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Social media is more than just posting. It’s about being strategic in what you share, where you share and how you share it.
Today I want to share with you my four main tips for setting up a well thought out social media plan.
Know your target market
Before you even begin to think about posting on social media you need to decide who your market is and who you want to have see your posts in the first place.
Who is your ideal customer?
Where do they hang out?
What do they read?
What do they watch on television?
In their spare time, what do they like to do?
Knowing all of that is imperative to create any marketing program for your small business.
Choose the platforms to focus on
Gone are the days of just Twitter and Facebook. There are many options in social media today for you to spend your time on. You don’t need to worry about being all things to all people or being in all the places at once. Each of the social platforms out there was built for a specific purpose as well as a specific type of demographic. And knowing your perfect client, you will be able to choose a platform or two that makes the most sense for your business. Here’s a quick chart of information about the platforms you have available to choose from. Which makes the most sense for you and your business?
Decide on buckets of content
Now that you know your market and have carefully chosen the platforms you would like to be on, what the heck are you going to put there? I know it can be quite overwhelming sitting down at a blank computer screen or old-fashioned piece of paper and wondering what comes next. For myself, and for our clients, I find the easiest thing to do is to start by listing the types of content that you want to provide. I call these the buckets of content. Here are some examples:
Motivational quotes
Tips for how to … (you fill in the blank with something you can help with)
Trivia about you and your background
Shared articles around a common interest you and your audience have
Are you starting to get the idea here? I promise you it gets easier each month.
Decide on a posting schedule
Wow! Look at you. You know your market, you know what platform you’re going to post on, and you know what to post. Now it is time to decide when to post your amazing social media content. If you have been doing this for a little while already, you could start by looking at your analytics and see when your followers are typically online. If that is not the case, I suggest you come up with a schedule for the next month, test it out, and go back to review it afterward. Much of social media, and marketing in general, is testing and refining what you are doing to see what works best for your followers and customers. When you are looking at the stats, also be sure to consider the engagement for the type of post you did. Video versus asking a question versus a shared article. What worked the best to get people engaged? Don’t skip this step. Many people haphazardly post when they get the urge or when they have time. This is where the largest fall downs happen. (See tip 4.5)
Now that you have done all of that and officially have a plan of action, I am going to give you a bonus tip.
BONUS TIP4.5: Be consistent!
You have gone through all of this work to figure out your plan. Now it is time to stick with it and be consistent. If you post something today and then don’t post again for another two weeks and then post every day for a week…..not only will no one end up seeing your posts, but people will start to wonder if that is how you operate your business. While social media can be an important part of your marketing strategy, haphazardly doing it is worse than not doing any at all. The best laid social media marketing strategy is one that involves thinking and posting ahead of time. This is not to say that you should not post spontaneously while you are on social media yourself. You absolutely should. Or that you should not share articles or other information as you see it. What I’m suggesting is that those are sort of the icing on the cake. By having a set social media schedule and posting ahead of time you are allowing yourself to have that consistent schedule in place in case life gets in the way of you being able to be more active on that spontaneous level of social posting and interacting.
If you find that you are unable to be consistent with your social media and yet you know that you need to be on social media, it might be time to outsource. Whether it is a virtual assistant or a digital marketing agency like us, having someone be able to do this for you can make a difference in your overall strategy and success.
Are you ready to get social and do it right? Click HERE to download our free workbook on getting your social media strategy set up.
Rebecca Paciorek is an Online Business Manager specializing in assisting in the growth of your business through traditional and digital means.
*I often recommend products and services that I use or that have been recommended to me by people we trust. In many cases these recommendations are accompanied by an affiliate link, which provides me with a referral commission should you click through and make a purchase.
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