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How to create a social media strategy (with template)

I've been in the social media game for years now, and despite the vile cesspool of nonsense on social, there are plenty of decent people looking for what we marketers are offering. But you need to know what you're offering.

To make the process easier, I developed this downloadable social media strategy template. Read on for details on how to fill it out.

How to create a social media strategy:

What is a social media marketing strategy? 

A social media marketing strategy is a game plan for using social media platforms to promote your offerings and stand out in an oversaturated digital market. It's not just a five-minute whiteboard drawing; it's a comprehensive document detailing how you'll use social media to achieve your business objectives.

Here are three questions to ask yourself when you're getting started, which you'll want to comprehensively answer in your strategy:

What are your goals? Your social endeavors should tie back to your business objectives. Be it driving sales, boosting engagement, or elevating brand visibility—know what you want to get out of it.

Who's your audience? Understand who you're talking to. Tailor your content to resonate with the people you want to reach, ensuring your messages aren't just broadcasted but effectively land.

What's the competition up to? Take a look at your rivals. Learn from their hits and misses, then carve your unique path. Inspiration is good; plagiarism isn't.

Remember, the purpose of this strategy is to guide your online endeavors so that every post, every comment, and every share has a purpose behind it.

Benefits of a social media strategy

Having a strategy for your social media isn't about cramping creativity but rather channeling it effectively. Setting a clear direction ensures that your online efforts lead to tangible business benefits:

Increase sales: When done right, your social media content should funnel people to your website or store. Then, you can use more middle- and bottom-funnel content to turn those visitors into paying customers.

Boost engagement: Strategic content isn't just seen; it's interacted with. And that doesn't just mean more likes. We're talking real engagement, like shares, comments, and conversations. That's what really builds brand awareness and fosters trust within your audience.

Track preferences: Predetermined metrics like reach, engagement, conversion rates, and ROI provide awesome insights into what types of content are and aren't effective, so you can take that content and scale it beyond social media.

Build communities: Your brand isn't just about selling; it's about connecting. A well-honed strategy helps cultivate spaces where enthusiasts can rally around what you offer and get the word out to others.

Gather feedback: Your digital communities also become treasure troves of insights. They're your direct line to what customers adore, desire, or would change.

Support cross-functional efforts: A cohesive social media strategy amplifies other departments' efforts, whether announcing a product launch, amplifying a PR campaign, or driving attendance to a corporate event.

How to create a social media marketing strategy

I've run quite a few social media campaigns for my personal brand as well as different businesses I've worked for. Each one had different goals, which is to be expected. But regardless of your end goal, you can use the same big ideas to formulate your social media marketing strategy.

1. Establish a clear purpose

I can't tell you how many social media managers I've seen just throw as many things at the wall as possible and hope something sticks: giveaways that get short-term engagement, services that guarantee followers and likes, or jumping on whatever the most recent bandwagon is. What these lack is a clear purpose. 

Within three months, increase website traffic by 15% and online sales by 10% by implementing effective call-to-action (CTA) strategies and conversion tracking on Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter).

Within 12 months, identify and hire at least 50 brand advocates who consistently share our content and refer new customers through the implementation of a brand advocacy program.

When you have an overarching purpose, the rest of the strategy planning is simple. It also makes it easy to adjust your social media strategy as you go without losing sight of your long-term goals. Each time you make a social media decision, ask yourself: does this align with the purpose? Yes? Keep it. If not, get rid of it.

2. Understand your target audience

From there, orient each part of your strategy—from which platform you post on and when to what metrics you're trying to hit—toward that target audience. 

Aim to create a strategy that answers all of these questions:

Is your strategy respectful of your audience's backgrounds and experiences, and what value does it add to their lives?

What are you hoping they take away from your content, and what are they hoping to take away from it?

What existing knowledge do you expect them to come with, and what can you teach them?

3. Research your competitors

As much as we all want to feel like unique, creative geniuses, everything is inspired by something. But don't just copy what your competitors are doing—ask yourself why they're doing it that way and what the thought process is behind it. 

Here are some questions you can consider when filling out the social media strategy template:

Who are your competitors trying to target?

Why is their strategy working?

What social media platforms are they using and why?

What social media platforms aren't they using and why?

How often do they post content to each platform?

Are they replying to comments?

What is the ratio of posts trying to sell something compared to fun, interesting, or educational content?

Look for gaps and opportunities that your competitors—whether they're crushing it on social or not—aren't taking advantage of. What are they missing that you think your target customers would enjoy?

Let's say you're a vegan restaurant and other vegan joints only post images of their food. They may have plenty of followers, likes, and sales, but you know you can do more. You can post behind-the-scenes videos, recipe tutorials, and images of your clientele with rich anecdotes as captions, Humans of New York style, to show your audience you're more than a menu.

4. Research your audience

Outlining a social media strategy without doing audience research first is like going out of your way to get your friend an iced brown sugar oat milk shaken espresso when they hate oat milk, brown sugar, and turns out they drink tea. But unlike your pal, your audience won't just smile and say thanks—they'll keep scrolling.

You need to know what type of content your audience likes, so you don't leave them scrolling for something better. Take these steps to get to know your audience:

Analyze engagement metrics: Look at posts from your account and your competitors' accounts that get the most engagement. What topics resonate the most? Do they prefer short, funny videos? Or educational deep dives?

Segment your audience: Not all of your followers are the same, so you'll want to divide them into groups based on their behaviors or preferences, like followers who engage more with your trending content rather than business updates. This can help you more precisely target your audience rather than trying to appease everyone with broad messaging.

5. Choose the right social media channels

Make sure the social platforms you choose are right for your brand. Consider some of the following questions:

Does the platform host your target audience?

Is it working for your competition?

If it's not working for the competition, is it because your target audience isn't there or because competitors are doing something wrong?

Does it fit well with the content you plan on making?

Is it worth your time and effort to create content for it?

Once you've chosen the social media platforms you plan to use, check out these channel-specific guides for more detailed strategy tips:

6. Determine your KPIs

So, what exactly does social media "success" look like? Bringing in more business, sure, but that's a little vague. You want to see that your social media strategy is hitting smaller goals along the way. To gauge how your strategy is paying off, define some quantifiable key performance indicators, or KPIs. 

Here are some examples.

You need to please the social media algorithms in order to get your content promoted organically, and the algorithms care about engagement. Social media engagement, like shares, comments, and likes directly impact every other KPI due to how the algorithms work, so engagement should be your main focus.

7. Conduct a social media audit

As marketers, analytics are our bread and butter (if you're wondering why you're salivating right about now). A social media audit highlights the data behind your efforts. 

It's probably a good idea to audit your accounts before embarking on a campaign to get a sense of where you're starting off. But most importantly, perform an audit after each campaign to ensure your strategy is paying off. 

Other than your KPIs, here are some things to track when you audit yourself:

What types of content you're posting and on which platforms

How much engagement each post received

How many followers you have (or gained/lost)

Any positive or negative comments

Whether you're reaching your target audience or not

8. Perfect your publishing cadence

If you send me an email at 5 p.m. on a Friday, you can expect a response Monday morning at the earliest . And if you spam me with 11 messages that definitely could've been consolidated into one, there's a chance they're all going in the trash.

The same goes for your social media strategy. When and how often you post can make a big difference in how your content performs.

Here's how to figure out a publishing cadence that works best for your brand:

Analyze peak times: Use analytics tools within social platforms or external tools like HubSpot or Later to find the days and times your audience is most active. Remember, time zones and holidays can affect engagement.

Prioritize quality over quantity: It's better to post high-quality content a couple of times per week than bad content every five minutes.

Test and learn: Conduct A/B tests by posting at various times and days of the week, and monitor engagement to see which posting times perform the best.

Plan ahead with a content calendar: Use a social media scheduling tool to plan your content in advance. Look for a tool that lets you schedule posts and view and adjust how your feed will look.

Stay on top of trends: You have to be able to adjust to changes like trending topics or news that's relevant to your brand. Hold space in your content calendar to create trending content.

Bonus: Get inspired by these 6 examples

Here are some examples of how real-life social campaigns knocked it out of the park. Each one has a clear strategy behind it (which I've teased out based on the campaign itself).

1. Olivia Rodrigo #ShotoniPhone15Pro campaign

Apple wanted to flaunt the iPhone's camera capabilities and knew it had to resonate with the younger demographic obsessed with photography and music. Enter Olivia Rodrigo—a contemporary musical sensation. Through their collaboration, Apple seamlessly blended tech and pop culture, using platforms like YouTube, where both visuals and melodies reign supreme. This helped showcase Apple's camera and Olivia's music while also boosting brand recognition among younger demographics.

Audience: Tech-savvy and pop culture-conscious Gen Z users 

Goal: Increase awareness of the iPhone 15 and its advanced camera capabilities

Tactics: Celebrity partnerships; high-quality videography and photography

2. Marcus Theatres

Audience: Gen Z and Millennial TikTok aficionados

Goal: Build brand loyalty and resonate with the TikTok community

Tactics: CEO-led TikTok videos; tapping into trending sounds

Audience: Tech and Zapier enthusiasts

Goal: Generate buzz for an upcoming product and reinforce brand community

Tactics: Interactive teasers; encouraging audience predictions

4. Poppin Candy

In a sweet twist, Poppin Candy turned to its followers for new candy concoctions. Instead of guessing what their audience might want, they went straight to the source. By letting followers have a say, they're boosting engagement and making sure their treats hit the sweet spot every time.

Audience: Sweet-toothed fans and creative candy connoisseurs

Goal: Enhance engagement and customer connection to the brand

Tactics: Audience-driven candy mix challenges; crowdsourcing flavor ideas

Audience: Kids, teens, and those with nostalgic connection to Barbie

Goal: Promote the Barbie movie and its doll catalog

Tactics: Brand collabs; capitalizing on viral TikTok trends

6. Starbucks

Starbucks knows a thing or two about creating a buzz. Their September ThursYays BOGO on fall drinks was all over social media. And if the long lines post-noon on Thursdays are any indication, their cups—and registers—were overflowing.

Audience: Fall flavor fans and deal hunters

Goal: Drive up sales and increase word-of-mouth promotion of fall flavor release

Tactics: Limited-time deals; heavy promotion of seasonal specials

How to get the most out of our social media strategy template

This article was originally published in November 2020 by Tierney Mosier. The most recent update, with contributions from Michael Kern, was in October 2023.

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Chris Boutté

Chris is a Las Vegas local and has years of experience in content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing. He is also an author, YouTube influencer, podcast host, and committed advocate for mental health.

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The Beginner's Guide to Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan From Scratch

When I went rock climbing for the first time, I had no idea what I was doing. My friends and I were complete newbies about ropes and rappelling and every other bit of jargon and technique that goes with climbing. We saw others doing it spectacularly well. We were thrilled at the thought of reaching the top of the climbing wall; we had no idea how to get there.

I’d imagine that a social media marketing strategy could feel the same way.

If you’re starting from square one, it might feel equally parts thrilling and overwhelming. You know what you want to do and why. You can see that others have climbed the social media mountain, but you have few ideas for getting there yourself.

It’d help to have a plan.

We’ve shared different parts of a social media strategy— the data, research , and personal experience behind what works on social media .

Now we’re pleased to put it all into a cohesive, step-by-step blueprint that you can use to get started. If you need a social media marketing plan, start here.

Step 1: Determine which social media sites you will use

Social media is as homogenous from network to network as soda pop is from brand to brand. Sure, it’s all social media, but Instagram and Twitter might as well be Mountain Dew and Pepsi. Each network is unique, with its own best practices, own style, and own audience.

You should choose the social networks that best fit your strategy and the goals you want to achieve on social media.

You don’t have to be on them all—just the ones that matter to you and your audience.

Some factors to consider when choosing which social networks to try and how many to try.

• Audience – Where do your potential customers hang out ? Which social network has the right demographics?
• Time – How much time can you devote to a social network? Plan on at least an hour per day per social network to start. (Pro Tip: Once you get going, scheduling content ahead of time with tools like Buffer can help you save time.)
• Resources – What personnel and skills do you have to work with? Networks like TikTok emphasize consistent and relevant content. Visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest require images and videos. Do you have the resources to create what's needed?

For the first part of this decision, you can reference the audience research and demographics from surveys like those conducted by Pew Research. For instance, Pew has complete data collected in 2021 on the demographics of social media users in the U.S. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the major social media platforms’ user demographics.

Credit: Pew Research Center

Step 2: Fill out your profiles completely

One of our monthly checks here at Buffer is to visit our social media profiles and ensure that our profile photos, cover photos , bio , and profile info are up-to-date and complete. It’s a crucial part of our social media audit . A completed profile shows professionalism, cohesive branding, and a signal to visitors that you’re serious about engaging.

Profiles will require two parts: visuals and text .

For visuals, we aim for consistency and familiarity with the visuals we use on social media . Our profile photo on Instagram matches our profile photo on Facebook. Our cover photo on Twitter is similar to our cover on LinkedIn.

To create these images, you can consult a social media image size chart showing you the exact breakdown of dimensions for each photo on each network. For an even easier time of it, you can use a tool like Pablo or Canva , which comes with prebuilt templates that set the proper sizes for you.

For text, your primary area to customize is the bio/info section. Creating a professional social media bio can be broken down into six simple rules:

• Show, don’t tell – “What have I done” often works better than “Who I am”
• Tailor your keywords to your audience
• Keep language fresh; avoid buzzwords
• Answer the question of your potential followers: “What’s in it for me?”
• Be personal and personable
• Revisit often

Step 3: Find your marketing voice and tone

The temptation at this point might be to jump right in and start sharing. Just one more step before you do. Your foray into social media will be more focused and more on point if you come up with a voice and tone for your content right off the bat.

To do so, you could spend time developing marketing personas and debating the finer points of your mission statement and customer base. These are all well and good. But for a social media marketing plan just getting off the ground, you can make this process a bit easier.

Start with questions like these:

• If your brand was a person, what kind of personality would it have?
• If your brand was a person, what’s their relationship to the consumer? (a coach, friend, teacher, dad, etc)
• Describe in adjectives what your company’s personality is not.
• Are there any companies that have a similar personality to yours? Why are they similar?
• How do you want your customers to think about your company?

At the end of this exercise, you should end up with a handful of adjectives describing the voice and tone of your marketing. Consider this to keep you on track:

Voice is the mission statement; tone is the implementation of that mission.

Here are a few places to take inspiration for developing your brand's voice and tone:

• Sprout Social

Cultivate a voice that delights your customers, then your customers will be thrilled to spread the love about you.

Step 4: Pick your posting strategy

What’s the ideal amount to post per day ? How often should you post ? When should you post ? What should you post ? The solid gold, ironclad answer for questions like these is:

It depends.

So much of the social media experience is about your individual audience and niche. What works for you might not work for me, and you never know until you try (we’ll get to trying in step five).

That being said, there is some pretty good data and insight about where to start. Here’s what we’ve found to be good jumping-off points.

What should you be posting?

Videos are ideal for engagement.

The push toward video content has plenty of anecdotal evidence — the success of TikTok and constant updates to Instagram – and you’re likely to see videos all over. There’s data to back up this trend : Videos posts get more views, shares, and Likes than any other type of post. And it’s not even close.

On Facebook, video posts get higher average engagement than link posts or image posts, according to BuzzSumo who analyzed 68 million Facebook posts .

On Twitter, videos are six times more likely to be retweeted than photos and three times more likely to be retweeted than GIFs , according to Twitter .

If you want to start creating social videos, here’s our video marketing guide on creating epic content on Facebook, Twitter, and more .

The 4:1 Strategy

Now that you know what works, you can place these different types of updates into a consistent strategy. One of my favorite systems is the one used by Buffer’s co-founder Joel Gascoigne . It works like this:

• Start with the basic six types of updates we all post: Links, videos, images, quotes, reshares, plain-text updates
• Choose a “staple” update , a single type that will make up the majority of your shares
• Create a 4:1 ratio of sharing : for every four “staple” updates, publish one different type for variety

This way your followers know what to expect from you, and you can hone your sharing to a specific type, making it easier to perfect and experiment.

(Note: You might not want to post the exact same updates across each of your social networks. Adopt a cross-posting strategy that considers each platform's uniqueness and its audience.)

How often should you be posting?

There’s been a lot of interesting data out there about how often to post to social media . Some of the factors that might impact your specific sharing frequency may include your industry, your reach, your resources, and the quality of your updates. The social network you’re using will also have its best practices.

If people love your updates, you can typically always get away with posting more.

For a specific number, here are some guidelines we’ve put together based on some really helpful research into how often to post on social media .

• Twitter – Three to fifteen times per day
• TikTok – Three times a day
• Instagram – Once or twice per day
• Instagram Stories – Eight to 16 Stories, twice per week
• LinkedIn – Once a day
• Pinterest – Three to ten times per day
• Facebook – Thrice a week

When should you be posting?

Here’s an overview of what they found regarding timing (all times are Eastern Time).

• Twitter –Mondays and Thursdays at 8am
• Facebook – Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday between 9am to 1pm
• LinkedIn – Tuesday and Wednesday at 9am
• Instagram – Tuesday between 11am to 2pm is the most ideal time
• Pinterest – Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday between 1-2pm
• TikTok – Any day between 2 am to 12 pm is ideal

I would recommend experimenting with these times (in your local time) and a few randomly-picked times as you’re starting out.

Once you have been posting for a while, you can use your own data and tools like Instagram Insights and Followerwonk to find your brand’s best time to post and refine your posting strategy.

Step 5: Analyze, test, and iterate

Remember how we talked about social media sharing being a very individual, specific endeavor? Your stats will likely start to bear this out.

The more you post, the more you’ll discover which content, timing, and frequency is right for you.

How will you know? It’s best to get a social media analytics tool . Most major social networks will have basic analytics built into the site; it’s just a little easier to seek and find this information from an all-encompassing dashboard.

These tools (I’ll use Buffer’s analytics as an example) can show you a breakdown of how each post performed in the critical areas of views, clicks, shares, Likes, and comments.

Which social media stats are best? We’ve gained some insight from looking at each of these main statistics and the composite engagement statistic on a per-post basis. The resulting stat gives us a great look, over time, of how our social media content tends to perform, and we can then test and iterate from there.

Here’s one way to analyze your performance .

• Set a benchmark . After two weeks or a month of sharing, you can go back through your stats and find the average engagement rate per post . This'll be your benchmark going forward. Remember to revisit and update this number as your following and influence grow.
• Test something new . Avoid getting stuck in your ways – social media is dynamic and you should be too. We're open to testing just about anything at Buffer and find ourselves trying new things and adapting our strategy based on the success of our experiments.
• Did it work? Check the stats from your test versus the stats of your benchmark. if your test performed well, then you can implement the changes into your refular strategy. And once your test is over, repeat!

Step 6: Automate, engage, and listen

The final piece of a social media marketing plan involves having a system you can follow to help you stay on top of updates and engage with your community .

To start with, automate the posting of your social media content.

Tools like Buffer allow you to create all the content you want to, all at once, and then place everything into a queue to be sent out according to your schedule. Automation is the secret weapon for consistently excellent sharing day after day.

Your plan doesn’t end with automation, though. Social media requires engagement, too.

When people talk to you, talk back. Set aside time during your day to follow up with conversations that are happening on social media. These are conversations with potential customers, references, friends, and colleagues. They’re too important to ignore.

One way to stay up on all the conversations that are happening around you and your company is to create a system for listening and engaging. Tools like Buffer and Mention will collect all social media mentions and comments on your posts in a single place, where you can quickly reply to your followers.

What would you share with someone new to social media?

Creating a social media marketing plan is an excellent step toward diving into social. If social media looks thrilling and overwhelming all at once, start with a plan. Once you see the blueprint in front of you, it’s a little easier to see what lies ahead.

• Pick your networks
• Fill out your info
• Find your voice
• Choose your strategy
• Analyze and test
• Automate and engage

How did you develop your social media strategy? I’d love to keep the conversation going on Twitter @buffer !

Did you find this article helpful? You might also like our all-you-need social media toolkit.

The all-you-need social media toolkit

Publish Flawlessly. Analyze Effortlessly. Engage Authentically.

Buffer is the all-you-need social media toolkit that lets you focus on doing what you love for your business.

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Social Media Marketing Strategy

Eight easy steps to develop your social media presence

Step 1: Set social media marketing goals that align to business objectives Step 2: Learn everything you can about your audience Step 3: Research the competition Step 4: Conduct a social media audit Step 5: Set up accounts and improve existing profiles Step 6: Find inspiration Step 7: Create a social media content calendar Step 8: Test, evaluate, and adjust your strategy

Step 1: Set social media marketing goals that align to business objectives

The more specific your strategy is, the more effective the execution will be. Set SMART goals and track the right metrics to set yourself up for success.

Set SMART goals

The first step to creating a social media marketing strategy is to establish your objectives and goals. Without goals, you have no way to measure your success or your social media return on investment (ROI).Each of your goals should be:

An example of a SMART goal for your business might be “Grow our Instagram audience by 50 new followers per week.”With SMART goals, you’ll make sure your goals actually lead to real business results, rather than just lofty ideals.

