The basics of creating a social media strategy.

Introduction

Back in 2016, there was this small tea cafe in Guwahati Chai Sutta Bar. Honestly, if you saw it then, you would not think it was going to be a national brand. No fancy interiors. No expensive ads. Just steaming kulhads of chai.

Here is what they did right: they did not wait for people to show up. They went to where people were on Instagram. And not with polished, “agency made” content. They posted raw, real moments: rain falling outside, friends cracking jokes over chai, steam swirling from a fresh pour. The captions were pure Hinglish, like a friend texting, “Barish ho Rahi Hai, Chai ho Jaye?”

I remember seeing those posts and thinking, this feels real I want to go there. And I was not even in Guwahati. That is how far the content reached. Within a year, their posts were everywhere WhatsApp groups, Facebook timelines, Instagram stories. Slowly, that little cafe turned into a nationwide franchise.

Some people say it was luck. I call it strategy. They knew their audience, college students and young professionals who needed a break from the grind. They picked the right platforms. Instagram gave them the vibe. Facebook gave them the reach. They showed up consistently. And every single post had an emotional hook.

That is the heart of social media strategy. Know who you are talking to. Speak their language. Show up regularly with something worth engaging in. Whether you are selling momos from a street cart in Delhi or running a SaaS startup in Bengaluru the fundamentals stay the same.

Get that right, and even the smallest idea can grow much bigger than you imagined. I have seen it happen. Not just with big brands, but with students of mine who started from scratch and built thriving businesses online.

1. Define Your Goals

• I have seen so many small businesses post on social media like they are throwing darts in the dark. They hope something will stick.
• Take Meera’s Creations, a saree boutique in Surat I worked with in 2018. Meera used to post 10 reels in a week when she felt energetic. Then she would vanish for 20 days. Sales? All over the place. She told me, “I feel like social media is just a time pass for big brands, not for us.”
• I explained, “social media is not magic it is a tool. But tools only work if you know what you want to build.”
• We set a SMART goal. Increase festive season orders by 25% in three months. It was specific (festive sales), measurable (25% growth), achievable (based on past years), relevant (festivals are prime saree season), and time bound (3 months).
• From that day, every post had a job. Showcase festive collections. Give styling tips for Navratri. Offer early bird discounts for Diwali shoppers.
• In two months, her orders doubled. She shipped to Mumbai and Delhi for the first time.
• When you know exactly what you want, social media becomes your employee. It stops being a gamble.

2. Know Your Audience

• Aditi from Oven Tales in Bengaluru once told me, “I boosted my cake post to everyone in India. Got so many likes! But no one ordered.”
• Likes to not pay rent.
• When we dug in, we found her real buyers were women aged 25 to 40. They lived within 10 km of her home. Most were mothers ordering cakes for kid’s birthdays.
• Once she knew this, she shifted from generic cake photos to stories. Videos of toddlers smashing their first birthday cake. Moms sharing why that cake mattered. Behind the scenes clips of cartoon designs piped at midnight.
• She timed her posts for evenings, when parents were scrolling after bedtime. Orders became consistent because she was finally talking to the exact people who cared.
• Knowing your audience means knowing what makes them smile. It means knowing when they are free to listen. It means knowing what will make their day.

3. Choose the Right Platforms

• Being everywhere online is not a strategy, it is a slow leak of time and money. Take Tana Bana, a handloom brand from Kolkata I met during a workshop.
• They were on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, even LinkedIn. But their main buyers women aged 28 to 50 who loved handcrafted sarees were not browsing LinkedIn for “corporate culture” posts. Engagement there? Two likes, one from an employee.
• When they focused only on Instagram and Facebook, engagement tripled in three months. They posted reels of weaving close ups, festive albums, and even went live during Durga Puja. I still remember that live locals walked in wearing their sarees, sharing styling tips, and the comments section lit up.
• The lesson? Go where your audience spends time. Spreading budget and energy too thin is like adding a teaspoon of sugar to a bucket of tea pointless.

Real Story

Let me tell you something. I have been in this field long enough to know that “posting on social media” is the easy part. The hard part? Posting something that makes people feel something.

Take Amul. You know them, I know them, our parents and even grandparents know them. Those cheeky, witty ads on billboards and online? They’re not born out of someone randomly doodling ideas over lunch. There’s a science and an art behind it.

I still remember March 2020. COVID hit. The world went into panic mode. Every brand I knew had the same silence. They froze. “Should we post? Should we wait? What if people get offended?” But Amul? They did not disappear.

They pivoted. Instead of just pushing butter and cheese, they tapped into something much deeper comfort. They started those “Amul Topical” posts around lockdown cooking.

If you think about it, they were not just showing butter on bread. They were showing togetherness. Families trying new recipes. Kids baking their first cake. Parents dusting off old cookbooks.

I had a friend, Anjali, who had never baked a thing in her life. One day she sent me a photo of a lopsided banana bread, proudly captioned, “Inspired by Amul’s lockdown post!”

And she was not alone. People were cooking, tagging Amul, sharing their own creations. It became a conversation, not a campaign.

Here is what they nailed:

• They knew their audience’s mood – anxious, bored, but craving some joy.
• They set clear goals – stay top of mind and spread positivity.
• They went where the audience was – Facebook, Instagram, and yes, even the great Indian WhatsApp forward circuit.
• They kept it consistent – funny, relatable, and on-trend.

The result? While other brands were fading from timelines, Amul’s engagement shot up. People did not just see Amul as a dairy brand anymore. They felt Amul was part of their home life. And in marketing, that’s gold.

