social media marketing business plan sample

How to create a social media marketing strategy in 9 easy steps [free template]

Creating your social media marketing strategy doesn’t need to be painful. Create an effective plan for your business in 9 simple steps.

A social media marketing strategy is a summary of everything you plan to do and hope to achieve on social media. It guides your actions and lets you know whether you’re succeeding or failing.

The more specific your plan is, the more effective it will be. Keep it concise. Don’t make it so lofty and broad that it’s unattainable or impossible to measure.

In this post, we’ll walk you through a nine-step plan to create a winning strategy for social media marketing. We’ve even got expert insights from Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing.

tl;dr? If you’re looking for social media marketing help, you’re in the right place.

How to create a social media strategy:

Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template to quickly and easily plan your strategy, track results, and share with your boss, teammates, and clients.

What is a social media marketing strategy?

A social media strategy is a document outlining your social media goals, the tactics you will use to achieve them and the metrics you will track to measure your progress.

Your social media marketing strategy should also list all of your existing and planned social media accounts along with goals specific to each platform you’re active on. These goals should align with your business’s larger digital marketing strategy.

Finally, a good social media plan should define the roles and responsibilities within your team and outline your reporting cadence.

Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.

Creating your own marketing strategy for social media (video guide)

No time to read the whole article? Let Amanda, Hootsuite’s own Senior Manager of Social Media Marketing, guide you through our free strategy template in less than 10 minutes:

How to create a social media marketing strategy: A step-by-step guide

Step 1. align goals with business objectives, set s.m.a.r.t. goals.

The first step to creating a winning social media strategy is to establish clear objectives and goals. Without goals, you have no way to measure success and return on investment (ROI) .

Each of your social media marketing goals should be SMART : s pecific, m easurable, a ttainable, r elevant and t ime-bound.

Psst: Need help getting started? We’ve got social strategy guides for small businesses , financial services , government , higher education , healthcare , real estate , law firms , and non-profits .

Oh, and if you need examples of smart social media goals , we’ve got you covered there too.

Once you’ve decided on your social goals, track them in a strategy doc — grab our free social media strategy template if you don’t have one already.

Track meaningful metrics

Vanity metrics like number of followers and likes are easy to track, but it’s hard to prove their real value. Instead, focus on things like engagement, click-through, and conversion rates.

Not sure where to start? If you need inspiration, take a look at these essential social media metrics .

You may want to track different goals for different social media networks, or even different uses for each network.

For example, if you use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website, you would measure click-throughs. If Instagram is for increasing brand awareness, you might track the number of Instagram Story views. And if you advertise products or services on Facebook, cost-per-click (CPC) is a common success metric.

Social media goals should align with your overall marketing objectives. This makes it easier to show the value of your work and secure buy-in from your boss.

Start developing a successful social media marketing plan by writing down at least three goals for social media.

“ It’s easy to get overwhelmed by deciding what to post and which metrics to track, but you need to focus on what you want to get out of social media to begin with,” says Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing. “Don’t just start posting and tracking everything: match your goals to your business, and your metrics to your goals.”

Step 2. Understand your audience inside and out

Get to know your fans, followers, and potential customers as real people with real wants and needs, and you will know how to target and engage them on social media.

When it comes to your ideal customer, you should know things like:

• Average income
• Typical job title or industry

Here’s a simple guide and template for creating audience/buyer personas .

Don’t forget to document this information in your strategy doc!

Social media analytics can also provide a ton of valuable information about who your followers are, where they live, and how they interact with your brand on social media. These insights allow you to refine your strategy and better target your audience.

Jugnoo, an Uber-like service for auto-rickshaws in India, used Facebook Analytics to learn that 90% of their users who referred other customers were between 18- and 34-years-old, and 65% of that group was using Android. They used that information to target their ads, resulting in a 40% lower cost per referral.

Check out our guide to using social media analytics and the tools you need to track them .

Step 3. Analyze your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses

Odds are your competitors are already using social media, and that means you can learn from what they’re doing.

Conduct a competitive analysis

A competitive analysis allows you to understand who the competition is and what they’re doing well (and not so well). You’ll get a good sense of what’s expected in your industry, which will help you set social media targets of your own.

It will also help you spot opportunities and weaknesses you can document in your social strategy doc.

Maybe one of your competitors is dominant on Facebook, for example, but has put little effort into X (Twitter) or Instagram. You might want to focus on the social media platforms where your audience is underserved, rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player.

