Why Not Having a Social Media Plan Will be Detrimental to Your Brand
Within any business, you will find that any department whether that be marketing, management, or accounting has some form of strategy. While this strategy looks different for each department and each company, they are alike in the sense that one will be developed over time. When new businesses, departments, and sectors come about, one of the first things to do is to set up goals which is truly the first part of any strategy. With all knowledge being pretty accessible now, companies and people share knowledge to make industries and business sectors grow as a whole. What is the point of gatekeeping information anyways?
Let’s dive into how we would go about creating a social media strategy. Many websites and industry leaders provide their tips and steps, the first of this being,
Choose social media marketing goals that align with business objectives. Now, you may be thinking, well DUH, but you would be surprised. It is a lot easier to achieve goals when they match the objectives that you have already set forth more broadly in your company.
Learn everything about your audience. Now, you may be thinking that this will be hard however, Instagram, and other social media platforms, along with social media analytic tools such as Later Media help companies break down WHO their main audience is and who continues to come back for more content.
Get to know your competition. Now, I am sure right off the bat there will be companies that come to mind whether that be because they have provided inspiration in the past but an amazing tool is using the “discover more” feature on social platforms because they match social consumers with like-minded/conceptual businesses so this is a great way to see who you are competing with!
Do a social media audit. What does this look like? This pretty much means taking the time to see how relevant your content is to your intended audience and seeing if it is working. In a social media audit, you look for what is working and what is falling short, the people who are engaging with you, and which networks are target audience is using.
Set up accounts and improve profiles. Today it is important to have a registered profile on many of the popular platforms whether that be Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, etc. Something that is frowned upon in the industry is mirroring content on all 6 platforms that you are active on. Each platform should serve a different purpose and will need a discussed strategy for each due to the different intentions and possible audiences that they each serve and attract.
Find inspiration. Now, this might be the step that sounds the easiest but can be hard. While there are so many comparable companies and many social media pages that look the same, it may be hard to gather inspiration without copying. Making sure to mirror specific elements rather than whole concepts is key here.
Create a social media content calendar. This step is lifesaving. Many platforms are designed to typically do this but Later Media is a great tool for this specific thing. This platform allows creators to plan and schedule out content including tagging, captions, and relevant hashtags to elevate their content and show consistency.
Create compelling content. Now, typically with passion comes dedication and that equals compelling content. Don’t read too much into this one.
Track performance and adjust. All of the metrics and tools to do this are readily available to you as the social manager. Use these statistics to your advantage and refine them accordingly.
While nine steps may seem like a lot, I can assure you that implementing these steps will make a world of difference in your content. The nice part about a lot of these steps is that the information will be gathered and shown to you over time. There is not a lot of preplanning necessary.
https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-create-a-social-media-marketing-plan/
