Recently, I was asked about creating a Social Media Plan for posting on Facebook. I can totally understand why there wasn’t one in place already or they were hesitant about creating one. By not having one, you can post what comes to mind that day or what you find ‘hot’ in your network. Finding something to post everyday without a plan will become difficult and you’ll find yourself posting just for the sake of posting. There won’t be rhyme or reason for your posts and you may not a return from those efforts.
Your business can not afford to miss out on the opportunity to influence the 68% of U.S. Adults who utilize Facebook. In this post, I will provide you with 3 reasons why you need to have a Social Media Plan.
1. Build a Strong Brand Online
This first reason that you business should have a Social Media plan is so you can build a strong brand online. It’s well known that organic reach is down on Facebook, but having a plan will help you tap into any reach that is still available.
By also having a plan, you will be able to schedule out your posts in advance. You can go on vacation and your team will know exactly what should be posted and when. This will also help you keep posting consistently. One reason that brand pages stop growing is they fail to post consistently.
Having a Social Media plan will also save you time. At first it will be time consuming setting up your content calendar and gathering all the materials needed. Once you have your schedule complete and posts sorted, you will greatly reduce the amount of time you spend on actually posting each day, freeing you up for other projects that need your attention.
2. Achieve your Goals
Having a clear social media plan in place will make sure you are not only reaching the appropriate audience but also achieving the goals you have set forth in your marketing plan.
When you create your social media plan, you need to make sure that it is following your overall marketing plan and helps you in converting Facebook Likes into website views. Within your social media plan you are going to want to outline some social media goals and track them so you have benchmark and also something you are working towards. This will validate your social media postings and will allow you to target to your niche audiences down the road. You will also learn what your audience interests are and where they are coming from.
3. Target your Audience
By having a social media plan, you can make sure you are reaching your audience and niches. For example you can devise your plan so that Monday is industry news related to your business, Tuesday is user generated content day, Wednesday is inside view on your business day, Thursday is an event or throwback day, and Friday is a content article from your blog. Depending on your business and what your niches are, you and dial that in even further. Say you have 2-3 niches, than 2-3 of those days would focus on a niche each.
You can also include polls or questions to your audience to gather information for a blog topic or pain points that your consumers may have. By doing this you can look at the Facebook insights to see the location of your audience, demographic and more information on the area your customers are coming from and potential locations you could develop further.
By having a Social Media plan that aligns with your overall marketing plan and goals, it will be easier for you to create content that resonates with your audience. You can adjust the plan as needed, but it will also allow you to refine your current content strategy, and other marketing efforts. After you have honed in on the plan that fits you and your audience you can get even more creative with the things that you are sharing with your followers.
Don’t forget you will also be able to analyze what is working and what is not working. So before you just dive right into posting on Social Media, make sure you have created a plan with defined goals. This will give you a greater chance at success.
