Being present in social media can quickly become overwhelming.
With so many powerful social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Youtube, there is a clear need to stay focused and have a good marketing plan to avoid troubles.
What is more, having a good plan is essential not to spend more time and money on social media marketing that is needed.
Therefore, today you will learn eleven tips to make your social media life more comfortable and which you should consider in your marketing plan.
Only be where your target audience is
We have mentioned this already, and it should be straight forward to go where your customers go. Focus on sites where most prospective customers already are.
For the majority of businesses, two main media should be in place: LinkedIn for B2B relations and Facebook for B2C. Besides these, you should consider the media relevant to your business niche.
For e-Commerce, Instagram is a good bet. If you are building leadership authority, be on Twitter.
The general rule, listen to your customers and see which ones they talk about most. Ignore all the rest.
You will not only save a lot of time but also the quality of your deliverables will be better.
Use available tools to increase your efficiency
Doing many things manually will take you an enormous amount of time. There are lots of tools supporting you in your social media management. Nevertheless, I will present two.
- Hootsuite – helps you manage communication as well as a post on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. What is more, they have a long-lasting partnership with Instagram, which lets you post on IG without risk of being banned from using third-party applications. Due to well-known IG restrictions, they have a dedicated team, which continuously stay in touch with IG developers and regulators to be 100% secure.
- Buffer – works with more platforms. They are focused on social media post scheduling. In terms of Instagram posting, it complies with restricted IG rules. Direct Posting is available only for Business Profiles. Otherwise, it is available as a “reminder”. You can learn more about this under the given link.
Both platforms can save you hours each week managing your social accounts.
Share the responsibility
It is a trick either for larger companies or if you are doing the business with your friend or trusted partner, where you can split the tasks among you.
I am not recommending you hiring a virtual assistant to do it for you.
First of all, you can breach some security rules when sharing your credentials.
Secondly, you may lose secrets to third-party.
Ask the community for help
Writing articles, making podcasts, videos, and posting all of them takes ages. Why not ask your community to participate? This way, you are building an additional bond, letting your customers be a part of your business. Inviting your potential customers to bring content is not stealing or cheating, it is curating – by the way, it is one of the best roles you can have in social media.
You can only gain. Imagine, if someone writes for you, then he or she wants to share this among his or her friends. They come and visit your page, and you are getting a potential customer for free.
It is a win-win situation.
Schedule your posts and updates
Plan your posts and articles, so they have a logical sequence. Schedule them for the whole next week or a month. It is a way more effective and less distractive to perform them all in one or two days instead of spending an hourly daily on preparations. Use the tools mentioned earlier.
Of course, answering comments must happen regularly, but at least it happens according to plan.
You do not need to follow everyone who follows you
Many people feel obliged to follow back if someone follows them. This is human nature. Nevertheless, especially if you run a business profile, your followers mostly do not expect you to follow back. They follow you as they are interested in your brand and solutions. Your trusted followers will not be offended. I promise you.
Organize your feed
Use filters and lists available in some of the social media platforms to follow the information you need to follow and receive a feed you are willing to read. For instance, use lists on Twitter to categorize those you follow and get updates from those you care about most.
Set the time limits
It is a fact – social media can be addictive.
Not to become a social media junkie, set time limits you spend on Posting, commenting on others, and answering comments. You can follow the rule 5-10-15, which stands for:
- 5 minutes on a new post – prepared earlier,
- 10 minutes on commenting others
- 15 minutes on answering comments
Daily. I call this rule as time-boxing. You are setting time boxes, and once the time is over, you go to the next box.
Use Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a free service, which allows you to set up alerts about events that are related to your business or keywords you have defined.
You can opt-in for the information to be emailed you as soon as it appears or daily, or weekly.
Do not read. Scan instead
Learn how to scan the posts, emails, and titles instead of reading thoroughly every line of the post and article. In the beginning, it might not be straightforward to find the information relevant to your business, but within the time, you should have a good feeling of what grabs your attention and what is not. Follow the keywords pertinent to your niche.
Measure your performance and act accordingly
By all means, measure your performance and adjust your tactics or strategies to achieve expected results. Measure, which articles and posts have outperformed others. Analyze how many new followers you gained. Track your conversion KPIs – it is how many new followers or subscribers decide to buy a product from you. Measure the value of what they’ve purchased and track your audience statistics. You can use social media platforms in-built analytics or google analytics for your website.
If needed, refocus your energy on channels that work the best for you.
Conclusion
If you are not focused and careful, social media marketing can become overwhelming very fast.
With a smart social media marketing plan, you can avoid not only personal troubles but also you can improve your business outreach and recognition.
Focusing on the most relevant channels will help you to provide high-quality products for the audience that needs it the most. You will save money, time, and effort.
Prepare today, your social media plan based on the above 11 points. Please use the attached template “Social Media Marketing Plan”.
P.S. Please find a summary of this article in case you do not like reading long blogs.
- Firstly, you have learned about vital elements of your social media marketing plan
- Secondly, you know what tools to use to manage your accounts efficiently
- Thirdly, you have learned what the time-box approach is and how it can help you to organize your time spent on executing social media strategy
- As a result, you have created a social media marketing plan using the provided template.