Discover The 11 Vital Components Of An Effective Social Media Marketing Action Plan
Do you want more out of your social media profiles? More likes, comments and shares? It’s no secret. Social media done right can be extremely powerful. What most businesses struggle with today is coming up with a social media marketing action plan that actually works.
A recent study by SimplyMeasured.com in 2015 reveals the top struggles marketers experience with social media:
As you can see 48% of marketers are struggling with developing an effective social media marketing action plan.
In this post, you will learn 11 critical parts that every social media page must have.
The purpose of a social media marketing action plan…
…is to drive traffic to a website, capture leads and convert those leads into sales.
Social media done right can build a powerful brand, following and can easily get content viral. Imagine having a brand that consistently gets thousands of likes, comments and shares on their content. Is that something that gets you excited?
11 Vital Components of an Effective Social Media Marketing Action Plan:
1. Effective communication
What makes social media so unique and special is the ability to have 2-way communication. Producers can communicate to consumers and vice versa.
It’s as simple as typing a message and pressing send or publish.
One of the most important components of a good social media marketing action plan is to prioritize effective communication. This builds trust, rapport and response among your followers.
It is also very important to build relationships with other successful brands as well. Extend your brand’s reach and network by practicing effective communication and building long-term relationships.
2. Experiment
Increase your company’s curiosity power. It’s how companies innovate and come up with creative solutions.
“In a crowded marketplace it is crucial for brands to build loyalty with their customers to ensure a lasting and engaging relationship. An effective way to cement this bond is by engaging and exciting consumers in a fun, memorable and relevant experience. As a result, experiential marketing can be more effective than any other form of marketing. However to be truly successful, experiential campaigns should not only have a clear link to the brand but also need to target the right audience at the right time in the right manner.”
Experimenting is the best way to stand out and be unique. When things work out, great! When things don’t pan out, don’t get discouraged. Your company and brand is learning, growing and moving closer towards your desired goal.
3. Always Track Results
If you don’t know what works and what doesn’t, then it means you’re making guesses. If you’re making guesses, then no matter how powerful of a social media marketing action plan you have at hand, it will always fail.
Marketing is not a guessing game. It’s art mixed with science. By being creative and implementing specific strategies, you get an idea/projection on how your results would look like. You’ll know if something is off or it’s a successful marketing campaign. Numbers don’t lie so always keep track of your numbers.
Always keep track of your followers (where they came from and how you got them), reach both organic and paid (how many people see your stuff), page views, time on your site, bounce rate, time spent on content, what type of content is shared the most and most importantly, your cost per conversion.
By keeping track of your results, you’ll be able to see what works and what doesn’t. By knowing that, you’ll know exactly where you need to spend more time and resources on and be able to avoid activities that steal time, money and effort.
This crucial step could be your key to stop wasting time and valuable resources. You’ll be able to find what works and create momentum by doubling down on it.
Click here to learn how you can fast-track your business and take it to the next level.
4. Focus On Engagement
Social media is all about being social. The more engagement your company gets, the more visibility it gets.
So how does engagement work? How can a company increase engagement?
Five simple words…Consistently Create High Quality Content.
This could be: Blog posts, videos, images, podcasts, PDF files, webinars, Q & A sessions, etc. The list literally goes on and on.
“It’s no secret that we are living in an era where everybody is a media company. This is something I have said time and time again, and I will continue to push it because I truly believe that content is the best way to market a product today. Provide value to consumers by creating helpful videos or new recipes or funny cartoons. Give them something they actually want because that content builds up the relationship that then allows you to ask for the sale.”
– Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia. Host of #AskGaryVee Show on YouTube
Work hard and consistent till you get to the point where you’re known for your great content. People will like, comment and share your stuff without hesitation because they know your content will be top notch. Live up to those expectations and deliver on it.
5. Be Creative With Your Sources Of Content
While it’s great to share your content, it’s even better when you share other people’s content. That way, you’re able to build relationships and get on the radar of bigger and more influential brands. By giving them free exposure and they see that your social media page is jam packed with great content, odds are they’ll reciprocate and share some of your stuff giving you free exposure to their community.
Focus on sharing other people’s blog posts, images, videos, status updates, etc. and share your thoughts on how their content can help your community.
You never know, the relationship that you’ll build by implementing this strategy be extremely beneficial in the long run. As the relationship grows, eventually a collabration is possible. That can prove extremely valuable to your brand.
6. It’s Not About You Or Your Company
It never was and never will be. It’s always about the people. They should always go first. They are the “Golden Key” to your success.
Listen to your community by reading your company’s messages and comments and always take time to respond. Make them feel that you care about them.
Great customer support will always stand out. People are more likely to buy/continue buying your products and/or services if they immediately get a response answering their questions and concerns.
7. Be Solution Oriented
Become a problem solver. Whatever it is people are struggling with, find out what it is and solve it. This will increase your value and start attracting more people and potential customers to join your community.
