How To Build A Social Media Marketing Plan In 8 Steps
April 7, 2021
Starting a new project can be daunting. Whether you’re trying out a new hobby, tackling that home renovation you’ve been putting off or starting a new marketing technique for your small business, having a solid plan can help you take that first step towards your goals.
If you’re a small business owner that’s ready to amp up your social media strategy, check out this eight-step plan to building a social media marketing plan that reaches the right audience and grows your brand.
1.) Figure out where your audience is
Think about your ideal customer. How old are they? What are their interests and hobbies? What income bracket are they in? Figuring out your target audience is the first step in creating an effective social media marketing plan.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn each have a different average user. For example, 60% of TikTok users are between the ages of 16-24, while Facebook is popular with 68% of Baby Boomers.
Knowing your audience lets you focus on the social platforms they use, and ensures your time (and money) spent on social media marketing is going towards your most conversion-ready audience.
2.) Create optimized social media profiles
Once you determine the best social media platforms to target, make sure your business profiles are professional, have up-to-date business information and are on-brand.
Start by checking that your business name, website URL, hours and logo are all on your profiles. Then, fill out any additional information, such as your year established and your business description.
Our guide to DIY social media marketing has more tips on how to make your social profiles professional and optimized.
3.) Create a social post calendar
Now it’s time to think about what you’ll post on your social media pages. Depending on the platforms you plan to use, you’ll likely post a variety of images, videos and links, all with a caption.
Some social post ideas include:
- Videos and images of your product/service
- Behind-the-scenes images of your brand and team
- Customer reviews and testimonials
- Product announcements
- Promotions and deals
- Contests and giveaways
4.) Create your posts and social content
Now comes the fun part: creating your posts! Using your social calendar as a guide, start gathering the content you need to make social posts over the next couple of months. Gather all images, content and other resources you’ll need to create your posts, and keep those assets in a sharable file so that your team can collaborate and edit your social posts freely.
Images
On image-heavy platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, it’s important to post high-quality images that capture your followers’ attention. Thankfully, many phone cameras have evolved to be able to capture high-quality images.
Here are some tips on how to capture professional photos using your smartphone, and how to select the best images for your social media posts.
Videos
Videos are an important part of any social media strategy, especially on platforms, like TikTok and Instagram. See our guide on how to create engaging Instagram videos.
Content
Social captions need to capture attention quickly. Make sure your value proposition is clear, and that your caption is to the point.
5.) Schedule posts
Now that you’ve done the work of gathering your social assets and creating posts, schedule all your posts using a social media scheduler, like Marketing 360®’s Social app. This makes keeping up with your social calendar easy, even when you’re busy running your business. Our Social app lets you preview posts, share posts with teammates, and put reviews and approvals in place so you can make sure every post that’s scheduled is on-brand.
6.) Interact with your followers and monitor your posts
So your posts are scheduled — great! Now, it’s time to monitor their performance and interact with your followers.
Like and/or respond to comments on your post, and make sure any negative comments or support requests are handled by your team. This will help improve customer retention while also showing your followers that you care about your customers.
7.) See what’s working
After you’ve been posting a while, you should start to see a trend of what’s getting engagement, and what’s not. Monitor your posts to see what types of content is connecting with your followers.
Marketing 360’s Social app has social insight reports that give you an overview of all your social platforms, so you can let data drive your social media marketing strategy and budget.
8.) Repeat
Now, rinse and repeat. Keep creating and scheduling social content that attracts new customers, and keep an eye on your social channels to find more opportunities for connection and engagement.
Start building your social media marketing strategy today
Need help building your social strategy, or looking for tools that make it easy to manage you social media marketing in one place? Learn more about our social media apps and services today.
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