If you've been wondering how to create a social media plan and have been searching high and low on the internet, your search ends here.
Social media is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience. According to a recent study by HubSpot, 77% of marketers say social media marketing has been somewhat to very effective for their company in 2022.
But including social media in your marketing plan can also be overwhelming. How do you know what type of content to post, who to engage with and when? A social media plan helps you organize your strategy so that it's easy to implement and measure.
This guide will walk through the steps for creating a successful social media plan.
A social media plan is a document that defines the goals, strategies and action items for your social media marketing efforts. It provides a framework for making decisions about how and when to use each network, which can be helpful if you're just starting with social media or your company wants to revamp its strategy.
Social media plans help businesses understand what they're trying to achieve with their online presence, how they will do it and how they will measure their success. Without one, businesses can easily make mistakes that cost them time or money while not having enough information about their audience or potential customers.
Simply put, a good social media plan helps companies set goals, identify audiences and create content to improve their social media presence.
Before we dive into the specifics, it's important to remember that a social media plan is just that: a plan. It doesn't have to be set in stone; rather, it should be a flexible document outlining your business's social media strategy. The plan should include the following:
The executive summary is a short overview of your plan and should be one-page maximum. It should include the following:
Before you create or update your social media plan, it’s important to identify the current state of your business's social media presence. Do a social media audit and include the following:
This section outlines the competitive landscape of your industry and how it relates to social media. It should include the following:
Include your target audience, how they use social media and each platform's demographics. Additionally, you can consider the following:
Your social media plan heavily relies on your social media goals and objectives. Consider the following to ensure a flawless social media plan:
Once you have established your goals and objectives, it is time to create a list of social media tactics to help you achieve them. These should include the following:
Now that you've decided to craft a social media plan for your company, the next step is creating the actual plan. While there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to creating your strategy, there are some best practices that you can follow.
Follow these simple yet effective steps to create a social media plan for your business.
The first step in creating a social media plan is to do a social media audit of your existing channels. This will give you an idea about what's working, what isn't and how to improve the things that are falling flat.
What is a Social Media Audit?
A social media audit is an overview of all the activities and campaigns you have been running on various networks—including posts, comments and replies, ads, and any other interactions with followers (like likes/shares). It will also include information about each channel's demographics: who's following them, where they're located, etc.
You should know your target audience. If you don't, how can you expect to connect with them on social media? Several things need to be considered when deciding who your audience is:
Demographics: Age, gender, race, marital status and income are all critical in determining the makeup of an audience.
Psychographics: In addition to demographics, psychographics also help define an audience by focusing on interests and opinions rather than other factors such as age or gender. For example, a person may have specific political views that distinguish him from most other people his age (or vice versa).
Interests: Knowing what types of content interest your target audience allows you to create more appealing posts — it's easy to share something if it resonates with them!
According to a survey by ITSMA, 90% of companies that use buyer personas understand their customers better than their competitors. Therefore, it would be better to create a buyer persona to make this process easier.
Here are 20 customer persona templates from Visme that you can customize to create your own.
Watch this video below to learn more about creating a persona.
Setting SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) is the most efficient way to reach your goals. For example: "I will increase Instagram followers by 100 within 30 days." This goal is specific because it names an exact number (100) and a timeframe (30 days). It's measurable because it assigns a metric (the number of followers) and benchmarks for improvement (increased by 100).
It's achievable because your company already has followers and increasing their numbers by 100 seems like an attainable goal for someone with your level of expertise. And finally, it's time-bound; if you don't hit that target by the next 30 days, then we're going home!
Read this article about creating S.M.A.R.T. goals and using the S.M.A.R.T. goal template below to create goals and never fail to achieve them again.
You've set some SMART goals for yourself or your team members' social media accounts or profiles. But what about key performance indicators? These metrics help measure how much progress has been made toward meeting those objectives regularly and can be applied across multiple platforms.
With so many social media metrics available, it takes time to know which ones are most important for your business.
The key is to choose KPIs that align with your objectives, goals, and what you want to measure. This will help you determine whether or not you are progressing toward those goals.
