A social media marketing strategy is a must-have for any type of business, large or small. But, before you can start marketing your business and products or services online, you need to put a plan in place.

Social Media Marketing Strategy 101

Step 1: Set Business Goals

Set your overall marketing goals. Do you want to increase traffic to your website so you can make money with advertising? Do you need to get people into your restaurant? Do you want to sell a product online? Knowing what you’re aiming for will make it easier for you to design an effective social media marketing strategy to get you there.

Step 2: Create Social Media Objectives

What exactly do you need to accomplish with your social media marketing strategy? Your plan may be to find followers from other states or to raise your engagement rates.  What will you do to get there?

Step 3: Choose Your Social Media Networks

Effective social media marketing doesn’t mean being on every network that pops up. There are practically endless social media networks you can chose from, and no one has time for all of them. To narrow down your social media marketing strategy, figure out which paths are best for you. Do you have a photography business? Photo-centric platforms, like Flickr, Pinterest and Instagram, might be helpful. Do you need to constantly interact with and answer questions for the public? Twitter might be a great tool to keep the conversation going.

Step 4: Check Your Expectations

Every business owner wants to succeed. However, if you have ten business goals set up and you expect each and every one to be fulfilled by your social media marketing strategy within one month, you’re aiming too high. Your expectations have to realistic in order for you to achieve them. Start with one or two goals that have realistic expectations.

Step 5: Assign Someone the Task

Running a social media marketing plan is a job all in its own. If you or your company doesn’t have much experience with marketing online, you’re bound to come up against a great learning curve. Make it easy on yourself and put someone in charge of implementing and managing the plan.

Step 6: Make a Schedule

What’s the best way to carry out any kind of plan? Make a schedule for yourself. This will not just keep you on track so that you’re getting things done efficiently and on time, but it will also double as your social media business plan. Regularly revisit the schedule to assess what’s working and what needs to be updated. Are you spending too much time interacting on Twitter and not enough time putting together a quality e-mail campaign? Adjust your schedule accordingly!

If you have questions about putting together a DIY Social Media Marketing plan why not pop over to our social media workshop page and see if there’s one coming up in the near future that interests you?  We run regular social media workshops and seminars on social media marketing that can help you put your best foot forward and see a stronger ROI.