a small business. As in any growing business with a great product or
service, the marketing team or person is most likely to be working on
different tasks at different times and these tasks can change rapidly
depending on the business needs. However, even with taking this into
consideration, social media is now so vital to business success there
are some tasks that need to be planned as part of the daily marketing
routine.
Set the social media goals and objectives.
Every article, news release, research or whitepaper are assets in a
social media strategy to serve the goals that have been set. As with any
business strategy you must know what you are working toward. Is it
drive brand awareness, customer acquisition, generate new sales drive
traffic, build up your network, reduce the cost per lead. Whatever of
any or all of these you need goals and associated objectives clearly
defined.
Work on the content strategy
When it comes to marketing the product or service, social media
marketing success depends on the content strategy a business decides
upon. Prior to writing, commissioning or publishing any content, a
business needs to understand, what audience(s) are going to be
targeted?, What type of voice (expert, commentator, industry) will you
use to communicate? Who are you trying to influence? What specifically
do you want to achieve (leads, likes, traffic, views or authority)?
Allot of strategy answers are to be found in questioning the content
strategy so everyone involved in the marketing and sales efforts need to
know the why, what and who, understand it and is always in their minds.
Content marketing strategy can then be tweaked and optimised as
necessary.
Make sure there is new quality content to post
Fresh, quality, informative and relevant content is at the core of
every social media campaign to reach target audiences and ensure
engagement. To be seen as an influencer and sector expert it is vital to
share new content consistently and regularly. New content when well
written (not self- promotional or product articles) and engaging can
propel a business forward. This is why the person in charge of the
social media plan needs to make sure there is always some new content
ready to be shared. There is no hiding the fact that writing content
does take time and continuous effort so it needs to be planned.
Set up a content sharing schedule
The social media plan needs to have a schedule when content will be
shared so all social media marketing activities tie back into other marketing
events or business plans. Also a schedule will take account for any
external events, key word targeting, launches, promotions or seasonal
trends that impacts your industry. This is why the content sharing
calendar is so important for deciding what social media activities are
in the pipeline. While not all content can be created and planned for
weeks in advance of sharing, the core, and keyword targeted content
pieces that demand more care and effort should be.
Sharing sector Expertise
Selling is not sharing. Share your sector expertise on a regular
basis in terms of marketing, insights, research, social stories and
commentary to establish your business, product or service as an
influencer. For every 1 self-promotional content pieces shared, share 4
quality “industry relevant” articles, also share insightful articles
from other authors, comment and add value (not plugging your own
business) on forums and groups.
Generate new content ideas
As stated above the value a great, insightful and quality piece of
content can bring to a social media campaign cannot be overstated. This
is why a business needs to spend the time brainstorming content and
article ideas. Every business should always allocate time for it on a
weekly basis. The reality is that without interesting ideas on content
your goals and results will suffer in the long run. Content needs to be
kept fresh, up-to-date and interesting in order to continue engaging an
audience. An easy way of generating content ideas is to track your
competitors and other influential blogs to see what content is working
for them.
Following news for current and relevant content
As with most companies, some of your content marketing will be
focused on industry news and events. This is why keeping informed of
relevant news and events means you will be able to react quickly and
creatively to opportunities which can boost your on-line exposure. Many
social media managers monitor several different keywords, hashtags,
social group and Twitter in order to keep up the date and in the know on
trending topics. When the opportunity presents itself, it is vital to
be ready to respond.
Include images, video and design
Social media is also a visual channel where images, video and good
design can give an added edge in the awareness stakes. Using nice
imagery or videos and a visually stimulating way of presenting content
is far more likely to reach and engage a large audience. As the volume
of content rises across social channel, great content should be
complimented with visual impact. A business should working with a
designer in order to produce visual elements like photos, infographics
and video.
Run social advertising
To add to organic reach on social networks, depending on your social
media goals and business then social advertising on Facebook, Twitter
and LinkedIn may be a consideration. Running a paid social campaign
might help get the content out to a wider audience and more relevant
readers.
Communicate with all stakeholders
Whether you are a social media manager working in an agency or
working directly for a company, you will need to work with all the
stakeholders (management, sales, product, marketing and service) in
order to agree on the content to be shared. This is why social media
marketers should be spending time with the all the stakeholders to plan
for the future as part of the marketing daily tasks. Meeting all
concerned can help gain more insights into deciding what type content to
create, what upcoming events are there in the pipeline, launches or
news that may be of interest and any other ideas to use content to
engage the target audiences.
Reporting
Finally but as important is the reporting on social media actions,
activities and results. Whether you work for a company or an agency, it
is vital to report on the social networks achievements and the upcoming
plans in place. This is done by setting up and agreeing on regular
reports that monitor the KPI’s or metrics you have agreed on with the
stakeholders.
For more social media marketing tips, read the marketing category on The Bitter Business.
Republished from original article at : Social Media Marketing Plan – The Bitter Business
No comments:
Post a Comment