Social Media Marketing Strategy and Plan You have just been hired as a social media marketing specialist for Buhi Supply Co. (or insert alternative company name). As a part of your first task, you are required to help your team create the social media marketing strategy for the company. A social media marketing strategy outlines the strategies and tactics for how a company will incorporate social media into its business. You are asked by your manager to complete the below steps and present your social media marketing plan to the team by the end of the month. Step 1: Identify Your Target Market and Create Personas The first step in your social media marketing strategy should be to identify your target market. If this information is not provided to you, conduct research online or refer to Chapters 4-10 and gather this information by analyzing the audience insights section of the company's social media platform. Collect information about your target market with a variety of demographic, interest, and behavior data, including but not limited to: Age Behaviors Company Company size Education Family life Gender Goals Hobbies How they purchase Income Interests Job title Location Most used social network Pain points Values Where time is spent online Next, create 2-3 customer personas for your target market. A customer persona is a representation of a company's target market based on data collected from existing and target customers. Personas help companies understand the challenges customers face and guide social media marketing strategy. You may use the below template or create your own. Refer to the persona examples presented in Chapter 3 of the textbook. Get a basic idea of who your target market is Step 2: Conduct a Social Media Audit Next, conduct an audit of the company's social media accounts by filling out the table below. You can guess these numbers just know that if you were doing it for your company - you would certainly want real figures to see what platforms were really paying off for you. (both these numbers and the competitive analysis) Site Account (Hyperlink to optimized? account) Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Pi Snapchat YouTube Other Number of followers Posting frequency Avg. engagement Avg. reach per per post post Are posts on brand? Also note the following: Which platforms perform best and why The number of reviews/testimonials (note if they are positive, neutral, or negative) Customer inquiries Average response rate to customer inquiries Identify any content gaps, lack of posting, poor branding, etc. Include screenshots of top-performing posts. Conduct a Competitive Analysis You can guess these numbers - just know that if you were doing it for your company - you would certainly want real figures to see what platforms were really paying off for you. (both Social media audit numbers and the competitive analysis) Next, conduct a competitive analysis of the company's top first, second, or third competitors by filling out the table (or multiple tables) below. Site (Hyperlink to account) Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Snapchat YouTube Other Account optimized? Number of followers Posting frequency Include screenshots of top-performing posts. Avg. engagement Avg. reach per per post post Also note the following: Which platforms perform best and why The number of reviews/testimonials (note if they are positive, neutral, or negative) Customer inquiries Average response rate to customer inquiries Identify any content gaps, lack of posting, poor branding, etc. Are posts on brand? Create a SWOT Analysis If you don't know what a SWOT analysis is - Strengths and Weaknesses (the SW) are internal to your organization) and Opportunities and Threats (OT) are external) to you organization,,,, you can do a quick google search for SWOT analysis and learn a lot in just a couple of minutes... Next, create a SWOT analysis of the company's social media accounts by filling out the table below. Note that strengths and weaknesses are internal, and opportunities and threats are external. The sample SWOT analysis in the textbook should serve as a guide. Strengths: Opportunities: Weaknesses: Threats: Create a SWOT analysis to attach to your target market description Step 3: Establish Goals, Objectives and Metrics This is important = got to have goals! Next, establish at least three social-media goals, objectives, and metrics by filling out the table below. Remember from the textbook that goals should follow the S.M.A.R.T. framework: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. Goals Objectives Metrics Add your goals, objectives and metric to the document containing your target market and swot square Step 4: Determine Resources, Roles and Responsibilities Determine the available or suggested resources in order to meet the goals, objectives, and metrics identified above. Define roles and responsibilities for each of the team members. For example, if you were completing this step for a small local ice cream shop, they may only need a small budget with one social media manager reporting to the owner. That one social media manager would be responsible for creating the posts, publishing the posts, responding to comments or customer inquiries, reporting, placing social media ads, and more. If you were completing this step for a large corporation, they may need a large social media team with a sizable budget. Estimated budget: Required personnel: Roles and responsibilities for each: OK to guess here - Step 5: Establish a Tone of Voice Your tone should be consistent throughout your campaign A brand's tone of voice expresses the brand's personality. To establish a tone of voice, start by identifying the characteristics the brand should embody. Consider the brand's target market and answer following questions: 1. If the brand were a person, what would his/her personality be? 2. How would the brand speak with customers? 3. See the brand from the customer's eyes: How would the customer describe the brand if it was a person? 4. What is the brand's character: friendly, professional, warm, playful, casual, sarcastic, authoritative, or inspiring? 5. What is the brand's purpose: to engage, educate, entertain, inform, sell, amplify, or delight? 6. What is the brand's tone: personal, honest, direct, humble, or scientific? 7. What is the brand's language: complex, simple, fun, serious, or savvy? Step 6: Platform Selection Just because a brand may already be active on a social network does not mean it's the best network for its audience. Whether accounts have already been created or are yet to be created, businesses need to assess and select which networks their brands will be active on. Select and list the platforms for your company below. Step 8: Create a Distribution and Content Strategy Go to Step 9 and build your calendar... The social media distribution strategy determines the network and frequency of posts, as well as the types of content that will be published on each network. A social media content strategy, on the other hand, is the planning, development, and management of social media content. This includes the actual written posts and the types of content, such as videos, blogs, infographics, etc. that will be published on each platform. Fill out the table below with the details of your distribution strategy. Post Frequency: Content Types: Content Mix (Daily or Weekly): Facebook: Instagram: LinkedIn: Etc. Facebook: Instagram: LinkedIn: Etc. Optimal Days and Times to Post: Facebook: Instagram: LinkedIn: Etc. Step 8: Create a Social Media Content Calendar and Schedule Posts STUKENT You should have fun doing this part at least I hope you will. Download the content calendar template from the Chapter 3 resources. Complete the content calendar with one weeks' worth of posts across all platforms for your company. Content Type Image Day Monday February 1st Post Time 8:00 AM Post Topic Facebook Post Text Birthday Party Promotion Come celebrate your next birthday with JUMP trampoline park! #Jump #Birthdays Instagram Post Text Invite all of your friends you will not want to miss out on this great Birthday Party Package! #Jump #Birthdays #Trampoline Image/Video/GIF Call to Action Link www.jumpbirthdayparties.com