10 Questions You Must Answer When Creating Your Social Media Marketing Plan
Ever heard the saying "Failing to plan is planning to fail?" That old but wise adage often rings true when it comes to social media marketing. Creating a detailed, goal-oriented social media strategy is just as important as having a rock-solid business plan.
"If your social media plan is to just wing it, your fans and potential customers are going to know," says Amy Porterfield, social media strategist and co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies (Wiley, 2013).
To attract and engage social media fans and followers – and ideally convert them into customers -- you'll need to carefully map out a clear, effective strategy. Here are some questions you should ask when building your company's social marketing plan:
1. What should my company aim to achieve with social media?
That depends on the type of business you're in. You may want to use social media to gain exposure for your brand, to directly interact with your customers or to promote specific products and services.
Think about how you use social media to provide value to your customers and help them solve their problems, then formulate your strategy around achieving those goals.
2. Who should set up and maintain my company's social media accounts?
If you're a small company with few employees, consider delegating the task to a staff member who has a good track record of implementing effective social media campaigns.
If you have a larger company, a qualified employee in the marketing department might be a good fit for the task, or you may want to consider hiring a social media marketing firm.
3. Should my company have a presence on all of the popular social media networks?
As a starting point, begin with a blog and a presence on just one social network, at least for the first few months.
The more your company grows – as well as your digital marketing budget – the more social networks you can experiment with.
4. What are the best social networks for small businesses?
Whether your company is large or small, you can't go wrong with a Twitter account. It's a platform that is easy to learn and use, and you can't beat the 140-character limit.
Google+ is essential, if only to boost your site's search engine optimization (SEO). If your company is mainly a B2B firm, you'll want to be on LinkedIn and Slideshare to reach influencers within your industry. For B2C companies, being on Facebook and Pinterest can be smart.
5. How often should I post new content on my social networks?
Post on all of your social networks two to five times a day. Your followers visit social media sites at different times of the day, so one post a day simply isn't enough because most of your fans won't see it simply due to timing.
To reach more of your followers more often, stagger your posts consistently throughout the day.
6. What types of content should I post on which social platforms?
Certain types of content generally work better on certain platforms. For example, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram are inherently visual, so striking, memorable images of your products, company events and behind-the-scenes snapshots of employees at work can be effective choices for those particular platforms.
On Twitter, aim for a good balance of tweeting about your company and retweeting others' content, including that of your business partners and industry influencers. LinkedIn is popular for sharing company news, productivity tips and thought leadership articles.
You should try to curate a diverse mix of content types (standout photos, short videos, useful links, helpful tips, thoughtful question, etc.) across all your social media platforms to keep things interesting and fresh. When you do, your followers will come back for more.
7. Should I use social media to provide customer service?
Social media is fast becoming the most common way for current and potential customers to interact with businesses. You can use Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other platforms to instantly field and respond to customer questions, order status inquiries, and, yes, even complaints.
8. How can I convert social media followers into customers?
There aren't any surefire tricks to earn fans' and followers' dollars, though some tactics seem to work better than others. For instance, Facebook ads can be an easy, inexpensive way to grow your fan base, increase engagement and collect sales leads, but ultimately it's up to you to convert those sales leads.
9. How can I measure the success of my social media marketing efforts?
Some social platforms offer their own metrics. Facebook, for instance, gives Page administrators access to Page Insights data for free. These tell you how many people are interacting with your posts. You can use the data to better plan future posts and decide on the most effective ways to connect with your fans and followers. LinkedIn provides similar analytics for company pages.
Use Google Analytics to see how effective your social media campaigns are at driving traffic to your main website or online store. If you see Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or other social platforms you're active on listed as top referrers to your site, your social media efforts are not for naught.
10. What is the biggest mistake to avoid?
Ironically, the answer here is not having a social media plan. So, have one and stick to it.
Social media is constantly changing, so you need to be ready to change and adapt all the time as well. Evaluate and refining your social strategy on a monthly basis can help you identify which tactics are working and which ones to ditch.
[via Entrepreneur]