The new year brings new goals and with it many of you will begin to implement fresh and exciting social media campaigns. Before embarking on this social journey we recommend slowing down and making sure you have all your ducks in a row. It’s easy to get excited about the prospects of reaching new goals however, if you jump the gun too quickly your campaign may flop faster than you can say ‘Facebook’. Speaking of Facebook, with increased competition on the social media network as well as on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, it’s more important than ever to make sure your social campaign has all the necessities to create a lasting impact. If this is your first time implementing a social media campaign we are here to help! The following is a tried and true list of all the steps you should take in order to ensure your campaign will be a success.
Establish Goals
Before you even begin implementing a social media campaign it’s vital to determine what specific goals you want to achieve. Is this campaign designed to increase brand awareness? Sell tickets? Promote an event or new product? Once you figure out WHAT the campaign is supposed to do you can move on to HOW you will accomplish it.
Create an Editorial Calendar
Give yourself a timeline to work with! Whether you’re old school and use a paper calendar or prefer an online version such as Google Calendar like us, you need to write down a few key dates for the campaign. Start and end dates are a given, but the key to a good editorial calendar is to break down the different steps of the campaign and write out which dates they will be implemented. Don’t forget to give yourself a little wiggle room in case you want to extend the campaign for longer or cut it off a little shorter.
Design Engaging and Valuable Content
We can’t stress how important this step is. To put it simply: If your content sucks, your campaign will suck. Sorry, that’s the reality of the situation. It doesn’t matter how precise your editorial calendar is, how perfect your goals are, or how awesome your plan is; if you don’t generate both engaging and valuable content it WILL fail. So how do you do this? Pick visually stimulating images, a specific hashtag to promote across all social channels, incorporate shareable videos and graphics, and whatever you do- don’t over promote. The last thing your fans want is for your Facebook Page to suddenly become a huge advertisement.
Cross-promote both On and Offline
Just because it’s a “Social Media” campaign doesn’t mean it has to stay on social media. That’s right, your campaign should be integrated into all other marketing efforts. Have an eNewsletter? Feature the campaign and link all the relevant social handles. How about a website? Make the campaign the temporary focus of your home page so when people visit your site that’s the first thing they see. Is the campaign stretching across multiple social networks? Create synergy by linking specific networks together and cross promoting when necessary.
Respond to the Data
Be flexible. Things don’t always go as planned and people don’t always respond the way you want them to, but the only way to properly gauge this is by evaluating the social analytics. Make sure you have the necessary tools in place to monitor the growth of the campaign and don’t be afraid to make changes if needed. This is the wonderful world of social media. It’s ever changing and rarely “one size fits all.” So be prepared to roll with the punches and tweak things as you see fit!
Do you have any other tips and strategies you use when you put a new social media campaign into action? Leave a comment with yours below!