Professionals, business owners and solopreneurs need simple easy to use social media plans. Use the list of recommendations below to start creating your social media plan.
by Heather H. Bennett, Creative Brand Coach
Creating a marketing plan helps leaders achieve their business goals.
A strong social media plan helps you reach your target market where, when & how they want you to communicate with them.
A great digital marketing plan is efficient, easy to maintain & showcases what is great about your brand.
REMEMBER!
The most important takeaway about Social Media is to
only be on the platforms that you
- enjoy,
- have time to monitor,
- can contribute to consistently,
- and know your target market is active on.
Description:
“Facebook is a website which allows users, who sign-up for free profiles, to connect with friends, work colleagues or people they don’t know, online. It allows users to share pictures, music, videos, and articles, as well as their own thoughts and opinions with however many people they like.” – webwise.ie
Best used for:
Cost effective, highly efficient online advertising
Best practices:
• Create a Facebook page that shows you as a professional
• Post on it to support your blog
• Keep it updated
• Link to your website
• Use consistent photos and images
• Feature and share other related articles online
• Actively schedule time to comment on industry/topic sites
Description:
“Twitter is a social media site, and its primary purpose is to connect people and allow people to share their thoughts with a big audience. Twitter allows users to discover stories regarding today’s biggest news and events, follow people or companies that post content they enjoy consuming, or simply communicate with friends. Additionally, PR teams and marketers can use Twitter to increase brand awareness and delight their audience.” – Caroline Forsey
Best used for:
Growing an audience or followers, communicating with your tribe, consumers or fans, sharing and finding information quickly, keeping up with industry information, generating traffic to your website.
Best practices:
- Use scheduler (Hootsuite, Buffer)
- Create tweets to support blog
- Include a photo or visual with every Twitter post
- Include a CTA (Call to Action)
- Use Bitly etc. to shorten URL of Blog post
- Use twitter analytics for best posts
- Consider running a 2-week A/B split test to determine best times to post and highest rated content
Description:
“Instagram is a video and photo-sharing social network. It launched in 2010 as a mobile device app and was acquired by Facebook two years later.” – Maggie Tillman and Elyse Betters
Best used for:
Getting to know your audience and communicating with them instantly. A picture is worth a thousand words. Use Instagram for sharing your images. Engagement is a great use for Instagram.
Best practices:
• Use 10-15 hashtags per post
• Keep a consistent look of 2-4 layouts that will form a pleasing checkboard when viewed as a whole
• Best for images that include people’s faces
• Link to website or sign up or blog post
• Keep background colors, fonts consistent
• Follow back
• Post 1-3 times per week
Description:
Pinterest is an image focused platform with only short captions for words. Keywords are incredibly important.
Best used for:
Curating a collection of images from other people, companies and websites. Often used to search for ideas for an event, or design/fashion decisions.
Best practices:
• Focus on the best keyword to include
• Best for images that do not include human faces
• Keep a consistent look of 2-4 layouts that will form a pleasing checkboard when viewed as a whole
• Use only high quality images
• Link to website or sign up or blog post
• Keep background colors, fonts consistent
• Follow back
• Post 1 time a week
Description:
“LinkedIn is a social network that focuses on professional networking and career development.” -Dave Johnson
Best used for:
B2B (Business to business) sharing of business and industry related topics and discussions. Sharing job experience and acting as a live resume. Establishing thought leadership and social proof of professional knowledge.
Best practices:
• Create a solid LinkedIn page for your audience, not you!
• Design your page and your posts to fill their needs as they seek information on you
• Post on it to support your blog
• Keep it updated
• Ask for endorsements and recommendations from clients, coworkers: current and past
• Link to your website
• Fill all 50 skill lists, change the top 3 based on the needs of your business so you rank higher
• Use consistent photos and images
• Feature and share other related articles online as well as short video clips
• All information should support the headline
• Keep information focused on core business, do not add tangential information/businesses unless relevant to primary business goals
• Comment and engage with colleagues to be seen as an expert in your field and a helpful contributor.
BLOGS
Description:
“A blog (shortening of “weblog”) is an online journal or informational website displaying information in the reverse chronological order, with the latest posts appearing first. It is a platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their views on an individual subject.” –Anya Skrba
Best used for:
Driving traffic to your website to sell your products or services.
