Many clients, existing and potential, ask a marketing agency like Seventy Nine PR and Marketing about how we plan our campaigns.
In fact, planning is at the heart of everything we do. Before the start of every campaign we spend a good few hours/days/weeks planning every aspect of our thinking before being returned to the client for their approval.
Today, social media is fundamental to any good integrated campaign. Good reputation, loyalty and engagement are the result of a successful social media campaign. For a business or brand, the social media aspect can be a real boost in terms of acquisition of awareness, credibility and sales.
In addition, with all the algorithm changes that Google is throwing out now, the conclusion has been that the social media signals that your brand receives has a huge bearing on where you rank on the search engines. It means social media is now a key factor for good SEO especially for new sites
Define your goals
Knowing what you want to achieve by using social network is essential. It is necessary to define your goals, for a short, long term period.
This means establishing three things you want to push forward on in the next three months, and then in the next six and 12 months.
Ask yourself where social media sits in the context of your marketing strategy.
- Do you want to increase your sales or brand awareness?
- Do you want to enhance your brand’s digital footprint?
- Find and attract leads?
- Drive traffic to corporate websites and/or landing pages?
Your objectives should be precise, clear, and measurable.
Who is your target audience?
You have to know who you want to aim your content and to deliver the right message.
Understanding that there are different types of audiences on each social platform is essential. Not all content works across all social media.
The target audience is different for Twitter and Instagram. This is why you have to know who you are talking to, select the appropriate platforms and then create the right content to spread across them.
For example, if you are reaching for a “digital native” (18-25 year old), it is better to communicate on Snapchat and Instagram which are allowing a better place to the visual content (photos, videos). This kind of content: short, dynamic and interactive will be much more engaging for this target audience.
Being aware of what your target audiences are expecting and knowing how they are using social media is necessary in order to adapt your message and your tone of voice.
Which social media channels should I use to achieve my goals?
Defining your objectives and your target audience(s), will help you to get a more precise idea of the most suitable platform to achieve your objectives.
See the two examples below:
Pinterest is a visual platform, it allows you to share photos through boards in order to organise your themes visually. It could be a brilliant tool if you are visual a brand, such as Pantone.
Linked In is useful if you want to increase the brand awareness to professionals and drive a conversation with them. Creating and/or joining groups that are similar to your business to your business is a really powerful way to establish your brand as a leader. Linked In the best platform for BtoB companies, such as Adobe.
Setting up a benchmarking
Being aware of what your competitors are doing, how they are positioning themselves online and also offline will help you to define your unique position.
Keeping an eye on the best practices will also help you to come up with interesting ideas.
Be flexible in your editorial strategy
Before starting any project, you have to set up an editorial calendar. Find out the main calendar event for your business and brand. This will allow you to organise your content in a coherent way with your brand offline activities.
A weekly breakdown will help you to organise your posts during the week, see if you have got enough variety of content over the week.
However you have to keep in mind that social media is a conversation, and you should stick to the daily news. Being flexible is necessary in order to prove to your fans and followers that you are a conversational brand.
Things to avoid:
- Getting ahead! Thinking of the social media platform before defining objectives.
- Duplicate. Avoid copying contents your competitors. Be original.
- Be selective. Don’t use all social media platforms just because you feel you have to.
- Best fit. Match the correct social media that is the most relevant for your business.
If you need help with planning your planning social media strategy, please contact us today for more information about our social media services.