Track meaningful metrics

While vanity metrics like retweets and likes can be fun to share and easy to track, it’s hard to prove their real value for your business. Instead, focus on targets such as leads generated, web referrals, and conversion rate.You may want to track different goals for different channels, or even different uses of each channel. For example, you can use paid campaigns to increase brand awareness, but measure acquisition and engagement for organic social posts.Make sure to align your social media goals with your overall marketing strategy. This will make it easier for you to show the value of your work and get executive buy-in and investment.Start developing your social media marketing plan by writing down at least three social media goals.

RELATED RESOURCE

The social media metrics that really matter — and how to track them.

Step 2: Learn everything you can about your audience

if you’re not engaged in social media listening, you’re creating your business strategy with blinders on—and you’re missing out on mountains of actionable insights from real people who are actively talking about you or your industry online.

Here’s how to start listening and building your understanding of your audience and their needs.

Create audience personas

Knowing who your audience is and what they want to see on social is key to creating content that they will like, comment on, and share. This knowledge also critical for planning how to develop your social media fans into customers for your business.

Try creating audience personas. For example, a retail brand might create different personas based on demographics, buying motivations, common buying objections, and the emotional needs of each type of customer.

Personas sharpen your marketing tactics. Luxury buyers, for example, might not respond to Facebook ads with sales. But they might respond to Facebook ads with exclusive in-store events to be the first to see a new line of clothing. With personas, you’ll have the customer insights you need to create campaigns that speak to the real desires and motivations of your buyers.

Gather real-world data

Don’t make assumptions. Social media analytics can also provide a ton of valuable information about who your followers are, where they live, which languages they speak, and how they interact with your brand on social. These insights allow you to refine your strategy and better target your social ads.

Jugnoo , an Uber-like service for auto-rickshaws in India, used Facebook Analytics to learn that 90 percent of their users who referred other customers were between 18 and 34 years old, and that 65 percent of that group was using Android. They used this information to target their ads, resulting in a 40 percent lower cost per referral.

How to build audience personas

Step 3: Research the competition

Odds are, your competitors are already using social media—and that means you can learn from what they’re already doing.

Conduct a competitive analysis

A competitive analysis allows you to understand who the competition is and what they’re doing well (and not so well). You’ll get a good sense of what’s expected in your industry, which will help you set some social media targets of your own.This analysis will also help you spot opportunities. For example, maybe one of your competitors dominates on Facebook, but has put little effort into Twitter or Instagram. You might want to focus on the networks where your audience is underserved, rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player.

Engage in social listening

Social listening is another way to keep track of the competition.As you track your competitors’ accounts and relevant industry keywords, you may notice strategic shifts in the way competitors use their social accounts. Or you might spot a specific post or campaign that really hits the mark—or one that bombs.Keep an eye on this information and use to it evaluate your own goals and plans.

Related resources

How to conduct a competitor audit

Getting started with social listening

Watch: Social Listening with Hootsuite Streams

Step 4: conduct a social media audit.

Conducting a social media audit helps you assess how well your current social media use works for you.

Evaluate your current efforts

If you’re already using social media tools, you need to take a step back and look at what you’ve already accomplished. Ask yourself the following questions:

What’s working?

What’s not working?

Who’s connecting with you on social?

Which social media sites does your target market use?

How does your social media presence compare to that of your competitors?

Once you gather all this information in one place, you’ll have a good starting point for planning how to improve your results.

Your audit should give you a clear picture of what purpose each of your social accounts serves. If the purpose of an account isn’t clear, think about whether it’s worth keeping. It may be a valuable account that just needs a strategic redirection, or it may be an outdated account that’s no longer worth your while.

To help you decide, ask yourself the following questions:

Is my audience here?

If so, how are they using this platform?

Can I use this account to help achieve meaningful business goals?

Asking these tough questions now will help keep your social media strategy on track as you grow your social presence.

Look for impostor accounts

During your audit process, you may discover fraudulent accounts using your business name or the names of your products—that is, accounts that you and your business don’t own.

These imposter accounts can be harmful to your brand (never mind capturing followers that should be yours), so be sure to report them. You may want to get your social accounts verified to ensure your fans and followers know they are dealing with the real you.

Hootsuite's social media audit template

Step 5: Set up accounts and improve existing profiles

Decide which networks you’ll focus on, and then set up and optimize your accounts.

Determine which networks to use (and how to use them)

As you decide which social channels to use, you’ll also need to define your strategy for each network. For example, you might decide to use Twitter for customer service, Facebook for customer acquisition, and Instagram for engaging existing customers.  

It’s a good exercise to create mission statements for each network. These one-sentence declarations will help you focus on a very specific goal for each account on each social network.

For example, you could decide that:

Facebook is best for acquiring new customers via paid advertising.

Instagram is where you build brand affinity with existing customers.

Twitter is where you engage press and industry influencers.

LinkedIn is where you engage existing employees and attract new talent.

YouTube is where you support existing customers with education and video help content.

Snapchat is where you distribute content with the goal of building brand awareness with younger consumers. 

If you can’t create a solid mission statement for a particular social network, you may want to reconsider whether that network is worth it.

Set up (and optimize) your accounts

Once you’ve decided which networks to focus on, it’s time to create your profiles—or improve existing profiles so they align with your strategic plan.

In general, make sure you fill out all profile fields, use keywords people will use to search for your business, and use images that are correctly sized for each network.

Watch: How to optimize your social profiles

We’ve also got step-by-step guides for each network to walk you through the process:

Create a Facebook business page Create an Instagram business account Create a Twitter business account Create a Snapchat account Create a LinkedIn Company Page Create a Pinterest business account Create a YouTube channel Create a WeChat business account

Don’t let this list overwhelm you. Remember, it’s better to use fewer channels well than to stretch yourself thin trying to maintain a presence on every social network.

Finally, here’s a quick reference guide for image sizes for every network.

Step 6: Find inspiration

While it’s important that your brand be distinctive and unique, you can still draw inspiration from other businesses that are great on social.

Social network success stories

All of the social networks feature success stories that highlight how brands are using their tools effectively. You can usually find these on the business section of the social network’s website. (For example, take a look at the  Facebook business success stories .) These case studies offer valuable insights you can apply to your own goals for each social network.

Award-winning accounts and campaigns

For examples of brands that are at the top of their social media game, check out the winners of  The Facebook Awards  or  The Shorty Awards .

Step 7: Create a social media content calendar

Sharing great content is essential, of course, but it’s equally important to have a plan in place for when you’ll share content to get the maximum impact.

Your social media content calendar also needs to account for the time you’ll spend interacting with your audience (although you need to allow for some spontaneous engagement as well).

Create a posting schedule

Your social media content calendar lists the dates and times at which you will publish types of content on each channel. It’s the perfect place to plan all of your social media activities—from images and link sharing to blog posts and videos.

Your calendar ensures your posts are spaced out appropriately and published at the optimal times. It should include both your day-to-day posts and your content for social media campaigns.

Plot your content mix

Make sure your calendar reflects the mission statement you’ve assigned to each social profile, so that everything you post is working to support your business goals. For example, you might decide that:

50 percent of content will drive traffic back to your blog

25 percent of content will be curated from other sources

20 percent of content will support enterprise goals (selling, lead generation, and so on)

5 percent of content will be about your employees and company culture

Placing these different post types in your content calendar will help ensure you maintain the ratio you’ve planned. If you’re starting from scratch and you’re simply not sure what types of content to post, try the 80-20 rule:

80 percent of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain your audience

20 percent can directly promote your brand

You could also try the social media rule of thirds:

One-third of your social content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit

One-third of your social content shares ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses

One-third of your social content involves personal interactions with your audience

Once you have your calendar set, use scheduling tools or bulk scheduling to prepare your posting in advance rather than updating constantly throughout the day. This allows you to focus on crafting the language and format of your posts, rather than writing them on the fly whenever you have time.

How to create a social media content calendar

Watch: How to save time with bulk scheduling

Step 8: test, evaluate, and adjust your strategy.

Your social media strategy is a hugely important document for your business, and you can’t assume you’ll get it exactly right on the first try.

As you start to implement your plan and track your results, you may find that some strategies don’t work as well as you’d anticipated, while others are working even better than expected.

Track your data

In addition to using the analytics tools available within each social network, use UTM parameters to track visitors as they move through your website, so you can see exactly which social posts drive the most traffic to your website.

Re-evaluate, test, and do it all again

When data starts coming in, use it to reevaluate your strategy regularly. You can also use this information to test different posts, campaigns, and strategies against one another. Constant testing allows you to understand what works and what doesn’t, so you can refine your strategy in real time.

Surveys can also be a great way to find out how well your strategy is working. Ask your social media followers, email list, and website visitors whether you’re meeting their needs and expectations on social media. You can even ask them what they’d like to see more of—and then make sure to deliver on what they tell you.

Things change fast on social media. New networks emerge, while others go through significant demographic shifts. Your business will go through periods of change as well. All this means that your social media strategy should be a living document that you look at regularly and adjust as needed. Refer to it often to keep you on track, but don’t be afraid to make changes so that it better reflects new goals, tools, or plans.

When you update your social strategy, make sure to let everyone on your social team know, so they can all work together to help your business make the most of your social media accounts.

Bonus: Download our social media strategy template

Does this all feel a little overwhelming? The truth is that building your social media strategy is a substantial job. It should be, since it’s such an important document for your business. But it doesn’t have to be complicated.

We’ve created a template to guide you through the whole process of creating your social media marketing plan.  Visit our blog  to download it (plus six other social media templates that can save you hours of work).

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Social Media Marketing: The Ultimate Guide

Discover how social media marketing can help you generate leads, boost conversions, and increase brand awareness.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT CALENDAR TEMPLATE

Manage and plan your social media content with this free template

Updated: 01/24/24

Published: 01/24/24

Marketers’ top goal with social media marketing is increasing engagement. However, their top challenge is creating content that inspires the engagement they look for.

Since social media plays such an essential top-of-the-funnel role, it’s important to understand how to use the platform to meet your goals.

In this post, we'll dive into all things social media marketing — what it is, its benefits, and how to build a social media marketing strategy that drives the results you want.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social Media Marketing Resources

What is social media marketing.

Social media marketing is the process of creating content for social media platforms to promote your products and/or services, build community with your target audience, and drive traffic to your business. With new features and platforms emerging every day, social media marketing is constantly evolving.

Social media marketing is all about meeting your target audience and customers where they are and as they socially interact with each other and your brand.

While social media marketing is incredibly valuable and beneficial to your business growth (as you'll see in the following section), your strategy will differ based on which social networks your audience spends their time on.

Before we dig deeper into social media marketing, let's segment the strategy by platform .

The State of Social Media in 2024

Explore the top trends in social media for brands to know and optimize your social strategy.

• AI Content Creation
• Community Building
• Social Media Shopping
• Social Vs. Search Engine

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To illustrate the benefits of social media marketing, let's take a look at the experience from the user's perspective. Well, my perspective, to be exact.

As I scroll through my Instagram feed every day (cough, cough...multiple times a day), I consistently notice new posts and stories by The Frye Company . I’ve always been a fan of their boots, clothing, and accessories, but I also love the content they share on their Instagram profile.

All of their photos have the same filter to ensure they match — this makes their profile look professional, artistic, and organized when visitors, like myself, browse their page.

Frye’s account also encourages interaction between the company and its followers by providing them with a specific hashtag to use so they can be featured on the page when they post photos with Frye products.

Frye’s Instagram account is a great example of successful social media marketing — it’s attractive, distinctly Frye, engages their ~200K followers, and promotes their products.

But why is social media marketing so important? And how do you build a social media marketing strategy that’ll work for your business?

There are a variety of reasons why your company should use social media marketing. We've created a list of the most beneficial reasons to consider.

Let's dive in.

1. Increase your brand awareness.

Due to the sheer number of people on social media, you're missing out on the potential to reach thousands, and even millions, if you don't have a presence.

In fact, social media has proven to boost brand awareness by driving up engagement, including things like comments, likes, shares, reposts, and saves.

It also helps you increase brand awareness by directing traffic straight to your site. You can do this by including links to your website and other offers in your profile, bio, and posts.

Featured Resource

• How to Build a Brand for Your Company

2. Generate leads and boost conversions.

Promoting and sharing your products on social media is a simple way to improve lead generation, boost conversions, and increase sales because you're advertising to people who have opted to engage with you by following your account.

Here are some examples of ways to use social media to generate more leads.

• Create contests for your visitors and followers to participate in on your social media profiles.
• Include links to your website and offers in the bio sections of your profiles.
• Host live videos to announce new products and provide updates or details about exciting news at your company.
• Implement a social media marketing campaign on one of your channels.

If you don't already have a Facebook page for your site, here's how to make one. 

3. Foster relationships with your customers.

Connecting and engaging with your social media followers can build lasting relationships between them and your business. You can do this by interacting with them on your posts, responding to their questions and comments, and providing them with any help they may need.

You can also ask your followers questions about your products and their pain points or create giveaways to help you build trust and show them how much you value their input and support.

4. Learn from your competitors.

Social media is a great way to keep tabs on your competitors — whether it's their social media tactics, the products they're promoting, the campaigns they're implementing, or their level of interaction with followers.

Social media allows you to look at what is and isn't working for your competition and, therefore, helps you decide what should or shouldn't change regarding your company's approach.

Lastly, reviewing your competitors' social accounts can help you make sure your marketing stands out and is unique to your brand.

Learn how to conduct a competitive analysis to discover how you can beat the competition.

Now, let's talk strategy. I'll walk you through the steps below, but if you're a visual learner, check out this helpful video that dives into everything you need to know.

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy

• Set clear goals.
• Research your buyer personas and audience.
• Determine which social platforms you’ll market on.
• Establish your most important metrics and KPIs.
• Get to know your competition.
• Create unique and engaging content.
• Organize a schedule for your posts.
• Review and adjust your strategy.

Although social media constantly evolves, most foundational steps to succeed stay the same. Essentially, you're following the same steps you would take to create a marketing strategy and narrowing it to a specific channel.

I'll cover these steps in more detail so you can begin applying them to your business.

Step 1: Set clear goals.

The first step to creating a social media marketing strategy is to define your social media goals and ensure that they align with your overall business objectives.

Ask yourself: What do you want to achieve through your social media efforts? Examples could be increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, generating leads, boosting customer engagement, or improving customer satisfaction.

Once you've set your high-level goals, break them down into smaller, actionable steps. This helps you identify the specific actions and strategies needed to achieve your goals.

For example, if my goal is to increase website traffic through social media, helpful, actionable steps could include increasing posting frequency, optimizing content for sharing, or running targeted ad campaigns.

Recommended Resources:

• How to Write a SMART Goal

Step 2: Research your buyer personas and audience.

Whatever Thoreau once said about building castles and setting foundations under them is absolutely true.

Okay, yes , he was definitely not talking about social media marketing, but bear with me — you’ve set your goals (built castles), and now you need to define how you’ll meet them (the foundation). Your goals will mean nothing without the foundation that helps you meet them.

That’s why, after establishing your goals, the next step is to outline how you’ll meet them, and one of the best ways to start is to determine who your buyer personas and audience are so you can target their needs and interests appropriately.

Without knowing who they are, you won’t be able to share the content they’re looking for to entice a response from them that helps you meet your goal.

To do this, consider the people you're trying to reach, why, and how you would classify them as a group. For example, if your company sells trendy leggings and joggers, you might classify your target audience as millennials who like to wear stylish athletic apparel regularly — a style known as athleisure .

By considering your buyer personas and audience, you'll then be able to determine what content will attract the type of followers and customers you hope to gain. Plus, learn how to create engaging content to keep your followers interested.

Pro Tip : I recommend gathering feedback from your followers to get insights into their preferences, pain points, and satisfaction levels. This data can help you identify areas for improvement and refine your buyer personas.

Recommended Tools

• Buyer Persona Templates
• Make My Persona Tool

Step 3: Determine which social platforms you'll market on.

As a social media marketer, it’s important to determine which platforms you’ll use.

I can’t give you a yes or no list regarding which social channels your business should use — it's more about the needs of your target audience, where they spend their time, and the kind of content you want to create.

"It's important to be where your audience of potential customers is today, and where they might be tomorrow," said Andrew Delaney, former social media marketing manager at HubSpot. "It's better to be ahead of the curve than behind."

For example, Gen Z is all about TikTok . If that’s your primary audience, I would consider it a best practice to use that platform and meet them where they already are.

If you're going for that target audience of athleisure-loving millennials, you may want to focus most of your social media efforts on Instagram — millennials are the largest user base on the platform.

Stephanie Morgan , founder and CEO of Social Lock , a top social media agency , echoes this sentiment.

"Think about their behaviors and where they hang out online. If that's Pinterest, use that platform for your brand. If that's TikTok, use that platform for your brand," Morgan adds. "Don't waste time on a platform that your ideal client avatar is not very active on."

When it comes to the content you want to create, consider what each platform specializes in. For example, if you want to share video-forward content, a platform that favors that, like YouTube, is your best bet.

All of this to say, you aren’t restricted to best-fit channels. Having a presence on multiple platforms is important, and I always encourage experimentation on emerging platforms or platforms that don’t entirely align with your social media marketing needs. Not only does it diversify your strategy, but it also helps you interact with the unique audiences and requirements of each platform.

However, I can only recommend this type of experimentation for businesses with established marketing strategies on platforms that work and deliver your desired results. Placing all of your stake in something new if you’re just getting started can do more harm than good.

Recommended Tools and Resources

• A Marketer's Guide to Snapchat for Business
• 50 Facebook Ad Examples We Actually Clicked
• YouTube for Business: A 30-Day Roadmap for Growth
• How to Use Twitter for Business (+ Follower Tracking Template)
• 12 Pinterest Templates for Business

Step 4: Establish your most important metrics and KPIs.

Your social media strategy should be data-driven, regardless of your goals or industry.

That means focusing on the social media metrics that matter . Rather than focus on vanity metrics, dig into data that aligns directly with your goals.

What metrics am I talking about? Check out the breakdown below:

• Reach . Post reach is the number of unique users who saw your post. How much of your content actually reaches users’ feeds?
• Clicks . This is the number of clicks on your content or account. Tracking clicks per campaign is essential to understanding what drives curiosity or encourages people to buy.
• Engagement . The total number of social interactions divided by the number of impressions. This shows how well your audience perceives you and their willingness to interact.
• Hashtag performance . What were your most-used hashtags? Which hashtags were most associated with your brand? Having these answers can help shape the focus of your content going forward.
• Organic and paid likes . Beyond a standard “Like” count, these interactions are attributed to paid or organic content. Given how much harder organic engagement is to gain, many brands turn to ads. Knowing these differences can help you budget your ad spend and the time you invest in different formats.
• Sentiment . This measures how users react to your content, brand, or hashtag. Did customers find your recent campaign offensive? What type of sentiment do people associate with your campaign hashtag? It’s always better to dig deeper and discover how people talk or feel about your brand.

Recommended Resources

• Which Social Media Metrics Are Marketers Tracking?
• The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Analytics

Step 5: Get to know your competition.

Whether you’re just starting with social media marketing or have years under your belt, it’s always important to understand the current state of your industry, especially when it comes to your competitors.

This is where I call your attention to a trusty competitive analysis: it allows you to understand who the competition is and what they’re doing well (and not so well). You’ll get a good sense of what’s expected in your industry, which will help you set your own social media targets.

It will also help you spot opportunities. Say, for example, my main competitor is dominant on Facebook but puts little effort into Twitter or Instagram. Rather than solely focusing on winning fans away from a dominant player, I can also look to networks where my audience is underserved. I’m not abandoning Facebook (because I know it works), but I’m diversifying my strategy and building a presence where an untapped audience is ready to hear from me.

Pro Tip: I recommend monitoring your competitors’ customer reviews to gain insights into what their customers like and dislike about them. Pay attention to common complaints or recurring themes to understand their pain points, and aim to solve those pains in your own strategy.

• What's a Competitive Analysis & How Do You Conduct One?
• A Marketer's Guide To Competitive Intelligence
• How to Monitor Your Competitors' Every Move in Social Within HubSpot

Step 6: Create unique and engaging content.

With billions of social media users around the globe, there's no question that at least some of your followers — or the people browsing your profile — have also seen your competitor's content or that of other businesses in your industry.

This is why it’s important to have engaging social media content that stands out and provides viewers with a reason to click that "Follow" button and interact with your brand. If your content keeps them engaged, social media algorithms will also work in your favor and prioritize showing them your content because they’ve demonstrated an interest in it.

This is entirely true of my social media experience. I follow quite a few brands on Instagram, but I only regularly see content from 3 or 4 because they have the most engaging content that inspires me to interact. The algorithm learns what I like and prioritizes their posts over others, so I only get to their Stories when I’ve relentlessly tapped through every other story (doesn’t happen that often) or scrolled to the bottom of my feed (happens even less).

Not sure what's considered engaging? Morgan has a recommendation.

"My number one tip to brands for creating engaging content on social media is to do market research first because what will be engaging depends on the audience," Morgan said. "When you know what your audience likes and needs to know, you can create content that engages those interests."

