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Develop Your Social Marketing Plan
So, you want to build a massive brand and you think that social media is the way to get there?
Well good news: you?re on the right track! Social media is indeed a highly powerful tool for building a massive audience and connecting with that audience in a way that many brands and companies never will.
But before you can start posting media and content, you first need a plan. What, you thought you could just dive in without any strategy?
Your social marketing plan is essentially the strategy and the series of steps that you plan to follow in order to take your website or business from a small name or tiny blog; into massive, self-sustaining, professional organization.
It sounds impossible for many people but the fact of the matter is that this has worked for countless brands before yours.
Take a look at any of the biggest names in your industry, and you can almost guarantee that they started out where you are right now and that they used social media – possibly alongside other tools – in order to grow and to become something bigger.
While many people will fail to emulate that success story, that?s because they followed the wrong trajectory – or because they had no strategy to begin with.
That?s what we?re going to look at here. We?re going to look not only at how you can go about creating a blueprint based on other highly successful sites but also how to make sure that you tailor that strategy to suit your brand, your mission statement and your audience.
The plan is the single most important part of your entire campaign. So, get ready and let?s do this!
Goals and Objectives
The first thing to do is to identify what the goal of your social media plan is. You?d be surprised how many brands will jump into their social marketing without even considering this incredibly fundamental concept!
A lot of creators and businesses will look at you blankly if you ask them what their plan is, or answer that it?s „to be more successful?.
This isn?t helpful because it doesn?t provide us with a destination, meaning we can?t come up with a road map.
So instead, ask yourself what success means for your business.
Maybe you?re just trying to make lots of sales quickly?
Maybe you want to establish yourself as an authority within a small sphere of influence?
Or maybe you want to reach a massive audience and be considered a thought leader within a specific niche.
Whatever the case, this is going to subtly alter the way you go about things. Likewise, you should also look at your budget, you should look at your timeframe and you should look at the number of hours you can commit to this plan.
If you can build a whole social media department in-house as part of your business then great.
But if in reality you?re only likely to be posting one or two status updates a day maximum, then be honest about this fact and build that into your plan.
It?s better to have a moderate plan and to stick to it than it is to have a highly ambitious plan but then give up on day one!
Branding
The next thing you need to think about is your branding.
And I?m going to be brutal with you now: there?s a very strong chance that your site and business needs a complete rebrand. Sorry!
The fact of the matter is that your social media success is going to hinge massively on your branding. If your branding is bad, then you won?t be able to win over your followers and visitors.
The whole point of your social media is to create positive interactions with an audience so that they consider signing up and subscribing and so that you build their trust and they consider buying from you in future.