Social media is all about connections.
It allows us to easily consume, share, and discuss information within our network, all from the convenience of a computer or a mobile app.
And while there are many social media sites to choose from, each has unique features to help connect with people, professionals, brands, and more.
Is it time to take the next step on your social media presence?
Create a social media plan to boost your online presence, connect with industry leaders, and build your professional network.
But, before you dive in, develop goals to help guide your social media tactics.
Set Goals
The first step to a successful social media plan is to review your current business and marketing goals. Knowing what you want to achieve as a company will determine how you approach your marketing plan and social media advertising. For example, your business goals may be as simple as wanting to increase revenue, so how can social media help with that? You could gain followers to get more eyes on your website, generate news leads and increase brand awareness with engaging posts, or even boost sales through promotions on new platforms. The options are limitless.
Coming up with goals will help you understand what you need to do to achieve them. They give you a clear objective to center your marketing plan around. This will make the entire process straightforward and easier for you.
Get to Know Your Audience
After you nail down what your business needs to thrive, it’s time to understand your audience. Learning about your target audience is necessary to find the best way to attract them through social media. Creating an ideal buyer persona is a great way to do this and organize the traits of your customers into a digestible format.
Many social media platforms also offer analysis tools which you can use to identify your audience’s demographics, interests, and engagement rate. Learning about your target audience will develop your social media plan by telling you where, what, and when you should post to captivate potential customers and turn them into leads.
Check Out Your Competition
While you’re using social media analysis tools don’t forget to analyze your competition. You’ll likely have some overlap between your audiences so look at their metrics to learn more about your target customers. Be sure to examine how often they are posting, their audience’s engagement rate, and what content is getting the most interaction.
You can use these insights to craft your own posts that draw attention and conversion by learning from what is and isn’t working for your competition. You will be one step ahead of other businesses as you will know what works and what doesn’t before you post a single thing. Not to mention all this research prepares you for competing over social media for customers. You will understand your audience and their other options, making you ready for whatever comes next.
Choose the Right Platforms
One of the most important things you will learn from understanding your audience and competitors is which platform to launch your social media campaign on. Different social media platforms have different audiences and content, which is important to understand to create a strong social media plan.
Since 2004, Facebook has increased in popularity. In fact, on average there are 1.23 billion daily active users. And if everyone else has Facebook, you probably should, too.
Facebook provides users with the ability to create a profile and a company page, connect with friends, family, and coworkers, and interact with their favorite brands.
If you haven’t already, use these tips as part of your Facebook social media plan:
- Post industry and thought leadership content that fits your company/role/interests.
- Connect with a handful of business connections. You don’t have to connect with your entire network on Facebook, get started with a few people you like.
- Like your company Facebook account and the Facebook accounts of the customers you serve. You can learn a lot by following your customers on Facebook.
- Update your status at least once a day.
Twitter is the best platform for up-to-date news and communicating with thought leaders and brand ambassadors. You can share short updates (280 characters max, as of 2019), videos, images, polls, and more.
If you are not using Twitter it’s easy to get started:
- Set up, or update your profile, including a current picture.
- Follow your personal contacts, company, and customers.
- Follow thought leaders in your industry, e.g. bloggers, industry analysts etc.
- Check your news feed daily to retweet content you find interesting, or helpful, and share your own content, ideas.
- Use hashtags to find trending topics and industry trends.
LinkedIn is more business than personal. It’s a great place to make professional connections, share business content, and show off expertise in your field.
Here are several steps you can include in your social media plan:
- Update your profile with relevant information like your skills and business interests. Include a current picture. In addition to LinkedIn’s profile suggestions, check out these recommended profile update steps.
- Review and update your connections. It’s best if your LinkedIn connections reflect your actual network people you know or have at least met.
- Consider adding projects, documents/videos that explain what your company does, case studies, white papers, etc.
- Share content and interact with others either directly on your timeline or use LinkedIn Groups as a way to meet like-minded people.
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social media site that can help you increase exposure of your products and services to existing and potential customers.
Next steps on Instagram could be:
- Try different Instagram filters to enhance images and videos.
- Automate your social posting across other platforms. Connect it to your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
- Follow your competitors and other industry leading brands for inspiration.
- Research hashtags. Analyze and test them to help you build brand awareness and accomplish your goals.
Monitor Your Performance and Adjust as Needed
Your social media plan isn’t finished once you start posting content. It should be a fluid strategy that is adjusted as needed to get the best results. Once you start your social media marketing campaign be sure to keep an eye on your performance metrics. These will tell you how well your content is doing and how your audience is engaging with it. Focus on metrics like engagement, click-through-rate, conversion rates, and follower growth. From there you can determine what if anything needs to be changed and optimize your marketing efforts.
Need Help with Your Social Media Plan?
Don’t be discouraged by your current social media skills. If you start making small changes to your social media plan, you’ll make progress quickly, and Strategy is here to help!
We provide a range of social media tactics including monthly content plan development, writing social posts, social training for your staff, and more.
Contact us for more information.
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