Check out our 7-step plan to make social media marketing effective for you.
Social media marketing is one of the most important marketing channels your business can use to get noticed by your target audience. Almost everyone is now plugged into some form of social media and usage figures have skyrocketed. The question is no longer “why social media marketing?” but “how can I use social media marketing for my business?” Once your business has decided that social media marketing makes sense, then it is all about how you implement your campaign. The following is a rundown of 7 key steps that will help create a social media marketing strategy that works for your business.
Step 1: Your Current Social Media Presence
It is important to know where you’re starting from before thinking about where you’re headed. A few areas that you should consider are:
- Are you currently active on any social media platforms?
- If so, are your profiles optimized in terms of content?
- Are you tracking the value you get from any platform you currently use?
- Do your profiles compare favorably with your competitors?
Step 2: Know Your Target Audience
If you understand your customer you can tailor your social media campaign and message to hit with maximum effectiveness. You will want to be as specific as you can in terms of demographics, geography and behavior, so that you can segment and target effectively. Your marketing efforts will be much less effective if you identify the wrong audience, so pay extra attention to this step. Examples of a few markers to pay attention to:
- Gender
- Age
- Geographic Location
- Education, Job Title
- Income
- Which social media platforms are most often used by your audience
Step 3: Develop Your Mission Statement
This mission statement will be used to guide your social media marketing campaign forwards. It is easy to get sidetracked in the world of social media and inadvertently water down your message. Having a distinct mission statement will give you focus. The mission statement should reflect your brand and it’s direction so be mindful of how your target audience will react to your brand identity. Once a social media mission statement is generated it will be much easier to come up with and decide on content to share. Stick to this mission statement throughout your campaign.
Step 4: Find Your Metrics for Success
A key component of any marketing plan is measuring effectiveness. What gets measured gets improved. Examples of metrics you can use to measure your effectiveness include:
- Amount of followers
- Amount of shares
- Monitoring your audience for sentiment towards your brand
- Website traffic
- Conversion rates
- Brand mentions
Step 5: Content Creation
Once you have taken care to plan and orient your campaign in the right direction, it is time to come up with content to share to your audience. You now know your target audience and what makes them tick, so create content for them. Examples of content include:
- Blog posts
- Images
- Videos
- Brand news
- Infographics
- Interviews
There are many more content options at your disposal and you can be as creative as you want, but make sure you stay aligned with your mission statement. Content is the bread and butter of social media and is what will draw your audience to your brand. Using a content plan to map out the “who, what, where and when” of posting, can help you stay structured.
Step 6: Get a Management Tool For Social Media
Using tools to boost your productivity will have huge benefits for your social media campaign. One of the most important tools designed specifically for social media management, is a posting tool that allows you to schedule posts. This means you can create the content whenever you feel but have it posted according to your content calendar. This takes a lot of stress out of campaign management.
Step 7: Analyze and Optimize Your Campaign Constantly
This is where you can ensure success in the long run, no matter what your campaign throws at you. Many aspects of social media rely on trial and error before you figure out what works. This adds to the level of importance of tracking and analyzing any data you get so that you can optimize you strategy accordingly. Never allow your strategy to run you. Remain flexible and if something needs changing, change it. As your social media marketing strategy progresses and grows, so will your knowledge, allowing you to better implement the tools at your disposal.
Following these steps will drastically improve the effectiveness of your businesses social media marketing campaign and help your business grow.
