How To Create Your Social Media Plan

Pen lays across enter button on computer keyboard

We blog (and talk) a lot about having a social media plan. IT’S IMPORTANT.

That fact will never change.

But we do concede that creating a social media plan can be tough if it’s not your full-time job. Or if you don’t have a team of people (like us) all working full-time to stay educated on all the things.

So here is your bullet list to get started.

Creating Your Social Media Plan

Note that we are going to provide information on a level of assumption that you are a social media manager and/or you have an understanding of the fundamentals of that job. We are also linking to several of our other blogs that give more in-depth “how to” information, so be sure to click over.

You got this!

Where to start:

  • Establish baseline metrics. You need numbers to start with. Where are you today?
  • Create a buyer persona. Define your audience.
  • Complete a social media audit. You’d be surprised how fast things can get out-of-date.
  • Set your social media goals. Do this even if you never finish your total plan!
  • Create a content calendar (pictured below).
  • Things to consider for responding to comments or direct messages:
    • Do you respond to negative comments (we recommend you DO!)
    • How do you respond?
    • Who responds (don’t have too many cooks in the kitchen).
    • Do your responses need to be vetted or approved by management?
      • If this is the case, then set up a process so that turnaround is quick.
  • Create a style guide. A style guide is essential for maintaining quality control.
    • Set your tone. Are you casual, more professional? Outline examples of how you “speak”.
    • What graphics will you use in profile images and cover photos?

Content Calendar

That’s a long list of things to accomplish, but doing each of those items will give you the majority of your social media plan.

A few other things to consider:

  • Assign responsibilities
    • Make sure it’s clear who is responsible for doing what. If everyone is responsible, then no one is responsible.
  • Get your assets in order and gather your resources
    • This can be everything from team members who can help you gather content, to software that enables you to create content. 
  • What types of content best fits your audience
    • What combination of video, links, graphics, or photos will get the best results?

6 PRO TIPS AND TIME SAVERS

Because if you’ve read this far, you deserve a few tricks to make your social media plan the best it can be!

1. Create a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) and their answers that you can copy and paste for a quick response.

2. Create graphics templates that you can drop a quote in or news update for posting. Time saver!

3.  If you’re sharing articles on social media, collect them as you go and save them for later. Having a stockpile of ready-to-go content is a luxury.

4. Use a project management system for storing and organizing. We use Asana.

5. Keep your photos organized so you can reuse them later as throwback photos, year in review, etc.

6. Create a list of important dates and holidays around your company and industry that you can recognize with posts.

Laurie Heard