This article was written for and shared in the January 2016 River Valley Woman Magazine.
The holidays have past and the hustle and bustle has begun to slow. If you’re like me you already miss the planning, decorating and socializing that goes along with the holiday cheer. Now that it’s the start of a new year, it’s a great time to keep the enthusiasm going by planning, organizing and setting goals for your 2016 social media marketing plan.
Here are five tips to Get Your Social Media Marketing on Track for the New Year.
Do an Annual Review
Take time to review your social media posts and campaigns from the past year to see what worked well, what didn’t, where you had the most engagement and conversations, what received the most shares, where you received the most click throughs to your website and how you gained more likes and followers. Use this information as a guide for the type of content your audience resonates with and incorporate more of what works in the New Year.
Perform an Audit
Make sure you take full advantage of the wonderful marketing opportunities on your social network accounts. Facebook offers an abundance of branding tools for your business, from your cover and profile images to a custom URL, call-to-action buttons, to integrating Facebook messenger into your website. Keep branding, logos and images consistent across all of your social networks including your profile and cover photos. Take the time to research features that will best promote and market your business on your social networks and make sure you are using all of the options that would best feature your brand.
Create a Content Plan using the Latest Trends
When using social media to market your business you need content to share. Creating good, unique content can be challenging but fun! In 2016, add new types of content into your social media mix! People love to engage with video and it’s easy to create and share. You can even connect with followers through live streaming video, which is sure to become even bigger in 2016. Infographics, animated gifs, carousel posts, webinars, podcasting and blogging are just a few ways you can add something new into your content plan. Pick one or a few new ways to engage your audience and create a plan that consistently uses this new content throughout the year. You’ll be a hit!
Set a Budget
If you’re not already allocating your marketing budget to social media, now is the time to start! Whether you budget for ads on social networks, social media management services, or content creation, you’ll want to first set goals. Your goals might be to increase traffic to your website, gather leads from your social networks or gain more exposure for your brand. If you have a purpose it will be easy to set a budget and track your goals.
Keep Learning
With the ever-changing landscape of social media, one of the best ways to succeed at social media marketing is to stay educated throughout the year. With the enhancements of the social media tools to the changes in ways people consume content online, you can stay on top of your marketing plan by following social media marketing experts, reading educational blogs, attending classes and events, and networking with others in your industry. You’ll gain a better understanding of how to reach your target audience, how to use new tools and techniques and how to measure your return on investment.
Putting these five simple tips into action in the New Year will make your job easier and your social networks will stand out in the crowd!
