When it comes to your business’s social media marketing, every single update you post should be part of your larger social media marketing strategy.
If you invest the time and effort creating a solid social media marketing plan, all your ensuing social media efforts will flow from your strategy effortlessly. All businesses can get ahead with the right kind of planning.
Your social media marketing plan should be the summary of the business goals you want to achieve using social media, including analysing where you are today and where you want them to be in the future. Keep your plan short and sweet and specific. The more specific you can be, the more chance you have of getting ahead.
When creating your social media marketing strategy, most social media marketing companies will advise you to:
- Create clear objectives and goals
- Research social media success stories
- Do a social media audit
- Overhaul your social media accounts
- Write a content plan
- Evaluate and adjust
Objectives and goals
Start your plan by writing down five social media goals. These should be aligned with your wider business objectives and helping to drive your business forwards. Your objectives should also go beyond mere ‘likes’ in favour of robust lead generation and increased website traffic.
Social media success stories
Industry leaders are a great source of success stories and research your competitors to find out what kind of content is generating the most social media engagement. Your consumers can also help you with your social media marketing plan by simply turning into their social media behaviour and replicating it.
Social media audit
Before you progress your social media marketing strategy assess all aspects of your current social media activity and ask yourself if it’s working for you. Look at elements such as the social media sites your target audience currently uses as well who is currently connecting to you via social media.
Social media accounts
Once you have audited your current accounts it should be clear what new accounts you need to create, which need to be deleted and which need an overhaul. Some social media marketing companies encourage businesses to create mission statements for each social media account. Try it! It will focus you and keep you on track.
Content plan
Behind every social media success story is great content so your strategy should include planning the type of content you will post, establishing how often you will post it, who will create the content and who will engage with it.
Evaluate and adjust
You must test your social media marketing strategy to gauge what adjustments need to be made. You can track your links with url shorteners and utm codes. Plus you can use Hootsuites analytics for social media. You can also track visits to your website via social media with Google Analytics. Just make sure you record your findings and adjust your social media marketing plan accordingly.
Plus go ahead and test the success of your strategy by asking your followers their thoughts on your social media performance. This can be very effective and prove invaluable for discovering ways to improve. Just remember to be flexible. The social media horizon is opening all the time so ensure your strategy reflects your latest insights.
If you’re eager to get ahead talk to a social media marketing agency that can help you with strategy. Red Fern Media is one social media marketing agency. We’ve been helping businesses in Blackburn and Manchester to get ahead online for nearly a decade and we can help you too. For more information, get in touch with one of our friendly team today!