When we were creating our first social media marketing plan, we had VERY little idea as to what went into creating a successful plan. Through years of testing and trial and error, we have come up with a guide for business owners to copy to create a strong social media presence for their business.

Below we’ve listed the steps in order, as well as the definitions of each steps. We hope you find this as useful as we have!

HOW TO BUILD YOUR FIRST SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CAMPAIGN:

Brand Audit

What is a brand audit?

A brand audit is a thorough examination of a brands current position in the market compared to its competitors and a review of its effectiveness. It helps you determine the strength of your brand together with its weaknesses or inconsistencies and opportunities for improvement and new developments.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. What social media real estate do you currently have?
2. What kind of content do you produce?
3. If your content successful?

Competitive Audit

What is a Competitive Audit? A competitive audit helps you track where your competitors are and what makes them more visible online. The goal is to discover what is working for other people in your industry, so that you can make those strategies work for you, too, to gain a competitive advantage.

Here are the questions to ask:

1. Who is your competition?
2. Who is your close-in competition
3. Who is your stretch competition

Customer Avatar

A customer avatar is a fictional character that represents your ideal prospect. When complete, it will help you understand the motivating beliefs, fears and secret desires that influence your customer’s buying decisions. … Answer each question so that your customer avatar as real to you as a living human being.

Content Platform

A content platform is the type of content you will create and use to spread your marketing message. You can utilize multiple forms of content to add variety and interest to your target demographic.

Below are different content types you can post on social media:

1. Blog
2. Videos
3. Infographics
4. Podcasts
5. Newsletters
6. Guest Appearances
7. Articles
8. Imagery
9. Discussion Boards

Content Strategy

Content strategy refers to the planning, development, and management of content—written or in other media.

Follow these steps:

1. Decide on form you want to use
2. Who will create your content
3. Create CTA
4. Motivate/direct visitors to your blog/service

Content Calendar

A content calendar is an editorial calendar is used by bloggers, publishers, businesses, and groups to control publication of content across different media, for example, newspaper, magazine, blog, email newsletters, and social media outlets

Measurement and Analytics

You need something to measure – in social media, most metrics you have to measure are things like; likes, shares, comments & clicks. These metrics can create an indication of whether or not you are getting an ROI (return-on-investment)

Here are 2 questions to ask:

1. How much interaction/engagement do you currently have?
2. What metrics are the most important to my business?

ROI

ROI or (return-on-investment) is how you know what return you are getting for your efforts. The formula is quantitative over qualitative. Qualitative is engagement and feedback, Quantitative includes number and hard facts. 

There you go! Go conquer the world with your social media marketing – If you have any questions or want more tips or tricks in this aspect of your marketing, contact Forge! We would love to help.

Need help with your Social Media Marketing? We can help! Contact us and let’s start the conversation!