Use social media listening

Social listening is another way to keep an eye on your competitors.

Do searches of the competition’s company name, account handles, and other relevant keywords on social media. Find out what they’re sharing and what other people are saying about them. If they’re using influencer marketing, how much engagement do those campaigns earn them?

Pro tip : Use Hootsuite Listening to monitor relevant keywords, hashtags and accounts in real-time.

As you track, you may notice shifts in how your competitors and industry leaders are using social media. You may come across new, exciting trends. You might even spot specific social content or a campaign that really hits the mark—or totally bombs.

Use this kind of intel to optimize and inform your own social media marketing strategy.

Just don’t go overboard on the spy tactics, Amanda advises. “ Make sure you aren’t ALWAYS comparing yourself to the competition — it can be a distraction. I’d say checking in on a monthly basis is healthy. Otherwise, focus on your own strategy and results.”

Step 4. Conduct a social media audit

If you’re already using social media, take stock of your efforts so far. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What’s working, and what’s not?
• Who is engaging with you?
• What are your most valuable partnerships?
• Which networks does your target audience use?
• How does your social media presence compare to the competition?

Once you collect that information, you’ll be ready to start thinking about ways to improve.

We’ve created an easy-to-follow social media audit guide and template to walk you through each step of this process.

Your audit should give you a clear picture of what purpose each of your social accounts serves. If the purpose of an account isn’t clear, think about whether it’s worth keeping.

To help you decide, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is my audience here?
• If so, how are they using this platform?
• Can I use this account to help achieve my goals?

Asking these tough questions will keep your social media strategy focused.

Look for impostor accounts

During the audit, you may discover fake accounts using your business name or the names of your products.

These imposters can be harmful to your brand—never mind that they’re capturing followers that should be yours.

You may want to get your accounts verified too to ensure your fans know they are dealing with the real you.

Here’s how to get verified on:

• X (Twitter)

Step 5. Set up and optimize your accounts

Decide which networks to use.

As you decide which social networks to use, you will also need to define your strategy for each.

Hootsuite’s own social team designates different purposes for formats within networks. On Instagram, for example, they use the feed to post high-quality educational infographics and product announcements, while Stories is used to cover live events or quick social media updates.

Pro tip : Write out a mission statement for each network. A one-sentence declaration to keep you focused on a specific goal.

Example: “We will use X for customer support to keep email and call volumes down.”

Or: “We will use LinkedIn for promoting and sharing our company culture to help with recruitment and employee advocacy.”

One more: “We will use Instagram to highlight new products and repost quality content from influencers.”

If you can’t create a solid mission statement for a particular social media channel, you may want to ask yourself if it’s worth it.

Note : While larger businesses can and do tackle every platform, small businesses may not be able to — and that’s ok! Prioritize social platforms that will have the most impact on your business and make sure your marketing team has the resources to handle content for those networks. If you need help focusing your efforts, check out our 18-minute social media plan .

Set up your profiles

Once you’ve decided which networks to focus on, it’s time to create your profiles. Or improve existing ones so they align with your strategy.

• Make sure you fill out all profile fields
• Include keywords people would use to search for your business
• Use consistent branding (logos, images, etc.) across networks so your profiles are easily recognizable

Pro tip : Use high-quality images that follow the recommended dimensions for each network. Check out our always-up-to-date social media image size cheat sheet for quick reference.

We’ve also got step-by-step guides for each network to walk you through the process:

• Create a Facebook business page
• Create an Instagram business account
• Create a TikTok account
• Create a X (Twitter) business account
• Create a Snapchat account
• Create a LinkedIn Company Page
• Create a Pinterest business account
• Create a YouTube channel

Don’t let this list overwhelm you. Remember, it’s better to use fewer channels well than to stretch yourself thin trying to maintain a presence on every network.

Optimize your profiles (and content) for search

Never heard of social SEO ? It’s time to learn.

44% of Gen Z consumers use social platforms to research their purchase decisions, which means it’s extra critical that your channels are optimized for social search.

That means making sure your profile names are clear and descriptive, you’re including relevant hashtags and keywords in your bio and on every post, and you’re using features like alt text and captions to include your target keywords as naturally as possible.

Step 6. Find inspiration for content creation

While it’s important that your brand be unique, you can still draw inspiration from other businesses that are great on social.