Here are some of the most common KPIs:
As of 2022, there are over 4.5 billion social media users worldwide, equivalent to 58% of the current world population. But this doesn't mean every social media platform will work for you.
Social media is all about engagement. So you must choose channels where your audience spends their time. For example, if your business caters to millennials, you must be on Facebook and Instagram. If your target market includes women over 35, Pinterest might be a good channel for you.
To choose the right social media platform for your business, you’ll have to find answers to these questions:
Here is an infographic template that you can use to compare the different social media platforms and choose the perfect one for your business.
Sharing information with your audience is one of the primary purposes of using social media. You must ensure that your posts are relevant and exciting if you want people to engage with them. This means you must define your brand voice before creating any content for your social channels.
You can start by defining what kind of content you want to share on social media. For instance, if you're a B2B company, you might want to focus on providing educational content or industry news relevant to your audience. If you sell products online, you can share some tutorials or product reviews to help customers make informed buying decisions.
Here is an infographic that will help you find your brand voice.
Now that you know your target audience, goals, social media channels and brand voice, it's time to create content that attracts and engages your audience.
In the world of social media, there is a lot of noise. The average person is exposed to more than 4,000 ads each day on social media. For your brand to stand out in that crowd, you must ensure your social media content is on point.
Here are some types of content that you can create for your social media:
Videos are a great way to engage your audience on social media. A study by HubSpot shows that 54% of consumers want to see more videos from a brand they follow on social media. They're fun, visual, and easy to share—which is why they're such a popular choice for consumers and online marketers.
You can make videos in a variety of ways:
Micro Videos: Micro videos are short, snappy videos that are usually no longer than 30 seconds. These videos are ideal for social media because they can be shared easily and quickly. If you want to create micro videos, Visme can help you create explainer videos, product videos, promo videos, YouTube video ads and many others.
Check out Visme's broad collection of video templates and edit them using the free online video maker to fit your needs.
YouTube Shorts: Similar to micro videos, shorts have more room to tell a story or explain something complex. They can also be longer than 30 seconds—but they should still be short enough that people won't get bored watching them!
Here is an example of a YouTube short from Visme that explains top design tips to improve your social media graphics.
TikTok: This platform lets you create and share short video clips in real-time with friends like Snapchat did before it was sold to Facebook. The app is viral among teens and young adults, so if you want to reach that audience, TikTok might be worth checking out!
@vismeapp This e-book hack is going to change your life! Adding a flipbook makes your documents :sparkles:POP:sparkles: and makes you stand out from the crowd. :computer: #ebooks #flipbook #presentationtips #leadmagnetideas ♬ original sound - 🙂
YouTube Videos: With over 2 billion active users, YouTube is the most popular video-sharing platform worldwide. YouTube lets you upload video content, including product reviews, tutorials on how to use specific products/services offered by your business, customer interviews, behind-the-scenes footage from events hosted by your team members/employees, and many others.
Watch this video to learn more about creating social media videos.
Infographics can be a fantastic way to combine text and images to convey your message. They're easily shareable and engaging and help people understand complex concepts in an easily digestible way. An infographic could be the perfect solution if you have a difficult concept to explain to your audience.
Visme offers thousands of infographic templates in various categories such as statistical, informational, comparison and more that you can use. Choose your favorite infographic template from the vast library and customize it using Visme's free online infographic maker to share with your audience.
Here is how you can create an infographic in minutes using Visme.
Images are what people see first before they read your content. So use engaging and eye-catching images that relate to your content. A picture of a popular travel destination would be relevant and exciting if you're posting about how to save money while traveling.
Visme has a rich library of social media graphics to level up your social media strategy. Simply pick your preferred template, tweak a few elements and boom your graphics is ready to go live.
The best part? With just a few clicks, you can publish your content directly to your social media channels from Visme's editor.
Create a stunning social media graphic online quickly and easily by getting started with one of Visme’s premade templates. Share content with your audience visually. Find a free template that you can easily customize for your own purposes.
