We all know what social media is, but social media marketing came into existence a decade ago, when a platform like Facebook, Instagram, and many more became the hub of businesses for connecting with the audience. Social media marketing has helped businesses build their brand, increase conversion rate, increase sales, and increase traffic onto their website. It requires excellent content for publishing on your brand’s page, interacting and engaging with your audience, re-examining your insights, and increasing the page reach by “promoting your page through advertisements”. Currently, the major platforms which have taken the business industry by storm are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Snapchat. A pandemic may have brought many businesses to collapse, but it has given opportunities to those who thought out of the box and started Online Businesses, most of which run on the social media platform.
This quote is self-explanatory. But I would still like to elaborate further on how social media marketing is very cost-effective; this also highlights the urge of marketers now to be visible more than ever, which helps brands stay connected with their target audience.
But there is a lot that goes into being connected and near to consumers. That’s why it’s imperative to have an excellent and practical marketing plan, but how so?
You can even create an effective social media plan by following the five core pillars of social media marketing.
1. Strategy
Before posting anything on social media, sit back and look at the bigger picture. It would help if you thought of a social media strategy first.
- You need to set your Goal. What is it?
Are you looking to increase your brand awareness? Do you want to increase traffic to your website? Increase engagement and interaction with your consumer.
- Which Social Media channel should be your priority?
For this, you might think of any social media platform, but No. Go to the platform which is popular among your target audience. If you target teens, go for Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. If you are targeting Millennials, then go for Facebook. Well, at the initial stage, it’s always great to start with a few channels as it will become easier to balance and work effectively.
- List down what kind of content you would like to share?
The content will be liked and very well understood by your target audience. The content will e attract the target audience. Will the target audience be more interested in videos, images, and less text like today’s generation? The right place to create a marketing persona will answer your questions. And keep in mind the strategy doesn’t remain the same; evolve and change with the likes of how our consumer preferences change with time and how your post performs because you’ll always have to re-examine the post, what most liked, least liked, saved, and shared.
2. Planning And Publishing
For a small business, social media marketing starts with a consistent presence on the platform. With 3 billion people on social media, it allows your business to create awareness among your potential customers.
By publishing, we mean to share an image, video, blog post on your social media platforms. But it’s not simple; everything needs to map out; you should plan your content long before the execution/posting date should plan your content ahead of time. At the same time, taking the opportunity to maximize your reach on the platforms, you need to figure out the right content and publish it at the right time and the correct number of times.
Are you aware of the Buffer Tool, which lets you publish your content at your set and preferred time? It allows you to save time and reach your target audience when they are more active and ready to engage with your content.
3. Listening And Engagement
As your business on such social media platforms reaches a great height, people will now be talking about you or with you. You’ll get a lot of appreciative comments about how much they love your product. Consumers will tag you in their social media posts; they’ll direct message you.
Every time people talk about your brand on social media without you knowing. So, it’s essential to be aware of what people are saying about your brand. If the comment is negative, then don’t just ignore it; look into it, offer your support and take every measure to look into the fault and address it before it cost your firm because if you let go of even one consumer with a bad experience and do nothing about it, then it will have a multiplier effect in term of word of mouth promotion. And if you see any positive comments, you can share them on your social media platforms.
4. Analytics
With all the posting and publishing of your content, you’ll want to know how this content is performing. Were you able to reach more people this month than last? How many used your brand’s hashtags? Target audience is engaged by which type of content? Thankfully these social media platforms provide Insight which provides you in-depth analytic info.
5. Advertising
Advertising helps you promote your brand; organic growth is no longer very effective. Social Media advertisements allow you to reach a broader audience that isn’t following you at the moment. Advertising allows you to specify to whom you want to display your ads. You can target them based on their demographic, location, interest, behaviour, and much more.
So, whenever you are sitting down to create a social media plan, then “Always”, and I cannot stress that you need to follow these Five core Pillars of the social media plan.
In Conclusion, social media is the current best way to connect and engage with your audience because every age group uses social media. But also, brands have now realized how social media has brought them closer to consumers, increased awareness, and increased conversion rate. But brands don’t realize how to use this platform effectively. The increase in competition online, which leads to clutter due to the unorganized content publishing, has overwhelmed consumers. A Social Media plan allows you to run your brand and campaign page thoughtfully; this results in a higher return on investment. Five core pillars of social media plan are game-changers for your brand.