“ I consider it my job to stay active on social: to know what’s trending, which campaigns are winning, what’s new with the platforms, who’s going above and beyond,” says Amanda. “This might be the most fun step for you, or the hardest one, but it’s just as crucial as the rest of them.”

Social media success stories

You can usually find these on the business section of the social network’s website. ( Here’s Facebook’s , for example.)

Case studies can offer valuable insights that you can apply to your own social media plan.

Award-winning accounts and campaigns

You could also check out the winners of The Facebook Awards or The Shorty Awards for examples of brands that are at the top of their social media game.

For learning and a laugh, check out Fridge-Worthy, Hootsuite’s bi-weekly awards show highlighting brands doing smart and clever things on social media.

Your favorite brands on social media

Who do you enjoy following on social media? What do they do that compels people to engage and share their content?

National Geographic, for example, is one of the best on Instagram, combining stunning visuals with compelling captions.

Source: National Geographic on Instagram

Nike is a great example of superior customer service on X. They use their 280 characters to share new product releases and celebrate sports victories, but they’re also available to answer customer questions and solve problems.

Source: Nike on X

Notice that these accounts have a consistent voice, tone, and style. That’s key to letting people know what to expect from your feed. That is, why should they follow you? What’s in it for them?

Consistency also helps keep your content on-brand even if you have multiple people on your social media team.

For more on this, read our guide on establishing a compelling brand voice on social media .

Ask your followers

Consumers can also offer social media inspiration.

What are your target customers talking about online? What can you learn about their wants and needs?

If you have existing social channels, you could also ask your followers what they want from you. Just make sure that you follow through and deliver what they ask for.

Step 7. Create a strategic social media content calendar

Marketing via social media is all about timing. Sharing great content is essential, of course, but it’s equally important to have a plan in place for when you’ll share content to get the maximum impact.

Your social media content calendar also needs to account for the time you spend interacting with the audience (although you should also allow for some spontaneous engagement).

Set your posting schedule

Your content calendar lists the dates and times at which you will publish types of content on each channel.

It’s the perfect place to plan all of your social media activities—from images, link sharing, and re-shares of user-generated content to blog posts and videos. It includes both your day-to-day posting and content for social media campaigns.

Your calendar also ensures your posts are spaced out appropriately and published at the best times to post .

Pro tip: You can plan your whole content calendar and get recommended best times to post on every network based on your past engagement rate, impressions, or link click data in Hootsuite.

Hootsuite’s Best Time to Publish feature

Determine the right content mix

Make sure your content strategy and calendar reflect the mission statement you’ve assigned to each social profile. Strategic social media marketing means everything you post should support your business goals.

(We know, it’s tempting to jump on every meme, but there should always be a strategy behind your social media marketing efforts!)

You might decide that:

• 50% of content will drive traffic back to your website
• 25% of content will be curated from other sources
• 20% of content will support lead-generation goals (newsletter sign-ups, ebook downloads, etc.)
• 5% of content will be about your company culture

Placing these different post types in your content calendar will ensure you maintain the right mix.

If you’re starting from scratch and you’re not sure what types of content to post, try the 80-20 rule :

• 80% of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain your audience
• 20% can directly promote your brand.

You could also try the social media content marketing rule of thirds :

• One-third of your content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit.
• One-third of your content shares ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses.
• One-third of your content is personal interactions with your audience

Whatever you decide on, be sure to document it in your strategy doc.

Don’t post too much or too little

If you’re starting a social media marketing strategy from scratch, you may not have figured out how often to post to each network for maximum engagement yet.

Post too frequently and you risk annoying your audience. But, if you post too little, you risk looking like you’re not worth following.

Start with these posting frequency recommendations:

• Instagram (feed): 3-7 times per week
• TikTok: 3-5 times per week
• Facebook: 1-2 times per day
• X (Twitter): 1-5 times per day
• LinkedIn: 1-5 times per day

Pro tip : Once you have your social media content calendar planned out, use a scheduling tool to prepare messages in advance rather than updating constantly throughout the day.

We might be biased, but we think Hootsuite is the best social media management tool. You can schedule social media posts to every network and the intuitive calendar view gives you a full picture of all your social activity each week.

Step 8. Craft compelling and high-quality content

Remember those mission statements you created for each channel in Step 5? Well, it’s time to go a bit deeper, a.k.a. provide some examples of the type of content you’ll post to fulfill your mission on each network.