Now, here is the thing whether you are running a chai stall in Jaipur or a tech startup in Bangalore, the principle’s the same. Do not just post for the sake of it. Know your people. Speak their language. Give them something worth remembering. Because at the end of the day, strategy is not just about selling. It is about connection.

4. Create a Content Plan

I have seen brands treating social media like a mood swing ten posts in a week, then silence for a month. That is not a plan; that’s chaos.

Chumbak, the Bengaluru lifestyle brand, grew because they treated their feed like a TV show with a set schedule.

• Mondays: Fun, relatable memes
• Wednesdays: Product features
• Fridays: Customer stories or behind the scenes clips

This rhythm kept followers engaged without losing the brand’s voice. One Diwali, they posted a reel of employees decorating the office, then quick shots of their festive mugs and lamps. The colours, the laughter, it felt like you were there.

A good content plan is like a thali you need a little bit of everything. Only promos? Feels like spam. Only jokes? People forget you sell something. The right mix keeps people entertained while pushing them toward buying.

5. Set a Posting Schedule

No matter how good your product is, if you vanish from your audience’s feed for weeks, you are basically telling them you have closed shop.

Take Nisarga Naturals in Jaipur. Amazing organic skincare, but in 2022, whenever festival orders piled up, their Instagram went silent. People moved on.

I asked the founder why they did not just schedule posts. She thought posting had to be “in the moment.” Big myth. So they made a simple Google Sheet Mondays: skincare tips, Wednesdays: product features, Fridays: customer reviews. Even during Diwali chaos, posts went out like clockwork.

One Friday, they accidentally skipped a post. Three followers direct message to the account: “Where is today’s review?” That is when the founder realized consistency does not just keep you visible, it makes your audience expect and look forward to you.

6. Engage With Your Audience

Engagement is not just replying “Thanks” to comments it is making people feel noticed.

Anand Vada Pav in Mumbai nails this. Anand bhai replies to tags in Marathi, with emojis, or playful jokes. A girl once commented that she missed his vada pav after moving to Delhi. He replied, “When you are back, your first vada pav is on me.” That one comment was shared in WhatsApp groups and brought him hundreds of new followers.

Why? Because people saw a real person behind the brand. In India, we do not just buy from businesses we buy from people we like.

7. Track and Measure Results

I have seen this happen so many times brands fall in love with likes, comments, and shares, but forget to ask the most important question: Are these numbers making me money?

Take Bean & Brew in Hyderabad. Lovely little cafe. When they launched their cold brew bottles, they put out Instagram ads and got flooded with likes. The owner, Rohit, told me, “Sir, I thought I was killing it. My phone was buzzing non stop!” But then we sat down and checked the numbers. Instagram Insights showed that most engagement was from teenagers living 30 40 km away. And here is the kicker they did not even deliver there.

That is when the smile on Rohit’s face faded, and reality kicked in. All those likes? They were just vanity metrics. Nice to look at, but zero impact on the bottom line.

So, we refined the targeting 25 to 40 year old working professionals within a 15 km radius. People who could actually buy. Within a month, online orders shot up by 40%. Rohit told me later, “Now I do not care if I get 100 likes or 10 if they are from my customers, that is gold.”

The truth? Tracking is not about feeding your ego. It is about making sure your effort is pulling in results you can take to the bank. Without data, you are just throwing darts in the dark and hoping one sticks.

8. Refine and Repeat

If there is one rule in social media that never changes, it is this: Nothing works forever. What worked yesterday might flop tomorrow.

Look at Ananya Jewels in Chennai. Gorgeous, handcrafted jewellery, families run business. Their Instagram feed was neat, classy, and well, honestly, a little boring. Product photos, price tags, the usual. Engagement was fine, not bad, not great.

Then one day, they posted something different. A reel of a bride getting ready, her mother adjusting the gold necklace, the photographer capturing that little tear in the bride’s eye. It was not staged, it was raw, real, emotional. That video blew up. Every bride to be in Chennai seemed to be tagging her best friend.

The store owner, Meena, called me saying, “I have never had so many DMs in one week. People are asking for appointments like crazy.”

So, what did they do? They doubled . More wedding reels. More customer stories. More behind-the-scenes moments of jewellery being made. And quietly, they dropped the boring catalog shots that were not working.

This is the game. Social media is not “set and forget.” The market changes, trends shift, and your audience’s taste evolves. The brands that win? They are the ones who treat every post like an experiment learning from hits, fixing misses, and repeating the cycle over and over.

Conclusion

A strong social media strategy is not magic or luck. It is not about posting when the mood strikes. It is about clarity. It is about consistency. And its about genuine connection.

Take Meera’s Creations in Surat. She began posting jewellery photos randomly, sometimes three times a week, sometimes once in two weeks. Sales stayed flat. Then she planned her content. Mondays were for behind the scenes videos. Wednesdays were for customer reviews.

Fridays were for new designs. Six months later, orders doubled. Why? Her audience began to look forward to her posts, like waiting for their favourite TV serial.

Anand Vada Pav in Mumbai. Anandbhai thought Instagram was only for fancy brands. His niece convinced him to try. She began sharing short videos of sizzling vadas, laughing customers, and his morning market trips. Soon, people travelled from other parts of the city just to eat at his stall.

In India, relationships and emotions drive buying decisions. A thoughtful strategy can turn a local favourite into a household name. The tools are already in your hands. Your phone. Your stories. Your creativity.

The question is: Will you just scroll, or will you create with purpose?