Want some hard facts about what content to create? Here’s some insights directly from consumers, thanks to my teammate Max Iskiev's research into consumer trends:

• Consumers spend the most time engaging with visual content, specifically images/photos/infographics (53%) and short-form video content (44%)
• Millennials spend the most time engaging with short-form video content
• Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X enjoy video content the most, and Boomers enjoy images/photos/infographics.
• Relatable content is the most memorable content overall among consumers. For Gen Z and Millennials, funny content is the most memorable.

Another tip to help you get creative is to consider the content your competitors are sharing and how you can uniquely promote your products.

Also, take advantage of the features offered by the platforms you use. For example, you can create live videos on Facebook to share the latest details about a product launch or conduct a giveaway.

You can also use your current customers' and promoters’ content (user-generated content) and re-post their content or encourage them to use a hashtag to share their experiences and pictures with your products.

Lastly, leverage trends. Social media trends are always coming up, especially on short-form video platforms like TikTok. Don't be afraid to join in but you still have to be intentional about how you do it.

"If the trend started happening three weeks ago, you've probably missed the boat," Morgan said. "Catching the trends early is the best way to capitalize on it without coming across as inauthentic or like you're trying too hard, or worse [as] 'chuegy' – see Gen Z for that one."

• The Social Media Trends Report

Step 7: Organize a schedule for your posts.

Using a social media management solution is one of the easiest ways to ensure your content is shared as planned. These tools let you write captions, prepare pictures and videos, and schedule posts in advance. Some even automatically share your content on schedule and monitor post interactions and engagement.

I recently tested a few social media content calendar tools ( you can check out my tests here ), and I can’t recommend them enough. They were all extremely easy to use, and the time-saving benefits are a worthwhile investment for any social media marketer looking to optimize their process and save time.

Here are a few examples of some of your options.

HubSpot offers a social media tool — as part of the marketing software — to help you publish and monitor your content and create real connections with your followers. You can schedule and publish your content in advance and compare in-depth reports on your posts’ engagement to understand the performance of various platforms, types of content, and posting times.

Sprout Social

Image Source

Sprout Social is a social media marketing and management solution designed to help your team organize and plan content creation, manage campaigns, understand engagement, and review content reports and analysis.

Hootsuite is a social media management platform for finding, scheduling, managing, and reporting on your content. You can schedule posts in advance on all of your channels at once and measure your ROI with comprehensive content analysis.

How often should you post on social media?

As a rule of thumb, you should only post on social media when you have quality content to share (meaning that there’s a reason you’re posting it). This can help you strike the right balance when it comes to posting frequency.

Morgan says the top mistake she sees brands make regarding social media marketing is focusing on quantity of content instead of the quality of content.

"They think they need to post every day, so they force themselves to create posts to fill up the calendar," she said. "Odds are, every single one of those posts isn't going to be very valuable to the ideal customer, I've coined this 'clutter content.'"

Instead, she recommends downsizing in quantity and upping the quality.

"It's better to post two or three times a week with super valuable content, versus posting seven times a week with only one or two valuable posts," said Morgan.

There are plenty of studies and resources available explaining social media post frequency standards by industry and platform for you to follow. Every business is different, so find what works for your audience.

I do have a cheat code for you, though. Iskiev, who I mentioned above, asked marketers how often they post on social media, and they most commonly said multiple times per week. This can be a guiding metric but, as always, make final decisions based on your audience.

Look at your analytics to see when you get the most engagement, and create a posting schedule that speaks to those times. Then, you can begin experimenting with more or fewer posts – as well as other factors such as the time of day you're posting on social – to determine what provides the highest level of engagement.

• Social Media Content Calendar Template
• Social Media Content Calendar Template for Startups

Step 8: Review and adjust your strategy.

Social media is always evolving, so it’s important to periodically check in and make sure your strategy is still effective.

I recommend setting a regular cadence for reviewing your social media strategy. This could be monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on your business needs and resources. Use these reviews to determine what's working, what needs improvement, and what new opportunities to explore.

When conducting these reviews, take the time to assess whether you're making progress toward your social media goals and objectives. Compare your actual performance against the benchmarks and KPIs you established. Then, identify any gaps or areas that need improvement.

It’s also important to keep up with the latest trends. Be sure to monitor changes in social media algorithms, user behavior, or new features, as well as emerging platforms and technologies.

For instance, if you heavily use Twitter as part of your social media strategy, consider the implications of the platform's rebrand to X and the new competitors since Elon Musk purchased it.

Before we dive into analyzing your social media marketing efforts, lets take a look at key social media platforms to give you a sense of how social media strategies look on different platforms.

Social Media Marketing Platforms

• Users : 2.8 billion daily active users worldwide
• Audience : Cusp of Gen Z and Millennials ( most users aged 24-35 )
• Industry impact : B2C
• Best for : Brand awareness, advertising, community building

Facebook is the largest and most established social media platform. Since its launch in 2004, it has become an invaluable tool for B2C businesses, offering advanced advertising tools and organic opportunities.

Featured Resources:

• Facebook Marketing: The Ultimate Guide
• How to Run Facebook Ads: Step-by-Step Guide to Advertising on Facebook

• Users : 1 billion active monthly global users
• Audience : Primarily Gen Z followed by Millennials
• Industry impact : B2C, then B2B
• Best for : Short-form, creative video content, user-generated content, building brand awareness

When you think of short-form video , you probably think of TikTok. The platform rose in popularity in 2020 and shows no signs of slowing down. It's one of the best platforms for community building, with marketers ranking it in third place behind YouTube .

• How to Use TikTok: A Step-by-Step Guide
• How Does the TikTok Algorithm Work?
• 13 Best TikTok Tips & Tricks, According to HubSpot’s Social Team + Marketer Data

• Users : 1 billion monthly active users
• Audience : Nearly even distribution of Gen Z and Millennials
• Best for : High-quality images and videos; user-generated content; advertising

Instagram launched 13 years ago and has taken the world by storm. When it comes to sharing visually compelling content, Instagram is where brands go. Another thing that sets the platform apart is its advanced eCommerce tools.

Today, users can discover brands, browse their products and/or services, and complete a purchase without leaving the app – making Instagram a hard platform to beat. In fact, consumers say Instagram offers the best in-app shopping experience , and Instagram Shops is the most popular social selling feature among social media marketers.

• Instagram Marketing: The Ultimate Guide
• How to Gain Your First (or Next) 1,000 Instagram Followers - 31 Tips
• 41 Instagram Features, Hacks, & Tips Everyone Should Know About

X (formerly Twitter)

• Users : 550 million daily active users worldwide
• Audience : Primarily Millennials
• Industry impact : B2B and B2C
• Best for : Public relations, customer service, community building

While Instagram focuses on visuals, X (formerly Twitter) focuses on words. Since the early days of 140-character Tweets (the limit is now 280), the platform has now expanded to include an audio tool called X Spaces , a community-building tool for creators called Twitter Subscriptions, and Twitter Blue for those interested in an elevated Twitter experience.

Featured Resource:

• Twitter Marketing: The Ultimate Guide

• User s : 770 million active users worldwide
• Audience : Older Gen Z (24+), Millennials (largest user base), and Gen X
• Industry impact : B2B
• Best for : B2B relationships, business development, and social selling

LinkedIn is Facebook's professional cousin. It's perhaps the only platform where its audience is clearly defined: Working professionals looking to network and seek out new opportunities.

That makes it the ideal platform for B2B companies looking to identify key decision-makers and build an industry-specific community.

• The Beginner’s Guide to LinkedIn Marketing
• Social Selling on LinkedIn: The Ultimate Guide
• How to Craft the Perfect LinkedIn Profile

• Users : Over 2.4 billion users worldwide
• Audience : Primarily Millennials but has a strong audience across gender and age demographics
• Industry impact : B2C and B2B
• Best for : Brand awareness, long-form entertainment, how-to and explainer videos, SEO, advertising

YouTube is the second most visited website in the world . In addition, marketers name it the second-best platform to build community.

In addition to being an incredibly popular platform, its users tend to stay longer because it features mostly long-form content – making it an ideal platform to share educational content.

• YouTube Marketing: The Ultimate Guide
• YouTube Ads for Beginners: How to Launch & Optimize a YouTube Video Advertising Campaign
• YouTube Demographics & Data to Know

• Users : 4 06 million daily active users worldwide
• Audience : Primarily Generation Z
• Best for : Brand awareness, advertising, location-based marketing

When Snapchat came out in 2011, leading the charge in ephemeral content. It introduced content that you could share with your friends and that would expire after 24 hours.

Many thought the brand would disappear once Instagram introduced Stories, the same feature with a different name, but it continues to be popular among young adults.

• Snapchat Marketing: The Ultimate Guide

• Users : 482 million monthly active users worldwide
• Audience : Primarily Millennials with a solid audience in Gen Z
• Best for : Visual advertising; inspiration

Think of Pinterest as a visual storyboard that allows users to get inspiration for everything from fashion to home decor.

85% of Pinners say Pinterest is where they go to start a new project. In addition, 80% of weekly Pinners say they've discovered a new brand or product on the platform. So, not only is it a great discovery tool, but it's also a way for brands to build their narrative through visual stories.

• The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest Marketing
• How to Use Pinterest to Promote Your Business or Blog

• Users : 10 million weekly active users worldwide ( according to latest data from 2022 )
• Best for : Visu

Clubhouse made a strong impression as soon as it entered the social media world in 2020. The audio-only platform allows people to start interesting conversations with followers as well as strangers and build community.

The platform also gained some buzz for its invitation-only set up when it was in beta testing. Today, the platform is open to everyone globally and on both IOS and Android devices. Another big selling point to this platform is that it works well for both B2B and B2C businesses and leverages audio, which has made a huge comeback in recent years.

Now that we've detailed the fundamentals of each social media network, how to analyze your results once you use them.

How to Analyze Your Social Media Marketing Impact and Results

One of the most important aspects of social media marketing is ensuring your efforts are successful in helping you meet your goals. To determine this, you'll need to keep track of your posts on every channel. You can do this by reviewing and managing your social media metrics.

Social Media Metrics

Social media metrics are data related to the success of your posts and your impact on your audience and customers on various platforms. These metrics may include data about levels of engagement, likes, follows, shares, and all other interactions on each platform.

These are the ten most important metrics I recommend tracking:

• Engagement: This includes clicks, comments, likes, and replies on your social media posts. There are also platform-specific types of engagement, such as " Saved " posts on Instagram and " Pinned " posts on Pinterest.
• Reach: The number of people who have seen any content associated with your page or profile is your reach.
• Followers: This is the number of people who have clicked your "Follow" button and regularly see your content in their feeds.
• Impressions: This is the number of times a post is seen, regardless of interaction. Impressions usually come from someone scrolling through their feed.
• Video views: On Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or any other social channel with video capabilities, this is the number of views each gets.
• Profile visits: The number of people who have visited your profile is the number of profile visits.
• Mentions and tags: This is when someone mentions your brand, business, or profile in their own post. Someone might add your profile’s hand to a piece of their content with a direct tag, usually using the “@” symbol. For example, “loving these new shoes from @nike.”
• Reposts: This is when a member of your audience posts a piece of your content on their profile.
• Shares: This is the number of times people have shared content from your profile to their own or with their network.

You can influence all of these metrics, increase your social following, and improve overall engagement on your profile by using the same tactics you use to generate leads and boost conversions.

Morgan adds that the metrics you focus on will depend on your business’ level of maturity:

• If you're new, focus on building an audience and awareness. Key metrics: reach, impressions, audience growth.
• If you're growing, focus on building trust. Key metrics: Likes, saves, comments, DMs.
• If you're established, focus on retaining and nurturing. Key metrics: Likes, saves, comments, DMs.
• If you're launching something, focus on selling. Key metrics: DMs and clickthrough rate

How to Measure Social Media Metrics

There are multiple ways to monitor your social media metrics. Some platforms even have built-in analytics tools for you to use:

• X Analytics
• Facebook Analytics
• Instagram Insights

You might also choose to use an analytics and tracking tool such as Google Analytics . I view it as a great option if you want to track your social media and website metrics.

Meanwhile, HubSpot’s marketing analytics software is an excellent choice if you want to get a unified overview of all your campaigns. This helps you gauge how each specific channel contributes to your overall marketing goals.

For example, you can identify how many visitors a specific social advertising campaign drives to your website, then zoom in on the details to see how many of these visitors turned into qualified leads or made a purchase. 

Lastly,  remember that many social media scheduling solutions — as we reviewed earlier — also have built-in monitoring and analytics tools.

Any metrics tracking tool you use will give you a better understanding of what your followers and audience respond well to and what you should consider modifying to improve engagement.

Now that we've reviewed the benefits of social media marketing and how to build your strategy, let's go over additional resources available to help you along the way.

There are a plethora of social media marketing resources out there that can help you build a social strategy for your company. Let’s go over some high-quality options.

Social Media Marketing Courses and Training

Here are two ways to earn an education in the field of social media marketing if you feel it's necessary for your specific business situation.

1. Earn a certificate administered by a company.

A certificate is a quick and simple way to gain a deep understanding of social media marketing courses.

HubSpot offers a free social media certification course, which teaches you how to engage with your customers and improve conversions. You'll also get a better understanding of how to develop your strategy, extend your reach, and measure your social media ROI.

LinkedIn Learning is another platform where you can earn a certification and share it on your profile.

2. Leverage YouTube university.

YouTube is a goldmine of educational content.

With a quick search, you'll find hundreds of long-form videos offering in-depth courses on social media marketing. Granted, you can't connect with a live educator. However, it's free and can be a great starting point before you dive into a paid course.

Social Media Marketing Books

Reading relevant content about social media marketing is another great way to learn more about the field. Here are a few examples of some highly-regarded books on the topic.

1. Likable Social Media, Third Edition: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on All Social Networks That Matter by Dave Kerpen

This New York Times Bestseller covers the reasons why being likable and engaging with followers on social media is one of the most powerful ways to grow your base of customers and promoters.

The book teaches you how to make impactful content for your followers to interact with and share with their networks. Author Dave Kerpen also describes why you need to ensure you're consistently delighting your followers to avoid losing them at any point in time.

2. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World by Gary Vaynerchuk

According to author Gary Vaynerchuk, the key to social media marketing success isn't about pushing out a lot of content — it's about pushing out specific content tailored towards your target audience and using the right platform to do so.

In his book, Vaynerchuk covers how to do this as well as connect with your followers and customers on a deeper level through social media. You'll learn how to create memorable and unique content that stands out in comparison to the competition's content.

3. The B2B Social Media Book: Become a Marketing Superstar by Generating Leads with Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and More by Kipp Bodnar

HubSpot's CMO, Kipp Bodnar, writes about the ways B2B businesses can generate more leads and conversions through social media marketing.

There are actionable methods you can take to increase your base of followers and drive leads as well as understand the ROI of various B2B social media marketing strategies.

Emerging Social Media Platforms

Recent HubSpot Blog Research found that marketers are constantly on the lookout for new or emerging platforms.

Though it can take a while for platforms to take off, once they do, you’ll want to have a plan of attack.

Chipotle, for example, was one of the first brands to try sharing short-form video content on TikTok, and it now has a strong presence on the platform. Other brands haven’t been so lucky and still struggle to find their place. (TikTokers don’t shy away from telling brands when they don’t like something and won’t mince their words).

Emerging platforms can offer a new avenue to reach your target audience in a way that may be more effective than what you're doing now. In 2024, Threads and Lemon8 are among some of the most popular emerging platforms, and Bereal is also working to make its mark.

Want to learn more about what's out there? Check out this article on social media platforms to keep an eye on this year.

Start Marketing on Social Media

Considering there are billions of people on social media today, it's easy to see why so many businesses and marketers use the channel to promote their products and engage with customers.

Although determining your company's social media course of action may seem daunting, you can avoid feeling overwhelmed by understanding how social media marketing works and leveraging the resources available about the topic (like this piece!)

Start working on your business’s social media marketing strategy today to increase your followers, improve engagement, and boost conversions.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Social Media Marketing Business Plan

If you are planning to start a new social media marketing or digital marketing company, the first thing you will need is a business plan. Use our sample social media marketing business plan created using Upmetrics business plan software to start writing your business plan in no time.

Before you start writing your business plan for your new social media marketing agency, spend as much time as you can reading through some examples of  advertising and marketing-related business plans.

Reading sample business plans will give you a good idea of what you’re aiming for, and also it will show you the different sections that different entrepreneurs include and the language they use to write about themselves and their business plans.

We have created this sample Social Media Marketing Business Plan for you to get a good idea about what a perfect social media marketing business plan should look like and what details you will need to include in your stunning business plan.

Social Media Marketing Business Plan Outline

This is the standard social media marketing business plan outline which will cover all important sections that you should include in your business plan.

• The Business
• 3 Year profit forecast
• Company Owner
• Why the business is being started?
• Startup cost
• Startup Requirements
• Products and services
• Market Trends
• Marketing Share
• Institutions & Organizations
• Media & Celebrities
• Business Target
• Product Pricing
• Competitive Analysis
• Sales Monthly
• Sales Yearly
• Sales Forecast
• Company Staff
• Average Salary of Employees
• Important Assumptions
• Brake-even Analysis
• Profit Yearly
• Gross Margin Yearly
• Projected Cash Flow
• Projected Balance Sheet
• Business Ratios

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After getting started with Upmetrics , you can copy this sample business plan into your business plan and modify the required information and download your social media marketing business plan pdf or doc file. It’s the fastest and easiest way to start writing your business plan.

Download a sample social media marketing business plan

Need help writing your business plan from scratch? Here you go;  download our free social media marketing business plan pdf  to start.

It’s a modern business plan template specifically designed for your house-flipping business. Use the example business plan as a guide for writing your own.

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Social Media Strategy and Planning Essentials – Strategy and Tactics

Creating your social media strategy and tactical plan

Noun: Strategy / A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim .

First, you need to understand what a strategy is, and isn’t it. A strategy should define the main aim of your social media presence and set the parameters for what it will deliver and how it will be delivered. It will be supported by a tactical plan that defines how the strategy will be delivered, including the channels, resource and budgets to achieve it.

Download our Free Resource – 10 common social media marketing mistakes

Avoid the pitfalls that limit engagement with your target audience by taking a look at our Free guide on some of the most common social media mistakes.

1 - Building the strategy

Below is a summary of key content to include in your strategy document.

1.1 - Strategy statement

A short, concise summary of what the strategy is aiming to achieve, broken down into bullet points. Below is an example from a homewares retailer I worked with:

• We will undertake a full social media audit, benchmarking current positions, implement key improvements identified and develop content plans and styles to deliver consistent communications ongoing.
• We will increase engagement from existing customers and connections, and draw in new audiences - ultimately driving purchase through organic & paid activity.
• We will test and learn about the community and the brand in a social space, in order to shape the future growth of social media audiences and social driven purchase.

1.2 - Context analysis

Set-out where you are in your social journey and where the business needs to be, and the reasons for this.

For example, are you a global organization seeking to consolidate a fragmented approach to social media, or a startup looking to build a social presence from the ground up?

1.3 - Goals & Objectives

Goals define your high-level aims and objectives use SMART criteria to ensure each goal has a measurable set of criteria against which to evaluate progress.

I still use SMART criteria for objectives because they encourage you to think about the practicality of achieving each goal, rather than focusing on things that sound good but might not be feasible.

S = Specific in terms of what needs to be achieved M = Measurable so that progress can be tracked and evaluated A = Achievable so that your team has a realistic chance of success R = Relevant to your business so it’s aligned with overall business goals T = Timeframe within which the objective must be satisfied

Below are examples of high-level goals for your social media plan:

• Complete social media audit and implement actions arising from it
• Create and maintain a social media content calendar
• Begin regular social media activity, in line with strategy and calendar
• Create and work within a measurement framework
• Demonstrate the impact and ROI of social media to the wider business.

An example of a smart objective for goal #5 is:

We want to increase our followers on Twitter (Specific) to drive more organic social traffic to the website (Achievable/Relevant). We want to gain 1,000 new followers (Measurable) from our marketing by 31st January (Time based).

1.4 - Strategic challenges

1.5 - Target audience

This frames who you want to reach via social networks. For this, you need to understand your core audience (personas, profiles, demographics etc.) and identify any new customer types that you want to attract based on your products/services. It can help to split this into three types of social follower:

• Loyal Regular customers who are already connected to you via social media. You want to retain them and increase their purchases and engagement with your social profiles.
• Existing Customer who have shopped with you before but aren’t regular shoppers and haven’t connected on social media. You want to nurture them, bringing them closer to you online and therefore increasing purchase rates.
• Potential People who have never visited the website or purchased from you but who are regular online shoppers, and users of social media. You want to use social media to bring them into contact with the brand, and ultimately move them to purchase

1.6 - Review

Your strategy shouldn’t be set in stone; it needs to be flexible to respond to changing market conditions.

Include an explanation of the review process:

• Who will lead the review (business sponsor)?
• How often will the review take place?
• What data/insights will be used to inform the review?
• What will the outputs be?
• How will outputs be measured/monitored?

Some people include social media guidelines in the strategy but we don’t think this is the best approach. Guidelines are part of the tactical execution, providing a set of rules for the business to adhere to. It’s not a strategic activity, so this content sits best within the tactical plan, or as a separate document referenced by the plan.

