The main point of a social media marketing plan is to have clear, feasible, measurable plan for success. You can't just jump right in, start randomly tweeting and pinning things, and expect to have great results. You have to really understand what you are doing, who you are trying to reach, and how you expect to meet those goals. This sounds difficult, but it's really not. The first step is to figure out just where your goal audience is hanging out on social media, and then you will know just how to reach them. Twitter, for example, has over 555 million uses, about half of them are female. Twitter is best for answering questions and interacting in real time. Pinterest, on the other hand, has close to 70 percent of it's 12 million users that are women between the ages of 26-44, and it is best used for promoting products, or telling stories using pictures. You have to decide where your company best fits in the social media landscape.
Once you know where you are going, you can better plan what your course of action will be. You are going to have to set some realistic, measurable social media goals. You can't just say "more Facebook fans" as a goal. Remember, the numbers don't matter as much as the real, continuous customer engagement. You want to build a community, a relationship with your customers through social media, so don't get caught up in the numbers game. Do you want to build buzz and excitement for a new product? Do you want to get your customers to register for your email newsletter? Whatever your goals are, make sure they are things that you can keep track of.
Once you know what you are doing, you will need to develop a consistent and strong social media presence. Don't give up, and don't slack off. Customers need consistent and regular updates of the same style and tone to help them develop a relationship with a brand. Once you get started, you will be able to use page insights and other tools to see just how your social media accounts are performing and if you are getting close to meeting your goals. You will see that once you have a social media marketing plan in place for your small business, you will be able to meet your goals much faster and easier. You will also have a game plan, and you will be able to better connect with and meet the needs of your customers.
