Social media marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves sharing written, image, and video content on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Foursquare, etc. When done right, social media marketing can produce measurable and targeted results for your business.

Social Media Marketing Plan

As the adage goes, ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’. The first stage in social media marketing is to understand what you hope to achieve. Your goals and targets will inform the tools you will use in reaching out to your customers. Creating images might be good for brand awareness, for example, but adding a call-to-action would be a better tool to convert viewers into leads.

Planning allows you to measure and manage each activity you undertake. Unlike traditional media like newspapers and radio, social media will allow you to know how much a dollar spent in a paid campaign achieved in terms of post likes and shares to the last cent. Special plugins like pixels can be used to measure how many people responded to your discount campaign as opposed to how many people visited your site via Google.

Social Media Platforms

There are so many social media platforms out there you might feel overwhelmed at the beginning. The best way to navigate the terrain is to understand your audience. Facebook encourages a laid-back, casual approach. Twitter is where the buzz is happening and users there demand quick responses to requests.

The easiest way to know where to find your audience is examining the type of product you sell. Again, this will already be clear from your marketing plan. If you are into skin care products, well-lit images of the before-and-after effects of your products will look better on picture-centred sites like Pinterest and Instagram. If you sell internet and tech solutions to other businesses as we do at Gesatech, social media marketing will work best on a platform like LinkedIn particularly if your objective is lead generation.

Social Media Engagement

The digital world allows for dialogue between you and your audience. Where radio speaks to listeners, social media marketing tools let you engage in real-time conversations. Instead of only posting a picture of your recent interior decor gig, you could ask clients to write down all the colours used in the decoration. This kind of engagement fosters strong brand loyalty.

As users respond to your posts, remember to always be present to take part in the conversation. Answer their questions honestly and in a timely fashion. You don’t want to be the brand that takes days to answer one query about your product. A good marketing plan must include consideration for customer relationship management. Do you plan to hire someone to help you take care of all the comments on social media, or do you plan to handle all the engagements yourself? You need to decide and make a plan in advance before you launch.

On Twitter and Instagram, you can use hashtags to make it easy to track conversations from millions of users. Which hashtags will reflect your brand and objectives best? You need to analyse this and decide in your planning.

Social Media Marketing Tools

Social media marketing will work for your business if you employ special tools to send your messages across. Sometimes, it might not be enough to just post an image or a tweet on your timeline. To reach more people on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you should complement your organic reach by using paid campaigns, brand influencers, or employing specific third-party apps.

Instead of logging into each social media platform several times to post updates, it is possible to schedule your posts in advance in social platforms like Facebook. You can also use third-party apps like Buffer and Hootsuite to manage your social posting from a single dashboard. Scheduling posts in the future helps you to plan and execute your social media strategy easier. You get better control and are able to be consistent, a very important factor for success in digital marketing.

Paid campaigns on social media can also be used to target new users. When tweaked properly, ad campaigns can help you re-target clients on Facebook who abandoned carts on your website. Make sure whatever direction you are headed for is captured in the marketing plan. The last thing you want is to spend time and resources creating one only to have to ditch it down the line.

Great Content

Content is king. Great content entices your audience to engage with your brand. It creates a personal relationship between you two and makes your business recognisable. Videos and graphics are excellent at driving engagement but only when they brim with quality. Remember to use the appropriate dimensions when uploading page photos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social platforms. Images that don’t have the right proportions betray a lack of respect for your audience and will draw more contempt than praise.

When creating written content too, make sure to use a consistent tone throughout. Do not mix a serious, ready-for-business tone with boundless sarcasm or it will confuse your audience. You want a loyal fan base that knows what to expect from your posts. Add a dose of hashtags in your content to direct conversations around your brand.

Social media marketing can be fun and rewarding when done properly. As part of your marketing plan, remember to focus on which channels your clients tend to cluster about. Be available to have a little chat when the need arises and use tools to make the effort smooth and effective. If all of this sounds too daunting to do yourself, hire a professional. When it comes to image, you may not get a second chance to repair the damage missteps might cause you. Aim to do it right, or wait till you’re ready to do it right.