1.7 – Related documents

Make sure you include links to all other documents that are relevant to your social media strategy so that anyone new joining the business can find them and get the full picture.

2 – Creating your social media plan

2.1 - deliverables.

This provides a summary of all activities that need to take place to support the implementation of the plan. For example:

• Benchmarking of social media integration
• Benchmarking of Facebook profile
• Benchmarking of Twitter profile
• Review of the suitability of other platforms e.g. Pinterest, Youtube
• Recommendations of next steps for each platform/area
• Social media content calendar (Excel document) to be created, with stand-alone thematic moments, and full integration with wider marketing plans
• Measurement framework to be devised (Excel document)
• End of phase evaluation report to be completed (PPT plus full data in Excel).

2.2 - Channels + activities

Here you will spell out what you’ll be doing for each social network to satisfy the goals of your social strategy. Be sure to include all tactical elements and any related, process, people and tools.

Below is an example channel level plan for Twitter:

We will use our primary Twitter handle as both a customer service channel and a broadcast/interaction channel instead of having 2 separate handles. Twitter will be used to make us feel extremely accessible to consumers – real humans at the other end in real time (so we will initial conversations wherever possible). This will be beneficial in developing brand awareness and putting a real face to the products bought elsewhere.

Key actions:

• Housekeeping – follower clean up, including cross-referencing to email database using a tool such as FollowerWonk or SocialBro
• Following key influencers and thanking new followers personally (and doing this regularly)
• Tweeting at least x2 times a day (using a tool like Buffer to help schedule updates)
• RT’ing useful/relevant stuff (kudos by association)
• Sharing every blog post created twice a week (‘in case you missed it’)
• Important to highlight personal customer service i.e. signing off tweets, not just taking all issues offline/other channels
• Handling negative exceptions visibly to demonstrate that you take issues seriously but taking offline when appropriate
• Being innovative with content formats e.g. testing Q&As with your product experts on specific topics
• Twitter cards will be trialled around product launches or specific campaign pushes.

2.3 - Integration with other marketing

Note down how social will align with other marketing channels so that the people doing the work understand the wider picture. For example, for email marketing explain:

• How you’ll use social networks to promote newsletter content
• How you’ll use apps/widgets to drive email sign-up
• How you’ll use social engagement data to inform the email team what content is working well and for whom.

Don’t forget, it’s a two-way street, so also define how you need other marketing channels to support social. Again, taking email as the example:

• Our social network links will be included in the email footer
• Emails will include social sharing option which posts the browser version of the email
• We will work with the email team to explore how we feature popular social content in relevant emails.

2.4 – Timelines

This is the ‘T’ in the SMART objectives – ensuring each activity has a time frame stamped on it, so you can track progress.

Timelines are critical because they give you a yardstick against which to measure your ability to implement the strategy. Activities without deadlines tend to drift and are often seen by others as less important (if you don’t know when you need it by, it can’t be important can it!).

Note that some activities are recurring, such as posting the weekly newsletter to Facebook. For these simply state the frequency and target day of the week.

2.5 - Measurement

Start by defining the KPIs for your social strategy, which should break down into macro KPIs (for the whole strategy e.g. increase traffic from social media ) and micro KPIs (channel specific e.g. increase RT rate on Twitter ).

You should align your KPI expectations with the metrics that you can track for each social network so that they can easily be measured. Then sense check that your web analytics tools are configured correctly to capture all relevant data.

I recommend using campaign tracking parameters in all URLs you share via social. Using Google Analytics as the example, this means adding UTM parameters for at least medium, source and campaign.

Why? You’ll be able to drill down into traffic from social and isolate specific elements of activity, such as individual links. I’ve used this for differentiating between different content formats, such as text vs. image vs. video updates for the same campaign. You can overlay ecommerce goals and conversion data to see what is adding the most value, and use the learning to fine tune your social marketing.

Include details of the reporting you’ll do to measure performance, and where these reports can be accessed.

Your thoughts, comments and personal experience

So this is step 2 in the Smart Insights 12 step series on social media strategy and planning.

Did you find it useful? Do you think there are any gaps i.e. would you put anything else in a social media strategy or plan?

Please join in the discussion with comments and your own experience. Keep an eye out for next month’s article, “What competitor analysis should we do to inform our social media strategy?” .

If you missed the previous post, catch-up by reading " 6 reasons why you need a social media strategy " .

By James Gurd

James is an Ecommerce consultant and owner of Digital Juggler, an E-commerce and Digital Marketing consultancy helping retailers develop, execute and evolve E-commerce strategies and optimise their digital channel. With a background as a Head of E-commerce and also agency side as Head of Client Development, he has experienced life on both sides of the fence. He has helped companies like A&N Media, Sweaty Betty and Smythson to manage RFP/ITT proposals . and been lead consultant on high profile projects for Econsultancy, Salmon and Greenwich Consulting. He is a guest blogger for Econsultancy, for whom he also writes best practice guides, regularly contributes to industry events and co-hosts #ecomchat, a weekly Twitter chat for e-commerce knowledge sharing. For e-commerce advice and support , connect with James on LinkedIn and Twitter .

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How to Create a Social Media Plan for Your Business

The social media plan is a detailed strategy that outlines how you will use social media to reach new clients, build your brand , engage current clients, grow your business, and build relationships with your customers.

Social media is one of the  fastest-growing  marketing channels. While it can provide many benefits to businesses, it's also why most small businesses fail within the first few years. It would be best if you planned to get the best results from your social media efforts. But the plan shouldn't just include a Facebook page and a Twitter account; it should include LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest pages, a Google My Business page and a comprehensive blog .

It's no secret that social media is one of the best ways to market your business online. It's one of the best ways to market any business, product or service.

Social media platforms easily connect with your ideal customer base, share relevant information and content with your business, and drive traffic to your website.

But if you don't have a plan for how to use social media to generate leads and sales for your business, you're missing out on a huge opportunity.

Table of Contents

What is a social media plan?

Social media is one of the most excellent marketing tools available today. However, unless you know how to use it, it can be both a blessing and a curse. If used correctly, social media can bring you customers and business, but it can do the opposite if you're not careful.

Social media plans are simply a roadmap to show your customers, and even yourself, what your business and brand stand for. What exactly does that mean? It means you have a vision of where your business should go, what it should look like, and how you want to present it to the world. This plan also outlines the type of posts you'll share on social media, the frequency with which you post, and the type of content you want to share.

What Should You Include in a Social Media Plan?

Creating a solid social media plan will include the following elements:

• Vision:  What are you trying to achieve with your social media presence? Are you trying to establish a personal brand , increase engagement, sell more products, or advertise your services?
• Mission:  Who is your customer? How are they different from everyone else? Are you targeting specific groups or demographics?
• Goals:  How do you want your customers to feel when they read or visit your website, purchase a product, or come to your Facebook page? What are you trying to accomplish with social media?
• Strategy:  How will you implement your strategy's mission, vision, and goals? What type of content will you share?
• Content:  What will you share on social media? How will you share that content? Will you write, shoot, edit, or create a collage?
• Social Media Tools:  Which platforms will you use? What tools and resources will you need to make your social media presence effective and successful?

Your social media plan should include pricing, payment options, and marketing collateral.

• McDonald Ph.D., Jason (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 493 Pages – 12/09/2023 (Publication Date) – Independently published (Publisher)

How Do You Know if Your Social Media Plan Works?

There are many ways to track the success of your social media plan. You can look at the results of your content, such as the number of followers and likes on Facebook, the time spent on your Facebook page, or the reach of your posts on Twitter.

You can also monitor your performance by tracking the number of visitors to your website, the types of keywords people are searching for, the number of leads generated, and the number of sales made.

A simple way to track your progress is to take note of all the activities you've done and the results you've achieved. These notes will help you measure the effectiveness of your strategy and will give you an idea of what to change, adjust, and improve.

Once you've reached a goal, evaluating what went right and wrong is essential to improve your approach. For example, if you posted on Facebook but didn't get much engagement, you may need to change your posting times, your image, or the types of posts you share.

Pre-steps to prepare for your social media content plan

You should carefully construct your social media content plan, planned out and developed, which includes:

• Building a strategy  is where you identify your audience and the purpose of your plan. This is usually a very long-term plan and can include multiple years. This is where you work out how to build your plan and determine the tools you need to reach your audience. This is where your plan becomes measurable and realistic.
• Developing the content  is where you develop your content and messages. This is where you develop the messaging you will use to communicate with your target audience. This is where your brand voice comes through.
• Planning the social media post  – this is where you plan and create your social media posts. This is where you start the creative process and determine your social media posts' format, style, tone and design.
• Creating the post  – this is where you create your social media post and publish it. This is where you develop the post and publish it to your website, blog or social media.
• Monitoring & measuring  – this is where you monitor and measure the success of your social media post. This is where you look at the analytics and the metrics of your social media post.
• Developing the next plan  is where you develop your strategy for the following year. This is where you consider the feedback and what you have learned from the previous year.
• Reaching the goals is where you develop your business plan and goals for the following year. This is where you map out your future and what needs to be done to get there.
• Maintaining the strategy  is where you manage your plan, ensure you meet your goals and stay on top of the latest developments. This is where you ensure your plan is relevant, up-to-date, and continuing to deliver value to your audience.

What Does a Social Media Content Plan Look Like?

Here's an example of a social media content plan.

Building your plan is a long-term process that can take years to complete. It is an ongoing process that you will always be working on. It is also something that you will constantly evolve. The content plan is a living document you update, and your audience sees. The content plan will be a mix of written and visual content. It is all about the combination of written and visual content that makes it easier for your audience to engage with your messages.

Your plan is your compass; it tells you the direction and shows you what needs to be done. The plan helps you decide where you need to go and what you need to do. It is your guide to your audience and what you need to achieve.

7 Steps to create a successful Social Media Plan

• Gonzalez, Carolina (Author)
• 237 Pages – 10/26/2023 (Publication Date) – Independently published (Publisher)

A social media plan is a roadmap to the success of your social media campaign. It defines goals, objectives, and strategies to maximise the impact of your social media efforts. Here are seven steps to creating a successful social media plan if you're looking to get your first post or grow your followers.

1. Set Goals

Define your goals for your social media plan. Set measurable goals for your social media efforts if you want to increase your following or build a relationship with a brand. For example, if you want to increase your following from 10,000 to 15,000, you need to know the exact number of people that follow you now. You'll want to focus on reaching this goal by increasing your post frequency, engagement rate, and posting content that will resonate with your audience.

2. Determine Your Audience

Think about the people who will be interested in your content. Who are they? What do they care about? What are they responding to online? You'll need this information to define your audience and select the right platforms for them.

3. Choose Your Platforms

A well-thought-out social media strategy will encompass your digital channels – email, text messaging, phone calls, mobile apps, and websites. There are dozens of social media platforms to choose from, so determine which ones fit your needs and budget. Start with the platforms that are right for your business, your audience, and your budget.

4. Develop Your Content

Your plan should include the type of content that your audience likes. Do your research and understand what's popular. How often does your audience consume the type of content you plan to post? Consider their preferences and interests, and include these topics and hashtags in your content.

5. Create Quality Content

Quality content is key to building a successful social media campaign . People search for high-quality content on social media, so make sure your posts include relevant images, videos, and links. Make your social media posts shareable and sharable. Create content that is engaging, original, and fits with your brand's voice.

6. Manage Your Engagement

It's easy to get distracted with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and other social media platforms. But if you don't spend the time to monitor your engagement, it's easy for your content to fall off the radar. Monitor your social media mentions and respond to your followers when necessary. Don't let your followers wait for a response.

7. Measure Results

After you have developed your social media plan, measuring its success is essential. Monitor your social media mentions to see how your content is performing, including engagement and social shares. Review your analytics to track your traffic sources and engagement.

How to automate your social media plan

Whether it's Facebook or Instagram, automated posting makes it easier for you to follow and engage with your audience. Whether it's Facebook or Instagram, automated posting makes it easier for you to follow and engage with your audience. Here's how to get started.

Automate Social Media Posting With Buffer

First off,  install Buffer  on your website. If you use WordPress, it's a great free plugin. If you use a different CMS, I recommend Zapier, which works with any platform.

Once you have Buffer installed, create a new posting list. When you first sign up, you'll want to start with a standard list, but once you've built a following, you'll want to start experimenting with more specific lists.

Your first posting list should be a standard, general list of posts relevant to your brand, business, or blog. The second list should be dedicated to posts related to a specific interest, such as travel, fashion, or parenting.

Then, create a third list dedicated to posts specifically designed to promote one of your products or services. If you have a product that sells online, this will be the post list that will drive traffic to your eCommerce site.

In both cases, you'll want to create a schedule that sends a message or posts to your chosen list at specific times of the day. This will keep your audience engaged without overwhelming them.

As you become more successful, you can add more lists and post more often. But, for now, keep it simple.

Once you've created your posting lists, it's time to start automating your social media posting.

• Dot Simple (Author)

Start By Setting Up Your Schedules

On your Buffer account, go to the “My Lists” section. Choose the list that you want to send your posts. Then, choose the time range that you want your posts to run.

For example, say your first posting list is for general posts, and you want to start posting to that list at 9:00 AM Pacific time. Enter 9:00 in the start time and 8:59 in the end time.

Then, repeat this process for the other lists. In your case, you'll want to start sending out posts to your second list at 9:30 and your third list at 10:00.

Once you've done that, go to your settings. At the bottom of the window, you'll see a section called “Send to.” There, choose the list you want to post to.

You can also set your daily posting interval. For example, you may only want to post to your general list once every two hours. If posts need to be scheduled, they won't be sent out simultaneously but spread over two hours.

After that, you're ready to go! Once you've set your posting schedule, Buffer will send your posts to your selected lists when you choose.

Using WordPress, you can also schedule the posts directly on your site. That's where the Buffer app comes in. I recommend using the app on your phone or tablet. It's the easiest way to manage your posting schedule and automate your social media posting .

Once you've set up the app, you'll want to tap on the large icon that looks like a timeline. You'll see a menu of all the lists you've created from there. Click on your first list, and the app will start building a schedule to send out your posts.

If you're new to social media marketing , Buffer is a great tool to get your feet wet. For more advanced users, it's a great way to save time and get more efficient with your social media plan.

Creating a social media plan isn't difficult, but it takes a little time. But it's worth it in the long run. A well-thought-out social media plan can help you save time and money when posting.

I'd recommend writing it down on paper and then putting it into a word document so you can easily access it later. I'd also recommend keeping it somewhere that you'll see it often. This will help you stay focused and keep yourself on track.

This isn't just for your benefit, but for your clients. You're bound to attract many new clients if you're constantly posting content. It will also help you stay on top of any changes.

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Last update on 2024-06-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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How to Create a Social Media Plan

There's No Point to Posting Without a Social Media Plan

• Small Business
• Online Business
• Home Business
• Entrepreneurship
• Operations & Success

Susan Ward has run an IT consulting firm and designed and presented courses on how to promote small businesses.

Every  business using social media needs a social media plan. Without one, your company is just wasting its time. Would you really hire someone to design and build a magnificent sign for your business and then stick it out on some random highway somewhere? That's what you're doing when you're scattershot posting on social media. Like any other media, using social media to connect with your customers and persuade them to take action requires a plan and the time and money to implement it.

Fortunately, you don’t need to know how to use fourteen different social media platforms to create a social media plan, or set aside several days. All you really need to do is make five decisions and then follow through on them. 

• What social media is the best fit with your business?
• What are your social media goals?
• How will you measure the success of your social media plan?
• What is the budget for your social media plan?
• Who is going to implement your small business’s social media plan?

Read on to learn how to apply these decisions to your own small business and create a social media plan that will accomplish your goals and reach your customers.

Which Social Media Is the Best Fit With Your Business?

One of the most best pieces of advice about using social media for business I've ever heard was from Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends . Small businesses, she said, don't have the capacity to use multiple social media for business well, so it's important to focus on using only one or two and learning to use them well. This is the first step of your social media plan.

Which One or Two Social Media Should You Pick?

That's easy. The ones your target market is using.

You see, different social media appeals to different audiences. LinkedIn, for instance, is the biggest network of business professionals and Linkedin is the leading social media channel for B2B marketers ( OmnicoreAgency.com ); Instagram is mostly used by young people aged 18 - 34 ( Statista ); Pinterest users are mainly women (accounting for 81% of users in 2018 ( OmnicoreAgency.com ). Both Facebook and Twitter have a much more equally divided gender base of users, although Twitter has a much higher percentage of college users and Twitter's users are generally younger ( Pixel Fish Digital Marketing Blog ).

So all you have to do to pick the "right" social media for your business is find out which ones your target market is using.

How to Find Out Which Social Media Your Customers Are Using

One way to find out which social media your customers and/or potential customers are using is to ask them. It's easy enough to create a little survey that you can use in your store and wherever your customers hang out to collect some data. If your website gets a fair bit of traffic, you can set one up online. SurveyMonkey is one tool you can use to create web-based surveys. Entice people to participate with a prize draw or other tangible benefit.

You can also search online. One of the fastest ways is to use a site such as PeekYou  if the person is in the U.S. ; enter a person's first name, last name and location (state) and PeekYou will compile a report of their online presence. You can see what social networks they use for free. Another way is to do a Google image search for the person; click on the person's image and then click through to the page. Usually it will be a social media profile shot that you can then use to track other social media that the person uses. Often, for instance, people use the same user name for all their accounts, so once you get the user name, it's easy to find them.

Step 1 of your social media plan: Once you know where they are, be ruthless: you're only going to use the top two. If the social media you've chosen is/are new to you, you should set aside time to play around with them and get to know them before you do anything further (ideally by setting up and using a personal account rather than whatever account you’re going to use for your business, so you don’t accidentally poison the well).

What Are Your Social Media Goals?

Now that you've decided which social media you're going to use, you need to decide what your purpose is for being there. For business, social media can be used for the same purposes as any other marketing channel; it's how the goal is pursued that’s different; not the goal itself. You can, for instance, use social media to:

• Increase your referrals or leads
• Build your word-of-mouth
• Increase product sales
• Become known as an expert or thought-leader
• Drive traffic to your website or blog
• Develop new products or services
• Provide customer service

In other words, you can use social media to pursue and achieve any traditional business goal you can think of. The trick, as you'll see in the next decision point, is to make sure you have chosen a goal that you can measure.

The other trick is to pick only one or two goals and make sure that they are complementary. Using social media to provide customer service, for instance, requires a very different implementation than using social media to drive traffic to a website or blog. Providing excellent customer service , though, may be a goal that dovetails nicely with developing a new product or service if you're able to develop that level of engagement from your users.

Remember, for now, one or two goals are enough. You need to be focused so you are able to consistently execute your social media plan. Other goals/good things may happen incidentally, but races are not won by people meandering around.

Social Media Goal Setting Tips

As always when goal setting, your social media goals need to be relevant, actionable and achievable.  

And lastly, don't set stupid social media goals. Your social media goals have to have a demonstrable relationship to your business strategy. I can't tell you how many businesses proudly regale me with their stories of social media success – and then reveal that their social media success is just... well... social. Getting 1,173,000 Facebook likes or 800,000 Twitter followers is nice but as a business goal, it's just silly. What's the value of a Facebook fan? Zero – unless you can prove that he or she is actually buying something.

Step 2 of your social media plan:  Think. Prioritize. Write down your social media goals. Make them as specific as possible. Not "Purple Duds will get new customers" but "Purple Duds will increase sales from new customers by 30% over the next six months."

See Goal Setting: Your Guide to Setting Goals for more help with setting goals.

How Will You Measure the Success of Your Social Media Plan?

This is a step that small business owners often leave out when they're trying to create a social media plan, but it's one of the most important.

Generally, social media success has to be measured by the same yardstick as any other marketing effort; cost and Return on Investment (ROI). That’s why it's so critical that you have chosen social media goals that you can measure.

To make measuring your social media ROI easier, your small business needs a website. (Having a business website also gives your social media followers a destination; in a sense, it operates as a portal for your business.)

Once you have a website (or sites), you can use Google Analytics , a free tool that lets you track and analyze various website, mobile and social media application data. Using the goals feature in Google Analytics makes it simple to see if and how your site engagement goals are being met, for instance. (Note that there are other tools that you could use.)

One thing you may want to do is use the information gathered to compare results across marketing channels. In other words, to see, if you’re using Facebook and YouTube to try to achieve the same marketing goal, which one is providing the best bang for the buck – just as you would do if you were measuring the ROI of marketing campaigns using traditional media, such as comparing the ROI of a campaign of ad spots on cable television with a series of newspaper ads.

What metrics are you using to measure your success? In a survey by The Manifest in 2018,  20% of business owners said engagement was the most important metric while 19 percent chose audience growth.  Other important metrics for small business owners and managers included clicks to website at 16%, leads or conversions at 15%, number of posts at 13% and reach at 12%.

Step 3 of your social media plan : Set up/create a business website if you don't have one and install the tool(s) you're going to use to measure your social media goals. Use them religiously once you start putting your social media plan into action. 

