With more than 4.1 billion active users globally, social media opens up opportunities to engage with your audience like never before. However, if you want to gain the best benefits of this pervasive marketing channel, then your social media strategies need to be integrated with your content strategy. But, what if you have your marketing plan all laid out? Then how do can you integrate a social media plan into your current marketing exercise?
First of all, set your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
What do you want to achieve with your social media efforts? Do you want to create brand awareness through social conversations? Or increase your website traffic and engagement with your brand? Or do you want your audience to complete an action?
Depending on what you want and expect, you can set your key metrics and the KPIs that you would measure eventually. Most social platforms have inbuilt data analytics tools to help you measure the success of your marketing efforts.
Devise a strategy that would synergize the efforts of your marketing plan
Try these combinations-
Social Media & Email Marketing– Enable social sharing within your email content. Talk about your email campaign on social platforms and vice versa. Let your audience have all-rounded communication.
Social Media & Search Marketing– Create quality content for your brand and share it across all platforms where you want to be present. Make sure to optimize it for the search engines and social media.
Social Media & events- Make your audience aware of your live events or even the virtual ones by promoting it across your social channels. Invite them to the event and share real-time updates with your followers.
Social Media & market research– Use your market research data to connect with your social audience. You can create or improvise on your business offerings based on their responses.
Identify your brand voice and target social channels accordingly
Your brand voice and personality will determine whom you want to talk to, leading you to the right social platform. For a more strategic approach, seek the help of a social media consultant or a social media marketing agency
Thus, social media plan is not be created in a silo but an indispensable part of your marketing plan, to boost your efforts and get better results.