How To Create A Social Media Marketing Plan In 8 Steps:
If you want to conquer the world, you need a plan. The social media marketing plan with social networks is like the plan which you would use to build your house and without it, you’re completely lost and your actions are meaningless , or it may become even worse.
To avoid such circumstances, your social media marketing plan and it must be clearly defined before publishing your first tweet. But do you know where and when to start? Do not worry: There are 8 steps to create a successful marketing plan and we will show you how it’s done.
Set Goals For Your Presence In Social Networks
The first step for a successful marketing plan is to define what you want to achieve . Without proper objectives, you cannot know what you are doing and what are your goals or how to measure the return on investment. The idea is that your social media objectives must respond to the overall goals of your company.
To set goals that really make sense, remember the English acronym “SMART”:
- Specific (specific)
- Measurable (measurable)
- Attainable (attainable)
- Relevant (relevant)
- Time-bound (with a deadline)
The second point is that the measurement, is very important to determine the success of the project. Instead of focusing on indicators such as “likes” or comments, think in terms of KPIs that have a real impact on the business.
Learn Everything You Can About Your Audience
If you know the beneficiary of your business through social communication, you can create content that will make clients or customers fall in love. This being a very inbound philosophy, that is, creating messages or content that attracts the interest and value. In addition to this, it will guide you on the path to conversion.
To start, you can create a profile of your ideal follower to have a clearer picture of what you are looking for. Search real data about the profile of users of different networks and the analytics of your page; This will not only help you and refine your strategy, but also be more effective when launching advertising on social networks.
Also Read: There Is No Business Leadership Without Social Commitment
Investigate The Competition
By looking into the prospect, your competitors will also be using social networks, and that means you can learn from their actions and incorporate these lessons into your marketing plan.
The analysis of the competition will help you to understand who your competitors are and what they are doing well (or not so well). You will have a global picture of what are the expectations of users in your sector and you can adapt to them.
This analysis will also help you find market opportunities and gaps. For example, your competitors may have focused on Facebook, but Instagram is still an area to explore. So, instead of competing directly with them, you can make a site on other networks.
When analyzing the competition, social listening is your ally. Keep track of competing brands and keywords in your sector and keep track of the results regularly.
Do A Social Media Audit
In this step you will start by analyzing what you are currently doing on social networks (if you already have a presence in them). Try to answer these questions:
- What is working and what is not?
- Who is connecting with your brand in social networks?
- What social networks is your target?
- How is your presence on social networks compared to the competition?
Once you have this information, you can use it to see how to improve and add these insights to your social media marketing plan.
To audit social networks is also a good time to resolve these pending tasks:
- Check if you have an account that no longer serves you. If you do not have a clear objective and are not giving the results you expect, you may need to change course or even eliminate it completely. Remember: it is better to have an active presence focused on a few channels, than to try to reach everything and fall short.
- Detect possible impostor accounts, i.e, accounts of other users posing as your brand. Remember that you can verify your profiles on Facebook and Twitter so your fans know who they should follow.
Create Profiles On Social Networks And Improve The Previous Ones
The time has come to take action! At this point, you need to be very clear about what social channels you are going to include in your marketing plan and what your strategy is in each one of them. For example, you can use Instagram Stories to post tutorials and Twitter for customer service. To further focus network presence, try writing a mission for each channel summarized in a single sentence.
Once you have decided which channels you will be in, it will be time to create profiles or optimize the ones you already have. Be sure to fill in all the information fields and use keywords adapted to the user’s search habits.
Get Inspired!
Although it is important that your brand is unique and proves it, it is also a good idea to be inspired by the best success stories in your sector.
All social networks include success stories that show how brands are using their tools. You can usually find them in the information sections for companies of each social network.
Another very interesting option is to look for digital marketing awards , such as The Facebook Awards and The Shorty Awards, and see what the winners are doing.
Finally, you can also ask your followers directly or do social listening to see what their online behaviors are and how you can take advantage of them in your social media marketing plan.
Also Read: The 3 Most Successful Advertising Blockers In 2019
Create A Calendar Of Content On Social Networks
Sharing valuable content is essential, but also sharing it at the right time. A good content calendar will help you maximize the impact of your posts and make your team’s life much easier.
The content calendar must include the dates and times when you will publish each type of content on each channel. It is the perfect place to plan all your activities on social networks, from images and links to blog articles and videos. In this way, you will ensure that you correctly distribute the content and take advantage of the “peak hours” of social networks.
Depending on the objectives of each network, you will have to decide on the distribution of content accordingly. For example, you can define that 50% of the content will be focused on directing traffic to your blog, 25% will be curation of content from other sources, 20% will be aimed at objectives such as lead generation or conversion and 5% Remaining will refer to the culture of your company. As a general rule, it is often said that 80% of your publications should inform, educate or entertain your audience and only 20% should include direct promotion.
Test, Measure And Adjust The Strategy
Developing a marketing plan is an essential, but you should keep in mind that it is impossible for it to come out perfectly. In addition, social networks are a changing environment, so you will have to adapt to the habits of users.
Therefore, it includes periodic checks and tests in your plan to analyze what you are doing and see how you can continue to improve. Thus, your presence in social networks will be much more effective than ever.
