You're running a social media campaign. How can you keep track of all the moving parts?

Again, first things first. A social media campaign entails managing multiple components. To keep track of all the moving parts, consider creating a Strategy Document. Outline your campaign's goals, target audience, key messages, content themes, and KPIs. This will be your roadmap.

This is the first thing you need to define - your objectives. For most people, they jump on social with no goals in mind. What is it you want to achieve? Examples of common, measurable objectives in social media strategies are things like brand awareness, website traffic, engagement, conversions, and new followers. Your strategy will be different depending on your intended outcome. So be clear on your goals at the beginning so that you can track and measure. Once you have clarity on what you're trying to achieve, you can measure success in a number of ways. Use tools that provide you with reports, monitor your insights that show you how your posts are performing, how your audience is reacting, and how you're reaching your objectives.

Knowing your goal is essential in social media campaigns. In my practice, these goals often revolve around "feel good metrics" like increasing qualified organic traffic and engagement, and importantly, lead generation. Before crafting a plan, I identify and define our target groups. This varies based on our range of services or products, geographical locations, and other factors. For each target group, I develop a unique plan tailored to different social platforms. This includes adapting the tone of voice, content type, and engagement strategies to suit each audience segment. This targeted approach ensures that our messaging resonates with the specific needs and preferences of each group, maximizing the impact of our campaign.

Start by defining clear-cut goals for your social media campaign. Are you chasing more followers, engagement, or sales? Pin down how you'll measure success with specific KPIs. SMART objectives are your roadmap to keeping your efforts focused and monitoring your campaign's journey.

As other have pointed out, you need to define what you want to accomplish but also the WHY. Is it for brand awareness? Industry thought leadership? What are you ultimately looking to accomplish, because too often there is the idea that a company or brand must be on social media and "all" the channels. Socia media is where you connect directly with audiences and you need to find out where /how YOUR audiences are first! They may not be on IG, or FB, but on another platform. Or they use each platform differently (scroll, engage, etc.)

A big trend for 2024 is being selective. Social media is about quality and without working full time on your campaign, it's hard to create quality content across all platforms. So choose your platforms wisely. Really drill down on your ideal customer. Who are you talking to? Where do they hang out? Choose the platforms where your customer avatar is hanging out and put your time and energy into those social media channels.

Here are some clear steps to begin: - Clarify your objectives and define your end goal. How does this campaign contribute to your ROI and KPIs? - Utilize the Mural desktop site to efficiently organize and execute your business plans. - Prioritize testing throughout the process to ensure effectiveness and optimize performance.

Choosing platforms is like picking the right tools for a job. It's all about your audience – where do they hang out? Instagram and TikTok might be your go-to for a younger crowd, while LinkedIn is your ally for professional engagement. Tailor your content to resonate with your audience on each platform.

Folks have already mentioned that you need to be strategic about your platforms. It's simple really. If you're goals and objectives are clear and you understand how audiences use each platform, you can then tailor an appropriate strategy. BUT, content is key! What works on Facebook may not get engagement in IG or LinkedIn. Even if it is similar content, small adjustments can make or break engagement! And, even if you're strategically focused on one platform, you may still want to maintain others. For example, Twitter(X) is great for global audiences, during big events/conferences or even during a crisis. Even if your audiences are elsewhere, you'll want to maintain your X rankings with some content for when you need it!

A content calendar is your campaign's playbook. It helps you orchestrate your posts, align them with your goals, and maintain consistency across platforms. Whether it's a simple spreadsheet or a snazzy social media tool, it should detail everything – from post types to hashtags. Think of it as your campaign's heartbeat, keeping everything rhythmic and smooth.

Having a content strategy will make your life SO. MUCH. EASIER! But don't get put off by the word 'strategy', it's really just a plan. Define some content pillars around your campaign, decide which platforms you're going to focus on and work out how many posts you want to create on each platform. It might be three posts a week on Insta (one Reel, one carousel, one static grid post) with some Stories thrown in for good measure. Then look at your pillars and plot them throughout the campaign ensuring that you've got a good mix of educational, entertaining and motivating content in there. Remember, it shouldn't be all sell, sell, sell. So sales posts, with a direct action to buy, will be part of your strategy but not all of it.

Yes to a content strategy! No to being beholden to a calendar and not taking advantage of creative or important opportunities to leverage your social media platforms in the moment! You'll have "evergreen" content that doesn't expire but is important to your strategy, date-driven content (like events, awards, etc.), but also "in the moment" content that makes your social media really come to life and drive engagement. New ideas should be tried regularly to keep it fresh. So, while yes that calendar is key to planning, don't let it bog down your creative side. You've got 2 seconds to capture a user's attention so keep that mind when you are planning -- was it worth spending hours editing that video with a one day shelf life?

Make a Content Calendar: Plan your posts in advance. A content calendar helps you plan out when and where each piece of content will be published. Tools such as Trello, Asana, and Google Calendar can be useful.

I love a scheduling tool - Buffer or Later being my favourites, but don't forget that if it's Facebook and Instagram, you can schedule via the Business Suite. But scheduling comes with a strong word of warning. Don't schedule your campaign and think that's your social media content sorted. Social is called social for a reason. So make sure you build some time in to chat to your community. Not just via our own posts, but via other people's posts too. So make sure you give some time each day to community management and engaging with your audience. It will make such a difference to your success.

Platforms like Hootsuite allow you to schedule posts, monitor social media conversations, and track engagement across multiple social media channels from a single dashboard.

Social media really is trial and error. Make insights your friend and keep checking in with them. It could be that one of your posts is doing really well organically so it might be worth putting some money behind that post to boost it out to a wider audience (￡10 per day for three days minimum if your're starting out). Keep trying this out and adjusting. It could be the times you're posting, the length of your Reels, the music you're using. Monitor and refine for the win!