If you’re not sure what to post, here’s a long list of social media marketing ideas to get you started. Or (to make it even easier) you can use an AI tool like OwlyWriter to generate on-brand content in a flash.

The idea here is to:

• Keep your content aligned with the purpose of each network;
• Show other stakeholders (if applicable) what kind of content they can expect to see on each network.

This last point especially will help you avoid any tension when your colleagues want to know why you haven’t posted their case study/whitepaper/blog post to TikTok yet. It’s not in the strategy, Linda!

Ideally, you will generate content types that are both suited to the network and the purpose you’ve set out for that network. Your social media promotion strategy will not be the same for every network.

For example, you wouldn’t want to waste time posting brand awareness tweets if you’ve designated X/Twitter for primarily customer support. And you wouldn’t want to post super slick corporate video ads to TikTok, as users expect to see short, unpolished videos on that platform.

It might take some testing over time to figure out which type of content works best on which type of network, so prepare to update this section frequently.

We won’t lie: content creation isn’t as easy as everyone not on the social team seems to think. But if you’re struggling, Amanda suggests going back to basics.

The first question to ask is: is there cohesion between your content types? Is your content providing value? Do you have a good mix of entertaining, or educational content? What does it offer that makes a person stop and spend time? Creating a few different content pillars or categories that encompass different aspects of storytelling for your brand, and what you can offer your audience is a good start.

This brings us to Step 9.

Step 9. Track performance and make adjustments

Your social media marketing strategy is a hugely important document for your business, and you can’t assume you’ll get it exactly right on the first try.

As you start to implement your plan and track your results, you may find that some strategies don’t work as well as you’d anticipated, while others are working even better than expected.

That’s why it’s important to document your progress along the way.

Look at performance metrics

In addition to the analytics within each social network (see Step 2), you can use UTM parameters to track social visitors as they move through your website, so you can see exactly which social posts drive the most traffic to your website.

Benchmark your results

You’ve got your numbers, but how do they stack up to the competition in your industry? Industry benchmarks are a great way to evaluate your performance against other businesses in your category.

If you’ve got Hootsuite Analytics , you can use our built-in social media benchmarking tool to compare the performance of your social accounts against the average of brands in your industry with just a couple of clicks.

You can set up custom timeframes, switch between networks — Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and TikTok — and look up benchmarks for metrics like followers, audience growth rate, engagement rate, clicks, shares, and much more.

You’ll also find resources to improve your performance  right in the summary section:

Re-evaluate, test, and do it all again

Once this data starts coming in, use it to re-evaluate your social media marketing techniques regularly.

You can also use this information to test different posts, social marketing campaigns, and strategies against one another. Constant testing allows you to understand what works and what doesn’t, so you can refine your social media marketing strategy in real time.

Remember, good social media marketing isn’t static. Your strategy should change over time.

You should check the performance of all your channels at least once a week. Once you learn the basics of social media reporting , you can track your growth over time.

Pro tip: If you use Hootsuite, you can review the performance of all your posts on every network in one place. Once you get the hang of checking your analytics, you may even want to customize different reports to show specific metrics over a variety of different time periods.

Surveys can also be a great way to find out how well your social media strategy is working. Ask your followers, email list, and website visitors whether you’re meeting their needs and expectations and what they’d like to see more of. Just make sure to deliver on what they tell you.

Finalizing your social media strategy

Spoiler alert: nothing is final.

Social media moves fast. New networks emerge, others go through demographic shifts.

Your business will go through periods of change as well.

All of this means that your social media marketing strategy should be a living document that you review and adjust as needed. Refer to it often to stay on track, but don’t be afraid to make changes so that it better reflects new goals, tools, or plans.

When you update your social strategy, make sure to watch our 5-step video on how to updating your social media strategy for 2024:

Social media strategy template

Ready to start documenting? Grab your free social marketing strategy template below!

What’s next? When you’re ready to put your plan into action, we’re here to help…

Save time managing your social media marketing strategy with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can easily:

• Plan, create, and schedule posts to every network
• Track relevant keywords, topics, and accounts
• Stay on top of engagement with a universal inbox
• Get easy-to-understand performance reports and improve your strategy as needed

With files from Shannon Tien .

Do it better with Hootsuite , the all-in-one social media tool. Stay on top of things, grow, and beat the competition.

Become a better social marketer.

