Do you have a blog? So you certainly know the importance of having a good social media plan to share your content and improve the activity of your social profiles.
It doesn’t matter if you already have a blog or website or not (if you still didn’t create your site, you should start working on it now) this post will help you plan a strategy to make your content even more comprehensive.
Today social networks are essential for improving the brand awareness of a company; However, publishing content only occasionally is not enough. You have to learn how to work with social networks efficiently.
Are you ready?
The first thing you will learn is what is a social media marketing plan and after that, we will move on to the more practical aspects of creating your strategy.
If you log in and post on your profiles occasionally, or even if you add new content Assiduously, hoping customers will find your content by luck, you are not doing things as you should.
If you believe that you just have to add content from time to time, you should start reconsidering. When we say it is important to create a social media plan as part of your marketing strategy, it is because social networks will play a vital role in your results. However, the word “plan” implies in analysis, strategies, actions, and measurement of results that can help you to achieve your goals.
It is about creating a communication plan adapted to the Social networks and of course for creating engagement with your users. Communicate, interact, listen and understand well the corresponding movements in each The situation, as these are fundamental attitudes, and this is something that you will only achieve with a well-designed strategy from the beginning.
#Analysis
You need to do a study about your business and everything that is related to it.
When we refer to “all” we mean all aspects, production, marketing, sales, customers, target, competition, markets, website, communication, economic situation, ETC.
Remember that your audience will have a direct communication channel with your company, so they may have questions or concerns about your business.
Therefore, don’t forget to do a SWOT analysis, to list and analyze weaknesses, threats, strengths, and opportunities involving your company, because later we will continue with the analysis.
Have you already done a SWOT analysis?
Perfect, this is the first step, now let’s focus on other essential aspects of the present analysis, such as: Product, market, target, and competitors.
• Product
It is about selling, not just advertising and persuading. If you decided to venture into the world of social media marketing, you certainly have something of value to offer. No matter if it is a service, product or just information, what you want is that what you are offering is consumed.
Once you know this, you will need to think about the answers to all possible questions which may arise during this process. What do you want to sell? Whatare your strengths? And your weaknesses? Why the user should buy from you.
Do you understand? Remember, these questions are significant for your social media marketing plan: everything revolves around that, so you can’t leave unanswered questions.
• Market
You already know what you want to sell, but it is not very clear where you want to sell it, or rather, what is the best place to sell it. If you don’t know where you will advertise your product, it’s time to look for these platforms. Once you know where you can sell, you can continue the review process.
This part of the analysis is fantastic, especially since later, when you are working on your strategy, you can create targeting mechanisms that are essential in social networks.
But what is the importance of targeting potential customers?
I will explain it now.
• Targeting
In fact, you can’t sell your product or your service to everyone, because even if your product or service is interesting, not everyone will be interested in buying it. When you know who will be interested in buying it, you can focus all your efforts on this niche market.
Yes, we are talking about the “for whom” question within social media strategy planning. Let’s talk about this later, but remember: You should know who your customers are and analyze their age group, their gender, Location, their parallel tastes, native language and everything you can get information on this group of people.
We will not offer flowers to a person who has allergy to pollen, we need to try to win the customer by offering something he might be interested in, so that is why we should target our customers.
• Competitors
Competitors are not always as bad as you think. Obviously, you are always trying to sell and, if possible, to sell more then your competitors, but you need to understand that your competition can be beneficial, especially if they are doing things correctly.
If your competitors can sell large number of products, it is because there are enough people interested in buying these products.
Just because your product competes with theirs, there is no reason why you should not be successful. We are not talking about copying, but about trying to understand what they are doing right and getting inspired by the strategies that worked for other companies.
#Strategy
These are only the first few steps, there is still a lot that needs to be done, but let’s do things slowly by analyzing the key points.
The most important aspect is to use this outline to design your strategy by creating a social media marketing plan that may be the key to your success.
• Goals
Now that you know what you want to sell, where you will sell it, who will buy it and who your competitors are, it’s time to think of your goals. Outlining your goals is a critical step in your social media marketing plan, perhaps one of the most important one.
