Social media marketing, also known as SMM, is simply defined as marketing a product or service on social networks which has become one of the most powerful marketing tools available to businesses.
The most popular platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide unparalleled access to potential customers worldwide.
However, marketing on these platforms isn’t as simple as just posting a few pictures or videos and hoping for the best.
Crafting an effective social media marketing strategy requires careful planning, research, and execution. It also requires social media optimization (SMO).
In this post, we’ll provide you with a step-by-step guide to cover everything from identifying your target audience and choosing the right platforms to creating engaging content and measuring your results.
Follow our advices and you’ll be on your way to building a successful social media plan for your business!
Step 1: Take advantage of ALL social media platforms
Especially if you have a website, it is very important that you have an account on all social media networks. Post and share your daily updates and don’t neglect any of them.
Many do not realize the importance of a networking site, so they do not publish or share on it, because they do not expect that they might get customers through it.
They do not realize its importance until after a long time… and this has actually happened a lot.
Another thing to keep in mind in your strategy: If your business targets other countries, consider the number of social media users by country, and which platform is most popular.
Each social media network has a specific benefit, for example: For visual content, Pinterest is useful platform for your business images to automatically appear on image search engines.
So, using all platforms is an effective way in creating a great social media strategy plan.
Step 2: Strengthen your social profiles before spending your budget
In this part of the SMM plan, we will focus on new or out-of-competition accounts.
If you are one of them, before creating any ad campaign and wasting a lot of your budget with unsatisfactory results, we suggest that you do the following:
A) Take a look at the accounts of your top competitors, then complete or edit your account information. Make sure to include the main keywords in the description and bio.
B) Share a good number of posts on your profile, don’t leave it with just a few posts.
The more a visitor scrolls through your profile and sees diverse content, the better it will be for your brand.
C) Depending on the social media platform you are posting on, include hashtags related to your post (Hashtags vary from one platform to another).
There are online tools to identify influencers and competitors who rank highly in certain hashtags.
D) Invite friends to follow your business page/profile.
Or gain real followers without ads at this step. It is a temporary solution and there are several other alternative methods available – Check out our Instagram Celebrity Campaigns for example.
E) After that, once you are sure that your account is strong enough, you can start your advertising campaign. We will talk about social media ads in the next sections, so keep reading.
Why does a strong social media profile matter?
Sometimes a good account is the first point in any social media marketing strategy plan, and this is due to the following reasons:
- It will enhance visibility which helps the business profile be found;
- A good social media profile ensures staying competitive;
- And this will lead to constantly getting new clients and interested followers;
- A strong social media profile helps businesses show their credibility to their target audience;
- Influencers can benefit from many features offered by social networking sites.
- In addition, and most importantly, influencers and big accounts are trusted by social networks and search engines.
Therefore, sometimes your competitor who has an old profile and great number of followers, even if it’s not verified with a blue tick, may be able to share a post while your similar post may be unapproved or partially hidden (medical and cosmetic fields can prove this).
Unfortunate fact:
People don’t like to follow small accounts that only have a few posts. Companies with small accounts on social media often need continuous advertising for a long period to get good results.
The same applies to the number of interactions/engagements on a post.
Often times, while browsing or searching, people will pay attention to a post that has high engagements, and thus they will interact with it as well.
It doesn’t stop here, but even the social platforms will suggest these posts, list them as the top posts, place them on the home page (such as on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Videos & Shorts), and also it will be listed under the trending hashtags. Same matter for recommended stories by people you don’t follow on IG & FB.
Imagine how this will increase views and reach new interested people!
Finally, there’s a saying: “Don’t be afraid to start small.”
But on the other hand, think about why most ads fail, why social media marketing strategy plans fail, why start-ups fail.
The examples are countless, we advise you not to risk your budget.
* Of course, there are exceptions to what we mentioned above about social profiles, such as companies that target local people (targeting small areas), or there are not a large number of competitors, and some other exceptions.
