There’s an endless list of businesses that have made a boatload of cash from social media. For many of these businesses, a great social media content plan is central to their success. If you’ve never created a content plan, though, creating one can seem a little intimidating.
Thankfully, you don’t need to feel this way.
Keep reading and I’ll show you what it takes to create a winning social media content plan.
Embrace what you learn and it won’t be long before you’re earning more money than ever thanks to social media.
Let’s begin!
Acknowledge the Platform
Social media platforms are naturally different. What works on Twitter won’t necessarily work on Instagram. This is due to the fundamental differences between the platform.
Because of this, you need to decide what platform you’re going to use, ahead of time. You then need to focus on using just that platform. Taking this step will make it easier for you to create a focused content plan that’s going to deliver results.
If you don’t know which platform to pick, keep things simple and pick Facebook.
It’s one of the largest platforms out there and so it’s relatively easy to reach your audience with Facebook. It also lends itself to a variety of different content forms, which makes it easy for you to adapt your approach in a way that makes you comfortable.
Must Read | 8 Content Marketing Realities You Need to Know
Develop Content You’re Comfortable with Creating
As you’ll learn later, one of the keys to social media success is consistency. But you can only achieve consistency if you’re able to create content.
You, therefore, need to think about selecting a content medium you think you can create easily time and time again. If you’re not someone who likes creating videos, don’t pick videos as your chosen content form. You’ll simply create one video and then be done with this. This approach isn’t going to bring you social media success.
You can always pay someone to help you create your content. This approach works well, but of course, it’s going to cost you. If you’re on a budget though, you probably can’t take this approach.
It’s worth noting why you feel uncomfortable creating a certain kind of content. For instance, a lot of people hate writing blog posts, because they hated writing essays at school. But a blog post is hardly an essay. In fact, it works best when it isn’t one.
The same applies to video content. You may hate video content because you think it has to be a certain way. You may think the video needs to be highly polished and overly edited.
But you might actually find that a video recorded with your phone works best. Challenging your assumptions this way is a good way to remove any roadblocks that might get in the way your social media efforts.
Also Read | 5 Reasons Why Video Marketing Can Revolutionize Your Marketing Campaign
Use Tools to Help You
Posting on social media can be very work intensive. If you want to make things easier on yourself, think about using social media posting tools to help you out.
These tools remove the need for you to be at a computer/mobile device, to post content to your social media accounts. Using such tools all you need to do is preload the tool with what you want posting, when you want it posted and where you want it posted. The tool will then stick to this schedule and post content accordingly.
There are many tools that provide this feature. You need to spend time testing each one out, to decide which one is best for you. These tools will cost money to use. But you need to accept this cost as something that is required for success with social media.
You can also consider adding captions to your social media video as it will help boost your conversion rate and ultimately profit from it. Streamr allow you to add video and audio to the software and transcribe, translate and even live stream your video to any social platform.
After all, without these tools, it would be hard to create a social media plan that is consistent.
Pay Attention to the Numbers
A social media content plan is like one big experiment. You don’t really know what is going to work before you start posting content. Post something too boring and it won’t do well. Post something too eccentric and you risk creating content nobody relates to or finds interesting.
You can’t always use what you’ve learned from past campaigns either. That’s because different social media campaigns target different kinds of audiences. Different audiences, react to different kinds of things.
You, therefore, need to find a happy medium. The best way to do this is by posting a wide variety of content. Pay close attention to the numbers associated with your content. The metrics will let you know what kind of content works well and what doesn’t work well.
The good thing about social media is that the numbers are available pretty quickly. After a day or two, you should be able to tell what is working and what isn’t. You should use what you learn to direct future campaigns and content creation efforts.
Put Money Behind Winners
Social Media can be very fickle. If you find something that is working very well, you want to get as much from it as soon as you can. The best way to do this is by using paid ad campaigns.
Identify content within your social media content plan that is producing results. Take the best performing item and put some ad spend behind it.
If you’re using a platform like Facebook or Instagram, be sure to use a feature known as Lookalike Audiences. This’ll ensure your content is shown to a relevant audience.
Ready to Create a Social Media Content Plan?
Social media can help your business meet its revenue targets. But if you want to succeed with social media, you need to know how to create an effective social media content plan.
In this post, we’ve reviewed what you need to think about when creating a social media content plan of your own. You need to consider the platform in question. You also want to use tools to help you remain consistent.
It’s also key you pay close attention to your metrics. By observing the numbers associated with your content, you’ll learn what kind of content you should focus on creating more of. This will improve the odds of your creating a more ROI positive social media content plan in the future.
Want to learn how you can drive traffic to your website? Check out this blog post to learn more!