There’s no doubt social media is an important part of any modern advertising campaign.
But where do you get started?
How do you start writing a plan? What makes your plan special? What is going to make your campaign profitable? What are you going to post? Who’s going to produce the content?
These are just some of the questions you’ll face once you start planning your social media campaign. In this article, we give you a bucket load of questions which can form the bedrock of your social media campaign.
What are your successful competitors doing?
Don’t get caught up in your own bubble.
Jump on social media and start stalking your competitors. Understanding your competitors can give you a strategic advantage.
There are a few things to look out for.
- What social media platforms are they using?
- How often are they posting?
- Which posts get the most engagement?
- What types of media are they posting?
You want to be looking for patterns.
Quick write down any patterns that catch your eye, these can be handy later when writing your plan.
Recently we were doing primary research for a client, and noticed in their industry, if they posted testimonials they didn’t receive any engagement. This is a sign that people don’t want to see their positive testimonials.
Taking notice of small patterns like these, they may only improve your social media campaign by 5%. But in the long run, they makes a large difference.
You want to emulate the successful patterns, and you want to avoid the unsuccessful patterns.
What are your unsuccessful competitors doing?
You shouldn’t just look to emulate success.
Looking at unsuccessful social media can give you an idea of what you want to avoid.
- Why aren’t their posts getting engagement?
- Why is no one liking their page?
This strategy will actually reveal more than analysing what your successful competitors are doing.
Everytime we analyse unsuccessful social media we see the same thing.
- They aren’t posting enough on social media.
- They are using low quality photos/videos/media.
- The content is only about their organisation.
These are things to avoid!
And to do the opposite of.
Who are your ideal customers?
By analysing your successful and unsuccessful competitors, you should now have a good idea of what you want your social media to look like.
But now you need to think about your customers.
Remember they pay your bills, so keep them happy!
- How old are they?
- What is their gender?
- How much free time do they have?
- What do they do in their free time?
- Are they working full time?
- How much money do they earn?
- What do they want to see on social media?
These questions can help you understand your ideal customer better. Which in turn will let you plan a better social media campaign.
The end goal here is to tailor your social media plan to this ideal customer.
What are your goals?
At this stage you should have a good understanding of how social media is being done in your industry.
It’s time for you to start thinking about yourself and your organisation.
- How will you achieve your goals?
- Are your goals measurable?
- Who is accountable for achieving your goals?
- How long do you have to achieve your goals?
- What are you going to post to achieve these goals?
These questions are the internal strategy for your social media campaign.
Presenting your Social Media Campaign Plan
It’s time to compile these questions into a nice neat package for people to read.
Presenting your social media plan is the easiest step.
You just want to answer the following questions, using the information you just learnt.
- What are your goals with social media?
- How are you going to achieve these goals?
- What will make your strategy successful?
- How are you going to measure success?
Example Social Media Campaign Plan
This is a simple example of a social media campaign, we haven’t gone into much detail but you can go into more detail for yourself.
What are your goals with social media?
We want to grow an online audience made up of small business owners. We want to have 5000 likes on Facebook in one years time.
How are you going to achieve these goals?
We’re going to achieve this goal by posting three times a week on Facebook. Each post will provide help to small business owners.
What will make your strategy successful?
Small business owners will want to follow our Facebook page because our posts are going to bring them genuine value and help them grow their businesses. We will avoid posting content that is valueless.
How are you going to measure success?
We’re expecting to reach 5000 likes on our Facebook page in 1 years time, but we also want to drive 200 people each month to our website. Where we expect 1% of these people to become our customers.
Social Media Plan Conclusion
Planning your social media campaign is vital in any organisation.
If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.
Answering these questions can give you an excellent foundation to build your social media strategy on. Don’t get caught up in the intricacies of social media. the best social media strategies are very simple. Post regularly and post high quality content which resonates with your audience.