Get expert social media advice delivered straight to your inbox.

Christina Newberry is an award-winning writer and editor whose greatest passions include food, travel, urban gardening, and the Oxford comma—not necessarily in that order.

Amanda Wood is a senior social marketing professional who combines analytical and creative thinking to build brands.

As head of social at Hootsuite, Amanda oversees the global social strategy encompassing organic and paid social on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn, a social engagement and listening strategy, and an employee advocacy program.

As the leader of a high-performing social team, she has extensive experience collaborating with creatives to bring campaigns to life on social and drive business results.

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Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Social Media Marketing Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their social media marketing businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a social media marketing business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What Is a Social Media Marketing Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your social media marketing agency as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Social Media Marketing Agency

If you’re looking to start a social media marketing business or grow your existing company, you need a business plan. A social media marketing business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your business in order to improve your chances of success. Your business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your social media marketing agency grows and changes.

Funding Sources for Social Media Marketing Agencies

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a social media marketing business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for social media marketing agencies.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for a social media marketing agency.

If you want to start a business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. Below we detail what should be included in each section of your own social media marketing business plan:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of social media marketing business you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a social media marketing business that you would like to grow, or are you operating social media marketing in multiple markets?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the social media marketing industry. Discuss the type of social media marketing business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of social media marketing business you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types of social media marketing businesses, or a full-service agency:

• Paid Ads : this type of marketing business focuses on creating social media ads and optimizing social media ad campaigns. A social media marketing agency may specialize in ads for one platform in particular or across all platforms.
• Content: this type of business focuses on creating content, either for specific platforms or across all platforms.
• Strategy: this type of marketing is where campaigns are created around specific goals that help businesses or individuals tailor where and how to best achieve results that will help them succeed.

In addition to explaining the type of social media marketing business you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of customers served, number of positive reviews, total campaigns, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the social media marketing industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the social media marketing industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy, particularly if your research identifies market trends.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your social media marketing business plan:

• How big is the social media marketing industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your social media marketing business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: corporations, small business owners, nonprofits and individuals. Customers may also be segmented by industry, such as healthcare, technology, beauty, restaurants, music, B2B, and more.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of marketing business you operate. Clearly, individuals in the music industry would respond to different marketing promotions than corporations in the healthcare industry, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Only select social media marketing agencies primarily serve customers living in their same city or town. However, if your niche is to provide social media services to local businesses, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.  

With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other social media marketing agencies.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes digital freelance platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr. You need to mention such competition as well.

With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will have a similar niche audience.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What types of social media services do they provide?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide better social media strategy, content and ad services?
• Will you provide services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a social media marketing business, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of social media marketing agency that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to social media marketing, will you provide web design services, copywriting or any other services?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your agency. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your business located in a busy professional district (good if targeting local businesses), or is it fully remote (good if targeting clients that aren’t place-specific). Discuss how your location might be the ideal location for your customers.

Promotions : The final part of your marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertising in local papers and magazines
• Reaching out to local websites
• Social media marketing
• Local radio advertising

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your business, including discovery calls, onboarding new clients, attending campaign meetings, managing employees and working on campaigns.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to take on your 10th client, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your social media marketing business into a new market.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your social media marketing business’ ability to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing social media marketing businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing social media marketing agencies or successfully running small businesses.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you gain one new client per month or per quarter? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your social media marketing business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a social media marketing business:

• Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc. (if there will be a physical location)
• Cost of equipment and supplies (including hardware and software)
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or outlines of campaigns you are currently working on.

Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template PDF

You can download our social media marketing business plan PDF to help you get started on your own business plan.

Putting together a business plan for your social media marketing business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the social media marketing industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful social media marketing business.  

  OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.

Click here to see how Growthink’s professional business plan consulting services can create your business plan for you.   Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

Free Social Media Marketing Plan Templates

Choose from the best social media plan templates to streamline your marketing efforts. Below you’ll find free templates for strategic planning, scheduling, and tracking in Excel, PDF, PowerPoint, Google Docs, and Google Sheets.

Templates on this page include a social media marketing strategy plan, a social media content calendar, and a social media audit. You’ll also find details for creating an effective social media strategy and mastering calendar planning.

Social Media Strategy Plan Template

Create a strategic social media marketing action plan. The template features a simple layout to help you organize each stage of planning and implementation; separate sections for research, competitive analysis, objectives, and actions; and space for revising social media goals based on performance. Edit the template to meet the specific marketing needs of your business or organization. Use the social media channel plan template to help execute your strategy. 

