Social media is currently one of the most effective marketing tools for all kinds of business and brands to flourish. It gives you extensive opportunities to get potential targets for your business and convert them into leads. But, the platform is extremely competitive and hence to make your business stand out among the rest, a solid strategy is a must requirement.
If you blindly keep posting in Social media just because it’s a trend you are not going to have any benefit. You need to set your goals first, understand your target audience, their expectations from you and based on that you have to create a concrete marketing plan.
The following 5 strategies will give you an idea you to create a social media marketing plan for your business.
- Understand your purpose on Social Media
Before framing any strategy you need to be clear about why you want to use social media marketing for your business. Is it for sales, brand promotion, driving targeted traffic, boost up your brand’s online presence, build a community for your business, increase mentions or see what people think about your brand. These are the major reasons for any brand or business to use social media
- Understand your target audience
Once you are clear why your business needs to be on social media, focus on your target audience. Your target audience analysis revolve around the 5w’s of social media like- “Who are they”, “what you can provide them to keep them interested”, “Where do they hang out online”, “When do they prefer to browse through contents related to your business”, “Why do they look for those contents”, and “How do they benefit from them”. These 5W’s will help you know about the customers’ expectations from you.
- Create S.M.A.R.T. goals
The metrices to consider for preparing your S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals are-
- Awareness Metrices (Brand Awareness, Audience growth Rate, Post Reach, Potential Reach, Social Share of Voice)
- Engagement Metrices (Applause rate, Average Engagement rate, Amplification rate, Vitality rate)
- Conversion Metrices (Conversion rate, Click Through rate, Bounce rate, Cost per Click, Cost per Impressions, Social Media conversion rate)
- Customer Metrices (Customer Testimonials, Customer Satisfaction Score, Net Promoter Score)
Also, you need to make sure that your social media objectives align with your business goals.
- Focus on Engaging content and Platform
Go for mixed style contents like- Info-graphics, live videos, attractive themes, funny animated posts, stories, tutorials, Blog posts, attractive product images, news and anything that has the power to increase user interaction and keep them hooked to your brand. Along with interesting content also make sure which platform is beneficial for your business. If you are into live sessions, stories, user-centric posts, Instagram and Facebook are the best choice, But, if you are more into tutorials, and other video related contents, Youtube is the best platform.
- Track and Optimize
This is the final step but the most important one. You can use social media tools like- Hoot suite, Sprout Social, Buffer, etc to track and analyze the performance of all your social media profiles. These tools help in evaluating each of your marketing strategies and identify which network is bringing your maximum sales leads and conversion rate. It also points out what marketing strategies are working and what needs to be replaced. In short, it gives you the overall result of social media marketing.
