It’s a common misconception that it’s easy to become successful on social media. That all you have to do is post regularly, use a few hashtags, then bada bing, bada boom your brand has a huge following. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.
Now, this isn’t to say that social media is an overly complicated landscape to navigate. Quite the contrary. But it does require time, strategy, and a concerted effort with your team. The first step to curating a successful Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Linkden, is creating a game plan. Once you have a plan in place you’ll be able to identify specific goals, strategize for future content, and create socials that are consistent with your brand’s aesthetic. This is how you lay the foundation for your brand’s success.
Below we have the 8 reasons having a social media plan is the key to success.
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Developing a strategy will help you identify and reach goals
Like we mentioned above, developing a social media strategy is key. You don’t want to jump into anything without clear goals in mind, as these tend to fizzle out and die in your drafts. By having a strategy in place, you’ll know what kind of content you’re posting, the time in which it will be posted (analytics will help you figure out when your followers are most active), the tone of the captions, as well as the hashtags best suited for your audience.
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A plan can help you identify the content you need, whether it be in-house photography or videography or user generated content
When planning your strategy you must ask first yourself, “how will I generate content for my socials?” Will you have an in-house photographer? Will you take the photos/videos yourself? Or will your brand seek out user-generated content? Whilst creating the plan for your brand’s aesthetic and style, these questions must be addressed.
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A plan can help you achieve a cohesive tone and message in your copy
Once you’ve established the type of content you’ll be posting, now it’s time to figure out your voice. Your tone/voice is an extension of your brand. Having a plan in place will help solidify the message you want to get across in your copy. This takes time and effort. We suggest workshopping your copy until you find something that works. A social media company, like Bellwether, can also help your brand find it’s voice.
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A plan will ultimately help in the consistency in your posts based on how many posts you deploy per week and even how your feed is presented
Having a plan will help you create a sense of consistency across your socials. It’s also great because you can schedule how many times a week you want to post. This will help you strategize the flow of your feed, which will add to your brand’s overall aesthetic appeal.
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A plan will get your Instagram/Facebook stories on brand
Similar to posting content, a plan will also help when it comes to posting Instagram and Facebook stories. You should plan for how many stories you want to post a week and whether or not they will have a call to action, i.e. polls, questions, or user-generated content. This will help build engagement and ultimately get you more followers.
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A plan can carry the branded content through multiple platforms
When you have a plan in place, you can create branded content for your multiple platforms. It should be noted that some content works better on different socials than others. For instance, videos over 10 minutes long should probably be saved for YouTube or Facebook. Whereas photos and short videos are best suited for Instagram.
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A plan will help you to get a return on investment
As you grow, you’ll gain more followers, and hopefully, more customers. By following your social media analytics, you’ll be able to watch your brand/business grow in real time. Investing in your social media is extremely important. Whether that means hiring a management company, or putting in the effort yourself, we guarantee a return on your investment.