Best practices:
· Focus your blog on the needs of a single audience
https://brandmarketing.home.blog/2019/06/05/brand-plans-for-bloggers/
· Use descriptive keywords for every blog
· Include a great image that will represent and grab attention
· Make sure you include a meta description
· Check your keywords for popularity and likelihood to be found during a search
· Blog length depends on your purpose: longer blogs tend to be highly packed with data and information, shorter blogs may rely more heavily on simple messages
· Include a call to action to drive traffic to your website
· Correct image size to work for your blog site recommendations
· Link to your own site as well as other websites to improve your SEO
· Use a URL shortener to make it easier to share
EMAIL NEWSLETTERS
Description:
“Email newsletters are an email communication sent out to inform your audience of the latest news, tips, or updates about your product or company.” – campaignmonitor.com
Best used for:
Keep you and your personal brand top of mind for your audience, followers and consumers to drive them to buy your products and/or services.
https://brandmarketing.home.blog/2019/05/15/top-email-marketing-tips-for-small-businesses/
Best practices:
• Short and sweet, once per month
• Blog post front and center
• Give a specific CALL TO ACTION
https://brandmarketing.home.blog/2019/04/26/calls-to-action-get-your-customers-to-click/
• Follow me on list of social media
• Buy app/eBook
• Click here to see where I am speaking or attending next
• Share this newsletter with a friend
• Check Links
• Include event registration page links twice
• Fill with useful information
“Digital Marketing is a constantly moving target.”
We can only keep up with the exciting pace of innovation and new opportunities for communicating with and to others through social media by dedicating ourselves to continuous learning.
A key to success with your social media plan is a willingness to ask for help when it is needed. Look around your network and reach out to people that seem to enjoy a particular platform. Ask them for help. They will probably be delighted to help you or point you in the right direction.
What is Digital Marketing Strategy?
Digital Marketing Strategy is a brand focused strategy using social media, traditional media, digitally enhanced live events and powerful content creation to reach the business, sales and marketing goals of a person or company.
What is a Social Media Marketing Plan?
Social Media Marketing Plan is an organized strategy across multiple social media platforms that addresses the mission of an organization by connecting and communicating with the organization’s target markets through Target Marketing.
What is Target Marketing?
Target Marketing means you are putting your customer and their needs at the center of your focus and attention. You are making your customer the most important aspect of doing business, so your products/services are the best they can be.
Read this Blog post to learn more about Target Marketing. https://brandmarketing.home.blog/2019/05/01/target-marketing-101/
Why do you need a Social Media Marketing Plan?
- To create a consistent message across all media, product and communication platforms
- To reach your target markets where they are seeking information
- To increase awareness and credibility of your company and brand
- https://brandmarketing.home.blog/2019/04/25/7-steps-to-create-a-brand-strategy/
- To support your blog and drive traffic to your website
- To maximize the marketing budget
- To fulfill your mission statement
- To grow business by increasing the number of clients
Why hire an outside consultant?
While running a business day to day, it can be hard to see a solution for a persistent problem. A coach can help guide you to understand where your pain points are and how to fix them. An outside perspective also helps you consider solutions that you already know about, but need reassurance and back up data they will work.
NEXT steps to improve your social media…
- Hire a professional social media or digital marketer to improve your strategy
- Hire a content creator to keep your brand voice consistent and save time
- Invest in training a team member or employee or yourself to get better at the social media platforms you and your brand are interacting and engaging on
- Look for increasing your engagement by reevaluating your plan with feedback from your customers and stakeholders
- Be consistent!
- Always create the content with the reader/viewer/target market in mind
- Explore how video, images, audio and graphics can increase the understanding of your message
- Learn how to use the in platform analytics, Google Analytics and outside tools to keep track of how your social media is performing
Remember to have fun. The goal of social media is communication. Use polite and kind communication to connect with others and your business will grow!
Heather H. Bennett is a marketing strategist, personal brand coach, and author of Fun and Fulfilling Careers One Question at a Time. Heather lives and works in Chicago, Illinois and is passionate about helping businesses and professionals build strong brands to connect with their target market and reach their personal and professional goals.
Find Heather via Twitter @creativebrandch & www.creativebrandcoach.net.
Small Business, Big Brand 