social media marketingAre you responsible for creating and managing a social media marketing plan? Using social media to grow your business and build a brand may seem like a daunting task, and in some ways it is. But there are steps you can follow to improve your chances of success, which will help you take advantage of everything social media has to offer.

Our social media marketing course equips you with the skills you need to help you use popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and many more, as powerful marketing tools.

Whether you’re just getting started or have been active for a while, but haven’t had much success, follow these social media marketing tips:

Create a social media plan for each platform

So many businesses make the mistake of blindly jumping into social media marketing without a strategy or plan. You’ve heard the saying, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail!

Your social media plan should consist of mini-plans for each social media channel you expect to be active on. You’ll have a plan for your Twitter, Facebook and so forth.

If you’re just getting started, keep your number of active social networking sites low. For most businesses, particularly small businesses, trying to tackle five different social media accounts often results in doing a mediocre job with little to no results.

Consistency

Posting one Tweet a day isn’t going to cut it. Platforms like Instagram and Snapchat don’t move as fast as Twitter or Facebook. Which means you don’t have to post as often. However, you should still develop a routine schedule and be consistent.

This should be outlined in your social media marketing plan. Remember to include:

  • How often you plan to publish on each social media channel.
  • What type of content you plan to publish.

Quality over quantity

When it comes to figuring out what to share on social media, quality beats quantity. You want to publish content consistently, but it also has to be valuable. Quality content should be:

  • Relevant to your audience.
  • Helpful.
  • Entertaining.

Use a social media management tool

Don’t waste time scheduling and posting in each social media platform! Social media management tools make it a lot easier to:

  • Publish content across multiple platforms.
  • Schedule posts in advance.
  • Collaborate with your team.
  • Track and measure your results.

The casual user may be able to stick with managing their social media from their phones, but as a business, you need to use a tool that will allow you to be more efficient and strategic.

See our social media marketing course