What Is the Budget for Your Social Media Plan?

Fifty percent of SMBs spend less than $300 per month on online marketing while 47% of small business owners handle marketing efforts on their own ( Blue Corona ).

Not that either of these things are a good idea. Make no mistake; there are no freebies when it comes to social media for business. Organic reach is steadily shrinking and if you’re going to develop a social media presence for your small business, you will spend money to have someone else do it or you will spend money to have you do it.

Even if you think you’re doing it for free because using Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest is free and there are all manner of free tools out there to make using social media easier and/or better, you're not, because your time is worth money, too.

So you need a social media budget. How much? Well hopefully, you already have a marketing budget for your small business so your budget for your social media plan will be a percentage of this.

I do not recommend that any small business use only social media to market itself. I'm emphasizing this point because small businesses have a tendency to latch onto anything labeled as "free" and there's been a lot of buzz about how social media marketing can be a low-cost alternative to traditional advertising.

Your small business marketing should always be comprised of a marketing mix because there's no single marketing channel that will reach all of your small business’s potential customers or clients.

One other part of your marketing mix that you need to include in your marketing budget is your business website because using social media to market your small business without having a website is like trying to run a horse in a race without a jockey.

What Else Should You Use to Market Your Small Business?

What the rest of the marketing mix is depends, in large part, on your target market. If, for instance, you are selling internet-based applications to young, savvy, live-on-the-'Net types, online advertising might be the bulk of your budget. If, on the other hand, you are selling fall prevention products to seniors and middle-aged people concerned about senior parents, some radio and TV spots might be your big marketing budget items.

My general advice? Choose the amount of money you're comfortable with spending on marketing – and then double it. I've yet to meet the small business owner that’s spending anywhere near what they should be spending on marketing!

Step 4 of your social media plan:  Review your marketing plan (and marketing budget) and integrate your social media plan into it.

Don't have a marketing plan? Writing the Marketing Plan will lead you through the process.

Who Is Going to Implement Your Small Business's Social Media Plan?

Before you tell me that you're going to implement your small business's social media plan yourself, tell me how many free hours you have in a week. Uh huh. Thought so.

In a presentation given at a Social Media Success Summit , Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends said that she spent 15 minutes a day Monday to Friday to monitor, comment on and update the social media she uses and another two hours once a week to update the company blog. That's three hours and 15 minutes per week.

Plus, she added, you should allow seven to ten hours for the initial learning curve phase of each social media platform you decide to work with and be aware that any social media campaigns you undertake will need additional bursts of time.

Even if you have or can free up those hours now, can you do it next week? Next month? All year long? Every social media platform is cluttered with abandoned profiles.

That's not to say that you can't use social media for business yourself and implement your own social media plan. It's just that if you are thinking of doing this, you need to be aware of the time and consistency demands.

There are an ever increasing number of tools that can be used to automate your social media posts but creating posts and setting them to drip still takes time. 

Some businesses get around this problem by assigning various staff to do their social media. If you do this, remember that the cost of staff doing social media is not only their salary or wages but the cost of whatever else they could have been doing in the time they’re now spending on monitoring, commenting and posting.

If you don't have staff to assign, it's easy to hire someone to put your social media plan into action and manage your small business's social media efforts. If you don’t have the time now or suspect you won’t later, this is the route to social media success you should take. Incomplete or amateur social media efforts can hurt your small business.

Step 5 of your social media plan:   Think seriously about your time commitments and decide whether or not you want to personally take on the task of putting your social media plan for your business into action. If the answer is "Yes," you’re going to be the one to do it, go back to your first decision about which social media you’re going to use, pick one, and start becoming familiar with how it works. Once you know this, you'll be ready to start figuring out how to use that social media to accomplish the goals you’ve set for your social media plan.

If the answer is "No", then it's time to get the search underway to find a person or company that will be able to effectively implement your social media plan for you.

• 10 Free or Affordable Small Business Website Design Tools
• Getting Started with a Social Media Plan
• Using Social Media for Small Business
• How to Create an Advertising Plan
• 10 Questions You Need to Answer to Create a Powerful Marketing Plan
• Why You Need a Facebook Page for Your Small Business
• 40 Low-Budget Marketing Ideas for Your Small Business
• Make Social Media Work for Your Food Business
• How to Develop a Public Relations Plan
• Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Business
• Building Customer Loyalty Through Customer Service
• Small Business Saturday and What It Means for You
• Understanding the Role of Social Media in Marketing
• How to Drive Traffic to Your Business Website
• How to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan for Home Business
• How to Run a Successful Marketing Campaign

More From Forbes

Cultivating connections: sharing your company culture on social media.

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Jackie Nance Sons is the CEO and Founder of Native Wildflowers Nursery . She is a master gardener and loves to travel.

Social media has become an indispensable tool for businesses of all sizes. Companies leverage platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok to engage with prospects and customers and drive website traffic.

But while I see posts often advertising and selling the products and services, exciting and educational posts can frequently do more for a company's long-term success. Industry news stories, inspirational content, instructional articles and other information-based posts can build your business' brand and reputation, strengthen customer relationships, foster community engagement and attract new visitors to a website.

Build Your Brand

People have reputations, whereas businesses have brands. You can think of a brand as how you visually recognize a company. A brand can be represented by a logo, tagline, color scheme and even audio, like jingles. But I find what people associate with those visual representations is what's often most important. Ultimately, the reputation behind your audio and visuals is your brand.

Social media posts can help a business establish and reinforce people's ideas about it. Social media branding strategies include highlighting the unique characteristics that can differentiate your company from the competition. What does your company value? What do you specialize in? How do you fit in the community?

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For example, my nursery publishes helpful articles about everything from holiday decorating to winterizing your garden. Customers enjoy and learn from the social media posts. By regularly posting new and valuable content, you can establish yourself as a go-to expert in your sector. For a nursery, this might include an audience of homeowners interested in planting regionally native plants or looking for creative plant-based home decorating ideas.

Strengthen Relationships With Customers

Social media is great for establishing an authentic connection with your target audience. If customers regularly read social media posts that interest and help them, they tend to then turn to the sponsoring business when they need a product or service or have an appropriate question or problem.

That certainly means a stronger bond between the company and the customer. Any relationship is stronger if communication goes both ways. Posts with a consistent brand encourage readers to interact. They like, comment on and repost relevant content, which is their side of the marketing conversation.

In other words, social media has social in its name for a reason; it's all about relationship building. A regular social media consumer feels or wants to feel a connection to the posting business or writer. I've found that establishing solid relationships with customers can exponentially grow your client base. For instance, if a friend seeks a gardening supplier recommendation from someone who regularly consumes my company's content, that individual is likely to feel more inclined to share my company's information.

Engage With The Community

A great way you can grow your company's reputation is by publicizing its community engagement. A company that allows a school to plant trees or a community to build homes for those in need can quickly and effectively inform everyone about their good deeds on social media.

When employees participate in a charity fun run or bike race, make sure to post about it to rightfully boost your organization's place in the community. When a company does more than sell products and services—when it is part of a community, and people know about it through social media—people see your company in a different light.

Many businesses sell to more than their geographic areas, but I believe that local connection matters even when a company is national or global. If I lived in California and saw that the Iowa company I buy from helped build homes in their area, I would likely feel more positive toward that organization.

If I see pictures of the team members I know riding in a charity bicycle race, I connect with them on a human level. I will care more about the company and its people. Reading an inspirational article about ways to help humanity can also boost my opinion of the company that posted it.

Go Beyond The Sell

So, as can be seen, social media directly helps businesses in several ways. It obviously helps sell their goods and services. For example, when an organization publishes a post about a new product or technology, that's important and can bring in new business.

However, I find that social media can accomplish much more when a marketing plan includes informational and company culture content. Your marketing can become more sophisticated when you publish a variety of content types across your various social media platforms. More informative or inspirational posts can build connections, establish your brand and engage with customers and potential customers.

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Published June 27 th 2024

Social Media Consultant: Key Strategies for Digital Success

What makes a great social media consultant? Here is a guide with helpful tips for success.

What makes a great social media consultant? Here is a guide with helpful tips for success.

Employing a social media consultant can be a crucial hire for a business looking to elevate their brand online and improve their social media management and strategy.

Consultants can be quicker, more effective, and cheaper than employing a dedicated social media management team. There's certainly value in ditching your paid job and establishing your own business as a consultant.

This guide will take you through the steps to becoming a good social media consultant. You'll need to be an expert of the digital age and be able to help clients understand what their goals are and how to achieve them.

You will play a key role in providing guidance on what makes content engaging, finding the right audiences and how to market to them, and the importance of analyzing data.

Different businesses and brands have entirely different objectives and may prioritize different platforms. So, you'll need to have a profound understanding of the current industry trends and know the types of content that work across multiple channels.

As a result, a successful social media consultant will be able to understand the nuances of different platforms and create a tailored approach to meet clients’ needs.

The role of a social media consultant

Being a social media consultant can be a full-time job, even if you only have one or two clients. You are hired to optimize a business’ online presence by providing advice and expertise.

As a consultant, your goal is to provide a strategic overview of how to improve your clients’ social media pages and turn them into a digital marketing success.

The basics of social media consulting

The primary focus of a social media consultant is to help a client develop and apply a powerful strategy that aligns with their values and objectives.

Using your expertise, you will tailor campaigns that will enhance the clients’ brand and drive impactful engagement from their target audience. The strategy must be robust and customized to clearly define and address the clients’ objectives.

It’s also important to advise the client on which platforms to prioritize. Do a full analysis of which ones they are currently using, address what is working well, and identify where there are gaps for improvement across their social media channels.

You should also be skilled in content creation so that you can develop content ideas that resonate with the audience they are targeting.

Start looking at data analytics and how the audience is currently behaving. This will give you a strong insight into the type of content creation the client needs, and help them predict future audience behavior based on that data.

Social media is a very fast-paced landscape that is constantly changing. Staying on top of the latest trends and technological advancements is crucial to your success in the social media marketing industry.

Types of social media consultants

There are many areas that social media consultants can specialize in. You may choose to be a platform-specific consultant such as TikTok, or you may opt to have a more comprehensive approach.

Platform-specific social media consultant

As a platform-specific expert, you will have expertise in a specific social site. So, you might have a deep understanding of how to best market a business on Instagram, for instance.

You might be an expert on visual storytelling, which means you can focus on how to create visually impactful content, whether it's stills, videos, or graphics.

Another area of expertise is the B2B aspect of consulting, where you would focus on LinkedIn and how the client can leverage the business side of their brand.

Influencer consultant

If you’re well-connected in the influencer world, you could specialize in helping brands build online relationships with social media influencers to reach a larger audience through collaborative content.

Many businesses don't know where to start with influencers and aren't quite sure what they're looking for. Consultants offering influencer outreach can get a lot of work if they specialize in one thing.

Crisis management consultant

You could also focus on crisis management, helping brands respond to online crises in a timely manner with a thorough strategy to protect brand reputation.

This is the ideal role if you're ready to jump in at the deep end and help businesses avoid social media disasters.

In the world of consulting, you need to understand your niche so that you can properly address your clients’ needs and develop clear social media strategies. Combine this with a concise and knowledgeable approach, and you can successfully build a strong career in social media consulting.

Building a social media presence

It is essential for any brand to build a strong presence on social media. But not all organizations have the expertise to do this, and may look to social media consultants for help.

Here's how a social media marketing consultant can help build that presence from scratch. 

Creating a personal brand

When helping a company build their brand, you need to understand what they want that to look like. Creating a unique voice is crucial because it will resonate more with their target audience and will help them stand out from the competition.

Take a close look at what the clients’ core values are and how your expertise can help elevate them. This will ensure that their social media channels develop a sense of individuality and improve their credibility.

Ask them how they want to present themselves, and what their goals are.

The next step is to define their audience. Use a tool like Brandwatch to really understand who the client is trying to target and how the current audience is behaving. With these insights, you can successfully tailor future content.

Be consistent because social media users love familiarity, which ideally leads to brand loyalty. Create a tone of voice that reflects the brand values across all platforms.

Also, make sure that all profiles look professional by using high-resolution images, clear and concise bios, and including links to their website or other relevant information.

Engagement and growing an audience

Once you've established the clients’ brand, it’s time to look at how to engage and further grow their audience.

You need to leverage their various social platforms to connect with the current target audience and ensure a consistent voice.

The first way to do this is to post content regularly without overwhelming the audience. Share content that is valuable and informative on a consistent basis to keep the audience engaged.

It’s also important to engage with the audience by responding to comments, questions, and messages. This will help foster a connection with the audience and deepen brand loyalty.

Reach out to influencers who align with the clients’ core values to leverage their followings and increase credibility. By working with influencers, businesses can reach a broader base of followers and built trust with their target audience.

Developing a social media strategy

Part of your consulting may involve developing or at least improving their current social media strategy.

This can be daunting at first, as there is so much to consider in order to make it clear and robust in a way that will positively impact their social presence.

Here are two steps to get you started:

1. Auditing current social media usage

The place to start is a research phase, by conducting a thorough audit of your client's current social media efforts, looking at engagement, follow counts, brand consistency, and ultimately areas for improvement.

Use a tool like Brandwatch to monitor all accounts and pull relevant data. This will give you a clear overview of their social media performance and a good starting point.

Take a deep dive into their content, noting down the types of posts they share, what the engagement rate looks like, and whether it aligns with their brand values.

Analyze the audience demographics and sentiment, to understand who is currently engaging with their content, and if there are any gaps that need to be filled.

2. Crafting a targeted social media strategy

After your social media audit, you can focus on developing a targeted strategy. You need to identify clear goals and objectives, understand exactly who their target audience is, and develop a content plan that reflects that.

Define the goals that they need to achieve with the social strategy. This could be anything from increasing brand awareness to driving sales, but whatever it is, use the S.M.A.R.T framework to make sure the goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound .

Understand who the client wants to reach with the strategy. Look back at the audience demographics and consider age, location, and interests. This will help guide the tone of voice in the content creation process.

Next, you want to look at the content plan to define the type of content they need to share. You can use what’s called the 70-20-10 rule , which advises:

• 70% of content should provide value
• 20% should be user-generated
• 10% should be promotional

Then create a calendar to keep track of posts and bring organizational structure. You can do all of this with social media management tools like Brandwatch .

These two steps will result in having a digital marketing strategy that you can present to the client. As a consultant, your job is to provide social media solutions, not to implement them. However, the client may want to hire you to take the strategy further.

Managing social media campaigns

As a social media consultant, you will often be asked to lead and implement a social media campaign to achieve a specific goal or objective.

This could be part of your business goals, or a new opportunity to work as a social media manager as well as a consultant.

Not only can you plan and execute something impactful, but you get to see the results unfold, which can be a satisfying experience.

Of course, there's a bit more to it than that, but we’ll look at that below.

Executing and monitoring campaigns

You need to set clear objectives when running a social media campaign, or you will struggle to achieve the results the client is looking for. Outlining KPIs, for example, helps you determine success and how to build on it.

Make sure you have a content calendar that brings structure to the campaign and allows you to schedule content ahead of time. You can do this with Brandwatch Social Media Management , which also provides data analysis.

You should also make sure that you monitor the campaigns on an ongoing basis and keep an eye on the performance of individual posts.

Engage with the audience across each social media channel by replying to messages and queries. This will keep them engaged in the future and make them far more likely to return to the page.

Analyzing campaign performance

A crucial part of managing campaigns is understanding how effective they were and whether the results achieved met the objectives.

Compare your results to the KPIs you originally set. Are they on target? And if not, what can be changed next time to achieve better results?

Identify any patterns in the data, such as specific content types that performed well or certain times of the day that were more engaging. Use these insights to ensure that your future campaigns can achieve maximum results.

What’s more, you can compare the results to their competition and see if they are performing better or worse on similar campaigns.

Finally, remember to document the results for the client. Keeping a record of campaign analysis is fundamental to measuring progress and making data-driven improvements.

With Brandwatch , you can easily create and send social media reports with all the relevant data your clients will love. 

Client and project management

Many clients want project management when it comes to social media consulting services. This means that you are responsible for managing social media marketing campaigns across multiple platforms and dealing with your client's clients.

This section will explore the relationships you have with your clients, and the task of managing multiple clients or projects at once.

Fostering client relationships

A key factor of a successful social media consultant is the ability to build strong relationships with the client.

You need to stay on top of things and be seen as a reliable consultant, or clients may drop your services.

When fostering these relationships, make sure you understand what the client’s needs and objectives are.

Schedule regular meetings to discuss progress and ensure they are happy with your work.

Be responsive and timely in your communications with the client. They are paying money for your services. It doesn't look good to be unresponsive, and at worst it can lead to an unhappy client.

Always show empathy for their needs. Clients will have different goals, and some may want more than others. Offer your expertise when needed, but also understand that the client may not want to accept every suggestion.

Make sure you maintain a high level of professionalism and that you communicate respectfully. If you are dealing with a client whose social media knowledge isn’t the best, be patient and explain things in an appropriate way.

If you make a promise to a client, then you need to make sure you deliver. Set realistic plans and deadlines based on the social media audits you've done, so don't overpromise. 

Organizing multiple client projects

Juggling multiple clients and projects can be daunting. Effective project management is critical to the success of any project to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and you don’t miss deadlines.

Brandwatch makes it easy to manage, track, and measure the success of the campaigns. These insights can help you in your client meetings to discuss workload and manage expectations around deadlines.

Discuss backup plans with the clients so that if something goes wrong, they know that you are prepared.

Staying ahead in the social media landscape

The social media industry is constantly evolving, so you need to find ways to keep up and make sure your client isn’t left behind.

Trends and strategies are constantly evolving, and it’s important for you to embrace these changes rather than dismiss them. Here are two ways a social media consultant can stay ahead of the game.

1. Keep up with the latest social media trends

As a consultant, you must stay on top of social media trends to be successful. You can do this by researching and subscribing to industry newsletters for the latest updates, news, and relevant influencers.

It's also helpful to be on social platforms like LinkedIn, where industry influencers discuss the latest technological developments.

This will give you brilliant insights and breakdowns of the trends that are relevant to your clients and help shape their strategy.

2. Adapting to platform changes

Aside from trends, it’s also important to keep an eye on any changes to the social media platforms themselves. They update frequently, and this can lead to changes in their algorithms and data.

Stay informed about algorithm updates and best practices to help you maintain an effective social media presence. Check the social networks' websites and official social accounts for the latest announcements.

You should also make sure that you educate the client on these changes so they understand the decisions you make on certain types of content and how it affects their strategy. 

Monetization and career growth

Growing within your industry is the ultimate goal for a social media consultant, in terms of looking at the bigger picture for your career vision.

After all, you may have become a consultant because you felt you'd outgrown the role of a manager.

This could mean taking on higher-end clients, or even just taking on more clients for your social media services. Maybe you want to become a business owner and bring more consultants under your wing.

No matter your ambitions, here are some tips for growing into the job:

1. Setting consultation fees

Whether you are a freelancer or a contractor, you need to charge your client fees that are fair and competitive.

When setting your consulting fees, consider what your experience is and how that should be fairly reflected in what social media consultants charge.

This plays a significant role in what you will charge, as you need a proven track record to justify your fees.

There is also the actual complexity of the job you are being asked to do. Some jobs take much longer to complete than others, so your fees need to reflect the time and resources you put into them.

It's also important to understand the market rate and adjust your fees accordingly. To be successful in this space, you’ll need to know what the industry rates are by staying informed about the competition in the digital marketing space.

Once this has been considered, create a fee structure that reflects what you bring to the table. You might choose to charge an hourly rate or just go for a flat fee depending on the size of the project. If it’s a long-term, ongoing project, you could even choose to go with a quarterly fee.

2. Expanding your social media consulting services

To achieve steady growth in your social media consulting services, focus on expanding your client list, and finding ways to enhance your offerings.

Attend industry-related networking events to connect with other consultants and attract clients.

Consider employing a junior social media consultant to help you.

It can be useful to find a niche in the market that you can specialize in to set you apart from the competition. This approach can attract potential clients who are looking for more specialized services.

Social media consultant marketing and lead generation

Guess what? A social media consultant needs to do their own marketing to achieve their business goals.

Otherwise, you could set yourself up as a consultant but have no clients.

Here are two ways to prove to others that you're a great marketing strategist:

1. Utilizing advanced analytics

Enhance your consulting services with advanced social analytics and present your clients with a smart, data-driven social media marketing strategy. You can gain a deeper understanding of audience behavior and use these insights to create better pitches.

Whether you are looking at website traffic, email marketing performance, or even just interactions from Facebook groups, being able to demonstrate that you can handle advanced data will set you apart.

Present your findings in detailed reports that are easy to access.

2. Converting engagement into leads

When you are trying to attract new clients, lead generation plays an important role in nurturing these contacts. Ideally, they will turn into clients.

If you have the time, you can quickly create a social media strategy template for a potential client and show them what they're missing.

A savvy social media consultant will also offer discounts for more work, offer to provide additional expertise, and work with a company's social media team to complete projects.

Thinking of joining the thousands of social media consultants out there? With Brandwatch , you can track and monitor campaigns, benchmark social media performance against competitors, easily create reports and take your social media consulting to the next level. 

