How To Create An Effective Social Media Strategy
Social media is a crucial element of digital communication strategies. It gives measurable results in branding, leads, and sales. It provides marketers with great return on investment (ROI) as it enables them to reach large audiences at low cost.
To plan and create an effective social media strategy that maximizes your ROI you first need to understand your target audience, establish your social marketing objectives and know how you will achieve your objectives.
With this in mind, the following 10 questions will help you create a social media marketing plan outline to achieve your marketing goals.
10 Questions For Building An Effective Social Media Strategy
If you don’t have a social media strategy plan, you’re missing out on an effective, fast, and inexpensive way to reach about half of the world’s population. If you use social media properly, you can increase your brand awareness and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry.
The social media world is dynamic and it’s constantly evolving. Use the answers in this quiz as your guideline when planning your social media campaigns.
FREE Checklist: How To Run Successful Facebook Ads1. What is the primary goal of social networking for your company or organization?
- Provide information to your target audience
- Reduce marketing / advertising costs
- Involve your target audience in conversation with opinions, surveys, discussion, etc.
- Get feedback / response
2. What is the age demographic of your primary target audience?
- 60+
- 45+
- 30+
- 16+
3. What is the current online technology expertise/usage of your target audience?
- Low
- Moderate
- Strong
- Very strong
4. Which of these would be most likely to be viewed/used by your target audience?
- Printed flyer / advertisement
- Survey / poll / video tour
- Private social network
- Website / email / newsletter
5. Which of these describes your social media campaign proposal?
- We’re here if you need us!
- Share your ideas with us!
- Look what we can offer you!
- Tell us how we’re doing!
6. What is the style of your current marketing message?
- Aggressively business-oriented
- Â Very conservative / traditional
- Â Hip and leading edge
- Somewhat conservative or traditional
7. Which describes your current online or social media presence?
- Website + some social media (Facebook, Twitter…)
- Basic static website
- Extensive web 2.0 + advanced social media
- None
8. What is your main reason today for using social networking in your company or organization?
- Gain better feedback from customers / members
- Gain a lead or advantage over competitors / others
- Keep up with current trends and competitors / others
- Develop deeper customer / member relationships
9. What level of technical expertise do you have in-house?
- Advanced social networking
- Minimal
- Basic: website, email, etc.
- Basic social networking (Facebook, Twitter…)
10. What is the technical level of your senior marketing team?
- Basic: website, email
- Minimal
- Basic social networking users
- Advanced social networking users
Free Checklist: How To Run Successful Facebook Ads
Competition has led to a considerable increase in advertising costs and Facebook still remains a powerful advertising tool. Although everything about Facebook isn’t perfect, the truth is that with more than two billion users per month, Facebook advertising still plays a key role in an effective social media strategy.
Yes, they do make changes to their Facebook advertising guidelines without notice which can be frustrating. But if you remain diligent and watch your ad spend and results carefully, you’ll get a good return on your investment.
For an easy to follow Facebook marketing plan template download my free checklist How To Run Successful Facebook Ads and make the best use of your social media advertising on Facebook.
