Creating a social media marketing plan doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It can be simple and fun, with the goal to provide you with the results you desire. Through developing a social media strategy, you not only get to understand your brand better but also understand how to connect with your audience and how you want to represent your business across social media.
What is a Social Media Strategy?
A social media strategy is a detailed and organised roadmap to help implement actionable steps within your chosen social media platforms. A strategy should help guide the actions needed to support your business goals.
Six Simple Steps for Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan
Set your Social Media Marketing Goals
What do you want to accomplish? Is it to increase brand awareness, grow your followers, or sell products and services? Whatever it is, make sure you are using the right platforms and methods to achieve what you desire.
Set S.M.A.R.T (Specific – Measurable – Achievable – Relevant – Time bound) goals. For example: “Our goal is to have an average 10% increase in post engagement from January to June 2022.”
Define your Audience Persona
At the heart of any social media marketing plan is the audience. Define who your target market is, what they want, the problems you solve for them and aim to get to know your audience on a deeper level. Gather all relevant information and data, such as demographics, interests, pain points, what makes them tick.
Understand the Competition
Conducting a competitive analysis is an excellent way to find out what’s expected within your industry.
It provides the following information:
- Performance benchmark
- Differences between brands
- What the competition is doing well in their gaps
- Potential customer pain points
- Social media content ideas
- and many more
Run a Social Media Audit
When creating a social media marketing plan, it’s beneficial to run an audit to find out what’s working and what’s not. Most social media platforms have built in reporting tools that will help generate the necessary data.
A social media audit can give you a good sense of who’s engaging with your business, which networks work best, and the type of content your audience resonates with more.
Create your Content Pillars
Social Media content pillars are a set of themes that guide you in choosing the content. Sometimes called ‘social media ‘buckets’, these are topics specific to your brand and valuable to your audience. We recommend choosing three to five content pillars.
Establish a Social Media Calendar
Having a set plan with the content and when to post can help you manage your time more wisely. An excellent tip is to batch create social media content in advance and, where possible, schedule content based on your calendar.
Of course, this should not stop you from posting content in real time. Social Media is all about what’s happening now and having scheduled content with a sprinkle of real-time posts is always a terrific idea.
Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan? Our Team Can Help
Whether you’re just starting or looking to revamp an existing social media strategy, make sure it’s tailored to your business goals. Creating a social media plan allows you to measure your success more accurately and identify areas of improvement.
We can help with the process of developing a social media marketing strategy for your business. Please feel free to contact us.