Create the Most Effective Social Media Marketing Plan
There’s a vast sea of social media information out there. Experts are everywhere and there are just so many opinions on best practices and tactics.
Not only that, but the platforms themselves are constantly changing, whether it’s adding new features, increasing character limits or otherwise changing the rules.
That’s why I’ve created this guide to help you understand how to set social media goals for 2020. This article is especially good for you if you’ve never taken stock of your marketing campaigns or created objectives.
Throughout this process, it’s really important to be honest about your successes and failures. It’s okay to admit that some of what you’ve done has been a wasted effort-that’s why we’re here.
Here’s my 3-step process to set social media goals for 2020:
1. Check Your Reports
Keeping reports is a must if you want to properly assess the efficacy and efficiency of what you spent time sharing online. There are many ways to configure a report, but if you need direction and inspiration, Smartsheet has a free social media report template to get you started.
You need to learn to look past the number of impressions and understand how your content is really performing. Are people liking it, sharing it, commenting on it?
Pay close attention to metrics like engagement-this valuable info is like your potential leads all telling you what they liked or didn’t. So take that into account when planning out 2020’s content.
For instance, I make an effort to share valuable content daily on our Twitter account.
From Twitter to Facebook, each platform offers free analytics on the profile’s performance, so use it!
This free reporting helps you see what you’ve shared that’s worked well and what’s fallen flat. Look for topics that visitors and followers have been consistently interested in, and share more of that content going forward.
If you’re up to the challenge, you can do some paid promotion for your business. Remember, you can always contact us and let us manage the heavy lifting so you can focus on running your business.
We’re constantly on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. And, we stay on top of the latest trends and tips and love analyzing reports and stats!
2. Study Your Analytics
Yes, you want to look ahead, but it’s necessary to look back as well. You can share content left and right, but unless it’s leading visitors to your website, it’s not serving its purpose. You want to drive people to your site, where they’ll hopefully engage further and buy a product or service from you.
Google Analytics is a free tool provided by Google that is key to planning your social media in 2020. It shows you how your actions on social drive traffic to your business, broken down into lots of relevant stats.
To see these results, navigate to your Acquisition section for Social and then click on Network Referrals. You can select the previous year as the date range. Then, you should be able to see how many people have clicked on your posts and subsequently landed on your website.
Read 5 Social Media Marketing Tips for 2020
Is social media marketing not working for you anymore?
Are you wondering what you should be changing in order to get better results?
In our Tea Time Tip: Marketing for Busy Entrepreneurs, I’m sharing 5 valuable tips so you can learn what’s working, what’s not and what you need to focus on more. Read more on our website.
3. Set Your Goals
The first two steps should give you an understanding of where you are, and now it’s time to create your plan. You’ve got a great idea of what type of content worked, which platforms your target audience is hanging out on and where you should focus your efforts in the upcoming year.
Other things you need to do to reach your goals:
- Track your month-to-month follower growth. If you’re not gaining new followers throughout the year, you need to take a look at why that is.
- Keep an eye on which seasons your content is most popular on a particular platform. For example, Pinterest trends show increased usage in the summer and around Christmas, with spring and fall seeing big dips.
- Only share content that has value. You want to sell without driving people away. You also want to give people non-salesy resources like blogs, inspirational quotes, events-whatever makes sense for your brand and audience.
For example, I share articles, events and news on our company’s LinkedIn account.
The biggest mistake you can make is to allow your marketing campaigns to become a chore, rather than a positive part of your business. When you’re enjoying yourself, you’ll find you share more engaging and interactive content.
When you set your goals to conquer social media in 2020, keep in mind that you may not attain all of them. That’s not failure! As long as you’re prepared with a solid social media marketing plan and what you’re sharing is authentic and honest, then you’re doing a great job!