Looking to fine-tune your social media marketing strategy?

Good! Now’s the perfect time to make it happen.

In a landscape with more competition, content and networks than ever, a succinct strategy gives you the focus needed to say “no” to efforts that don’t serve your goals. That’s why we put together a comprehensive guide to creating a social media marketing plan from scratch. Get the most professional assistance from this affiliate management agency.

Whether you’re totally new to social or want to double-check your priorities in 2023, this guide has you covered.

• What is social media marketing?
• Set goals that make sense for your business
• Research your target audience and select your networks
• Establish your most important metrics and KPIs
• Create (and curate) engaging social content
• Make your social presence as timely as possible
• Evaluate and improve your social media strategy
• Bring other departments into the mix

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing means using social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to promote your brand and sell your product or service.

If your business comes out with a new item and you plan to promote the launch on social media, that’s social media marketing. If you interact with your customers via comments, that’s social media marketing. And if you create engaging content that showcases your brand’s values and story, that’s social media marketing too.

This form of marketing requires you to use social media management skills and tools. Just as you prepare other aspects of your marketing strategy, you need to have a plan for your social media marketing.

Now that we’ve defined social media marketing, let’s walk through how to create a plan.

Set goals that make sense for your business

Social media strategy planning starts with your goals.

According to the 2021 Sprout Social Index™, the most common goals for social are increasing brand awareness (58%) and increasing community engagement (41%). And these goals are still very relevant to social media teams going into 2023, especially as they face new challenges.

The 2022 Sprout Social Index™ reports the top challenges for social media teams include finding talent, proving ROI, social execution, resourcing and using social as a business function. Brands are already setting goals and frameworks to conquer these obstacles in 2023.

Whether you want to expand your team, build a larger following or a more active community, taking the time to define your social goals is the first step to reaching them.

Either way, your goals will define your social media marketing strategy and how much time and energy you’ll need to dedicate to your campaigns.

Example social media goals for 2023 and beyond

What really matters is that you set realistic social media goals.

Emphasis on “realistic”. We recommend tackling smaller objectives that allow you to scale your social efforts in a way that’s both reasonable and affordable.

Below are some example social media marketing goals that businesses of all shapes and sizes can pursue.