Social Media is kind of a necessary evil, isn’t it?
There’s so much that goes into creating content and businesses often struggle to keep up the daily grind without a dedicated person working full-time. So if you’re struggling to tread water, we’ve got a simple plan to help you out!
The hardest part of social media is deciding what to post every day. However, once you have a plan in place and know what kind of content you’re going to post, it gets much easier.
Why make a plan?
It’s easier to change a plan on the fly than it is to come up with one last-minute. Social Media plans also ensure that you are covering all of your major areas that are important to your business.
If you are naturally inclined to promote new sale promotions, creating a plan will help you see that you are over-communicating information that your customer isn’t as interested in while ignoring their needs.
You must first determine what your end goals are with each social media platform. From there you can calendar effectively, determine measurements for success, and track progress. When each post contains content that helps you move toward your goals, social media will then become a powerful tool for marketing your company.
Goals, KPIs, Benchmarks
What would you like your followers to do? Do you want to make sales? Schedule consults or appointments? These will be the most important questions you must answer before creating a social media strategy.
After goals are set, choose your Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). These will be the measurements you look at to determine if your goals are being achieved. If you want to make sales, then clicks on your ad that leads to your landing page is a KPI.
Last, Benchmarks simply chart your growth or decline from point A to point B using your KPIs. Each KPI needs to have a place you start and your goals should include benchmarks you aspire to. Like they say, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.
Once all of these things are decided, you will be able to create a social media schedule for months at a time that helps inform, delight, and engage your audience!
However, this could take some time, so here’s a quick and easy win: create a repeatable 5-Day social plan using your big rock ideas that are important to your company. We’ve provided a starting point below.
A Simple and Repeatable 5-Day Social Plan
Monday- Motivation/Inspiration #motivationmonday
Every Monday, post something connected to your company that will inspire your customers towards something they care about.
Tuesday- Testimonial (products/services) #testimonialtuesday
If you’ve got Google Reviews set up and have material, you can always create a graphic that highlights the positive experiences people have had with your company.
Wednesday- Question #whatsupwednesday
Ask a question to your audience that relates to your field that hits a pain point for them. In the comments, you can let them know how you can help them solve those problems.
Thursday- Teach #teachingthursday
A great way to establish authority in your field is to teach your followers how to do what you do. They will either learn and do it themselves, thinking of you as a great help to them or they will see how complicated it is and since you seem to have a grip on it, they should just hire you to take care of it.
Friday- Fun/Light #fridayfunday
Don’t be afraid to have a little fun with your audience. Humor on social media can be tricky, so you may just want to do a lighthearted quote or simply let them know how thankful you are for your customers.
We can help!
What we do at 8-Bit Communications is help small businesses and entrepreneurs grow their digital influence bit by bit. Some of the “bits” our agency provides are social media strategy and design support. If you’d like to see what we can do to help you grow your social media strategy and following, give us a call!