Getting around with social media is the same as going rock climbing for the first time. You will not have any idea about what is going on. Also, you will find it difficult to figure out how you will get there. Coming up with a social media marketing plan for the first time would be the same. You will be thrilled and overwhelmed. You will find it difficult to interpret what you should do and why.
You might see that many people have climbed the social media mountain, but the options are limited when it comes to you. In such a situation, the first thing that comes to your mind is some help to develop a plan.
Given below are a few crucial checklists To help you get started in the right direction:
Determining The Social Networks
Similar to soda pop, social media is homogenous. After all, every network is unique and has its own set of unique practices. Also, they have their audiences. Hence, you must pick a social network that can best fit the objectives and strategy one might be looking to achieve on social media. There is no need to be with all of them. Just focus on the ones you feel are vital to you and your target audience.
You must be clear about how much time you can devote to your desired social network. To start with, go for an hour every day. Once you set the ball rolling, you can adjust depending on the situation. You must be clear about the various skills and personnel you need to get things done. Evaluate and then re-evaluate the resources that are crucial for your campaign. Research where potential clients hang out and which social network has the right demographics.
Complete Filling Up Of Profiles
One of the checks that you need to do regularly is to keep checking the social media profiles to ensure that the bio or profile of everyone on board is updated. It is a crucial part of the social media audit. Every profile must have two things – test and visuals.
For visuals, go for familiarity and consistency on social media. The data and visuals across all the platforms of those onboarded must have consistency and similarity. The social media image size chart must be referred to for creating the images. That way, you will always have an exact breakdown of dimensions for each image on each network. You may use tools that you feel comfortable working with to make things easy. To begin with, go for those that have pre-built templates and allow setting the size. As for the text, the basics is to tailor the keyword as per the target audience.
The Marketing Voice And Tone
In most cases, people get tempted to jump off and start sharing and skip a vital step. It is essential first to sort out the voice and tone of the content so that the social media campaign is as focussed as possible.
For that, you will have to spend some time with marketing personas. The objective would be to thoroughly evaluate the minute points of the client base and mission statement. However, if it is your first time with social media, you may take into account the following:
- The kind of personality you would prefer if you represent your brand through a person.
- The kind of relationship between the person /brand and the target audience.
- A clear definition of what the company is not.
- Any other company that might have a similar approach as yours
- How you want your clients to perceive your brand.
Posting Strategy
In this, you need to determine the volume of the social media post. It must include how often one should post, when to post, and what to post. There is no thumb rule, so a lot depends on the type of audience and niche. What works for one may not work for another. Also, it is not possible to fully understand what may happen until you do something and see what results you get.
It is better to stick with image posting as much as possible since image posts are viewed the most compared to text posts. Also, picture messages are reshared more than any other type of post. However, for a consistent strategy, you must know what works best.
Analyzing, Testing and Iteration
It all depends on how much you are willing to explore. The more you post and explore, the more you will get to understand what content, frequency, and timing suits you best.
It would be great if you could figure out a good reporting tool. Most social networks have a basic analytical facility, making it easy to seek and interpret information. For example, such tools allow a breakdown of how each post has performed in likes, shares, clicks, views, and comments.
It is important to know which social media stat is the best. The resulting stat gives a great look and how social media content performs. Once these are tested, it is possible to iterate further.
The best way to do that is to set up a benchmark. Then, after a fortnight or a month, check out the average likes, shares, clicks, views, and comments per post. It will be your basis for going forward. It is possible to get back and update this information anytime, depending on the progress of your following and influence.
Automation, Engagement And Listening
Once all the above steps are done, it is now time to have a system that can be followed so that you are continually updated and engaged with the target audience. The first thing you can do is automate the process of updating.
There are tools available that allow creating content and making updates as you desire. The best thing is that you can do it all at once. After that, you can set up a queue and fix your schedule. Remember, automation is the weapon for continuous sharing.
Apart from automation, engagement is vital too. When people talk to you, they expect you to talk back. Set aside some time so that you can follow up with the conversations that take place on social media. After all, conversation on social media involves clients, friends, relatives, colleagues, and references. These are so important that ignoring them would be a big mistake.
Developing a social media marketing plan is a significant step toward enhancing your social presence. Once you have a blueprint, it becomes easy to protect what might happen next.
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