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Step 3: Creating an effective ad for social media marketing strategy plan
After performing the previous two recommended steps of the SMM strategy plan, you can start advertising with confidence.
One of the most effective ways to make your mark in the online world is through social media ads. Here’s how to maximize the potential of your campaigns:
1) Define your goals:
Determine what you want to achieve with your advertising efforts.
Whether it’s driving website traffic, increasing brand awareness, or generating leads, clear goals will guide your strategy.
On some social networking sites, for companies with new accounts, we advise them in their first few ads to select “profile visit” ads instead of “click-to-call”.
The point here is to give visitors the opportunity to discover more of their services and products.
This will be a good step of their social media marketing strategy plan.
2) Know your audience:
Understand your target audience’s demographics, interests, and behaviors.
This knowledge will help you tailor your advertisements to resonate with your ideal customers.
3) Choose the right platform:
Each social media platform has its unique strengths and user base.
Identify the platforms where your audience is most active and align your advertising efforts accordingly.
4) Compelling content is key:
Create visually appealing and engaging content that grabs attention.
Use captivating visuals, concise copy, and strong calls-to-action to encourage clicks and conversions.
5) Test and optimize:
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different ad formats, targeting options, and messaging.
Regularly analyze the performance of your ads and make data-driven optimizations to improve results over time.
6) Repetition in Advertising:
Modern studies indicate that a person needs to see the ad at least 7 times to take action.
When people view your ad repeatedly, it will ensure that your service or product remains in their minds as an available option. You’ll also ensure that you remain competitive.
7) Determine The Marketing Budget:
Marketing budget mistakes could be costly, it’s one of the most important reasons behind advertising failure, and thus the failure of a social media marketing strategy plan.
As an advertiser, you should carefully study the minimum budget required to create a successful ad, depending on the following:
- The platform you want to advertise on,
- Business category,
- And competition.
It’s also necessary to review the annual changes in ads cost across social platforms.
Set a realistic budget that aligns with your goals and allocate funds strategically.
Monitor your ad spend closely and adjust as needed to maximize your return on investment.
8) Monitor and engage:
Keep a close eye on your social media ad campaigns. Respond to comments, messages, and inquiries promptly to build relationships with potential customers and nurture leads.
Remember, social media advertising is a powerful tool, but success requires continuous learning, adaptation, and staying updated with the latest trends.
Now go ahead and take your business to new heights with the power of social media advertising!
Step 4: Unlock the Power of Social Media Optimization (SMO)
Each networking site has its own unique features and target audience, so it’s important to tailor your approach accordingly.
Understanding these different platforms is essential to optimizing your presence on them, and therefore, no social media marketing strategy will succeed without SMO.
What is Social Media Optimization?
Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a technique that includes a number of strategies and tools used to harness the full potential of social networking sites by using them accurately and in the right way to enhance brand visibility, drive traffic, and engage with a targeted audience.
In other words, like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which aims to attract more web traffic and increase website awareness, SMO is used to publicize services, products or events, get more customers and reach out to the company, which improves its profile.
SMO vs SMM: What’s The Difference?
As part of a digital marketing strategy, SSM and SMO are both similar, but SMO is long-term brand awareness, and it is the link between SEO and SSM for the website by configuring it and improving its content and shop (if It’s an online store) to promote and share it on social media platforms.
The most important goals of search engine optimization are:
- To effectively position yourself or your brand as an authority in your industry and attract a loyal following.
- Rank higher in followers’ feeds.
- Rank higher on platform search.
- To increase the number of hq-engagement on posts.
- Improve SEO by sending social traffic to the website.
What does SMO include?
Here is some of what it might include:
- Optimizing activities and various elements of your social media profiles (optimizing descriptions, using relevant keywords and hashtags, and ensuring brand consistency across platforms) to maximize their impact and reach.
- Creating highly shareable and engaging content. Whether in the form of engaging images, videos, or interesting articles that resonate with your target audience.