• Download Social Media Strategy Plan Template - Excel

Social Media Marketing Plan Template

This social media campaign marketing plan template includes sections for defining goals, identifying a call to action, scheduling important dates, and planning marketing tools and content. The form is easy to read and edit, thanks to alternate row colors. Create a clear campaign plan that includes social media platforms, related online marketing tools, and metrics for tracking progress. 

• Download Social Media Marketing Plan Template - Excel

Social Media Planning Calendar Template

Adjust the dates on this template to create a custom daily and weekly social media calendar. Perfect for small businesses and startups, the template has an hourly schedule and sections for multiple social media networks. Plan your posts and keep track of images used, linked content, and customer engagement. 

• Download Social Media Planning Calendar Template - Excel

Social Media Editorial Plan Template

Designed as an annual social media plan template, this editorial calendar includes multiple spreadsheets. Use the first sheet for an overview of important events occuring during the year, with months and quarters highlighted. Each month also has its own sheet for detailed planning and tracking. For each month, schedule social media projects while tracking target audience, editorial goals, and measurements of success.

• Download Social Media Editorial Plan Template - Excel

Social Media Content Plan Template

Create a monthly and yearly content plan for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media outlets. Use this template to build a comprehensive marketing plan for each month while also viewing a yearly outlook on one page. Keep track of the status of each post, whether it’s in progress or on hold or it needs updating.

• Download Social Media Content Plan Template - Excel

Social Media Posting Plan Template with Dashboard

This social media plan template includes a sheet with sample data so you can see how the dashboard displays posts per week for each social platform. The schedule covers a four-week time period, so you can create a 30-day social media plan template for all content channels. Create a log of social media posts while tracking content type, topics covered, and posting stats.

• Download Social Media Posting Plan with Dashboard Template - Excel

PowerPoint Social Media Marketing Plan Template

Enhance a marketing presentation with this social media PowerPoint template. Include key elements in your marketing plan for each section: target audience, objectives, strategy, and content. Use the bullet points to describe your customers, what makes your company unique, how your business and marketing goals align, and how you plan to meet those goals with social media tools.

• Download Social Media Marketing Plan Template - PowerPoint

Social Media Multichannel Plan Template

Organized by month and channel, this template helps you track activities on all your social media outlets. Add or delete sections to create a yearly, six-, or three-month social media plan template. To create a detailed schedule, add rows under each social platform and list upcoming posts and publishing dates. Keep track of assigned owners, calls to action, and the sales funnel stage that matches your marketing goals.

• Download Social Media Multichannel Plan Template - Excel
• Download Social Media Multichannel Plan Template - Word

Social Media Schedule Template

This basic social media template provides a spreadsheet for scheduling posts. Use it as a calendar, log, and planning tool for social marketing. Columns include publishing date, post status, topics, content description, hashtags, and character count. You’ll also find a checklist with various social media outlets that offers a quick view of where you are posting and when.

• Download Social Media Schedule Template - Excel

Social Media Audit Template

Conduct a social media audit to inform your marketing plans. Analyze your activity, customer engagement, audience reach, number of followers, and recent changes. Use this data to refine your social media strategy, as well as create and share more effective content. Customize the template to include all the marketing channels and KPIs you want to measure.

• Download Social Media Audit Template - Excel

Maximize Your Social Media Strategy Plan with Smartsheet

The best marketing teams know the importance of effective campaign management, consistent creative operations, and powerful event logistics -- and Smartsheet helps you deliver on all three so you can be more effective and achieve more. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Creating an Effective Social Media Strategy Plan

For more templates, as well as information on creating a social media strategy and planning a social media content calendar, visit our post “ Free Social Media Templates for Excel .” We also offer a guide to social media calendars , including benefits, best practices, planning tips, and additional calendar tools. For a comprehensive marketing overview, see the “ Definitive Guide to Strategic Marketing Planning .”

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Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing: What it is and how to build your strategy

Jump into this comprehensive guide for crafting an effective social media marketing strategy from scratch. We offers insights into defining goals, selecting the right platforms, and measuring success through key metrics.

