The power of social media is one that should not be overlooked. It holds the ability to amplify one’s reach and to enhance your business’s internet presence and reputation.
To have success in the varying social media platforms, it is extremely important to come up with a solid social media marketing plan. One that is solid incorporates both the branding and core values of the business, which then constantly and consistently refers back to this messaging.
6 Steps to Create an Effective Social Media Plan
Step 1: Decide On Your Social Media Marketing Goals
A social media plan enhances the effectiveness of what you do end up posting on social media, as each post has an aim or goal in mind. There is always a specific set of measurable goals, strategies, and guidance on how to reach and carry out these goals. Consequently, it makes determining of this success much easier, more manageable and allows businesses to answer the question of:
- “What should a social media campaign include?”
- “Will it assist us in achieving our goals?”
Step 2: Scope Out the Competition
- Learn From Your Competitors.
In the world of social media, there will always be more than just one business attempting to sell or market similar items or services. Thus, it is always useful to scope out the competition, what they do, and the feedback they get. Are they getting 1 million views on their daily Instagram stories, or only 10? From here, you can understand what to do or not to do with your own campaign. The best way to utilise your competitors is to stay close, keeping a close eye on what they do, and do it better.
- What Makes You Better Than the Competition?
To be successful, you need a selling point.
- What makes you stand out?
- What makes you truly unique?
Remember to remain interactive with your customers, for example hosting Q&A sessions at regular times or having meet and greets with customers to find out what they want, and what you could do for them. When you listen to your customers and what they like/dislike, it will make them extremely satisfied, more inclined to trust you and go with your business. That is the power of social (media) networking!
Step 3: Know Your Audience
This part is especially important, as you need to know your audience before creating a campaign. Your target audience will determine the type of language, visuals and how you market your. You should be extremely specific when coming up with an idea of your target audience, thinking of categories such as:
- Location
- Job title
- Age
- Most used type of social media
- Interest
Step 4: Research the Social Media Industry
Social media as an industry is large, complicated, and extremely intricate. In saying that, it is probably highly unlike that you would step foot into this industry without doing your bits of research first. These research topics would include aspects such as the latest algorithms and updates, and what the best practices are to devise a strategy that works.
Take TikTok for example – the latest social media interest in the new generation. All those young people who are famous did not just get lucky overnight; instead, they spent an excessive amount of time daily trying to study the algorithm and planning out videos that would go viral.
It is also important to note that the industry is always changing, and so going over trends once probably won’t by very useful for you. Keep this in mind, and always be ahead of the game when it comes to wrapping your head around the industry.
Step 5: Create A Content Checklist
Creating a content checklist is one of the keyways to make sure you stay on top of your game and say everything that you intended on saying. The list would consist of content such as:
- news
- blogs
- videos and images of you, your team and your work
- testimonials
- photos that you may have taken in the past.
However, just because these were in the past, it does not mean that they cannot be edited and recycled through the years if it fits in with your current content.
Once you have a plan, you can then confidently begin creating content and an effective and useful social media calendar. When creating this calendar, it pays to be smart about how you approach social media content. By this, it means to really think about the audience and how they interact with the platform, such as thoughts like what they want to read about, or what they would be most interested in. By having a social media calendar, it allows you to save time and to track and test different strategies that you can then continue to develop or neglect altogether.
By planning, you can make sure that all the gaps in your content are filled, building consistency and cohesion in terms of your brand voice and style, rather than posting in an impulsive and unplanned way.
Step 6: Always Ensure to Check the Stats and Analyse What Is Working and What Is Not
It can be frustrating at first to see at times that your post is not gaining as much traction or attention that you had initially aimed for, however what is worse is you not doing anything about it!
As hard as it may be at times, it is vital that you keep track of which parts are effective, and which parts are not. From here, you can work on improving areas of your social media post strategy that isn’t going so well. Remember, an effective and great strategy for social media is never one that is permanent, and thus will work at its best if constantly changed and adapted to work with the times.
This also helps you determine which is the best social media platform to use. For example, if you see from data that Instagram is one of the most effective relay methods, whilst Facebook is not, then you can consider retracting some effort from Facebook and placing it into your Instagram campaign instead.
What do I do now?
It is time to put your plan into actions. If you would like more advice or perhaps have a professional agency looking after your social media channels, please get in touch enquiries@frescocreative.com.au or call us on 81169033.