- Building meaningful connections and foster a sense of trust and credibility with your audience by joining relevant groups, participating in discussions, and responding to comments and messages promptly.
- Monitoring and analyzing the performance of your social media efforts. This involves tracking key metrics such as reach, engagement, and conversions to gain valuable insights into what content resonates best with your audience.
In summary, Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a comprehensive approach to leveraging the power of networking sites to propel your online presence to new heights.
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SMM Plan Tips
Creating a social media marketing strategy plan is not as easy as some people think.
Many disagreements occur between marketing companies and their clients, and most of the mistakes are caused by the clients themselves.
Therefore, we at Ruby Stag Digital Agency in Istanbul, after 20 years of experience, will give you the most important tips to avoid making common mistakes:
Tip 1:
Always remember this fact of SMM and consider it as a slogan: “What you like, others may not like!“
Therefore, when publishing a post on a social media platform, the following must be taken into account, in order:
- Pay attention to the success criteria on this platform, these criteria differ from one platform to another.
- Carefully research what people like in your business category and strive to attract them.
- Don’t forget about search engines and their terms. Yes, because your good content will appear in search engines (LinkedIn is great site to show up your articles on search engines.)
- Finally: What you like comes after the post fulfills all three conditions above.
Tip 2:
Completely avoid copying, it is a strategy killer. You will lose your trust from all platforms.
Even if you own a website, you should not copy sentences from it while sharing your website’s post on social media.
Try to create your own unique innovative content that is completely different from the content of your competitors, especially the top competitors on the platforms.
Any strategy that relies on copying will fail, and you’ll not be able to beat your competitors easily or in a short time.
Tip 3:
Another thing to keep in mind in your social media marketing plan is that search engines and networking sites are very smart, so don’t try to deceive them.
Your trick may work for a short time, but after a while you will find your profile and even your site out of competition because trust in your business will become zero!
Tip 4:
As for the post types in your social media marketing strategy plan, here are some helpful tips:
Video Content:
– To ensure that people will not skip your video among other videos, especially on platforms such as Tiktok and YouTube: use a catchy cover and title.
– To make people watch your video to the end:
- Try not to include a long intro like the logo screen at the begging of your video, keep this logo at the end of the it. In this fast digital age, people no longer like to wait.
- Don’t fill the screen with too many elements, such as too much text on-screen at once, so as not to disturb the viewer. The same applies to many effects at once.
- In addition to your long videos, take advantage of the Shorts & Video Story feature, which has become more popular and available on social media sites.
Photo Post:
- As we mentioned above videos, also use eye-catching, high-quality images.
- If there are real photos of your business, post them in your social media instead of stock photos.
Use modern cameras to photograph your products, events, company, or your staff during work.
Real photos give confidence to your business.
Thousands of stock photos that people don’t like and have become unconvincing, if you have to use a stock photo, choose it carefully. - Stay tuned for updates to social media image sizes.
Articles and Written Content:
Try to write your articles in a way that encourages people to continue reading.
Use images, illustrative pictures if necessary, and the most important is to use white spaces (an area without text).
This white space will make it easier for the eye to move over the post and read it, because the brain will process the information and content effortlessly.
Tip 5:
Avoid Shadowban:
If you notice that your photos/videos are not appearing on the hashtags page on Instagram, Tiktok, or other platforms, your account may be banned or partially blocked.
You may be using banned hashtags, or you may have been reported. In this case, you’ll lose trust from the platform.
Review and do a complete analysis of what you shared, then follow the steps to remove this ban.
Finally, analysis tools will help you identify errors such as reaching the wrong audience or unattractive content, such as the number of clicks on “Hide this post” or “Not interested.”
Here, you have to change your strategies in order to improve your content and ads.
We hope you found our step-by-step guide to crafting an effective social media marketing strategy plan helpful.
Start implementing these strategies today and watch your online presence soar to new heights.