The document provides guidance on developing a social media strategic plan. It recommends starting with profiling the target audience and setting goals and objectives. It then discusses auditing current social media profiles, developing a content strategy, defining success metrics, preparing to monitor social channels, and using analytics to track progress and adjust the strategy. The document includes exercises to help with setting objectives, auditing profiles, researching competition, setting guidelines, identifying relevant platforms, developing a content plan, and determining metrics.
2. Digital and Traditional Marketing | Content
Strategy | Social Media | UX | Designer |
Educator | Consultant
• huonks.com
• linkedin.com/in/brianhuonker
• slideshare.net/bkhuonker/
(The one thing to remember)
BRIAN HUONKER, MS, CHFC, CLU
4. Traditional marketing channels are becoming less
effective in capturing and engaging the attention of today’s
perpetually connected consumers.
The challenge of today’s brands is to adapt their
marketing strategies in an effort to build brand advantage in
the face of consumers’ rapidly changing media
consumption landscape.
In addition, today’s millennial generation does not trust
traditional advertisements, only 6% of millennials
consider on-line advertising to be credible.
Branded content will allow brands to meet this challenge,
building a trusted, remarkable, unmistakable, and
essential brand in the eye of the consumer.
SOCIAL MEDIA
STRATEGIC PLANNING
5. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ We know people
share stories that:
¤ Are native, not
deceptive
¤ Are individual, and
ready to evolve
¤ Deliver on emotion
¤ Reserve judgment
¤ Act like the locals
6. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ They share stories
that help them
¤ Solve a problem
¤ Escape for the moment
¤ Fuel their creativity and
play
¤ Spotlight pop culture
¤ Discover new things
¤ Succeed
7. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ So, as a business we present content that:
◻ Captures the brand’s persona through branded
storytelling.
◻ Enables social sharing through brand
advocates.
◻ Enables brand discovery through consumer
exploration.
◻ Connects the brand to consumers in context
through cultural, relevant and valuable content.
◻ Changes and enhances the consumer
experience.
9. But How Do You Do
This?
SOCIAL MEDIA
STRATEGIC PLANNING
10. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ Start With Profiling Your Audience
◻ Brainstorm them.
◻ Create profiles of them (and have fun)
◻ Discover where they are at
◻ Do they use Twitter (Does anyone?), LinkedIn, Instagram,
Email (not if they under 20), etc…
◻ They might have different personalities on them, uses them
differently
◻ Allows for the “like” to happen. Not the button, but the
relationship.
◻ Once you create a connection, you begin a relationship
◻ Once a relationship, conversations can happen
◻ Once, conversations begin, trust is established
11. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ Then Set Your Social
Media Goals/Objectives
¤ What do you want to
achieve with social
media?
¤ Do your social media
objectives align with your
overall company vision,
mission and marketing
strategy
¤ Should they align it to
other campaign goals
¤ Are your objectives
S.M.A.R.T: specific,
measurable, attainable,
relevant, and time-bound?
12. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ Audit your current
social media status.
¤ What social profiles do
you currently manage?
¤ Which social media
platforms do you want to
participate in.
¤ Is control over the
passwords centralized?
Should any accounts be
deleted?
¤ Do they currently align
to your goals and
objectives?
¤ What is the mission
statement of each of your
social profiles?
13. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
Blog
◻ Objectives
◻ Increase brand awareness
◻ Increase thought leadership throughout
your industry
◻ Encourage comments and engagement
◻ Lead generation through blog
subscription
◻ External linking
◻ Action Items
◻ Choose managing editor to own the blog
◻ Choose a blogging platform
◻ Create an internal blog evangelist
program to get employees to contribute
◻ Decide on a weekly cadence
◻ Recruit guest bloggers
◻ Add social sharing icons
◻ Add a Tweet This button
◻ Promote each blog on social channels
◻ Key Metrics
◻ X number of posts
◻ X number of bloggers
◻ X number of social shares
◻ Audience growth—unique and return
visitors
◻ Conversions
◻ Subscriber growth
◻ Inbound links
◻ Directory listings for infographics
◻ SEO improvement
14. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
Facebook
◻ Objectives
◻ Brand awareness and engagement
◻ Lead generation or customer
acquisition
◻ Share a mix of relevant links, blog
posts, and engaging content
◻ Promote upcoming events
◻ Engage with influencers
◻ Action Items
◻ Choose owner for all of social media
◻ Set up social media posting cadence
◻ Choose a social media management
platform
◻ Determine social media voice
◻ √ Set up sponsored posts and ads
◻ Set up Facebook tabs that sync to your
marketing automation platform
◻ Key Metrics
◻ X number of posts per day
◻ Page follows
◻ Likes
◻ Engagement and comments
◻ Referring traffic
◻ Shares
◻ Lead generation/new customers
15. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
Twitter
◻ Objectives
◻ Brand awareness and engagement
◻ Lead generation or customer acquisition
◻ Share a mix of relevant links, blog posts,
and engaging content
◻ Segment influencers and create lists
◻ Communicate issues from social media to
support team and ensure follow-up
◻ Listen and respond to relevant
conversations
◻ Build reputation
◻ Action Items
◻ Choose owner for all of social media
◻ Set up social media posting cadence
◻ Choose a social media management
platform
◻ Determine social media voice
◻ Utilize promoted tweets and pinned tweets
◻ Set up Twitter Lead Generation cards
◻ Key Metrics
◻ X number of posts
◻ Followers
◻ Mentions
◻ Retweets
◻ Number of lists
◻ Hashtag usage
◻ Influence of Twitter followers
◻ Lead generation or customer
acquisition
◻ Referring traffic
◻ Favorited tweets
16. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
LinkedIn
◻ Objectives
◻ Brand awareness and engagement
◻ Lead generation or customer acquisition
◻ Share a mix of relevant links, blog posts,
and engaging content
◻ Promote upcoming events
◻ Engage with influencers
◻ Action Items
◻ Choose owner for all of social media
◻ Set up social media posting cadence
◻ Choose a social media management
platform
◻ Determine social media voice
◻ Create and join relevant groups
◻ Encourage employee participation
◻ Monitor and participate in Q&A
◻ Set up sponsored posts and ads
◻ Key Metrics
◻ X number of posts per day
◻ Page follows
◻ Comments, likes, and shares
◻ Group participation
◻ Referring traffic
◻ Lead generation/new customers
17. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
Image Based (Instagram/Pinterest)
◻ Objectives
◻ Brand awareness and engagement
◻ Engagement with visual assets
◻ Showcase products
◻ Showcase company culture, marketing events
◻ Link back to website, blog, and other content
assets
◻ Share a mix of relevant imagery—both brand-
related and fun
◻ Action Items
◻ Choose owner for all of social media
◻ Set up social media posting cadence
◻ Choose a social media management platform
◻ Determine social media voice
◻ Determine ownership of photo sites
◻ Decide on general branding guidelines for
photos
◻ Encourage employees to participate and share
their own photos
◻ Key Metrics
◻ Referral traffic
◻ Shares and comments
◻ View of photos
◻ Page rankings on key terms from photo
sharing sites
◻ Product purchasing and lead
generation
18. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
YouTube/Vimeo
◻ Objectives
◻ Brand awareness
◻ Engagement with visual content assets
◻ Lead generation and customer acquisition
◻ SEO optimization
◻ Generate additional content views
◻ Action Items
◻ Choose owner for all of social media
◻ Set up social media posting cadence
◻ Choose a social media management platform
◻ Determine social media voice
◻ Determine ownership for visual content on
SlideShare
◻ Work on regular SlideShare presentation
creation
◻ Choose agency for stellar design
◻ Turn on the forms feature in SlideShare so you
can sync leads to your marketing automation
platform
◻ Key Metrics
◻ X number of presentations
◻ Followers
◻ Views
◻ Shares
◻ Lead generation and customer
acquisition
◻ Downloads
◻ Favorites
19. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ Create or improve
your social media
profiles.
¤ Are your profiles filled
out properly and
thoroughly?
¤ Are all of the accounts
and profiles on
brand?
¤ Would a new visitor
follow me after seeing
this profile?
20. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ Develop your content strategy.
¤ What types of content do you want to post to each social network? Who
is the target audience?
¤ How often will you post content and how will you promote it
¤ Do you have an editorial calendar and a social media content calendar?
21. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ Define What Success
Means, Short and Long-
Term.
