sits above content pillars and the calendar. Run when the user says "social strategy," "social media strategy," "which platforms should I be on," "what's my plan," "should I be on TikTok/LinkedIn," or is starting or resetting their social presence. Reads brand-profile, audience-research, and content-pillars first. Makes real choices and trade-offs — especially what NOT to do — ties goals to the business not vanity metrics, and is honest that WoopSocial has no analytics (measurement is the platforms' native analytics). Produces a social-strategy.md. It names the objective; to turn it into SMART targets, KPIs, and North Star metrics, use goals-and-kpis. Works for any business. - Skill: `social-media-skills/social-strategy` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 6 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add social-media-skills/social-strategy` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/social-media-skills/social-strategy/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Marketing & Growth - License: MIT - Author: social-media-skills (https://skillmd.com/u/social-media-skills) - Updated: 2026-09-09 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/social-media-skills/social-strategy --- # 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`): 1. **Audience presence** — is the target audience actually there? (from `audience.md`) 2. **Format fit** — does the brand's natural content strength suit it? (don't lead with TikTok if the brand won't make video) 3. **Goal fit** — does the platform serve the objective? 4. **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.