If the analysis was the first step in your strategy, setting the goals is equally important. That’s right, get paper and pen and get to work.
Your objectives must be achievable, ambitious and measurable; Or either. Set high goals, but within limits, you can achieve because otherwise, this plan will end up being frustrating.
On the other hand, remember that you need to set measurable goals. Otherwise, you will never know what’s working.
What do you want to achieve with your social media marketing plan? Write down all your goals.
• Budget
When you started looking at the necessary steps for improving your business, among the points that were identified as the most important ones, we also talked About many other aspects. If you remember, one of them was the economic situation and this has a lot to do with your strategy, as the budget that you will have to reach your goals should be appropriate, and this is something that only you can define, based on the previous searches you have done.
• Targeting
We already talked about this in the analysis of the social media plan for your site or blog, and the fact is that at the moment it has even more importance. You have already targeted your audience before, and you should now try to implement the results as best as you can.
Which social networks do you want to work with? With all of them?
There is no problem in exploring various social networks, but using all of them at the same time is very complicated, expensive and not advisable. It would be better to select Two or three that you have already tested and verified that your product or service has a real engagement.
Choose the ones which have a real presence of potential customers, of course, which will ensure more leads. If you decide to work on several platforms, you should devote more time to those that bring the best results.
Not only that, but you should also tailor your message to each social network, as the reception will vary on each platform. Although they may look similar, either in interactions, communication options, timeline, or online interface, they will have different users, so you should test a lot before deciding the ones you will work with.
• Action
Actions are the last part of a strategy and, of course, they should follow the parameters previously defined, especially in regards to your goals. To achieve this, you need to have a schedule of actions, which you should always review and update as the results are obtained.
This is the end point of the strategy, but your planning will not end here.
# Evaluation and optimization
Now that the actions have already been implemented, it is clear that the work in social network management will never end, you should strive for constant evolution from the beginning. Always regularly review your business, redesigning your strategies, so that your actions never become obsolete; Keep in mind that the world of technology, the Internet and, more specifically, social networks, doesn’t stop growing, it floats and reinvents itself.
If you stop testing and evolving, you may lose all the work you have done so far.
In addition to everything we have seen so far, we can’t end this article without adding the finishing touches to the social media marketing plan. Which is of no less importance than the previous points. Some of these extras are closely linked with your strategy, others with actions and others with both, but they are all key to success in your plans.
# The website or blog
You can’t create a social media marketing plan for your site or blogwithout having one. This is evident, so you need to have created and analyzed the site before you plan your strategy; However, don’t forget something fundamental in this regard: Your website or blog is the place to where you will direct these visitors, so it should never be created without knowing what you want to do and what are your goals and objectives.
Try to make everything work correctly, be it on your landing pages, opt-in forms and autoresponders, so that any effort to attract visitors is not lost because if the user doesn’t like something or has a problem with the purchase or registration, conversion rates will be very low and your work will be lost.
#Community manager
If you know how to use social networks very well and you have the necessary time to do all the work described in the previous paragraphs, you can ignore this point; you will be your own Community manager. Otherwise, you will need to find people dedicated to these tasks, and this is something that you should also consider in your budget.
# Tools
Another point to consider is the use of tools. You always should work with the best software, because they can make tasks much easier; remember that in some cases, you will need to invest in these tools, spending part of your budget, but again, this is something worthwhile if you know what you are buying and its benefits.
Do research to see what tools you will work with, or let your community manager choose the best ones, as he will certainly be familiar with the most important systems.
# Predictions
Social networks are a fantastic invention, but if you plan to create and develop a good social media marketing plan for your website or blog,
You should not forget that they also have their negative aspects. You will find authentic followers of your profiles,
but you also need to know how to deal with critics, from those who want to offer suggestions and feedback, that you should consider allies, as well as those who just want to criticize and complain.
Your strategy should include the steps you should take to tackle any Situation and how to react when things get complicated. If you can do this, your social media marketing plan will be complete.
What do you suggest? Would you use any of these strategies, or do you think it would be important to add something more to your social media marketing plan?
Leave your opinion in the comments.