A 5-step social media plan for the last half of 2019

We cover how to improve your social media plan for the last half 2019, from finding the right metrics to identifying your target audience and more.

By now, your 2019 social media marketing plan should be in full swing.

But if it’s not, or if your performance numbers already underwhelm, it is never too late to revisit your social media strategy planning.  A few smart tweaks could provide your segway into a bumper 2019.

So what makes a successful social media strategic plan? Aside from being clear, concise, and measurable, it also needs to outline your goals for the year and how you’ll achieve them.

In this guide to effective social media strategy planning, we will look at five actionable steps that you should take to ensure your brand produces an ambitious yet attainable social media marketing strategy. Let’s get started…

Step 1: Audit your previous social media performance

Before you can start considering your social media marketing strategy, it is crucial that you gain an in-depth understanding of your brand’s social performance in the previous year, half-year or quarter.

Make sure you align these results with the goals you set for the previous year. Although a high number of likes and shares of a particular campaign you ran may look encouraging, ultimately you need to ensure every campaign is achieving its specific pre-defined objectives.

Step 2: Define your social media marketing goals for the remainder of 2019

Social media marketing goals should always be closely aligned with your company’s wider goals. Marketing goals can vary greatly depending on your industry, the size of your company, your audience, your competition, and many other factors. However, potential goals could include…

  • Increasing brand awareness
  • Driving traffic to your website
  • Building a community on social
  • Generating leads
  • Boosting sales

Step 3. Create audience personas

Whatever your business, your audience will be made up of different audience ‘groups’. Break down the data to find out who your different audience groups are, where they all hang out on social media, what content they are engaging with, and more.

Step 4: Identify distribution channels and key times to post

It is important that you identify your key distribution channels and define your strategies for each channel. Last year, Statista identified the most important social media platforms for marketers worldwide.

As you can see in the graph below, 67% of marketers said Facebook was their most effective social channel, with Instagram at 10%, Twitter at 5%, and Pinterest just 2%.

Determine the purpose of each social media platform

Your marketing strategies will differ for each social media platform. For example, it may be that you will use Facebook to create an interactive community via your Facebook page and groups, while on Instagram you promote your products through beautiful images.

Your social media marketing strategy should document your brand’s purpose on each social media platform. You can then adapt your content and actions on each platform accordingly. Use your audit from 2018, as well as your audience data and audience personas, to help you determine each channel’s purpose and what content performs best on it.

Step 5: Check out your competitors

The last step to creating a social media strategy is to check out your competitors. You should identify…

  • Who are your closest competitors?
  • Which social channels are they using to connect with their audience?
  • What are they doing well and not so well?
  • What content are they producing and how is it performing?
  • Where do they need to improve on social?

If you need help with your social media overhaul, contact Onyx Digital today. We are here to help.