In today’s age of technology, social media is one of the best ways to reach an intended audience. Whether for a company, organization or personal branding, a social media plan can be the key to success. While the social media strategy may differ depending on the targeted age range, small changes can be made to tailor it to the desired audience. It’s important to remember that a clear, distinct plan for social media is better than simply putting things online just for the sake of posting. Relevant content is extremely important to ensure credibility among customers, audiences and peers. Here are five ways to help your social media plan succeed.

 

  1. Define the overarching goal for your strategy. What do you want to accomplish through social media? Do you want to increase awareness about your company or tissue? Increase sales? This overarching goal will be the driving force for all of your social media plans.
  2. Strategy. Come up with a strategy that will be attainable and help achieve your goals. Your strategy can include steps for tools that you want to implement, whether that’s increasing your number of followers or elevating your content. Stick with a strategy and stay consistent as not to confuse your followers, and your awareness should begin to expand in no time.
  3. Include tactics to measure your success. Some good things to measure are: engagement, growth, likes, subscribers, click rates and sales. Tools such as Google Alerts are very helpful and help track your success, either annually or daily.
  4. Create a content calendar. The editorial calendar should outline important times and dates that you play to upload any social media content. Creating a calendar and planning your messaging ahead of time, especially when you have a lot of content, is helpful so you aren’t constantly updating accounts throughout the day. Even if you have content planned ahead of time, it is still important to keep up with current events and be willing to update and adapt your stories to fit accordingly.
  5. Establish your authority and engage in an online community. Build your online community by following and conversing with others who share similar interests or beliefs to you or your company. Having an online community will hopefully lead to a continuous following that will expand awareness about your brand.

 

One of the most important things to know about your social media plan is that it is subject to change. Hopefully your network will be growing, goals will be achieved and new challenges will arise. It is key to be flexible and willing to adapt to these changes. However, having a solid plan laid out will greatly help to ensure that each post is meeting your overall goals and you have a consistent tone throughout all social media platforms.


– The StoveTeam International group consists of Lindsay Pfeifer, Ellis Mendon, Noelle Nercessian and Kristina Pressentin.