26 Apr Tips to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan

Tips to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan

If you have a business plan or an SEO strategy, then why wouldn’t you have a social media marketing strategy for your business as well? A social media marketing plan should be something you and your team reference back to when deciding on goals for what you’d like your brand to achieve on social media. This social marketing strategy should guide your actions on every channel you’re active on and give you a way to measure your objectives.

Not sure where to begin? We’ve put together a social media strategy template on how to build your own social media marketing plan that suits your company’s needs and goals.

Select Your Social Media Marketing Goals

As with any business endeavor, you want to create a strategy that has clear objectives and goals. Without this, you won’t have any way to measure return on investment (ROI) or success in general. As a general rule of thumb, every one of your social media marketing goals should be:

• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Specific
• Time-sensitive

Track Social Media Strategy Metrics

Be sure to choose metrics that aren’t purely for “vanity”. For example, metrics such as follower counts and likes on social media are easy to see but difficult to prove their real value. Instead, you should focus your efforts on things like conversion rates, click-through, or engagement.

Be aware, you may want to focus on different metrics depending on the channel. For Instagram, you may want to focus on engagement and Story views, where LinkedIn or Facebook you may want to drive traffic and click-throughs.

Know Your Audience

Understanding who your audience is and what they like and don’t like is crucial to being successful on social media. Especially if you want to turn your social media followers into loyal customers. Having a clear understanding of your target audience then lets you develop content that is designed to appeal to them and ultimately grown your audience and improve the metrics you’re tracking.

Perform an Audit

If your company is already on social media, make sure you’re learning from the work you’ve already put in. An audit should give you a clear picture of how each social media channel you’re active on serves a purpose. Ask yourself questions like:

• Is my target audience here?
• Can I use this platform to achieve my goals?
• How does my target audience use this platform?

Create a Social Marketing Calendar

Once you’ve done the above, you should have a better idea about the types of content that work best for your audience and your overall goals. Many brands use the rule of 80/20 which is that 80% of your posts should be educational, informational, or entertaining. The other 20% can directly promote your brand. Once you have a calendar written out and signed-off, you can then use either native scheduling posting and scheduling tools, or platforms such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social to schedule your content. Some platforms offer free versions, so research to see if spending money on a tool to schedule and monitor your brand’s social accounts is right for you.

At Design106, we keep our fingers on the pulse of the latest developments in social media and how it can help your business. Our packages are designed to help your company achieve its goals no matter how big or how small you want to go. Contact us today if you want to take your social media marketing strategy to the next level!