If you want to conquer the world, you need a plan. The marketing plan social networks s is like the plane would you use to build your house without it, you’re completely lost and your actions meaningless , or worse, be offset between them.
To avoid starting to build on the roof, your marketing plan on social platforms has to be clearly defined before publishing your first tweet. But do you know where to start? Do not worry: with this plan in 8 steps, you have it done.
How to create a social media marketing plan in 8 steps
1) Establish objectives for your presence in social networks
The first step to a solid marketing plan is to define what you want to achieve . Without objectives, you can not know if what you are doing works or measure the return on investment. The idea is that your social network objectives respond to the general goals of your company.
To establish objectives that really make sense, remember the English acronym “SMART”:
- Specific (specific)
- Measurable (measurable)
- Attainable (reachable)
- Relevant (relevant)
- Time-bound (with a deadline)
The second point, 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. Keep in mind the use you are going to give to the different channels, since you may want to measure different things in each one of them.
2) Learn everything you can about your audience
If you know the recipients of your communication in depth, you can create contents that fall in love with them. In addition, this will help guide you on the path to conversion.
To begin with, you can create a profile of your ideal follower to have a clearer picture of what you are looking for. Search for real data about the profile of users of different networks and the analytics of your page; This will not only help you to refine your strategy, but also to be more effective when launching advertising on social networks.
3) Investigate the competition
In all likelihood, your competitors will also be using social media, and that means you can learn from their actions and incorporate these lessons into your marketing plan.
Doing an analysis of the competition will help you understand who your competitors are and what they are doing well (or not so well). You will have a global image of what the expectations of the users in your sector are and you can adapt to them.
This analysis will also help you find opportunities and market gaps. For example, your competitors may have focused on Facebook, but Instagram is still a terrain to explore. So, instead of competing directly with them, you can make yourself a site in other networks.
When analyzing the competition, the social listening is your ally. Track the brands of the competition and the keywords of your sector and follow up on the results regularly.
4) Do an audit of social networks
In this step you will start by analyzing what you are currently doing in social networks (if you already have presence in them). Try to answer these questions:
- What is working and what is not?
- Who is connecting with your brand in the networks?
- In what social networks is your target audience?
- 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 marketing plan in social networks.
The social network audit is also a good time to solve these two pending tasks:
- Check if you have any account that no longer serves you. If you do not have a clear objective and you are not giving the results you expect, you may need to make a change of course or even eliminate it altogether. Remember: it is better to have an active and focused presence in a few channels, than to try to reach everything and fall short.
- Detect possible impostor accounts, that is, accounts of other users posing as your brand. Remember that you can check your profiles on Facebook and Twitter so that your fans know who they should follow.
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5) Create profiles in social networks and improve 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 of them. For example, you can use Instagram Stories to post tutorials and Twitter for customer service. To further center your network presence, try writing a mission for each channel summarized in a single phrase.
Once you have decided which channels you will be in, it will be time to create profiles or optimize the ones you already have. Make sure you fill in all the information fields and use keywords adapted to the user’s search habits.
6) Get inspired!
Although it is important that your brand is unique and demonstrates, 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 in each social network.
Another very interesting option is to look for digital marketing prizes , 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.
7) Create a content calendar on social networks
Sharing valuable content is essential, but it is also essential to share it at the right time. A good content calendar will help you maximize the impact of your publications and make your team’s life much easier.
The content calendar should include the dates and times in which you will publish each type of content in 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 you distribute the content correctly and take advantage of the “peak hours” of social networks. To see the live example visit the twitter page of Furniture upholstery Dubai, check out their past one year tweets to better understand how to manage your content calendar.
Depending on the objectives of each network, you will have to decide on an appropriate distribution of contents . For example, you can define that 50% of the content will be focused on driving traffic to your blog, 25% will be curing content from other sources, 20% will be aimed at objectives such as lead generation or conversion and 5% The rest 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.
8) Test, measure and adjust the strategy
Developing a marketing plan is an essential first step, but you should keep in mind that it is impossible to get it right the first time. In addition, social networks are a changing environment, so you will have to adapt to the habits of users.
Therefore, include in your plan periodic controls and tests to analyze what you are doing and see how you can keep improving. Thus, your presence in social networks will be more effective than ever.