A Guide to “Rock” Your Social Media Plan

Now, more than ever, you must have a social media plan. You know this already, but are you fully utilizing social media to promote and grow your business? Do you have a solid social media plan that is effective for brand awareness, lead generation, and monetization?

With so many businesses on social media, unfortunately, rocking your social media plan is not as simple as posting and moving on. It’s much deeper than that. While we can all get lost in all the social media training that is available online, I thought I would give you just a few changes you can make to create a big difference for you.

Pick Your Ideal Social Media Platform

Of course, you can post on as many social media platforms you want, but here’s the thing. Just because you post on multiple platforms, it doesn’t mean you increase your chances of growing your business. Your ideal social media platform needs to meet these criteria.

A social media platform:

• You enjoy hanging out on (I will explain later)
• Where your ideal clients are hanging out
• That is driving traffic to your website (metrics matter)
• Where your posts get a lot of engagement

Even if you choose one ideal platform, that is totally okay. To help you pick the best one for your social media plan, here are some pros and cons of each of the popular platforms:

Facebook

Pro:  By far, the largest number of people are on Facebook and it is one of two of the biggest traffic generators (Google is included in this)

Con: It’s saturated, and you have to do a lot of networking in Facebook groups or spend $$$ running ads. Not the best if your target market is corporations.

Instagram

Pro:  Very visually appealing platform where a lot of young, urban people hang out. However, more and more older people are starting to jump on the Instagram bandwagon.

Con: If you’re not the creative type, your IG feed can look pretty unprofessional, having the potential to turn people away. It takes a lot of work to grow a following on Instagram.

Twitter

Pro: Every type of person is on Twitter, from individuals to multi-million dollar organizations. It takes less than a minute to post a message on Twitter and it’s often used for real-time communications.

Con: You are limited in characters so you can’t leave long messages. Twitter is so busy that it is easy to get lost. According to Matrix Internet, there are over 340 million tweets per day.

LinkedIn

Pro: Ideal place to find professionals, companies, and small business owners (if that is your target market). You will find a lot of networking opportunities on LinkedIn.

Con: It takes some time and expertise to set up a killer LinkedIn profile.

YouTube

Pro:  Videos are hot right now! YouTube is a great place to showcase your personality, educate people, and build credibility with your expertise.

Con: Videos can take a while to create, and often require more money for editing or making them look professional. It is hard to track sales from YouTube.

Pinterest

Pro:  Like Instagram, Pinterest is a very visually driven platform. But the pins can link directly to your website. If your ideal client is women, you will find a lot of them on Pinterest.

Con: Pinterest does not work for a lot of businesses. It caters a lot to home, crafting, fashion, food, and travel. And men are not big users of Pinterest.

TikTok

Pro: TikTok is very adaptable to many types of videos, and you can enhance your videos with music, stickers, and special effects. Great platform to market products targeted at teens and millennials. It’s hot right now!

Con:  360Biz gives several reasons why you might want to skip this platform. It’s really your call.

Of course, there are more social media platforms, but these are most definitely the most popular ones for business right now.

Don’t Let These Derailers Take Your Social Media Plan Down

You might wonder why some people seem to be so effective on social media, while others struggle, even after lots of effort. These derailers need to be put in check:

1. Blame:  Don’t get caught up in the act of blaming – blaming others, algorithms, or even yourself. Instead, take radical ownership of your social media plan. Don’t make excuses for why things don’t or won’t work. Just figure it out and do it.
2. Perfectionism and Procrastination:  These two are silent killers to your success with your social media plan. It’s much more important to take consistent and messy action than to wait until things are perfect. The more action you take, the more you learn.
3. Lack of Clarity:  I find that many business owners lack clarity about who their ideal client is, what their messaging should be, or even how to effectively use social media to build that know, like, trust factor. Spend some time getting crystal clear about who you are talking to and what they want and need to hear.
4. Ineffective Strategy: It takes time and energy to figure out the best strategy for your social media plan. And even when you think you’ve got it, you might learn it’s not working. Then you have to go back to the drawing board and try something new. Work at it until you get a proven strategy that converts.
5. Lack of Confidence:  Insecurity can prevent you from showing up on social media. And any number of factors can get in the way of you feeling confident. You could be new to social media. Perhaps you lack knowledge on how to play the social media game. Maybe you are afraid of being judged. Fake confidence until you get there.

Overcome these mindset issues and you will be on the road to success with your social media plan.

Engagement And Consistency Are The Success Keys For Your Social Media Plan

Once you have outlined an effective strategy for your social media plan, then it’s time to work the plan consistently. Don’t try it for a month and give up. Social media marketing is a long game. It takes time to build a following.

But more important than consistency is engagement on your social media platform. That is why I advised earlier to pick a platform that you enjoy hanging out on. You need to engage with your ideal clients’ content, respond to any comments made on your content, and reach out to individuals to start conversations and build relationships.  

I will give you an example. My social media manager, Alyssa, has only 14 posts on Instagram, but yet she has 7,210 followers. Her strategy is not to consistently post all the time. She spends two hours per day engaging with people on this platform. Her profile is beautiful, she posts fun IG stories and she builds relationships.

So, in a nutshell, the way to rock your social media plan is to pick your ideal social media platform, eliminate the mindset derailers, and use consistency and engagement to your advantage. That is simple, right?

At Amazing OBM, we know all this takes time, time you may not have. So if you need help with your social media strategy and executing the plan, schedule a 30-minute consultation. We are happy to chat with you and determine if we are a good fit for one another.