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Jan 22, 2024

How to Grow Your Business with Amazon Posts and Planoly

If you’re selling a product and you’re on social media, Amazon should be part of your social e-commerce strategy. Amazon Posts have transformed the way brands connect with their audience. Amazon sellers and vendors, in particular, can benefit immensely from cross-posting social content from Amazon Posts to other highly engaged channels. 

Amazon Posts are a great way to showcase products, share customer testimonials, and build a community around your brand. Whether you’re part of the 54% sellers that are making more than $5K per month or you’re finally ready to get started making money on Amazon , Planoly can seamlessly integrate your Amazon posts into your social media content calendar.

‍ Here’s What We'll Cover

Top Ways to Use Amazon Posts

Dos and don’ts of growing your business, how to repurpose content for amazon posts.

Planoly's multi-channel workspace is a game-changer for Amazon sellers and vendors looking to showcase their products on social media effortlessly. By linking your Amazon business account with Planoly, you can schedule and auto-post Amazon product videos, images, and other relevant content directly from Planoly. Here are a few of our top ways to use Amazon Posts:

• If you're a creator, like a content creator for your own candle company, tag your newest scent in a video review
• If you're selling a product, like a sock company, reshare UGC content showcasing your holiday patterns
• If you offer a service, like a vintage clothing resale brand, repurpose an Instagram grid post for your Amazon Post feed

In Planoly, you can auto-post all this content and more if you’re set up on Amazon (see here for a step-by-step guide on how to get started). Amazon Posts are available to vendors and professional sellers enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry, with a live Brand Profile.

At Planoly, we’re creators, social media gurus, and now Amazon experts if we do say so ourselves. So we know that managing multiple platforms and creating an effective social strategy can be time-consuming and overwhelming. If you’re in the same boat, here are some quick dos and don’ts that can help you streamline your social strategy and grow on Amazon.

• Maintain a Consistent Posting Schedule - Much like other social media platforms, Amazon is awash with tons of content every day which means you need to post consistently to stay top of mind for your audience. Scheduling your Amazon Post content for auto-post ensures that your content strategy never sleeps, even when you do.
• Optimize Your Hashtags - Hashtags increase your discoverability to the millions of adults who browse Amazon every day. Instead of trying to remember all the right hashtags for each of your products, simply create hashtag groups in Planoly to easily insert in any post with the click of a button.
• Share User-Generated Content - Also known as UGC, this type of content not only builds trust but also provides authentic content for your social channels. Invite your brand’s top customers to be a part of your team by sharing their experiences with your products.
• Create All Your Own Content - Invite your team members to collaborate with you in Planoly to easily brainstorm, plan, & schedule a diverse Amazon Post feed. That way you can divvy up the burden of content creation in a shared workspace.
• Underestimate the Power Of Visuals - Preview all your content to see what it will look like on Amazon and any other channels you’re planning for before your content goes live to make sure your feed has the right look and feel.
• Ignore Channels Your Audience Engages With - Repurpose content across channels to maximize your reach and meet your audience wherever they are. In Planoly, you can plan for up to 8 channels in a single view, so it’s super easy to cover all your most important social profiles at once.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Planoly allows you to schedule posts in advance, saving you valuable time to focus on other aspects of your Amazon business and your social strategy. Whether you’re planning on the go with our Mobile App or working in our Web Dashboard you can brainstorm, draft, and auto-post content from almost anywhere. To maximize the life of your content, you can create one piece of content and share it to up to 8 channels at once. That means the image or video that you create for an Amazon Post can be repurposed to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest and auto-posted to all those channels from one view. Here’s how it works:

• Activate a free 7-day trial or login to your multi-channel workspace
• Go to the social sets manager page in your Planoly profile.
• Click on the Amazon channel bubble in your multi-channel workspace group.
• Follow the prompts to link your Amazon Brand Profile.
• From your multi-channel workspace, create or edit a post and turn the auto-post toggle on for Amazon.
• Tag between 1-10 products with their ASIN and finalize your post details.
• Schedule your content to auto-post!

One important note - all Amazon Posts are automatically submitted for approval upon scheduling and must be approved by Amazon’s moderators before we can auto-post. Approvals are usually received within 24 hours of scheduling a Post, but manual posting is not available due to this Amazon requirement. All the more reason to plan your content ahead of time!

In the competitive landscape of social selling, leveraging tools like Planoly can give your Amazon business a significant edge. By automating your social posting and seamlessly integrating your Amazon products into your post content, you can save time, maintain consistency, and ultimately drive more traffic and sales to your Amazon Store. Try Planoly free for 7 days to maximize your reach and grow with Amazon Posts.

Enjoyed reading it? Spread the word

Aziza Read is the Product Marketing Manager at PLANOLY. She loves helping people level up their skills, strategies and content from 1 to 11 - whether that’s at work or in her hobbies as a chef and traveler. She always finds joy in creating intentionality in the details of every task.

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Lead Generation in 2024: The Ultimate Guide 

Written by: Masooma Memon

Up to 61% of marketers say generating leads and traffic is their biggest challenge. 

If you’re among these marketers, you’re in the right place. Because in this guide, we’ll walk you through 12 proven lead generation strategies that are sure to drive leads your way. 

The one thing you need to be mindful of though is being consistent. 

Once you shortlist some lead generation tactics, stick with them. 

Most of the time, the problem isn’t in the tactic like the majority of us assume. Instead, it’s in the inconsistency — the haste to see results and, when failing to do so, giving up way too soon. 

With that, let’s dig into the nuts and bolts of your biggest challenge, lead generation. 

Here’s a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit lead generation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

Table of Contents

• What Is Lead Generation

The Lead Generation Process

12 lead generation strategies for 2024, lead generation best practices.

• Lead Generation FAQs
• Lead generation, or lead gathering, attracts interested customers to your business, nurturing them and converting them into paying customers. A lead is a potential customer who shows interest in your product/service and may end up buying from you.
• First, you generate a lead by collecting a contact email; then, you nurture it through the lead generation cycle until they convert.
• The three industry-standard lead generation types are Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLSs), Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) and Product Qualified Leads (PQLs).
• Lead generation helps brands target the right people, build brand loyalty, increase business awareness and create a pipeline of qualified leads.
• Some creative lead generation ideas include writing problem-solving blog posts, hosting podcasts and webinars, launching well-timed popups, email marketing, referral programs and much more.
• Follow these lead generation best practices for optimal results: segment your email lists, craft killer copy and retarget hesitant leads.
• Incorporate Visme Forms into your strategy to collect qualified leads from your landing pages, blogs and digital content.

What is Lead Generation? 

Lead generation is the process of attracting interested customers to your business, nurturing them and converting them into paying customers. 

So you aren’t only going to focus on attracting leads but also nurturing and converting them. But first: 

What is a lead?

A lead is a potential customer—a stranger who shows interest in your product/service and may end up buying from you. 

Not all leads are created equal, though. 

Some leads come from the marketing team and are therefore, called Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLSs) . Other leads come from the sales teams and are called Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) . S till, others are generated from the free product trials that you may offer. These are Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) . 

Similarly, not all leads show an equal level of interest in your business. It’s why you have: 

• Cold leads or leads with next to no interest in your product/service 
• Warm leads or leads with some interest in your product/service 
• Hot leads or ready-to-convert leads 

Warm leads need nurturing (engaging with value) to convert. Hot leads, on the other hand, need the right push with the right offer to convert. 

Cold leads, however, won’t convert—no matter what you do. It’s best to leave them be and focus on attracting and engaging interested leads. 

Types of Lead Generation

Some leads come from the marketing team, while others come from the sales team. And still, others are generated from the free product trials that you may offer. That said, not all leads show an equal level of interest in your business.

These are the best and most common types of leads.

• Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLSs)
• Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
• Product Qualified Leads (PQLs)
• Cold leads or leads with next to no interest in your product/service
• Warm leads or leads with some interest in your product/service
• Hot leads or ready-to-convert leads
• In-person vs. online lead generation

Hey marketers! Need to create scroll-stopping visual content fast?

• Transform your visual content with Visme’s easy-to-use content creation platform
• Produce beautiful, effective marketing content quickly even without an extensive design skillset
• Inspire your sales team to create their own content with branded templates for easy customization

Sign up. It’s free.

Lead Generation vs. Lead Nurturing

Lead generation and lead nurturing are sequential; first, you must generate the lead to be nurtured. Nurturing a lead means that you, as a brand, must use value to engage with the lead in order to convince them to convert.

Looking at the types of leads, for example, warm leads need nurturing to convert, while hot leads need the right push with the right offer to convert. The amount of nurturing differs and depends on how warm or hot the lead is.

Why Is Lead Generation Important for Brands?

Without lead generation, you’re never going to have a pipeline of customers interested in your product/service. 

You may buy some leads and call it a day. 

But be warned: those leads are likely not your target buyers and they’ve never heard of you before. 

So any attempt at reaching out to them will feel like an invasion of their privacy since they never gave you explicit permission to cold contact them.

The question now is: what’s the right way to reach out to leads aligned to your buyer persona? Lead generation.

The process helps you: 

Target the right people 

Valued-focused lead generation that’s designed to resonate with your target audience helps you attract qualified leads . 

These leads are also more likely to share their contact information with you, therefore, giving you permission to reach them. 

Build brand loyalty 

The right leads who find your marketing valuable are not only going to convert into paying customers but also loyal customers. The reason? You’ve reached them out only after they gave you permission. 

Plus, you’ve nurtured them by providing value. This way, they can tell you’re focused on their success — not just making sales. 

Improve brand impact on your lead magnets by applying your branding guidelines. Use the Visme Brand Wizard to not only create branded lead magnets but all sorts of content for every aspect of your business.

Increase business awareness 

Even if strangers don’t convert into leads, seeing your value-centered lead generation tactics can make them aware of your brand. 

As a result, they’re likely to recommend you to others or buy from you down the line whenever they’re ready. 

Create a full pipeline of leads

With the correct lead generation marketing strategy in place, you’ll keep generating new leads, nurturing them and converting them regularly. This helps you develop a healthy pipeline of customers, keeping your business afloat.

When you share lead magnets made with Visme you have the ability not only to track opens and reads but also to capture emails. Add a lead capture form to the lead magnet where readers can input their email before reading the content. All collected emails will be available inside your Visme analytics window.

Opportunity to personalize your messaging 

As leads share their contact information with you, you can use it to personalize your marketing materials . This helps you learn more about your target buyer and nurture them better. 

Personalizing lead magnets is easy when you use Visme’s dynamic fields feature . Create a dynamic field for the target’s name and personalization mentions. Then simply change that in the dynamic fields window instead of having to skim through every lead magnet every time.

Create any type of marketing content with Visme!

• Choose from dozens of professionally designed templates
• Add and alter icons, colors, fonts, images and more
• Customize anything to fit your brand image and content needs

Following a process with your lead generation efforts will help your team do it repeatedly and effectively every time. Over time, you'll be able to build a solid lead generation system that drives consistent success.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

Here is an 8-step cyclical process:

• Analyze and plan a lead generation goal.
• Research the market and conduct a gap analysis.
• Craft your message following brand guidelines.
• Promote lead magnets at the top of the funnel with TOFU lead generation strategies.
• Design and launch lead generation landing pages to collect emails in exchange for valuable content.
• Send emails or make phone calls mid-funnel to potential leads. These outreach efforts are part of your sales lead generation strategy.
• Score leads and add them to a nurture sequence.
• Evaluate results to create reports to use as a reference in the future.
• Analyze, Iterate and improve the process.

On to the meaty part now: the 12 lead generation ideas. These proven lead generation tips will fuel will your success in 2024.

1. Write problem-solving blog posts.

In-depth, SEO-optimized content is an effective way to attract your target leads by providing the answers to the questions they have. 

With each blog post though, make sure you add a call-to-action (CTA). This could be anything from trying your SaaS tool for free or downloading a related checklist in exchange for their contact information. Your CTAs can be visuals that break up the text or popups with a signup form. The trick is to not overwhelm the reader but instead pique their interest.

Image Source

The goal? Get your readers’ contact information (in exchange for value) and add them to your lead nurturing pipeline. 

2. Launch a podcast.

This could be in collaboration with a teammate or you could invite guest hosts. 

Either way, use the podcast to build relationships in the industry and with your target audience. 

For example, at the end of an episode, you can tell listeners you’ve a guide on the topic that they can download using a specific URL shared in the show notes. In doing so, you can encourage them to share their contact details with you, generating leads the right way. 

For successful lead generation with podcasting though, aim to take the same approach as blogging: answering the questions your target listeners have. 

You can even ask them to email their questions to you as Michael Stelzner, host of the Social Media Marketing Podcast does. 

Use a template like the one below to share teasers for upcoming episodes.

3. Try email marketing.

Email marketing showcases an impressive ROI of $44 for every $1 spent . 

Build your email list organically using social media and collaborations with other newsletter creators. 

Remember that people are always conscious about sharing their email addresses. However, the good news is that only interested ones are open to sharing their contact information. 

Meaning: chances of building an email list of interested leads are high. 

Once people share their email though, it’s essential you make subscribing to your newsletter worth their time. Offer them: 

• Helpful content such as quick tips 
• Interviews with industry-leading experts
• Subscriber-only content resources and discount codes 

Whatever the format you finalize for your emails, make sure you consistently message your list on a set day and time. This helps set your audience’s expectations who start anticipating your emails (provided the content is good). 

Also, note that the key to leads-winning email marketing is a non-salesy approach. 

The form template below is a newsletter sign up form which you can add as a popup to your website, inside blog content or inside a digital document.

4. Host webinars.

Webinars are a great lead generation tool. The reason? 

Unlike blogging, your audience gets to meet you live (or recorded) and ask questions. This helps double the amount of value you offer, earn more trust, and build better connections. 

What’s more, you can leverage webinars not just to attract leads, but also to slowly introduce your product to the viewers. This way, you can show (not just talk about) your product benefits .

Use a customizable template like this one to create your own webinar slides.

5. Create value-packed lead magnets.

Lead magnets such as white papers , research reports, ebooks, and more are great lead generation tools . 

And, they come with a ton of benefits. 

Case in point: ebooks . These are easy to create. Simply repurpose written content. For example, expanding on it where needed to make it more in-depth. 

Plus, use a Visme ebook template like the one below for designing it and you’re done. 

The same is true about white papers . However, you’d need a subject matter expert to write the content. As for designing: again pull a template from Visme’s bank and design your lead magnet in no time. 

Similarly, research reports can help you build links — not just leads. Plus, you can use the findings from your report to inform more of your content. 

Don’t forget to create a landing page for your research report so interested leads can easily share their email and get the report in exchange. 

6. Take time to network.

Networking with your target audience is the best way to build a reputation and strong relationships. 

With this tactic though, it can be challenging to prove the ROI to relevant stakeholders. Even so, networking opens doors to not just new leads but other opportunities too. 

For example, your target buyers start seeing you as an authority in your field — based on the conversations you have with them. 

Targeted lead generation increases brand awareness and also brings you more referrals. 

You can use Visme's AI writer to help you with copyy for your lead generation content. It can generate content ideas, proofread and edit your text and even create first drafts for you. All you have to do is explain to the tool what you want it to write and watch the magic happen.

7. Launch well-timed popups.

Often, popups earn a negative reputation as they hinder site visitors’ experience on your page. 

However, well-timed popups with relevant messages can skyrocket your conversion rate — whether that’s converting site visitors into leads or leads into customers. 

For example, instead of having a popup surface as soon as a visitor lands on your page, time it to show after they’ve scrolled to a point. 

At the same time, make your offer hyper-relevant to the visitor. 

For example, if they’re reading a blog post on how to live stream, create a scroll-point popup that offers readers a checklist for setting up their first live stream. 

One last point, it’s important you design clutter-free popups with a clear CTA button and exit option.

Visme's popup form builder is an excellent tool for creating effective, well-timed popups. It allows you to customize the forms based on user actions and site interaction, significantly boosting conversion rates. The 3D animated characters and interactive elements not only leave a lasting impression on visitors but double your conversion rates.

8. Create a referral program.

Referral programs encourage your customers to send more leads your way provided you give them a good incentive to do so. 

For instance, you can offer customers a discount for referring your service or product to others. 

However, for a referral program to succeed, it’s essential you make it easy for customers to share your business. By giving them unique referral links, you can make referral marketing work in your favor.

9. Tap into video marketing.

Although it may seem like creating videos takes a lot of work, the right tools can make everything easy. 

But first, make sure video is your audience’s preferred content format. Then, use Visme’s video templates to create bite-size videos for lead generation. 

You can also record yourself or your screen to create quick explainer videos . 

Want to start a YouTube channel for leveraging video marketing for lead generation? Repurpose your blog content into videos. This way, you won’t run out of ideas for videos to create.  

10. Try social media for lead generation.

66% of marketers say they’ve generated leads via social media after spending only six hours per week on social media marketing. 

So how can you start attracting leads with social media lead generation? 

First, figure out which channels your audience uses the most. For B2B marketers selling to professionals , for instance, LinkedIn is a great platform for lead generation. 

For those targeting millennials, TikTok is a better option while marketers trying to reach seniors should give Facebook a shot. 

Second, develop an engaged presence on the network(s) you decide to use for attracting customers. 

It’s important you contribute with value and focus on building relationships. At the same time, share helpful content — complete with custom-designed social media graphics for positioning yourself as the expert in your vertical. 

Choose if you’ll concentrate on organic lead generation techniques or paid ads to create content accordingly.

Here are some must-follow tips for designing the graphics: 

Lastly, share discount codes with your social followers. This way, you can get them to buy from you directly via social. 

But, remember, never take a sales-first approach — always provide value first to win leads’ trust. 

11. Create a community.

Community marketing has become an important part of several businesses’ marketing plans lately. 

The reason it helps generate leads ? Building a community helps you work with your target audience to help them solve their problem (related to your product space) for free. 

It’s when community members see that you’re an authority in your field and are laser-focused on their success that they start trusting you. The result? Not only will they buy from you (when ready) but also refer others your way. 

Want to double the value you provide to your community? Try this: 

• Invite industry thought leaders for AMA (ask me anything) sessions 
• Provide free (and paid) resources such as templates, cheatsheets, and short courses 
• Host community-wide discussion sessions on topics of your community choice 

Do you love Visme and would like to get first access to new features? Are you a Visme power user and want to share your experience with others? Join the Visme community !

12. Tap into visual marketing.

Finally, design custom visuals such as infographics to generate leads. 

You can also submit infographics to guest sites, therefore, attracting leads from other high-traffic websites. 

Essentially, the idea behind creating branded visuals is spreading brand awareness and driving referrals. 

It works well because branded visuals help you stand out from your competitors and leave a memorable impression on your audience. Take advantage of all the design tools inside your Visme editor; from animated illustrations to your very own AI-generated images .

Use a template like the one below to create your own infographic.

Are you looking for more lead generation strategies? Our guide on timeless lead generation strategies is just what you need. And if you want to discover specific B2B lead generation strategies read our guide with 13 ways to maximize your lead generation efforts .

Lead generation is critical for your business, but most importantly, it’s critical to do it right. Otherwise, why all the effort?

If you're wondering how to generate more leads, here are five lead generation best practices to optimize your lead gen strategies:

Make it Easy For People to Give You Their Email

To grab a lead, you need their contact email first. Don’t make it complicated or annoying for people; make it simple.

Instead of lengthy forms, ask only for an email and name. Instead of three popups, use only one powerful one.

Simply the process of collecting contact information using Visme's lead generation forms . The user-friendly form builder allows you to easily create forms and customize the form fields according to your needs.

Write Powerful Calls to Action

The copy in your calls to action must grab the interest of readers and visitors quickly and effectively. Don’t use vague and superficial words that everybody else uses like “the best.” Write calls to action that speak directly to your ideal customer profile (ICP) .

Segment Your Email Contact Lists

Segmenting email lists helps personalize communication with your leads, especially if you have several ICPs. Use different styles of segments like the lead’s industry, location, or interest. You can gain this information with surveys and simple questionnaires.

Retarget Hesitant Leads

Hesitant leads are the ones that seem like they might convert but haven’t yet. They’re also called warm leads and will need more nurturing than other types of leads. You can retarget them by sending segmented emails, calling them on the phone or offering free trials or gifts.

Use Lead Scoring Systems

Knowing if a lead is good or not isn’t simple. You can’t always rely on a hunch to know if a lead is qualified or not. A scoring system can help tag leads according to specific characteristics. Using the score, you can create a list to show you the best leads to contact first.

Frequently Asked Questions About Lead Generation

Still unsure about some things related to lead generation? Don’t worry, these FAQs will surely help.

Q. How Do You Know If a Lead Is Good?

To know if a lead is good, or qualified, ensure that it checks off all these characteristics:

• You can tell they’re a real person. Look for them on LinkedIn or online to find their name and work position.
• They have decision power. These can be business owners or managers with buying power.
• They engage with your content regularly. Find them on social media and see if they interact with your posts.
• Their characteristics match your user personas. You’ll need to have some type of lead scoring system to really know.

