By effectively using social media for your business, you can develop a stronger connection with your target audience and establish your brand image and personality. Best of all is the fact that creating and maintaining a social media presence is absolutely free!
So how do you leverage social media marketing for your brand? If you want to find success on social media, the first step you’ll need to take is to create a marketing plan for social media.
A social media marketing plan is a document that lays out the goals your company hopes to achieve through social media and how you intend to achieve them.
With a social media marketing strategy in place, you can take a more organized and focused approach when building your brand and marketing on social media.
Read on to learn more about the importance of establishing a social media marketing strategy and learn how to create one for your own company. Alternatively, you can skip to any section in the article using the links below.
What is a social media marketing plan?
A social media marketing plan is essentially a blueprint for what your organization aims to achieve through social media and how you plan to meet your goals. A marketing plan for social media may include details such as:
- Social media channels you plan on using
- Social media marketing goals
- Social media marketing tactics
- Key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Customer profiles
- Market research
- Social media content calendar
These are just some of the elements that may be included in a marketing plan for social media. As a general rule, the more detailed your social media marketing plan is, the better.
A highly detailed social media marketing plan will help streamline the decision-making process and ensure that everyone on your team is on the same page. Changes and other adjustments can always be made in the future as you begin to see results and get feedback from your target audience.
Why is establishing a strong marketing plan for social media important?
When entering into any new venture, it’s always better to have a plan. When it comes to social media, a marketing plan can help to highlight the priorities and goals of your organization while clearing up any confusion along the way.
There are several ways in which a marketing plan for social media can help your brand. With a strong social media marketing strategy in place, you can:
Set clear goals
One of the most useful parts of a social media marketing plan is that it enables you to identify and set clear, quantifiable goals. As you brainstorm goals for your social media marketing strategy, consider setting SMART goals.
For example, perhaps you want your Instagram page to reach 10,000 followers by the end of the year or you hope to increase traffic to your website by 10% by the next quarter. The goals you set will guide your decisions when it comes to marketing on social media.
Save time
A strong social media marketing strategy can save your team a lot of time. Since you’ve already taken the time to outline the content that you will post on social media channels, you won’t have to hesitate when it comes time to make that next post.
For instance, if you set up a content calendar as part of your social media marketing plan, you can use automation tools to schedule posts on different social media channels.
Maintain a consistent voice
It’s important to stay consistent on social media. All of the social media content you post should reflect the voice and values of your brand. With a social media marketing strategy in place, you can clearly define your brand’s personality, values, and mission, making it much easier to stay consistent across all channels.
Measure results
Every social media marketing strategy should lay out a set of goals as well as the KPIs that will be used to evaluate progress toward meeting those goals.
This makes it possible for organizations to measure results as they set out to grow their brand on social media. And by measuring results, you can identify what’s working and what isn’t and make changes to your strategy as needed.
Coordinate a multi-channel campaign
A social media marketing plan makes it easier to coordinate multi-channel marketing campaigns, whether you’re sharing posts across multiple social media platforms or utilizing other channels.
A defined social media marketing strategy allows you to better identify opportunities for multi-channel marketing campaigns and cross-channel promotion. This, in turn, can allow you to reach a wider target audience and reinforce your brand identity across multiple marketing channels.
Steps to create your social media marketing plan
While creating a social media marketing plan may take some energy and effort upfront, it can help you find success on social media while saving you time and trouble in the long run.
If this is your first time developing your social media marketing efforts, it may seem overwhelming—but the truth is that you can build a social media marketing strategy in just a few steps.
Below, we walk you through each step you must take in order to create a strong marketing plan for social media.
1. Goal setting
Setting goals is one of the most crucial parts of any social media marketing plan. The goals you set will often dictate the tactics you use on social media.
As you set goals for your social media marketing strategy, make sure to set SMART goals so that you can measure results.
2. Determine your target audience
It’s important to understand who you’re speaking to with your social media accounts. Build out customer profiles to determine who your ideal customer is.
Knowing metrics such as a customer’s age, income level, geographic location, and more can help you segment your audience and find a voice that works for your brand.
3. Audit of social media performance
If you already have social media accounts for your business, take some time to look at them more closely and conduct an audit. Take a look at what’s working on your social media pages and what isn’t.
Identify tactics and strategies that have been successful so that you can harness those moving forward. You might also take a look at your competitors’ social media pages and see how you stack up to their presence and performance.
4. Optimize accounts
One of the key things to pay attention to when optimizing your social media accounts is the profile page.
Completely fill out all profile fields in order to optimize your account and make it easier for visitors to determine what your page is about. Make sure that your profile picture, bio, and any other fields are up-to-date and align with your brand’s values.
5. Choose a posting strategy
A posting strategy essentially outlines what types of content you should post and when. The type of content you post will likely vary based on the social media networks you’re using. Some social media channels are ideal for videos, while others are suited to text or images.
You’ll also want to determine how often you should post. In general, you should post fairly regularly so that your account appears active and you give followers opportunities to engage with your content.
6. Create engaging content
This is one of the most important parts of any social media marketing strategy. By creating engaging content that aligns with the social media platform you’re using and addresses the needs and values of your users, you can more effectively build relationships and grow your following.
Whether you produce videos that demonstrate the capabilities of your products or conduct interviews with experts in your industry, create content that resonates with your target audience.
7. Use social media management tools
Social media management software makes it easy to manage and organize multiple social media channels.
With a social media management tool such as Mailchimp, you can save time by scheduling posts and evaluate performance by viewing key analytics and insights. You can also use Mailchimp’s content studio to store and manage all of your digital assets.
8. Analyze performance and optimize
Once your social media marketing plan has been created, it’s essential to analyze performance as you carry it out. By regularly looking at performance data and reports, you can identify what’s working and what isn’t.
Don’t hesitate to make changes and tweak your social media strategy as time goes on—after all, your social media marketing plan should act as an outline, not as a definitive set of laws!
Set your goals and stick to them
Social media may seem like an enigma to many brands, but this doesn’t have to be the case. Creating a social media marketing plan can help guide you as you establish a social media presence for your company and grow your brand on social media.
By coming up with goals, identifying relevant metrics to track, and creating engaging content, you can drive engagement on social media and expand the reach of your brand.
Of course, combining social media strategies with the right tools can make it easier to build a following and connect with your target audience. Mailchimp provides social media marketing tools that allow you to schedule posts, create content, run social media ads, and view analytics.
Try Mailchimp today to make the most of your social media marketing efforts and achieve your social media marketing goals.
