Why social media marketing won't work for your business without a social media plan

Is your business's social media marketing doomed to fail if you don’t have a social media plan? 

Maybe… 

📣 Okay, hear me out. If you're like some small business owners, you're using social media to promote your business without any plan really in place.

You might post whenever you can, share whatever you think is interesting, and hope that something resonates with your audience.

But if you're not taking a strategic approach to social media marketing, you will likely not see an impact. 🎯

And if you don’t feel like social media marketing is working for your business, you won’t put more effort into creating content and engaging with your community online. 

Then social media marketing definitely won’t work for you, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Here's why social media marketing doesn’t work without a social media plan:

Without a social media plan, you're likely to be all over the place with content creation, posting randomly and without focus. 

…A week or so goes by, and you realize you haven't uploaded anything, so you quickly toss something up without any real thought into its purpose.

When you randomly post, your social media content might not be cohesive—or, worse, it might not align with your overall marketing goals.

The bottom line is that social media marketing requires a plan. This can even be a short document you create beforehand that acts as a guide for content, posting, and engaging with your customers. 😃 😃

Without a plan, social media can be time-consuming and ineffective… And you won't see the results you're hoping for. So I came up with six tips to get started the right way.

Quick tips for creating a social media plan:

1. Figure out your business’s goals. What are you hoping to achieve with your social media marketing? More sales? More web traffic? A higher level of engagement with your customers? Without knowing what you want to achieve, you won't be able to create a plan that helps you get there.

2. Find your target audience. Instagram is vast and filled with people from all walks of life. TikTok is geared toward the younger generation, sure, but there is a lot of growth there for older generations (like older millennials like myself). Facebook is still great for boomers and local-based businesses. To create successful social media marketing campaigns, you need to know who you're trying to reach. Otherwise, your message will get lost in the noise.

3. Use social media platforms that are popular with your target audience. Once you get to know your customers more, you need to assess which platforms your audience uses. There's no point in spending time and effort on a platform that nobody in your target market frequents.

4. You need to know your budget. Social media marketing can be free if you're willing to do all the work yourself. But if you're looking to hire someone to help you with things like content creation or paid advertising, you'll need to factor that into your budget. And honestly, every social media plan should include a budget for digital advertising. Even with all the issues over the past few years (i.e., iOS 14 updates in 2021—read more about how North Bay businesses responded), social media ads are still a great way to get your brand shown to more people than organic content alone. 

5. You need to write down your content strategy. This document should include what kind of content you'll post, how often you'll post it, and who will be responsible for creating it. Part of this strategy should include a content calendar to help you look ahead to promotions, events, and new product releases. This template I created for Google Spreadsheets has been super helpful for my brand and many clients. 

6. You need to have a plan for measuring success. How will you know if your social media marketing is working? Set up some goals and metrics before you start so that you can track whether or not you're achieving the results you want. The data these platforms provide is partially why social media advertising is one of my top marketing tactics. Yes, I LOVE the connection with customers. Still—social media data allows you to understand your customer base more dynamically, including an inside look at the demographics of the people who engage with your content (like gender, location, and age). It also tracks results over time, enabling you to adjust your content strategy based on real-time data.  

Many small business owners think they can just jump on social media and start promoting their products or services without any kind of strategy, but that's not how it works. You need to have a plan if you want to see results. 

Use these tips to help you get started! If you want even more details about how to create a content calendar and social media plan, let's talk! Book dedicated time with me here. I can help build your skills and confidence so you can create social media content for your business without winging it. Ready to get started?! 🚀