Companies are finally catching on that social media platforms present one of the greatest tools of all time for marketing their products and services. In fact, studies have shown that 80 percent of small businesses already active on social media planned to increase or maintain their social media advertising budget this year. This comes as no surprise to most because social networking offers a revolutionary means for connecting companies with loyal customers, potential sales leads, business partners, and new recruits. There is no doubt that social media marketing is useful for augmenting traditional marketing campaigns, improving SEO efforts, and staying a step ahead of competition.
However, before jumping into the sea of social media, it is essential that businesses do some planning and establish guidelines for integrating this form of marketing into their daily routines. Many companies of all shapes and sizes continue to struggle with social media and don’t know how to get started on developing a solid marketing strategy. Luckily, below we have included a simple step-by-step guide on the best practices for creating a social media marketing plan to harness the power of social networking and boost your company’s online presence.
1. Establish Clear Business Benchmarks
Your business will never be able to reach success without knowing its aim, so the first step toward building a solid social media marketing strategy is to establish clear goals and objectives. Rather than focusing on increasing your follower count or getting more likes, it is important to form long-term business goals that you wish to gain from social media activities. Many businesses strive to increase sales, acquire new customers, retain old customers, improve brand recognition, reduce marketing costs, streamline customer service, and so on.
When forming your social media objectives, it is important to choose goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timed, or SMART. Gaining 100 percent customer satisfaction is likely not plausible for any company, so make sure you create goals that are realistically attainable within your established time-frame to avoid disappointment. Also, be certain that every member of your company can agree what success will look like when you meet these goals to ensure progress is tracked properly.
