Putting together a social media marketing plan? Not sure where to start? There are many ways to handle this task depending on the type and size of your company. Balancing this task between your capabilities and what you plan to invest in marketing campaigns can be a tough call. Here are some things to consider:

☑ Clearly define your marketing goals (in writing).
There are many components to social media marketing. What specifically is your company after? Creating a viral advertisement? Getting Likes, Shares, and Comments? A recent study in the Journal of Interactive Advertising connected consumers’ intentions to Like, Share, or Comment on an ad with the intention to purchase or endorse the product (JIAD). Are you researching consumer attitudes and opinions about your company or your product(s)? Are you testing a new product? Or are you aiming for customer endorsements? Defining your intended results is the obvious first step for an effective social media campaign.

☑ Create a task list based on goals.
What is the best way to engage customers and get them to Like, Share, and/or Comment on your content? What kinds of posts are most effective? If you are collecting data to gauge customer attitudes about your company or product, what are the most effective, measurable tools you can utilize? Prioritizing tasks based on market data and creating an archive of best practices is key to saving time and resources and creating an effective campaign. When your new product launches, what approaches will create the most buzz? How will you collect, store, and use the data?

☑ Delegate tasks wisely.
Who should handle the social media for your company? Are any tasks manageable by people within your firm, and who are your best options? Finding the depth of talent within an organization and using it effectively can result in great benefits, especially for larger firms looking to continually innovate. If you are not a large organization, should you handle all social media marketing in-house, outsource everything, or use a combination of both? Fastcompany.com offers some thoughts on this topic.

For every organization looking to build a social media marketing campaign, developing an in-house marketing team for tasks that require heavy customer interaction is a good idea. Things like SEO-related social media posts, testing new products, or PR activities might be best handled this way. For basic web ads and marketing tasks like collecting and analyzing customer thoughts/opinions, outsourcing to an industry expert could be the path to take. (Here are some top agencies to consider.)

☑ Measure Your Success.
It’s one thing to have great marketing ideas, but measuring the impact of these ideas is essential for discovering best practices and eliminating approaches that are ineffective. This is the formula for maximizing success, and the better companies can do this, the faster they can fine-tune and cash in on marketing efforts. Powerful marketing insights from effective measuring starts with having the right tools to monitor marketing campaigns accurately.

Editor’s Note:

Mobile social networks bring a different elements to digital marketing and advertising and can require different approaches then traditional web campaigns. For more on advertising and mobile social networks, check out this JIAD article:

“Understanding the Impact of Media Engagement on the Perceived Value and Acceptance of Advertising Within Mobile Social Networks” 

Volume 16 – Issue 1

Journal of Interactive Advertising