Take the time to make a thorough social media plan before you begin posting. The plan should be thorough and cover off your goals, audience, and competition. You can even create mockup social media posts to get a feel for what your feed would look like.
A strong social media plan includes:
SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) – What do you want to achieve?
Without goals there is no way to measure your success. Establish objectives that will guide your actions on social media.
Target audience, research demographics and create personas – Who are you posting for? What resonates with them?
Knowing these things about your audience will help you develop content that will actually receive engagement.
Competitive analysis – Who is your competition?
Your competition is probably on social media too! Check them out to get an understanding of what they are succeeding at and use it to determine what is posted in your industry.
Inspiration, list businesses that inspire you – What are they posting?
You can find inspiration all over the internet. It’s not a bad thing to look at other accounts and take a few ideas that you like and reformat them in your own style. This happens allllllll the time in marketing.
Content types and ideas, brainstorm post ideas and the different formats you can deliver them – What will you post?
Make a list of all the possible post ideas that would be suitable for your business. Keep the list on hand when drafting your social posts for the month.
Content calendar, create a social media calendar with a content mix and specific times for posting – When will you post?
This will list all the dates and times that you will post. You can use this as a place to plan in advance and draft copy, links, etc. A calendar will also help you ensure your posts are spread out nicely and have an appropriate content mix.
Check out tip No. 3 to learn how to get set up on the Facebook and Instagram.
