Every business should mark its presence on social media in today’s day and age. If you aren’t on the bandwagon yet, you’re not doing it right! Putting a strong social media marketing plan in place helps you deliver better results with higher efficiency. However, the real challenge lies in creating a plan which is concise, realistic, and dictates a clear path to attain goals.
Why do you need a Social Media Strategy?
Gone are the days when social media was simple and straightforward to use. With advancements in AI, even social media algorithms are changing now and then. And keeping up with all this might seem a little overwhelming but it is important. 78% of salespeople are able to outsell their peers with the help of social media. How?
Here’s a look at how a solid social media plan can help you achieve similar results.
Ways to Create a Strong Social Media Plan
Here’s a comprehensive step by step plan to help you get started. Consider the following points to create a winning social media marketing plan:
Establish Strong Business Objectives
The primary determining factor for the success of any business is to set up goals and objectives. You cannot measure your success rate without having attainable goals. Start by listing at least 3 goals for your marketing team. Work on these goals one by one and implement them as a part of your social media marketing campaign.
One way to go forward is to stick to the S.M.A.R.T way. That is by adopting specific, measurable, attainable, and time-bound goals. For example, you could have goals like “Getting 20% more traffic to your landing page within the next quarter”.
Know Your Target Audience
Knowing your audience and their preferences are vital for a solid social media marketing strategy. Knowing the likes and dislikes of your target audience helps you understand what they react to, and how they engage. This in turn helps you understand their buying behavior. Taking a lead through the customer journey requires some planning on your part.
- Know their demographics, interests, average income, age group. Promoting funky content for a wireless headset to an eighty-year-old gramophone enthusiast would not be of any use.
- Make use of social media analytics tools to get valuable information about your followers. AI-based tools like Auris help you delve deeper into the chatter online. Read into the sentiments of the public and formulate your strategy accordingly.
Choose Your Social Media Networks
Finding out which social media platform is the right fit for your business is also a critical part of your social media marketing plan. You don’t necessarily have to be on all social media platforms. Choose the ones that best suit your business type and strategy. You can do this by evaluating each of the platform’s demographics.
Let’s take Facebook and Instagram as an example. Gen – Z is mostly active on Instagram, whereas baby boomers are more likely to be on Facebook. Depending on your target market, choose one that can yield the most benefit.
Make sure you optimize your social media accounts with the right photo and cover images, bio, URL, etc. Analyze your competitor’s profiles and create an optimized profile for your business.
Curate Compelling Content
Content is king, and this saying never gets old. Engaging content in the form of images, videos, blog posts, infographics, and so on is what holds on to your audience’s attention. You don’t want to use too many irrelevant pieces of content that do not sit well with your brand message.
To help you in all of this, you can opt for a social media listening tool. Listening to what your audience members are saying or what’s trending can help. A look at your competition can also help you get inspired. And automation tools help you with market research, competitive analysis, or actionable consumer insights.
Track and Analyze Your Data
Last but not least – the most crucial step in determining the success of your social media marketing plan. As basic as it may sound, tracking and analyzing the data and then making tweaks is important.
If you miss out on this step, you’ll probably lose all the hard work you’ve done in the previous steps. Social media analytics help you keep track of your online performance. You can also opt for real-time analysis with social listening. This in turn helps you prevent any PR crisis situations in advance.
Additionally, platforms like Auris help you understand your performance across varied platforms and give you a comparative study. Use data like this to build an integrated social media plan.
Social media is a significant marketing tool for businesses of all sizes. Businesses cannot succeed in social media marketing without a well-documented strategy. And now with all the help available through AI-based platforms, you can really hit it big.