Social media is steadily emerging and can be difficult to foretell what’s coming next. Who would have imagined that Chewbacca Mom would be so popular, Pokemon Go? We can’t know what will be popular in the coming years. However, we can anchor ourselves up for progress with some valid methods and rational expectation based on user behavior and market trends.
Producing a reliable social media plan will assist you to sail towards company goals through the ever-changing social scene. Check out these five steps to building a thriving social media plan in 2017.
1. Simply Determine Your End Goals
Have you ever gotten into a vehicle and began driving somewhere without identifying where you need to go? Probably not. Social media marketing is very comparable in that you aren’t setting yourself up for success if you just “do” things on Twitter or FaceBook.
The very first step to building thriving social media tactics is knowing what your end goal is. It’s necessary to be sensible and set challenging yet attainable goals.
Here are fantastic examples of goals you might need to examine for your social media tactics:
- Enhance overall traffic to your blog by 50% year over year
- Send 60% more engagement year over year
- Influence 30% more conversions year over year
- Boost revenue from social media by 20% year over year.
The above goals are entirely random, totally designed to get you pondering of the sorts of things you might like to succeed with.
With ultimate goals in mind, you can then arrange everything you do to towards accomplishing them.
2. Recognize Your Target Audience
You have your goals precisely set; now it’s time to begin thinking about who you’ll be trying to activate to accomplish these aims.There are a several distinct methods to distinguish your target audience. First, I would suggest taking a glance at your current consumer base and trying to produce demographic personas based on demands, spending and whether you need to keep this current consumer base or aim for a separate one entirely.
But what if you don’t have a huge consumer base to vet for that perfect audience? No problem there are many tools you can use to view who is consistently approaching towards your brand via your blog and social media channels.
Most social channels contribute demographic information. However, below outlines the most efficient method (in my experience) to work out if there’s a concentration of your target audience on any particular social channel.
- Google Analytics – Google Analytics produces some excellent tools to aid you to comprehend the demographics, location, interests and even behaviors of your site visitors. Vetting this information for the consumers that are converting is an excellent way to dial in on that wanted audience.
- Facebook Insights / Audience Insights – Facebook is the authority of the information realm and has an abundance of data on users that are relevant to your page, visit your site and even engage with your content. Installing a Facebook pixel or uploading an email list will accommodate you to open this worthy information.
- Twitter Analytics – Need demographic and lifestyle information on the people following your Twitter account? Accessing Twitter Analytics can produce a ton of beneficial data and also allows you to match your followers to a custom persona. If you believe your target market is active on Twitter, this is the way to find out.
- Instagram Analytics – This nearly new set of information will enable you to check out the demographics, content consumption and location of your following.
- LinkedIn Analytics – LinkedIn analytics have constantly been a bit weak, but if you’re in the B2B space, you need to check out this information to comprehend what kind of society you are developing and if it fits your typical audience and goals.
Leveraging information to distinguish your target segmentation has always been necessary, however, when it comes to producing a prosperous social media plan in 2017, it’s an obligation.
3. Create a Diverse Content Tactic
Would you believe me if I told you that there are more daily active users on Facebook now than people in existence in 1901? The gap between the amount of content generated and the amount of content utilized on social websites is quickly growing, and new media is growing more popular. However, there are only so many reasonable ways to read, listen, and watch. This is definitely why a diverse content approach will set you up for victory in 2017.
- Read – In 2017, people are going to need to obtain data in fast, absorbable ways. If you have a website on your blog, you’re already ahead of the game. If you can create valuable blog content that’s promoted properly through your social media channels, you’ll begin to entice your ideal consumer to your site. After all, you’re writing the content, and you control the messaging.
- Look – 90% of data transferred to the human brain is visual and our magical minds process visuals over 55,000x faster than text. To win attention (and reactions) on social media in 2017 you’re going to want to produce compelling visuals to convey your story. This doesn’t mean you need to be a skillful graphic designer (although having a skilled expert is encouraged). Websites like Canva will assist beginners to design social graphics that are enjoyable, beautiful and appealing.
- Watch – Video is continuing to be crucial to social media success in 2017. Practically all social media website has improved their video abilities, and you should follow suit. Videos don’t have to be costly to create either. Capturing an enjoyable moment or product video can be done with an iPhone and uploaded immediately to your platform of preference. Video content statistically gets more engagement than pictures. Use video in 2017.
- Listen – Podcasts grew in fame in 2016 and will likely proceed to develop. Currently, it’s expected that 17% of Americans listen to monthly podcasts. Could there be an opportunity for your brand with podcasts in 2017?
4. Assign a Dedicated Social Media Advertisement Budget
To surely reach a targeted audience and see a company returns from social media, it’s extremely suggested to allocate a dedicated social media advertisement budget.
Within the next four years, social media advertising is assumed to include over 20% of marketing budgets. 2017 is the year you should take social advertising thoughtfully and invest a strategically used budget. When used effectively, social advertising is the complete most cost-effective way to contact a targeted audience where they are the most engaged.
If you don’t have social media ad spend available currently, get it. Otherwise, you could get left behind in 2017.
5. Think Mobile in 2017
Did you know that it’s considered that people monitor their phones an average of 140x per day? People are so addicted to their cell phones that a recent survey revealed that 68% of individuals notice vibrations when their phone isn’t getting a notification.People believe their phone is vibrating because their brain regularly expects it. Since we’re all addicted to mobile phones, wouldn’t it make sense to tailor your social media approach in 2017 to be mobile-first?