Knowing your community’s wants and needs will be extremely valuable to your brand because now, you know exactly what type of content would be a hit. You know what your people are looking for and need help with. You can then respond by creating solution-oriented content around their issues, struggles or problems.
You’re no longer speaking to walls. You’re speaking directly to your community. Because of that, they will be listening and engaging more with your content.
8. Be Open & Truthful
It’s always great to give people a sense of your company’s culture. It gives people an insight of who you are and why you do things. It also helps you create an identity and stand out.
Share candid moments in the office to show the culture and the working environment. Doing this invites people in and makes them feel like they’re a part of the process.
It’s very important to always tell the truth and be open. People will always sense something fake. You don’t want to be a part of that.
By being open and truthful, potential doors could open and will be your key to attracting top talent that could help take your brand to the next level.
Image based on “Sir Richard Branson” by Keoma Yac, CC-BY-2.0.
9. Look Back Every Now And Then
Looking back, you’ll be able to see patterns of all the successful marketing campaigns you’ve ran. You’ll get a clearer picture on how you can better serve your community.
It’s also a great idea to study the past marketing campaigns of your competition so that you can see how you can optimize and improve your future marketing campaigns.
This gives you a deeper understanding on why campaigns are successful and can even provide inspiration for future marketing campaigns.
10. Everybody Should Feel Like A Winner
A social media marketing action plan is successful if the company and it’s community both feel like winners.
No one wants to feel like they’ve lost because of buying your products/services.
Give people the best experience ever by making them feel like winners.
Create an experience and an emotional response whenever your brand is mentioned. Give people great memories so that when they think of your brand, they have nothing but good stuff to say.
11. Whatever You Do, Be Consistent
Consistency is what will get you on people’s radar. Consistency is also what will make you stand out and experience success.
One of the biggest struggles companies face is consistency. The best social media marketing action plan in the world will never solve a company’s needs as long as there’s inconsistency involved.
Stay consistent with your message and actions.
Conclusion:
Social media takes a lot of work and dedication but it’s definitely worth it in the long run. What you do now will determine your company’s future. Having a solid social media marketing action plan in place and staying consistent with it will pay off.
Take care of your brand and focus more on how you can better serve your community and the marketplace.
Comments 27
This is so informative! Social media marketing is definitely the way to go!
Love,
Ivelisse | CarnationDreams.com
Author
Glad to hear you found this post valuable Ivelisse. Thank you for dropping by and sharing your thoughts.
It’s crazy how much of a science there is to social media these days! Really informative post, thanks for sharing!
Lily Kate
jolihouse.com
Author
You’re welcome Lily. Thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts.
These are some very helpful social media marketing tips. I am sure it would be useful for me.
Author
Very happy to hear that you found this post valuable Fatima. Thank you for dropping by.
Love your post and as a marketer, I’d just add one thing: have a cause. People don’t merely want to be connected to brands these days, but they’ll happily stand behind a brand that have a cause (making money is not a cause, it’s an effect).
Author
I definitely agree with you on that one Nina. Thank you for bringing that up. I believe that’s very important. Thanks for dropping by.
I think these are some important strategies business owners should consider. There’s no avoiding all of the trial and error you have to do with social media changing so rapidly.
Author
Glad to hear you found these points valuable Liz. Thank you for dropping by.
It’s not all about promotions, it definitely take more work than that. I think it’s good for business to have an effective plan especially if they want to catch the attention of many consumers/customers. These are very good steps that you have here!
Author
Exactly Elizabeth. Once we focus more on our community/customers, a lot of good things can happen. It’s not all about the business. People should always come first. I’m glad you found this post valuable. Thank you for dropping by.
This is great! Exactly what I needed, the only problem is that I’m too antisocial (even on social media) to make a connection with people and use it for my own benefit.
Author
With a little work and consistency I believe you can overcome that. I myself used to be like that. Today, I’m able to speak with people even offline. Just need some warming up. I wish you the best. Thanks for dropping by.
As a social media consultant I find these tips very useful and I already practice some of them. I have to remeber your post! Thank you
Author
I’m happy to hear you found this post valuable, Sabrina. Thank you for dropping by.
So much to learn before you hop into this “world”. Such a helpful advice and tips for someone that works on social media marketing. Very interesting post 🙂
Author
Hi David, glad to hear you found this post valuable. Thank you for dropping by and sharing your thoughts.
I think that engagement is one of the most important elements of a social media campaign. If you are failing engagement, you are failing everything else also, because you need an interested audience in order to be able to succeed with your campaign.
Author
Definitely agree with you on that one Joanna. Thank you for dropping by and sharing your thoughts.
Thanks designed for sharing such a nice opinion, article is
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Author
Thank you. Glad you found it valuable.
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Author
You’re very much welcome. Thank you for dropping by.
I could not refrrain from commenting. Veery well written!
Author
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