Don’t Know Where To Start With Your Social Media? Download My Social Media Marketing Planner
Having a plan is generally considered a useful way to achieve business success. It’s no different in the world of social media and digital communication. Implementing a plan where you know what you want to achieve, why and how you’re going to set about doing it, can really help to reduce the sense that social media success is a dark art.
When I do training sessions and talks, I often show a grab of this Social Media Planner which I put together to help people on the road to planning happiness. It's the most-requested document I have, and so I thought I could share it here.
It's a very simplified version of what any business should ask itself when starting, or assessing, any social media activity.
I recommend that it’s used as a living document, revisiting your achievements regularly, while looking at your stats to work out how you managed certain successes with your team.
The best place to start making any social media plan is really to articulate:
Who your target and core audiences are. Your core audience are people already following you, or those who are highly likely to do so. Your target audience are people who you want to reach out to. Developing a few personas is a good place to start. Think about a few people who represent your main audience types and then try to expand on what sort of things they might be interested in, what social media platforms they probably use and for what, what accounts they might follow, what sort of things they do and when... Once you have these thoughts clear, you can start to think about what content will be most valuable to them that you could create, as well as potential collaborations you could try to enter into.
And what you want to achieve with your social media activity. Why are you bothering? To get people to your website, to buy products, sign up to a cause or newsletter, or just to increase your brand visibility? You may have more than one aim but defining two or three of the priorities will help you work out what content you can create and how it should be developed and designed to achieve your aims. But do remember, it's not all about selling yourself and your business - sharing things which are useful and relevant to your audience is critical.
Once you’re clear on your aims, you can start to translate them into measurable metrics and SMART goals.