Planning Social Media Content? Ask Yourself These 9 Questions
It's no mystery that social media is a crucial part of any marketing strategy -- regardless of industry, company size, product, or service.
We've all been there. Back in the day, I had to make the case for some businesses to even have a social media presence in the first place. But finally -- finally! -- it seems like folks are catching on. After all, 69% of marketers are using social media to build a following.
Now that most marketers really do understand that social media is a strategic must-have, how can we make it more manageable? Like many other things in life and in business, planning ahead is the way to go.
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To avoid becoming one of those brands whose Facebook page hasn't been updated in months -- and we've all seen them -- learning to plan and schedule your social media posts in advance is key. But how? We've outlined nine crucial questions to ask when you start this planning process, along with some helpful tools and resources to help along the way.
9 Questions About Planning and Scheduling Social Media
1) What are you promoting?
Part of planning your social media presence is knowing what you’re there to talk about. Maybe you have a looming product launch to promote, a holiday special, or a particular piece of content to get in front of the public eye.
In any case, knowing what you’re promoting should run in tandem with your social media schedule. Do you have multiple product or content launches taking place over the course of the year? That’s where a calendar is particularly useful -- not only to announce the launches themselves, but to drop “teasers” leading up to them.
That’s also a good place to plan other pieces of your online presence, like your blog, around these launches -- especially considering that 84% of marketers integrate social media with their overall marketing plans.
Let’s say you’re launching an annual report, and you want to use social media to push a high number of downloads. In the days leading up to it, your blog can feature smaller pieces of content pertaining to the different findings within that report. That creates a top-of-mind presence of your brand and your content, among your audience -- just in time for the big launch.
2) What are your goals?
In 2015, Google did a study of Digital Leaders -- the folks who have seen success with digital marketing -- versus Digital Learners -- those who have not. Out of the two, a whopping 92% of Leaders had clear digital marketing goals, compared to only 69% of Learners.
Those numbers illustrate the importance of outlining goals when planning social media posts and campaigns. That doesn’t mean they have to be dry or boring -- it just means that even funny or out-of-the box posts still need to be aligned with what you’re trying to accomplish.
Just have a look at this collection of Twitter success stories, and the subhead introducing them: "Learn how businesses from around the world achieved their goals with Twitter."
In the Greenhouse software case study, for example, there’s a very clear objective stated: “The marketing team at Greenhouse was focused on acquiring new subscribers for their weekly newsletter," which was "focused on increasing brand awareness and purchase consideration."
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