Social Media for Business: How To Create a Marketing Plan That Works?

Did you know India will have the highest number of social media users by 2026? According to a news report, one-fourth of social media users will be from India by then. In terms of numbers, the same report goes on to state that India is expected to have one billion social media users by 2025. Therefore, organizations must have a solid online presence to stay relevant in today’s business world. It ensures a wider audience reach and better conversions, among others. And strategic usage of social media for business growth can increase your brand’s online presence.

What is a Social Media for Business?

Social media for businesses outlines how companies will use social media platforms to achieve their marketing goals. Simply put, a social media marketing plan outlines the content that will be posted on a company’s social media profile.

Moreover, a social media plan is a master plan that determines the following:

• How brands create social media posts
• What brands post on their social media
• How brands engage with their target users online

ALSO READ: Analyzing the Impact of Social Media on Different Businesses in the Last Decade

What Social Media Platforms Do Businesses Use?

Businesses across different industries predominantly use social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. However, depending on the objective and target audience, marketers can leverage other social media platforms as well. Such platforms include Pinterest, Tumblr, and more.

How Can Social Media Benefit a Business?

Here are some ways social media can benefit business organizations of all sizes.

1. Better Engagement

Social media allows businesses to connect with customers conveniently, answer their queries, and respond to feedback. Furthermore, it can lead to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

2. Increased Brand Awareness

Social media provides companies with a platform to reach a wider audience and increase brand awareness. They also offer organizations a chance to interact with their audience and share engaging content with them.

3. Cost-Effective

When compared to traditional marketing methods, social media marketing is more cost-effective. It can help companies reach a large audience while promoting their business cost-effectively.

4. Improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Social media improves a business’s search engine ranking, leading to increased visibility and traffic. Although there’s no direct connection between the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranking of a business and social media, if a brand’s post has a high engagement rate and conversions, it can generate more backlinks. This can further help to boost SERP ranking.

How To Create a Social Media Marketing Plan?

As discussed earlier, leveraging social media for business growth is a digital marketing strategy that uses platforms like Facebook and Twitter to interact and engage with users. Creating a social media marketing plan requires careful planning and execution. Here are a few steps to follow when coming up with such a strategy.

1# Set Goals

All effective social media marketing strategies have one thing in common—they have well-defined goals. Determining what one wants to achieve through their social media marketing strategy is the first step toward creating a successful marketing plan.

Furthermore, goals help marketers determine how much time and energy they must devote to a campaign. A few examples of marketing goals are:

• Increased brand awareness
• Improved website traffic
• Generate quality leads
• Improved customer engagement

2# Define the Target Audience

The second step is identifying one’s target audience and understanding their needs and preferences. A defined target audience helps understand customers’ likes, dislikes, and buying behavior.

With the right tool, marketers can understand their target audience quickly. Moreover, these tools can help create unique user personas to help personalize marketing campaigns. Additionally, these tools help marketers create marketing campaigns that resonate with the target

customers and drive engagement.

3# Choose Appropriate Social Media Platforms

Marketers can choose different social media platforms for marketing their products or services. However, selling products or services on all platforms is impossible as every platform has specific rules and regulations that marketers need to follow while creating a promotional campaign.

Therefore, identifying the right social media platform is an important step. Marketers can identify social media platforms based on their marketing goals, target audience, and content strategy.

4# Study the Competition

Marketers need to check their competitors’ social media profiles to stay ahead of the competition. This will help them understand the content their competitors’ audience likes and dislikes. Besides, it allows marketers to avoid common mistakes their competitors repeat in their campaigns.

Remember that the main aim behind this activity is not to emulate competitor strategies but to get inspiration from them. The overarching goal should be to create a social media campaign that is unique to your brand personality.

5# Develop a Content Strategy

Content is the cornerstone of a successful social media marketing strategy. However, before developing a content strategy, marketers must evaluate their brand personality, goals, and target audience preferences. This will help create a content strategy that matches the likes and dislikes of their audience. A well-planned content strategy helps companies build a strong relationship with their audience.

6# Track and Measure Results

There are many things marketers track and measure to determine the outcome of a strategy for using social media for business promotion. Some of them include reach, clicks, engagement, and hashtag performance. These performance metrics help you understand how much traffic your social media accounts drive to your website. Monitoring the performance can also determine the effectiveness of your marketing plan.

Marketers also use in-built social media tools such as Facebook Analytics, Twitter Analytics, or Google Analytics. Remember to choose the performance metrics that are easy to gather and are less time-consuming to track.

ALSO READ: What is Digital Marketing? A Beginner’s Guide to the World of Digital Marketing

How Often Should Businesses Post on Social Media?

Deciding how often to post on social media is an important part of the social media marketing plan. It helps companies stand out from their competition. Generally, marketers use social media scheduling tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social to determine and optimize posting frequency.

The frequency of posting on social media for businesses depends on factors like the platform, the audience, and the marketing goals. For instance, marketers post at least one post a day to keep their audience engaged on Facebook and Instagram. Whereas, on LinkedIn, it’s recommended to post only on weekdays because it’s a professional platform.

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