Social Media Plan: Why you need one and what to include.

Getting lost in social media? Why you need a social media marketing plan

Social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing. (State of Inbound Marketing, 2012)

The days of trying to explain WHY social media should be a part of your marketing plan are gone (mostly). The focus is now switching to how.

• How do you make it work for you?
• How do you keep from wasting time on social media? (SO easy to do!)

Before you post your first post, tweet, pin etc., you need to make a plan. I hear the screams, “But I’ve already been tweeting for XX years!” It’s okay. Take a breath and start now.

Why do you need a social media plan?

A story I read recently illustrates the need for a plan perfectly. A drivers education instructor told his student, “Don’t look at what’s in front of you, focus at what is in the distance.” The student asked why and how could she avoid a hazard in front of her if she was focused in the distance. The instructor explained that if you focus in the distance, you can still see what is right in front of you and deal with it. However, you can also see what lays ahead and plan for that before it’s urgent.

Back to your social media. You can do your daily social media and build relationships now while working strategically toward your goals. Your goals and milestones should be clearly laid out in your social media plan so you can stay on track.

What should your social media plan include?

Overall Business Goals

Start with your overall business goals and determine how you want to use social media to contribute to those goals. Remember your goals should be achievable, measurable, realistic, timely and ethical.

Marketing Objectives

Your objectives are the actionable steps you will take to achieve your goals.

Identify Your Ideal Customer

You should already have this defined in your overall marketing plan. Pull it out and make it an integral part of your social media plan as well.

Research Your Competition

This should be a part of your overall marketing plan as well. Where are your competitors on social media? What are they doing that works well?

Choose Channels and Tactics

This is where your research comes in to play. You should not try to focus on all social media channels. Find out where your ideal customer likes to hang out. That is where you should be as well. What types of posts do they respond to? And, what works well for your competition?

Create a Content Strategy

Content Marketing and Social Media Marketing go hand in hand. You need great content but you also need social media to promote the content. Determine what type of content you will use, best times to post and optimum frequency for posting.

Budget & Resources

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and small business don’t budget for social media. This should be a line item on your budget. Even if you do it all yourself, which I don’t recommend, you will expend your time. Your time is money!

Assign Roles

Everyone on your team should know what they are responsible for doing. Some roles you may need are:

• Visual content creator
• Video content creator
• Social Media Manager
• Social Media Assistant
• Advertising Coordinator
• Customer Service

Having a social media plan in place will optimize your use of resources (both time and money) in achieving your goals. With goals and objectives in place, you can focus on the future while working on today.