Want to start the new year with a more effective social media strategy? One that saves you time because it’s specific to your business goals?
Here’s my step-by-step guide to creating your 2023 social media marketing plan.
Step 1: Conduct a Social Media Audit
Before investing all of your time and resources in TikTok and Instagram Reels, it’s important to conduct a social media audit to understand where you’re currently at, what’s working well or what isn’t, what industry leaders are doing in the space, and more. Thus, the first step in creating your social media plan is to conduct a social media audit.
Here are a few metrics you’ll want to look at:
- Total Followers
- Average Engagement Rate
- Post Frequency
- Best Post Days & Times
- Top 5 Most Engaged Posts This Year
- 5 Posts with the Lowest Engagement This Year
- Social Media Channels Driving the Most Traffic
- Social Media Channels Driving the Most Sales (if applicable)
Pro Tip: Create an Excel or Google Doc to keep track of this information so you can quickly reference it. Or grab my fully customizable guide to Grow Your Gram to plug it in here.
Step 2: Review the Industry Landscape
Social media is constantly changing. That means that over time, your customers (and competitors) may be moving to new channels as well. It’s important to regularly review the industry landscape to see what similar brands, competitors, or industry leaders are doing across different channels. This also helps to identify any new opportunities to reach and engage with your customers in less saturated channels or placements.
To do this:
- Name 3 people, brands, or competitors in your industry that you admire.
- Go to their social media channels and write down 2-3 things they are doing really well at such as the quality of their content, imagery, copy, engagement rates, creative campaigns like giveaways, etc.
- Identify any areas where they could use improvement. For example, are their channels being used primarily for customer support and complaints?
- After reviewing this information, determine whether there are any opportunities for your business.
Step 3: Define Your Target Audience
In the past, businesses would set up every single social media channel and try to be active on all of them. But this approach often led to burnout, poor content quality, and low engagement rates. The truth is that you don’t have to be active on every social media channel. You just need to be active on the channels where your customers are most active — the channels that will support you most in achieving your goals.
To determine your primary channel(s), define your target audience and then identify the channel(s) they are most likely to be active on.
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Interests (Favorite Shows, Things They Do For Fun, Brands They Like, Where They Shop, etc.)
- Careers / Income
- Problems / Challenges They Face
Step 4: Outline Your Goals & KPIs
Once you have gathered this preliminary information, you can use this to determine your goals and KPIs for the upcoming year. It’s recommended to set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Based).
For example, if one of your goals is to get more followers, be clear on how many new followers you want to get and by when. Then write down what tactics you will be implementing to achieve this goal.
In 2023, I want to increase my Total Followers on Instagram by 10%. To achieve this goal, I will:
- Spend 30 minutes/Day on Proactive Engagement + Community Management
- Post 3 Times/Week to the Feed (at least 2 Reels and 1 Image or Carousel)
- Post 5 Times/Week to Stories
- Collaborate with at least 10 New Influencers/Month on Branded Content Posts
Step 5: Identify Key Channels + Purpose
Once you have outlined your goals and understand where your target customers are, identify which channels will be most effective in helping you achieve your goals and reach your ideal audience. What purpose will each of those channels serve your audience?
For example:
- Instagram – To connect and engage with our core customers by providing value-driven content.
- TikTok – To increase awareness and product discovery with new customers through engaging video content + relevant partnerships.
- Pinterest – To increase site traffic and awareness amongst new customers.
- LinkedIn – To increase brand recognition for recruitment and increase employee advocacy.
Step 6: Optimize Social Media Channels
After identifying your key channels and their purpose, go back and take a look at your current social media channels to see if they could use any updates. Remember, social media is often one of the first interactions new customers will have with a business so you’ll want to make a memorable first impression. Make sure your profiles effectively communicate what you do & why, who your products and services are for, and what problems they solve.
Check to make sure you have the following set up:
- Profile Name + Handle
- Profile Photo
- Bio
- Location
- Hashtags
- Hours of Operation (if applicable)
- Contact Details (Email + Phone Number)
- Call to Action
- Link to Website
- Consistent, Value-Focused Content
Step 7: Create Your Content Pillars
One of the most important aspects of creating a social media strategy is outlining your content pillars. These are the key themes your business focuses on when communicating on social media — essentially, it’s what you want to be known for. It’s recommended to create 3-5 content pillars.
For example, as a social media marketing consultant, my content pillars might include: Organic Social Media Marketing, Social Media Advertising, and Influencer Marketing.
Step 8: Create a Content Calendar
Then you’ll use your content pillars to guide your social media content calendar. A content calendar helps you save time when planning content as well as stay focused on your goals and content pillars.
For example, if Social Media Marketing is one of my content pillars, then I might share posts relating to Social Media Trends, How to Create a Social Media Strategy, How to Hire Me for Social Media Help, and more. Over time, the goal is for my audience to view my page as the go-to resource for Social Media Marketing advice.
To get started, download the exact content calendar template I use for my clients and customize it for your business by adding in:
- Seasonal Themes or Messages
- Blogs / Articles You’re Planning
- Customer Testimonials / Client Wins
- Promotions – Having a sale or launch? Add it here so you can plan ahead!
- Holidays – Visit HolidayInsights.com to see more holidays that may be relevant to your business like National Donut Day or National Coffee Day.
When you grab my free content calendar template, you’ll also get a list of my favorite scheduling tools so you can save even more time when posting to social media.
Step 9: Specialty Campaigns
Specialty campaigns are additional opportunities to achieve your goals as well as reach, engage, and convert more customers. These include initiatives like Contests, Giveaways, Sweepstakes, Influencer Marketing, Affiliate Programs or Cross Collaborations. It’s recommended to execute a specialty campaign like a giveaway or sweepstakes once a quarter to keep fans engaged. For bigger programs like influencer marketing, it’s suggested to run those campaigns for 6+ months since they can take longer to plan, execute, and see results.
Identify whether there are any opportunities to launch a specialty campaign that is in alignment with your business goals.
Step 10: Social Media Advertising
To amplify your content strategy and help you reach your goals faster, it’s suggested to invest in social media advertising in addition to an organic social media strategy. Social Ads are a great way to automate your marketing efforts, get your posts in front of more people, send more traffic to your site, reach your ideal audience, and increase leads + sales for your business. To learn more about how to get started with social ads, click here to get my FREE training along with proven templates, toolkits, and strategies to grow your business with Facebook and Instagram Ads.
Looking for more hands-on support with your social advertising efforts?
- Book a 1:1 Power Hour Strategy Call to get a second set of eyes on your ads and have your questions answered by an expert.
- Schedule a VIP Day to get your ads up and running in just one day!
- Outsource Your Social Ads to the Pros and get better results on every ad you run.
Ready to get started?
If you’re looking for an expert who’s ahead of the trends to help accelerate your growth in the New Year with an effective and efficient social media strategy, here are a few ways we can work together.