How to Create an Effective Social Media Marketing Plan

Social Media is a powerful tool and must be an important arsenal in your online marketing toolkit. Put simply a social media marketing plan is a plan to incorporate social media effectively without being bogged down by the marketing details and being pulled in to the vicious cycle of the Internet.

Social media marketing plan, Social Media Marketing Mobile Mobile Marketing Mob…—bizbuzzmedia (Flickr.com)

There is no hard and fast rule for social media marketing and the plan will definitely vary based on your website’s or companies requirements. Remember to keep the following strategies and ideas in your marketing efforts. Include the major social media properties Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn in your social media marketing efforts. These will go a long way in helping you gain mileage in your local business online marketing efforts.

How about creating a social media persona?

Create a social media persona you can use to connect with your target audience or prospects. This persona is a reflection of your ideal prospect, has her own personality, a name, and can easily understand and communicate with your prospects. She represents them and knows them and your prospects will connect with her easily. This might not always be necessary for all companies but it is a very effective way of marketing.

Here is an example of a Social Media Persona

Lisa has a beauty parlor and wants to use the power of social media to attract new customers and get a feedback of her services. Her beauty parlor mostly targets women between the ages of 18 to 35 yrs and provides some exclusive spa and skin treatments. Her ideal customer loves to spend money on the latest haircuts and wants to be updated on the beauty trends including tips on how to live a balanced life, balance work and kids, lose weight and some home remedies.

Let us create a personal named Teressa. Teressa is 25 years old. She earns around $20,000 per year and loves to pamper herself. She loves traveling meeting friends and is a beauty freak. She is always exploring the Internet for new beauty treatments and tips. She is cautious on what she eats and what she wears. She has her won Facebook account, email account, twitter account and she shares her thoughts on these accounts.

Another example of a social media persona

Tim is a realtor and has a website which he is looking to promote online. He creates a persona called Dave Trey. Here is how he describes Dave.

1. Dave is 40 years old.
2. He loves trekking, painting and renovating
3. He helps people buy and sell homes and gives them home remodeling tips.
4. He has an email address.
5. He has a professional writing style.
6. He earns $70,000 per year.

Social Media Marketing Plan Examples

What do you do with this persona?

Now, Tim uses Dave to promote his website. He creates a Facebook account for him. He uploads a picture for Dave. It might be a picture which he has purchased online or a gravatar or a picture which he has styled. He optimizes Dave’s Facebook profile. This is done by adding his contact email & company information and all other relevant information where required. The same social media strategy is used on other web properties like Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Now Dave is a representative of Tim’s real estate company.

• He communicates and reaches out to people.
• He posts articles of interest to prospective buyers.
• He provides tips and tricks.
• He posts articles on other websites which might interest the prospects.
• He promotes Tim’s real estate business as well.

Social Media Marketing Plan Outline

A Social media Marketing strategy for you to use today

1. Identify main keyword(s) for your business – “local business online”
2. Identify secondary keywords – “local online marketing” “online business marketing”
3. What would your prospective customers like information about? – “marketing on Facebook” “improving conversions” “tracking sales and visitors”
4. Find some good articles, resources, products and tools to help them get this information.
5. Send out regular updates on your web properties.
6. Send an occasional money offer or promotional offer (liking to your website or your affiliate link).
7. Use Google Analytics and other tracking tools to track everything.
8. Respond to queries and questions and negative feedback promptly.
9. Genuinely help he customers
10. Promote your web properties

How frequently should you post these messages onto your social networks?

For a B2C type of business 3 to 4 posts a day is a good number without information overload. Keep a track of your subscribers and notice if they are unsubscribing in a hurry. This means you are posting too much, too often and worse something which they don’t like. So the warning bells should go off now.

For a B2B business 1 or 2 messages per day is more than enough.

To wrap it all up, remember a social media marketing plan is a plan. Follow it, stick to it, yet be flexible enough to update when necessary. Also, include some time for

1. Responding to comments
2. Negative feedback
3. Monitoring the social media space

What do you think might go in a Social Media Plan for a small business? Do you agree or disagree with these thoughts? Please share some advice and insights today below.

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