Q. What Are the Benefits of Lead Generation?

Lead generation has many positive benefits for all types of businesses. Here are the most impactful:

• It helps expand your market and grow your following.
• Lead generation can boost your revenue.
• It generates more business opportunities.
• Generating leads reduces cold calling and is more cost-effective.

Q. What Are Common Lead Generation Challenges?

Like everything in business, there are some challenges to lead generation, but nothing you can’t overcome with good strategies.

These are the most challenging setbacks, each with a tip on how to overcome it:

• Pinpointing the ideal strategy for your business. Fix this by doing market research and fostering communication between marketing and sales teams.
• Nurturing leads quickly and effectively. Nurturing the wrong leads or not knowing how to do it properly won’t get results. use lead scoring systems and use sales processes to nurture leads positively.
• Always having valuable content to offer as an opt-in. If you don’t have time to create new content every time, use repurposing techniques with content you already have. Simply add more value to the version you offer as an opt-in.
• Not being able to reach the right people. This is another challenge you can overcome with market research and a user persona profile .

Here’s a user persona profile you can use to set yours up.

Q. What Tools Can You Use for Lead Generation?

For optimal lead generation strategies, you need a combination of tools that do different things. Here’s a list of the essentials:

• A content-authoring tool like Visme creates all the valuable content you’ll use in opt-ins and nurturing sequences. Plus, all you need to create lead generation plans, user personas and process flowcharts.
• An email provider to create lead nurturing sequences and send out emails to hesitant leads.
• Landing pages to promote opt-in campaigns for ebooks, downloadable guides and courses.
• Email popups grab people’s attention and entice them to sign up for a webinar, an event or a special offer.
• Sales battlecards empower your sales team to talk to leads on the phone and convert to sales.

Here’s a sales battlecard template you can start using immediately with Visme.

If you want to explore effective B2B lead generation tools and strategies, read our guide about B2B lead generators . It explores how leveraging the right tools, including Visme for content creation, can significantly enhance your lead generation efforts.

Q. What Is a Qualified Lead?

Qualified leads are the best types of leads. They are the ones that will most likely convert with the right amount of effort from your sales team. For a lead to be considered qualified, they must be real people, have decision making power and be honestly interested in your business.

Q. What Is a Lead Gen Lifecycle?

The lead generation lifecycle starts when a person becomes a lead and ends when they buy from you. The process differs for every lead. Some need a lot of nurturing, while others need none at all.

Q. What are the Best Lead Generation Tools?

There's a wide range of tools to help you streamline your lead generation process. Here are the five most popular options:

• Visme : A comprehensive design platform for creating visually engaging lead magnets , landing pages, social media graphics and more. It also offers built-in forms for collecting leads.
• HubSpot : A popular CRM and marketing automation suite with tools for email marketing, landing page creation and lead tracking.
• OptinMonster : A lead generation toolkit specializing in popups, slide-ins and other attention-grabbing forms to capture leads.
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: An invaluable tool for identifying and connecting with qualified leads on LinkedIn.
• Mailchimp : A popular email marketing platform that includes features for landing page creation, audience segmentation and lead nurturing campaigns.

Q. How Do You Qualify a Lead?

Lead qualification helps you determine if a potential customer fits your product or service well.

Here's a common approach:

• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Define your ideal customer's characteristics, such as company size, industry, job title and pain points. Leads that closely match your ICP are more likely to be qualified.
• Lead Scoring: Assign points to leads based on their actions like website visits, content downloads and email engagement. Higher scores indicate stronger potential.
• BANT Framework: This is a classic model to assess leads based on:
• Budget: Do they have the resources to buy?
• Authority: Do they have decision-making power?
• Need: Do they have a problem your solution addresses?
• Timeline: How soon are they looking to purchase?

Q. What Are the Different Types of Lead Generation?

There are countless lead generation strategies, but some common types include:

• Content Marketing: Creating valuable content, such as blog posts, videos and ebooks, to attract and engage potential customers.
• Email Marketing: Building an email list and sending targeted messages to nurture leads.
• Social Media Marketing: Using social platforms to connect with potential leads and promote lead-generating content.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing your website and content to rank higher in search engine results.
• Paid Advertising: Using online advertisements to expand your audience reach and increase website traffic.

Q. What’s the difference Between Lead Generation and Demand Generation?

Lead generation and demand generation are often used interchangeably, but there's a key difference:

Lead generation focuses on capturing the contact information of potential customers interested in your product or service.

On the other hand, demand generation is a broader strategy for creating awareness, interest and desire for your product or service among a wider audience.

In other words, a well-designed demand generation strategy creates the initial interest to fill the top of your demand generation funnel. In contrast, lead generation focuses on converting that interest into identifiable leads for your sales team to pursue.

Level Up Your Lead Generation Today

With these 12 lead generation tactics, you can attract, nurture and convert leads the right way. 

Remember to pick a few of these ideas for lead generation and stick with them. Give them time to deliver results instead of assuming that they aren’t working.

As for your leads-attracting designs, learn more about how your marketing team can use Visme  and start creating today. 

What Are Sales Leads? Types, Best Practices & Tools

Easily design powerful lead magnets that drive results with Visme

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Create Beautiful Forms That Convert.

Improve your data collection from emails, leads, to surveys and more, by using beautifully designed forms that convert up 2X better.

About the Author

Masooma Memon is a pizza-loving freelance writer by day and a novel nerd by night. She crafts research-backed, actionable blog posts for SaaS and marketing brands who aim to employ quality content to educate and engage with their audience.

How to Do Social Media Marketing for Small Business

Your time is valuable, but so is social media. Here’s what small business owners need to know to make the most of each platform.

Table of Contents

Social media marketing for small business is all about being strategic. While enterprise companies have the luxury of dedicated resources and time, small businesses need to be more agile, nimble, and creative.

You can’t just throw money at a problem and hope for the best. You need to be smart about how you’re using social media to reach your target audience.

Here are all the social media marketing tips you need to market your small business in 2023.

Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template   to quickly and easily plan your own strategy. Also use it to track results and present the plan to your boss, teammates, and clients.

Why use social media for your small business

If you own a business, you’ve likely spent time researching social media marketing for small business. And for good reason.

There are now 4.2 billion active social media users . That’s almost twice as many as there were just five years ago, in 2017. Those users spend an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social channels every single day.

What’s more, social media isn’t just for big businesses anymore. In fact, 71% of small-to-mid-sized businesses use social media to market themselves, and 52% post once a day.

If you want to compete, you need to get online. Here are five essential reasons for using social media for business.

Reach more potential customers

Every business owner knows how difficult it can be to attract new customers . You can spend hours crafting the perfect product and designing an eye-catching website, but if no one knows you exist, it’s all for nothing.

Social media has leveled the playing field , giving small businesses a way to compete with larger companies for attention. By using social media platforms to create content that is interesting and engaging, you can reach a wider audience and encourage them to purchase from your brand.

Increase your brand awareness

A well-executed social media marketing strategy will lead to increased visibility for your business. When you create interesting, relevant content, people will share it with their followers, which will increase your reach and exposure. The more your brand is shown online, the more chances you have of people becoming familiar with it and eventually making a purchase.

Understand your customers better

How much do you really know about your customers? While you may have some information about their demographics, social media can help you to learn more granular information about their interests, needs, behaviours, and desires. This valuable customer data can be used to improve your social media marketing strategy and ensure that you’re creating content that appeals to your target market.

We’ve compiled demographic information for all of the major social networks. Use it to help gauge where your audience spends their time online. But remember that these demographics are just an overview.

Understand your competitors better

Your competitors are online. Period. And chances are, they’ve already put some thought into their social media presence. By taking a look at what they’re doing, you can not only get some ideas for your own strategy , but you can learn what’s working well for them and what isn’t . This competitor data is an essential part of creating a successful social media marketing strategy.

Conducting a competitive analysis can help you learn what’s working and what’s not for other businesses like yours. Don’t be afraid to look outside of your main competitors , and draw inspiration from the success of businesses in all industries.

Build long-term relationships with your customers

Social media isn’t just about posting pretty pictures and witty captions. It’s also about building relationships with your customers . These are the people who will buy your products and services and tell their friends about you, so it’s important to nurture these connections.

Showing that you care about your customers and their experience with your business will go a long way in securing these relationships long-term . And, as fans share and like your content, you rise in the social algorithms and gain new, free, exposure.

Keep in mind, the average internet user has 8.4 social media accounts , so you can connect with them on different platforms for different purposes. For example, you could use Facebook to build your audience and generate leads , and Twitter for customer service .

Let’s explore the benefits of each platform for small businesses below.

Which social media platforms are best for small businesses?

Now that you know how to use social media for small business, it’s time to get online.

As you begin researching the best platforms and tools to build your social media strategy, don’t make assumptions about where your audience spends their time.

Your instinct might tell you that if you’re targeting Gen Z, you should skip Facebook and focus on Instagram and TikTok. But the data shows that nearly a quarter of Facebook users are aged 18 to 24.

If you’re selling to baby boomers, social might not seem like a top priority. But it should be. Facebook and Pinterest are the top social networks for boomers. Adults over age 65 are Facebook’s fastest-growing audience segment.

Choosing your platforms doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing approach. You can use different social channels to reach different audiences or to meet various business goals.

Here are the best social media platforms for small businesses.

No matter how you feel about this social media giant, Facebook continues to be the most used social media platform globally. It boasts over 2.9 billion monthly active users and more than 200 million businesses.

Facebook is a great platform for small businesses because:

• There’s a wide demographic range. Facebook users span all age groups, genders, and interests.
• It’s multi-use. You can use create a Facebook page, run advertising campaigns across Meta products, track audience data, and create an e-commerce shop, all within one platform.
• It can be a one-stop shop. Facebook can provide a full customer service journey, from first touch to final sale.

If you’re thinking about using Facebook for your small business, ask these questions first:

• Who is your target audience? Facebook’s most engaged audience ranges from 18-44 years old. If your target audience falls outside of this age range, you may want to consider another platform.
• What are your business goals? Goals on Facebook can range from creating brand visibility with a Facebook Page, to selling products in Shop or through Facebook ad campaigns. Knowing your goals will help you determine whether Facebook is the right platform for your business.
• How much time can you commit? Research shows that the best way to get results on Facebook is to post 1-2 times per day . If you don’t have time to commit to this, you may want to revisit your resourcing strategy.

While Facebook acts as a generalist platform, Instagram is where you can get specific about your niche. If you’re in the fashion, food, or film industries, for example, odds are most of your target audience is on Instagram.

It’s also worth noting that the platform skews younger—the vast majority of users are between 18 and 34. So, if your target audience is baby boomers, you may want to focus your energy elsewhere.

Instagram is a great platform for small businesses because:

• It offers in-app shopping. Instagram makes it easy for users to buy products they see in your posts, Reels, and Stories.
• The platform is visual , which makes it ideal for businesses in the fashion, beauty, travel, and food industries.
• Instagram users are engaged —the average user spends 11 hours per month on the app.

If you’re thinking about using Instagram for your small business, ask these questions first:

• Does my brand present well visually? Instagram is a very visual platform, so your posts need to be appealing.
• Can I commit to posting regularly ? Like any social media platform, Instagram requires a consistent presence. Posting to Instagram 3-7 times per week is recommended.
• Do I have the time to create engaging content? If you don’t have the time or resources to create high-quality content, Instagram may not be the best platform for your business.

Another platform with generalist appeal is Twitter. Twitter is the 9th most visited website globally and has over 200 million daily active users. Twitter users are also highly engaged shoppers, with 16% of internet users aged 16-64 report using Twitter for brand research and 54% reporting they are likely to purchase new products. For advertisers, Twitter’s CPM is the lowest out of all the major platforms.

Twitter is a great platform for small businesses because it’s:

• Conversational: Twitter is all about engaging in conversation. This can be between you and your customers or you and other businesses.
• Real-time: Twitter is where people go to find out what’s happening right now. This is why news organizations and journalists love Twitter.
• Hashtag friendly: Hashtags are a great way to get your content in front of people who are interested in that topic.

If you’re thinking about using Twitter for your small business, ask these questions first:

• Are your customers on Twitter? Twitter is great for building relationships, but if your customers aren’t active on the platform, it might not be worth your time.
• What kind of content will you share? Twitter is a great platform for sharing quick news and updates, but if you’re mostly posting images or longer-form content, you might be better off on a different platform.
• Do you have the resources to commit to Twitter? We recommend Tweeting at least 1 to 5 times per day. If you don’t think you can commit to that, Twitter might not be the best platform for your small business.

Maybe you think TikTok marketing is not the right fit for your brand. But even well-established brands with an audience well outside Gen Z are experimenting with this platform .

@washingtonpost The Lower 48 states are seeing the coldest temps of the season so far due to a blast of Arctic air ❄️ #winteriscoming #winter #snow #coldoutside ♬ original sound – Colin Riggy Rigg

TikTok is a great platform for small businesses because:

• It’s a level playing field. You don’t need a huge budget to produce high-quality content.
• It’s all about creativity. If you can be creative and think outside the box, you’ll do well on TikTok.
• There’s a lot of opportunity for virality. If your content is good, it has a chance of being seen by millions of people.

If you’re thinking about using TikTok for your small business , ask these questions first:

• Do you have time to create TikTok videos? While you don’t need an entire production team at your side, creating TikTok videos, and posting consistently, does take time.
• Does your target audience use TikTok? Keep in mind, TikTok’s audience tends to skew towards the 18-24 range. So, if you’re marketing to Gen Z or young millennials, TikTok is definitely worth considering.
• Do you have creative ideas for videos? If you’re not sure what kind of content would do well on TikTok, take some time to browse the app and get inspired.

In recent years, Pinterest has grown from a creative catalogue platform to one of the most powerful visual search engines on the internet today. Not only do Pinterest users love to find and save new ideas, but they’re also increasingly using the platform to make purchasing decisions.

Pinterest is a great platform for small businesses because:

• It’s a positive space. 8 out of 10 Pinterest users say the platform makes them feel good. Being present on a positive platform can help your brand’s image and reputation.
• It’s highly visual. People love images because 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Pinterest is the perfect place to share beautiful visuals of your products or services.
• You can reach new audiences. Because Pinterest is a visual search engine, you have the opportunity to be found by people who are actively searching for products and services like yours.

If you’re thinking about using Pinterest for your small business, ask these questions first:

• Do you have enough visual content to use Pinterest? As we said above, Pinterest is a highly visual platform. You’ll need high-quality images to make your pins stand out.
• Is your target audience active on Pinterest? Women aged 25-34 represent 29.1% of Pinterest’s ad audience while men make up only 15.3%.
• Do you have products to sell on Pinterest ? 75% of weekly Pinterest users say they’re always shopping, so make sure you have something to offer them.

YouTube is the world’s most popular video-sharing social network that boasts a potential ad reach of 2.56 billion. Not only does YouTube offer a huge audience, but it’s also an effective platform for promoting products and services.

YouTube is a great platform for small businesses because:

• You can drive traffic to your website. By including a link to your website in your YouTube videos, you can drive traffic to your site.
• You can improve your SEO. YouTube videos often appear in Google search results, which can help improve your website’s SEO.
• You can build brand awareness. YouTube is a massive platform with a highly engaged user base. Use it to post engaging video content that will help build awareness for your brand.

If you’re thinking about using YouTube for your small business, ask these questions first:

• Do you have resources to commit to content creation? Unlike TikTok, creating YouTube videos requires more than just shooting a quick clip on your phone. You should have a decent camera and some editing skills (or access to someone who does).
• Do you have something unique to say? There’s a lot of content on YouTube already, so you need to make sure you have something unique and interesting to say before starting a channel. Ask yourself: what can I offer that other businesses in my industry don’t?
• Can you commit to a regular upload schedule? Once you start a YouTube channel, you need to be able to commit to uploading new videos on a regular basis. This could be once a week, once a month, or even once a day – but consistency is key.

Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.

Social media tips for small business

Once you’ve found the right platforms for your social media marketing, it’s time to start posting. Here are a few social media tips for business to get you started.

1. Plan your content in advance

The number one mistake small businesses make on social media is posting content on the fly. While it may seem easier to spend a little bit of time every day coming up with something to post, this can actually be more time-consuming (and stressful) in the long run.

Creating a social media content calendar can help you plan your content in advance and avoid last-minute scrambling. Plus, it’s easier to come up with a mix of content (e.g., blog posts, images, infographics, etc.) when you have some time to think about it.

When building out your content calendar, make sure to include:

• The type of content you’ll be posting (e.g. blog post, image, infographic, etc.)
• The date you’ll be posting it
• The social network you’ll be posting to
• A link to the content (if applicable)
• A brief description of the content
• Copy to include in the post body
• Any campaigns, special holidays, or important dates to be aware of
• All links, tags, or hashtags you want to include in the post

If you’re not sure where to start, check out our free content calendar templates to get started. Or, check out this handy video for a visual walkthrough.

2. Schedule your posts

Once you have that calendar in place, you can create your social posts in advance and use scheduling tools like Hootsuite to post them automatically at the right time.

Scheduling your posts in advance allows you to dedicate one block of time per day or even per week to creating your social content. It’s much more effective than letting social posting take you away from other business tasks throughout the day.

Automation tools like chatbots and AI content creation tools can also help you cut down on the number of hours you spend working on social media marketing.

3. Commit to community management

Sure, posting creative content is important. But if you want to really see results from social media marketing for small business, you need to commit to community management.

Community management is the process of building a community with your customers through the interactions you have online. This can include responding to comments, answering questions, and interacting with customers on social media.

Think of it as an extension of your customer service. You should be interacting with your audience as much as they are interacting with you. This way, you can create a network of customers who feel connected to your brand and are more likely to become loyal, repeat customers.

Community management is also an important part of ranking in social media algorithms . Platforms reward users who are active and engaged , so the more you interact with your audience, the more likely you are to show up in their feeds.

Use Hootsuite Streams to like, comment, reply, and engage with your target audience. You can also use Hootsuite Inbox to keep track of all the conversations you need to be a part of, without missing anything important.

4. Pay attention to trends

We’re not saying you should leap on every meme that goes viral. (In fact, please don’t leap on every meme that goes viral.)

But, it is a good idea to pay attention to trends in social media , so you understand what people are looking for when they sign into their social channels. This helps you create appropriate content that resonates over time.

If you have time to dedicate to it, social listening is a highly valuable information-gathering tool that can help you understand what your audience (and potential audience) might want to hear from your business. It’s extremely easy to do with a tool like Hootsuite.

You can simply set up a stream for mentions of your brand on different social channels, so you can respond to concerns or positive reviews immediately and keep tabs on sentiment regarding your business.

5. Sell products on social

Social media marketing has evolved in recent years to include social commerce : the ability to sell your products directly from social channels. And business is booming, with a projected global market value of $492 billion in 2022 .

Almost every social platform now boasts some form of social selling . There are Facebook and Instagram Shops , Pinterest Buyable Pins , the TikTok Shop , and more.

Social commerce is a particularly useful tactic for small businesses in the ecommerce or retail space. The beauty of it is that you can cut down many of the friction points that come with selling online. Your potential customers are already on social media, so they don’t need to go through the process of visiting your website and navigating to your product pages. And since you’re meeting them where they already are , you have a much better chance of making a sale.

6. Use analytics to guide future posts

Even for small businesses, it’s important to keep track of what works and what doesn’t on social . Social media analytics tools can help you track your progress over time and identify which posts are generating the most engagement—likes, comments, shares, clicks, etc.

This data can be extremely valuable as you plan future content . If you see that a particular type of post is doing well, try to replicate that success in future posts. And if you notice that a certain type of post isn’t performing well, experiment with new content to see if you can find a better way to engage your audience.

Analytics can also help you understand which social media platform is working best for your business. If you see that you’re getting more engagement on one platform than another, you may want to consider making a switch. You don’t have to be everywhere, so stick to the platforms that are giving you the best results.

Social media management tools for small business

If you’re like most small business owners, you wear a lot of hats. You’re the CEO, the CFO, and the superstar sales team. It’s no wonder marketing often falls by the wayside!

But even if you’re not a marketing pro, that doesn’t mean you can’t effectively market your business on social media. In fact, with a little help from the right tools , you can actually save time and energy by using social media to reach your target audience.

Obviously we’re a bit biased, but we think Hootsuite is especially helpful for small business owners. Hootsuite is a social media management platform that gives you the ability to track and post to all your social media channels in one place , which will save you a lot of time in the long run.

It also offers recommendations on when to post, what kind of content to post, and how to interpret your performance . So it’s a beginner-friendly platform for people who don’t have a lot of time to waste on creating the perfect strategy.

Don’t believe us? Check out this 5-star review from Todd W., who doesn’t have a ton of people to help him do his social media marketing.

“Hootsuite has proven invaluable as we work to plan our social media calendar for the month – especially with limited staff . We’re able to create and schedule posts and see where our planning leaves “gaps” in our social media coverage” – Todd W.

One last Hootsuite feature we think is super useful for time-strapped small business owners?

If you’re ever stuck for content ideas, just go to the Inspiration tab and use a template to get started.

What about the native tools?

Hey, we understand that splurging on yet another monthly subscription might not be in the cards for your small business —especially when the networks offer free tools. But here’s the thing: those native tools come with limitations.

