Why Your Business Needs A Social Media Plan

All companies have (or at least, should have) a business plan and a marketing plan. And yet, as we begin 2024, many small and medium-size companies do not have a specific social media plan. They see it as part of their marketing plan – and it is. But, in a world where everyone is online across a significantly broad range of platforms, we want to tell you why your business needs a social media plan to achieve your goals.

Social media marketing can be overwhelming, but if there’s one thing that all successful brands have it’s a well-defined social media plan. With so many platforms, post types, and tools to select from, it’s essential for companies take social media planning seriously, and avoid posting just to get something out there.

Before we jump into the why, we should look at the what.

What is a Social Media Plan?

A social media marketing plan is a strategy for using social media platforms to promote a business and its products or services. It outlines the specific actions and activities that will be taken to achieve specific marketing objectives, such as increasing brand awareness or generating leads.

Diving a little deeper, a social media marketing plan is a strategic roadmap that frameworks a business’s objectives, target audience, content strategy, posting schedule, and metrics for measuring success on social media platforms. It functions as a guide to effectively use social media as a marketing tool to achieve specific business goals.

Overall, a social media marketing plan is an integral part of a wide-ranging digital marketing strategy and can be a potent way for companies to reach and engage with their target audience.

Now that we’ve defined what a social media plan is, we can address why your business needs one. It is crucial to ensuring the attainment of your overall social media marketing goals.

A social media marketing plan is important for several reasons:

It aids a business in determining their target audience, which the social networks to join, and what kind of content to develop and share.
It helps businesses to concentrate their resources on the social media platforms and actions that are most likely to be effective in attaining their marketing goals.
It allows businesses to measure and track progress against defined metrics and to make data-driven decisions about their social media marketing efforts.
It assists businesses to establish a clear, concise, and consistent presence and brand identity on social media, which has a significant impact on creating customer trust and loyalty.
It allows businesses to connect to and engage with their customers in real time, which can help build relationships and improve customer satisfaction.

Clearly, a social media plan is a vital part of your overall marketing strategy for fostering the growth of your customer base for the products or services that your business delivers. Now that you know the why, maybe you’re wondering what should be in your social media plan.

The Basics of an Effective Social Media Plan

In a recent Google for Small Business update they shared their 5 steps to success. While not a comprehensive plan, these steps do cover the basic actions of your social media plan.

Pick your platform(s) – Which ones are your customers and competitors using? Which platforms are good matches for your business? What types of content will shine for your business?
Create your business profile – Establish your presence on the social networks you’ve chosen. You can do one at a time or several at once, depending on your resources. Add basic information like your location, phone number, email address, and a business description and keep it consistent from one platform to the next. Upload the images you need for your homepage such as a logo and profile banner.
Start networking – Growing your following takes time, so start right away and don’t get discouraged.
Post and chat regularly – A quiet social media page won’t help you achieve your goals, so it’s important to regularly share quality content. Think about the topics your customers and prospects will value, and then share content that is helpful and engaging.
Track and measure success – You’re not finished without evaluating the impact of your posts and adjusting your plans to improve results. Every social media platform has a way to track what’s working well. Try looking beyond likes and shares to better understand if social media is having real impacts on your business. You can use your website analytics to see how users interacted with your website. Use the data to understand which posts are giving the best results. Decide which formats work best, and which days your customers are most engaged. Adjust your plans and check to see if these adjustments deliver better results.

Social Media Plan Components

Are you ready to dive deeper into what a social media plan should contain? Here’s everything you need to know about developing a social media plan.

Set Social Media Goals – Define what you’re trying to achieve through your social media campaigns. Some common social media goals are: Brand awareness, Engagement, Sales, Lead Generation, and Traffic. Your goals should be SMART – that is, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
Set a Budget – Assess your social media budget. Your social media budget will decide some of the activities you can perform. For example, it will affect the number of paid ad campaigns you can run. It will also determine which social media tools you can employ to make your tasks more productive.
Create a Buyer Persona – You should have as many details about your ideal buyer as possible. You can form your buyer persona based on your current customers or who you want your customers to be. Knowing who your ideal client is helps target your message to the right audience.
Select Social Media Platforms – There are many social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and more. As much as you might want a presence on every platform, your buyer persona will help you focus on the social media platforms your ideal customers visit regularly.
Create a Content Calendar – For the greatest possible outcomes from social media marketing, you need to be consistent. A content calendar allows you to plan your social media content. This improves productivity and guarantees you can deliver the content your audience will respond to.
Make a Plan to Use Video – A BuzzSumo study found that videos have significantly better engagement than other kinds of content.
Use the Right Tools – Without the right tools, you will strain to handle all of your accounts, engage regularly, measure results, monitor important keywords, and much more. The best social media tools bring needed efficiency to your social media management, content creation and curation, monitoring, and analytics/ROI measurement. Many are free or have a free component – including Hootsuite, Sendible, Buffer, and more.
Competitive Analysis – There’s a great deal you can learn from your competition. By analyzing your competition, you will discover approaches that can be directed toward your social media plan. Moreover, it’s a chance to understand their shortcomings and address them with your plan.
Track Results – It is vital to have procedures to track your social media results which will allow you to measure the success of your social media plan in attaining your goals. Many of the social media scheduling tools mentioned above have an analytics component that will help you monitor your progress.

The Bottom Line

To stay relevant you need a social media plan that speaks to your ideal audience. A robust plan will help you reach your marketing goals, while amplifying your brand’s voice and driving traffic to your website. And, as you move forward it’s imperative to continually review your plan and make adjustments to respond to changing conditions.

If you don’t have a social media plan, or want to review your existing plan to make sure it still serves your needs, we should talk! Schedule a free, no obligation marketing strategy call with our team today.