¤ Are people sharing the
content with their
networks? Metrics:
Number of shares,
number of Tweets,
number of Pins, etc.
¤ Is your audience
interested in learning
more? Metrics:
Requests for additional
information, completion
of content forms, traffic
to your site.
22. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ Define What Success
Means, Short and Long-
Term.
¤ Is the audience engaging
with the content? Metrics:
number of comments, shares,
downloads, likes along side
time on page, pages per visits,
repeat visits
¤ What sources are driving
your on-site traffic? Metrics:
Keyword performance,
referrals, organic search
results, campaign traffic
¤ Or other consumption/brand
metrics like:
■ Increase in conversions
■ Increase in organic traffic to
targeted digital
■ Increase in audience
engagement
■ increase in brand awareness
23. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ Prepare to Monitoring your
social media channels.
¤ See complaints and address
them immediately
¤ Share the compliments (with a
simple “Thank You”)
¤ Help solve customer problems
(and let others see)
¤ Answer questions
¤ Know what’s next
¤ Manage crisis (before they
escalate)
¤ Monitor the competition
¤ Spot the trends
¤ Discover your influencers
(brand advocates)
¤ Reach potential prospects
24. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ Use analytics to track progress and adjust
your strategy as need.
¤ Have you established the metrics by which
you'll measure social media success?
¤ Do you have an analytics or measurement tool
prepared to track these metrics?
¤ How often will you analyze your results?
¤ Are you prepared to quickly change your
strategy in response to these results?
26. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ EXERCISE 1: Set Your Content Marketing
Goals/Objectives
◻ What do you want to achieve with social
media?
◻ Do your social media objectives align with
your overall company vision, mission and
marketing strategy
◻ Are your objectives S.M.A.R.T: specific,
measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-
bound?
27. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ EXERCISE 2: Audit Your Current Social
Media Footprint
◻ What social profiles do you currently
manage?
◻ Is control over the passwords centralized?
Should any accounts be deleted?
◻ What is the mission statement of each of
your social profiles?
◻ How does this align with your goals and
objectives?
28. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ EXERCISE 3: Create And/Or Improve Your
Social Media Profiles
◻ Are your profiles filled out properly and
thoroughly?
◻ Are all of the accounts and profiles on
brand?
◻ Would a new visitor follow me after seeing
this profile?
29. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ EXERCISE 4: Research The Competition
◻ Search up any other social media profiles that
is representing your company that you don’t
own (imposters). Report them.
◻ Search up any competitors.
◻ Follow them, note what they are posting and
what they are successful with.
◻ Search up any suppliers.
◻ Follow them, note what they are posting and
what they are successful with.
30. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ EXERCISE 5: Set Up the Guide Rails
◻ Rules for when to create/participate in new
social media channels.
◻ Rules for when to respond to comments.
31. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ EXERCISE 6: Identify The Platforms You
That Are In Alignment With Your Goals
◻ Evaluate the needs for all your social media
profiles and create a mission statement for
each. For example: Instagram Profile—To
share company culture and company
achievements.
32. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ EXERCISE 7: Develop Your Content Strategy For
Each Platform.
◻ What types of content do you want to post to each
social network? Who is the target audience?
◻ Photos?
◻ Blog or Microblog Post?
◻ Video?
◻ How often will you post content and how will you
promote it
◻ Record it in a content calendar
(http://www.huonks.com/downloads/sample-content-
calendar.xlsx)
33. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ EXERCISE 8: Plan it out. Plan it out. Plan it
out
◻ Create a spreadsheet and write down all the
social networks you own and the owner for
each.
◻ Ensure your images are sized correctly
◻ Facebook Image Sizes
◻ Others (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn,
Pinterest, YouTube, etc…)
34. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ EXERCISE 9: Review it
◻ With your leadership.
◻ With your co-workers.
◻ With your brand advocates.
35. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC PLANNING
◻ EXERCISE 10: Determine How You Measure
Success
◻ Have you established the metrics by which
you'll measure social media success?
◻ Do you have an analytics or measurement tool
prepared to track these metrics?
◻ How often will you analyze your results?
◻ Are you prepared to quickly change your
strategy in response to these results?
◻ Adjust your strategy as needed.