For example, let’s say you want to post the same message on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. With most social media management tools, you’d have to type that message three times—once for each network. But with Hootsuite, you can compose one message and post it to all three networks at once . That means less time spent on social media, and more time spent growing your business.

Plus, the free tools offered by the networks only give you limited insights into your social media performance. With Hootsuite Analytics, you can track your posts and tweets to see which ones are getting the most engagement, so you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

So if you’re serious about using social media to grow your small business, investing in a tool like Hootsuite might actually save you money in the long run.

Save time and grow your small business using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can publish and schedule messages to all your social media channels, engage your followers, and monitor what people are saying about your brand online. Try it free today.

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Do it better with Hootsuite , the all-in-one social media tool. Stay on top of things, grow, and beat the competition.

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Hannah Macready is a freelance writer with 12 years of experience in social media and digital marketing. Her work has appeared in publications such as Fast Company and The Globe & Mail, and has been used in global social media campaigns for brands like Grosvenor Americas and Intuit Mailchimp. In her spare time, Hannah likes exploring the outdoors with her two dogs, Soup and Salad.

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Social Media Management

What is social media management? Everything you need to know

Explore the ins and outs of social media management with this complete guide. We unpack the key components of social media management and what’s critical to make sure your brand stays relevant.

Reading time  12 minutes

Published on  June 10, 2023

Table of Contents

• Social media management is the process of creating and scheduling content to grow and nurture an audience across social media platforms. It's about strategically creating content, fostering connections and building a loyal audience.
• Effective social media management goes beyond posting great content. It's about nurturing a community. It helps businesses build relationships with their target audience to increase brand awareness and loyalty.
• Successful social media management requires a team with a variety of skills. Important skills your team should hold include creativity, adaptability and critical thinking.

Social media management is a catalyst for positive business impact. A strong social media presence amplifies a brand’s awareness, supports customer care and extends reach to new audiences. Effective influencer collaborations can create lasting audience connections. Well-timed creative visuals and copy can change how consumers perceive an organization.

Over the past few years, we’ve watched businesses like Duolingo and Patagonia earn new fans—and customers—from their innovative brand accounts. Their success is part of a carefully crafted approach to building and maintaining a social media marketing strategy .

In this guide, we’re breaking down all the moving parts that go into making social strategies run smoothly. Use these social media management fundamentals to inform your company’s processes, so you can build a follow-worthy presence across the platforms that matter most.

What is social media management?

Social media management is the ongoing process of creating and scheduling content designed to grow and nurture an audience across social media platforms . This includes, but isn't limited to:

• Social media content strategy
• Online reputation management
• Community management and programming
• Paid social media strategy and execution
• Team member management and development

The benefits of social media management go far beyond raising brand awareness and staying current on the latest internet trends. The channel is key to building personal connections with target audiences at scale.

The evolution of social media management

The definition of social media management is anything but fixed. Platforms and trends are constantly changing, meaning the responsibilities that go into managing a brand account are always changing too.

For example, in less than a few years, we’ve seen the creator economy completely transform how we post on social. The rise of social messaging has brought conversations from public to private, creating more personal connections between people and the brands they love. Social commerce has revolutionized how business leaders perceive the channel, taking it from awareness-focused to a full-funnel experience.  Artificial intelligence (AI) marketing tools empower professionals to support content creation, customer personalization and data analytics.

These developments prove one thing: Social is driving how consumers interact with businesses, making social media roles business critical.

The role of a social media manager

Social media managers are responsible for developing the strategies that maintain and grow a social presence, on top of administrative and team development tasks. Any given day might involve content creation, campaign strategies, career planning, reporting—the list goes on.

Being successful in such a fluid role requires a unique set of skills, including but not limited to:

• Adaptability
• Organization
• Critical thinking

Combined, these talents help social media professionals manage the evolving needs of this business-critical channel.

How to manage social media profiles

It's both an art and a science to manage social media accounts . Your data can give you a good idea of how to spend your resources—in terms of both money and time—but social moves fast. The platform delivering results today might take a dip tomorrow.

Diversifying your network strategy is a reliable way to make sure you’re ready for whatever challenges are thrown at you. An algorithm update on one platform is less of a shock to the system if you have a well-maintained presence across the social landscape.

This is where a social media management tool becomes a must-have. Posting natively (logging into each social network individually to post) across social media profiles is a huge time commitment. Factor in engagement and monitoring, and it becomes more than a full-time job.

Tools like Sprout help businesses scale social operations sustainably . Publishing workflows support customization by network while minimizing risk. After all, managing quality control is much harder when your team is running social natively.

These publishing and scheduling features automate and complement existing processes so you can get out of the weeds and into the bigger picture.

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Find your brand’s target audience on social

The key to creating impactful content is identifying your target audience. These are the people that sit within your brand’s total addressable market. Zeroing in on these individuals will allow you to create more effective messaging across your social media profiles.

To better find and appeal to your brand’s target audience , ask the following questions:

• Who's your current audience?
• What kind of information are they looking for and why?
• Where do they go for this information?
• What topics and cultural moments interest them?
• Which brands do they trust and what can you learn from them?

The answers to these prompts will inform your approach to social—what platforms you’re present on, how your brand sounds online, what trends appeal to your audience and how you connect with customers.

Getting to know your audience isn't a one-time-only practice. Asking yourself and your team these questions on a routine basis can keep everyone in a customer-first mindset.

Social media planning and content creation

Content creation is a fundamental aspect of social media management. According to The Sprout Social Index™ 2023 , people aren’t using their favorite social networks for just connecting with friends and family—they’re using social to discover new brands, discover deals and watch entertaining content. A majority (68%) of consumers say they primarily follow brands to stay informed about new products and services.

A successful social media management strategy will create lasting connections with your audience, but the competition is stiff. On social, you’re up against direct competitors and other elements vying for attention on these platforms. Marketers need to account for other sources of content, like media outlets, publications and creators. They also have to consider the audience social media was originally built for: friends and family. Brands aren’t just competing against other brands, but against a best friend’s vacation photo dump and cute pet photos.

To stand out, you’ll also need to know what people want. Index data shows that consumers want more authentic, non-promotional content, transparency about business practices and sourcing, educational posts and customer testimonials from brands.

Our data serves as a great benchmark, but remember to pay attention to what your specific audience seeks from your brand on social. Does your audience enjoy funny or educational content? Commentary on trending topics? A community? Tips and tricks? Finding out where you fit can help your business maintain relevance in an always-on social landscape.

Centering your audience also supports your content planning. For example, if you discover your audience wants more short-form videos, you can plan for this with your content calendar .

Video is a powerful way to capture your audience’s attention without requiring a major time commitment on their end. However, a diversified social media marketing strategy makes use of all types of content. This may seem overwhelming, but it’s‌ an opportunity to save time and resources because you can repurpose and reuse the content you create to further promote your brand.

You can use a single live video stream to create dozens of short-form video clips, GIFs, text posts and more. At Sprout, we use our Social Creatures podcast to inform posts across networks like Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok.

Team member management

Data from The Sprout Social Index shows 64% of modern social media teams are organized by network, which means one member is responsible for a specific platform. For example, one member might oversee only TikTok while another focuses on Instagram.

This popular structure is changing as consumer preferences shift and new platforms emerge. Teams must commit to ongoing development and nurture social media skills that prepare them for a changing landscape.

Here are four skills to work on as you build your social media team :

• Reporting and analytics : As you move into a people management position, you’ll find yourself having to speak for your team’s efforts more often. Understanding how to gather and synthesize information through storytelling with data is key to explaining the impact of your social media management strategy.
• Time management : This one is especially critical in hybrid or remote work . Stand-ups, one-on-ones, project kickoffs and all the other meetings that need to happen to execute a strategy can quickly eat away at your calendar. Protect your time by scheduling designated focus hours and conducting regular meeting audits.
• Feedback : Being able to give and receive constructive feedback is more than a skill. It’s a catalyst for improving performance and a pillar of workplace culture. Gallup data shows employees are 3.6 times more likely to strongly agree they're motivated to do outstanding work when their manager provides daily (vs. annual) feedback.
• Empathy : Most social media professionals have to stay online through brand crises, world tragedies and times of uncertainty. Don’t wait until someone is battling social media burnout to start taking preventative measures. Advocate for your team and keep mental health at the forefront of your conversations.

Reputation management

Have you ever thought about buying from a company only to find out they have poor online reviews? Did you follow through on that purchase? If you didn’t, you’re not alone.

A Brightlocal study shows 91% of consumers say local branch reviews influence their overall perceptions of brands. Consumers also use social networks like Instagram (34%) and TikTok (23%) to research businesses as alternatives to local business review platforms.

Social media reputation management is a critical yet often overlooked aspect of social media management. While it may not fall under a social practitioner’s core responsibilities, it’s vital to the success of all businesses.

If you’re new to reputation management , here are three rules to guide your strategy:

1. Ask for reviews with tact

Don’t wait for reviews to roll in on their own. But how do you ask for reviews effectively?

Reach out to fans and power users to see if they’d be interested in sharing their experiences with your product or services. Be sure to make the process as easy as possible. Providing a specific prompt or template can increase customer follow-through.

2. Respond to both the good and the bad

That same BrightLocal survey found 88% of consumers would use a business that responds to positive and negative reviews, compared to 47% that said they'd consider using a business that doesn’t respond to any reviews. Responding to negative reviews is difficult but a powerful way to show consumers you value and respect their feedback.

3. Be proactive about risk management

Feedback won’t always come through direct channels. People often talk about your business on their personal profiles without tagging or mentioning your brand account.

A social listening strategy helps you stay on top of the many conversations surrounding your business and industry. A social listening tool like Sprout supports an opportunity-driven brand reputation management strategy that helps you create lasting connections with your audience.

Customer care

Providing excellent social media customer service supports reputation management, boosts customer loyalty and increases brand awareness. Index data shows a majority of consumers (76%) notice and appreciate when companies prioritize customer support. Consumers (70%) also expect brands to provide personalized responses to customer service needs.

To meet these expectations, social teams must anticipate customer needs and take a proactive approach to customer care. This can be achieved through:

• Self-service tools like FAQs and help center
• Educational social media content about your product and services
• Interacting with customers throughout the buyer journey
• Responding to customer complaints, concerns and questions from social

Being responsive and providing ample resources will help your social team support customer care and mitigate potential crises.

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has transformed over the past decade. Brands are working with influencers that have various following sizes and different niches to nurture community, build trust and appeal to new audiences.

Knowing how to find and choose the right influencers for your social campaigns, along with understanding how to define and measure success, is a necessary part of social media management. You also need to consider which influencer marketing trends are relevant to your industry and target audiences.

For example, The 2024 Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report found the food and drink, beauty and fashion industries are the most popular influencer marketing topics across all consumers.

Social media management and scheduling tools

Managing an active social media presence with native publishing tools was challenging five years ago. Today, it's virtually impossible to do it alone. Between sharing content, responding to consumers and managing paid initiatives, social media calendars are more jam-packed than ever. Businesses must invest in social media management and scheduling tools to keep up with the demands of a modern social media strategy.

The benefits of a social media management tool include, but aren’t limited to the following:

• Increased brand awareness with optimized post times for improved performance.
• Better engagement by consolidating inbound messages into a single location for faster response times.
• Improved analytics that provide a more holistic view into the overall performance of your social strategy.
• Increased time savings through automation and capabilities like post scheduling, enabling you to manage multiple social media accounts from one dashboard and removing the need to log in to platforms separately
• Improved collaboration through task assignments, editorial calendars‌ and approval workflows, which streamline the content creation and posting process.

Adopting a social media management tool enriches your entire marketing tech stack , making it easier to connect the dots on social's impact across your organization.

Managing a social media calendar

Your social media content strategy outlines the overarching themes that inform your publishing schedule and how it relates to business goals. Your social media content calendar provides a more granular look at what you're posting and when across platforms.

In an ideal state, your content calendar can support organization and brainstorming. A bird's eye view of your upcoming social media posts can help determine if you're hitting the content mix outlined in your strategy.

For example, say recruiting top talent is a high priority for your business. A look at your social media content calendar can tell you whether you have enough employer brand posts scheduled over the next week or month.

This visibility will make it easier to identify which content themes need more attention. Pro tip: If you're using Sprout, you can use Calendar Notes  to keep track of potential content ideas.

Paid social media ads

If you’re weighing the merits of relying on organic vs. paid social media , don’t worry—there’s no need to choose.

Your organic efforts support long-term relationships with your followers. Your social media advertising strategy, on the other hand, will help you reach new audiences quickly and reliably through targeting.

Manage your social media organic and paid efforts together to keep your brand top of mind with existing and prospective customers. If you can manage them within the same tool, that’s even better.

For example, Sprout supports in-platform paid social promotion and reporting so marketers can keep their finger on the pulse of their performance. That way, you can make sure you spend money effectively and adjust the budget if needed.

Social media community management

Online communities have been around for a while, but they’ve never been more important than they are today. Take Oatly’s TikTok account for instance. The food company joined the platform in October 2022 , earning over 600,000 followers and 8.5 million likes in only six months.

Oatly uses the TikTok comments to showcase their brand voice, interact with their audience and respond to organic conversations. For example, when comedian Simon David made a funny video about Oatly’s theme song, the brand responded quickly in the comments. Their comment earned over 20,000 likes—almost a third of all likes on the video.

This example shows how conversations with your community don't have to be product-focused all the time. Posts that aren’t product-related still provide social teams with an invaluable look into the needs of their audience. If you want to stay in tune with your target audience, you must use community management on social media to give them a place to make connections.

Like Rome, building an active social community isn’t possible in a day. Whether it’s the TikTok comments or Facebook Groups , if you’re launching a new program or an entirely new community, take a slow and steady approach. Consider starting with an invite-only or beta program designed for loyal customers and power users to test-drive your strategy. Once you’re in a groove, you can expand to a larger audience.

Additional social media management resources

If you’re looking for more resources on social media management, we’ve gathered additional reads below:

• Sprout’s social media management software
• Social media management tools
• Social media management costs
• Influencer pricing
• Social media analytics and reporting guide
• Community management on social media

Navigate the changing world of social media management with confidence

Social media provides businesses with the insights and intelligence needed to understand where they fit in today’s cultural landscape. A strong social media management strategy does more than just maintain an online presence. It can help a brand gain relevance, earn fans and future-proof itself for years to come.

When you take native publishing out of the equation, you open your team up to a world of possibilities. Sprout’s social media management tools minimize manual efforts so you can focus on strengthening your strategy and connecting with your customers. Try out Sprout for yourself and sign up for a free 30-day trial .

Social media management is important for companies because a strong online presence contributes to quality community engagement, brand reputation and customer care. A successful social media management strategy fosters brand awareness and loyalty.

Social media’s primary business function is marketing and customer service. By publishing relevant content and communicating directly with customers, brands can identify opportunities to improve their products and services. Effective social media management can also contribute to sales and improve targeted efforts like influencer marketing where a strategic approach is key to success.

Additional resources for Social Media Management

• Social Media Strategy

How to manage multiple Instagram accounts for one brand

What social media tasks to automate and what to personalize

• Leveling Up
• Sprout in Action

5 best practices for optimizing your social media workflow

• Social Media Scheduling

Reclaim your day with a social media time tracker template

• Social Media Engagement
• Social Media Publishing

Top 18 social media management tools for businesses in 2024

19 social media tools for your brand in 2024

Salesforce’s social media team saves 12,000 hours in first year using Sprout Social

Social media management costs for businesses in 2024

• Social Media Analytics

Find Your Next Social Media Management Tool With This Scorecard

Social Media Management Buyer’s Guide

• Marketing Disciplines

7 social media management integrations brands need

Social media management services: 9 agencies your brand should check out

17 social media management tips for productivity and organization

10 tips on how to effectively manage your Instagram followers

• Customer Care

Sprout Social helps keep NJ TRANSIT’s social strategy on track

Plan, launch, report: How to master social media campaign management

The right time to invest in new enterprise social media software

• Higher Education

How to manage multiple Twitter accounts easily

• Community Management

Indiana University uses Sprout to empower decision making

How Telfer School of Management connects to what matters with Sprout Social

• Media & Entertainment

How to build a brand with celebrity social media management

How Benefit turns cosmetics into connection using Sprout Social

How Loews Hotels & Co succeeds at scale with Sprout Social’s all-in-one platform

How the University of North Dakota Optimizes Performance Using Sprout Social

Northwestern Settlement Uses Sprout Social to Save Time, Engage Target Audiences

How the City of Lenexa Engages its Citizenry Using Sprout Social

How Sprout Social Empowers the St. Louis Blues Online and in the Arena

Digital Natives Group Doubled Its Average Client Retainer With Sprout Social’s Agency Partner Program

How KISS Slays in Style on Social Media by Using Sprout Social

• Real Estate

KETTLER Uses Sprout Social to Engage Customers Across Broad Real Estate Portfolio

How Sprout Social Made Implementation a Pain-free Process for Atlantic Lottery

How American City Business Journals Efficiently Manages Its 43 Markets on LinkedIn

Using Sprout to Strengthen the Content Strategy of a Franchise

Build and grow stronger relationships on social

Sprout Social helps you understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection.

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Bringing a new lateral into your law firm is a major investment, and it’s important to get it right for both the new hire and the firm. A solid marketing plan is key to making sure their transition is smooth and successful. Effective marketing helps the new lateral establish their presence, build their network and become a valuable asset to the firm and the industry. This means updating profiles, using social media smartly, connecting with clients and industry contacts, and continuous business development. Here’s a detailed plan with actionable steps to help you get started and ensure your new hire’s success.

Marketing Basics for Your Lateral Hire

• Update Bio and Representative Matters List : Ensure the new lateral’s bio is updated with their latest achievements and experience. Create or update the representative matters list to highlight their most significant cases and accomplishments.
• Revise Practice Area Description : Tailor the relevant practice area description to include relevant experience and skills the new lateral brings to the team.
• Client Announcement : Craft a client announcement to inform existing clients about the new addition and their expertise.
• Add Contacts to Mailing List : Integrate the new lateral’s contacts into the firm’s mailing list to keep them informed about firm news and updates.
• Press Release : Distribute a press release announcing the new lateral’s arrival, highlighting their background and the value they bring to the firm.
• Media Inquiries : Identify and prepare topics for media inquiries to position the new lateral as a thought leader in their field.
• Alumni Organizations : Encourage involvement in alumni organizations from past firms and educational institutions to expand networking opportunities.

Development of an Social Media Strategy for Your Lateral Hire

• LinkedIn Profile Audit : Conduct a thorough audit of the new lateral’s LinkedIn profile to ensure it is professional, complete and engaging.
• LinkedIn Connections Strategy : Develop a strategy to connect with key individuals, including past colleagues, clients and industry professionals.
• LinkedIn Visibility Plan : Create a plan to increase the new lateral’s visibility on LinkedIn through regular posts, articles and engagement with industry groups.

Business Development Essentials for Your Lateral Hire

• Create a Business/Marketing Plan : Develop a detailed business/marketing plan tailored to the new lateral’s goals and objectives (template attached).
• Target List Development : Create a target list of individuals to connect with, including firm colleagues, past and present clients, alumni, personal connections, industry contacts, referrals, and mentors/aspirational connections.
• Strategy for Connecting : Develop a personalized strategy for connecting with each individual on the target list, focusing on relationship-building and mutual benefits.

The Importance of Creating a Personal Business Development/Marketing Plan with Ongoing Coaching

• Business Development/Marketing Plan Creation : Work with the new lateral to create a comprehensive business development/marketing plan.
• Relationship Building and Cross-Selling : Foster relationships with practice leaders and key partners to identify cross-selling opportunities.
• Marketing Roadshow : Organize a virtual or in-person marketing roadshow with firm practice groups to introduce the new lateral and their expertise.
• Internal One-Sheet : Prepare and circulate an internal one-sheet that describes the new lateral’s practice and clients to the entire firm.
• Writing and Publishing : Assist the new lateral in writing client alerts, publishing articles, securing media placements and obtaining and speaking engagements to enhance their visibility.
• Awards and Leadership Positions : Identify relevant awards and leadership positions within the industry and encourage the new lateral to apply or get involved.
• Competitor Analysis : Create a list of competitors and track their marketing activities to stay informed about industry trends and opportunities.

Actionable Takeaways to Ensure the Success of Your Lateral Hire

• Update all profiles and documents : Ensure they reflect the new lateral’s latest information and achievements.
• Leverage social media : Use LinkedIn to increase visibility and connect with key industry contacts.
• Develop a detailed business development and marketing plan : This plan will help to guide their ongoing business development efforts and help benchmark progress.
• Foster strong internal relationships : Identify cross-selling opportunities and integrate the new lateral into the firm’s culture.
• Utilize content marketing : Write articles, client alerts and secure media placements to establish thought leadership and visibility with important audiences.
• Stay informed about competitors : Keep up with industry trends to remain competitive and proactive.

By following this detailed marketing plan, you can ensure a successful integration of the new lateral into your firm, enhance their visibility, and drive business growth. Effective marketing is essential for leveraging the strengths of the new hire and positioning them as a valuable addition to your team.

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