Reading time  19 minutes

Published on  August 22, 2024

Table of Contents

• Social media marketing involves using platforms like Instagram, X (formerly referred to as Twitter), and Facebook to promote brands and engage with customers. It encompasses promoting new products, interacting with customers through comments and creating content that reflects a brand's values and story.
• A successful social media strategy starts with setting clear and realistic goals. A few examples of goals for social media strategies are increasing brand awareness, generating leads and sales and providing comprehensive customer care.
• A data-driven approach is essential for measuring the success of a social media strategy. These metrics help brands understand audience perception and the effectiveness of their content. Some examples of important metrics to track include reach, clicks, engagement, organic and paid likes, follower growth and conversion rate.

Looking to fine-tune your social media marketing strategy? 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. Whether you’re totally new to social or want to double-check your priorities in 2024, this guide has you covered.  

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing means using social media platforms like Instagram, X (formerly known as 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.

What is a social media marketing strategy?

A social media marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan that integrates your social media efforts with your team’s goals and the broader business objectives. This alignment ensures that your activities are not only optimized for performance but also deliver measurable results that contribute to your overall marketing success.

A well-defined social media marketing strategy also sets clear boundaries around your team’s time and expertise. Social media is a unique channel, and while nearly everyone uses it, this widespread usage often leads people to overestimate their expertise.

Every social media manager has faced requests to share content that isn’t formatted correctly or doesn’t align with the overarching campaign. Having a robust social media marketing strategy empowers you to confidently say “no” when necessary, ensuring that your efforts remain focused and effective.

What are the benefits of a social media strategy?

This question can feel like a bit of a no-brainer to marketers that live and breathe social. That said, being able to clearly articulate the advantages of a cohesive social media strategy is crucial for securing buy-in from other stakeholders. Here’s how a well-defined social media strategy benefits your brand and business:

It increases brand awareness and engagement

According to The Sprout Social Index™ 2023 , more than half (53%) of consumers say their social media usage has increased over the last two years. Amid a fractured cultural landscape, social media has emerged to fill a seemingly endless need for content.

When brands commit to a cohesive social media marketing strategy, they develop the consistency needed to form a brand identity that cuts through the noise to resonate with a target audience. Case in point: Figo Pet Insurance.

In 2022, the Figo team committed to sharing four to five TikTok videos per week. Over time, they were able to pinpoint what messages appeal to their audience. These efforts led to audience growth and multiple viral videos.

As you refine your strategy over time, you too can craft more precise messaging that not only attracts more fans but also drives greater engagement.

It promotes brand trust

Social’s impact on brand trust is palpable, particularly for younger consumers.

According to a Q2 2024 Sprout Pulse Survey, 78% of consumers surveyed strongly/somewhat agree that—compared to a year ago—a brand’s social media presence has a larger impact on whether or not they trust that brand. That number goes up to 88% for Gen Z . What influences that trust the most? The content you post on social.

In the 2010s, a poorly designed website might deter consumers due to concerns about fraud. Today, the same principle applies to social media. If consumers get to your profiles and see irregular updates, inconsistent messaging or content that doesn’t align with where it’s been posted, it’s going to raise red flags and undermine trust.

It supports performance measurement

Your social media marketing strategy creates the infrastructure needed to prove the ROI of your efforts. Without one, you may be able to report on social media KPIs , but it'll be much harder to showcase how they align with strategic objectives.

For example, say you work with an automotive brand and one of your top business objectives is to increase market share with parents of young children. With that in mind, you can develop a strategic content pillar around this specific audience, and report on the performance of those posts over time.

With a social listening tool , you can even measure how your brand’’s share of voice stacks up against key competitors. This is a highly effective way to gauge your brand’s visibility and market share within your industry.

Learn more about social listening tools

It drives revenue

Our Q2 2024 Pulse Survey also found that social media is the top channel for product discovery, with 81% of consumers surveyed using the channel to shop around for their next purchase.

As social commerce adoption continues to skyrocket in the US and abroad, social media now supports a full-funnel experience. Even B2B brands are using social media to enhance lead generation and drive pipeline growth.

For example, when Simpli.fi , an advertising success platform, integrated employee advocacy into their social media strategy, the company realized $90,000 in earned media value in three months.

How to create a social media marketing strategy

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

Here’s our six-step process for developing a social media marketing strategy that drives results.

Step 1: Set goals and establish KPIs

Social media strategy planning starts with your goals. 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.

The goals you set will inform the key performance indicators (KPIs) you track, and how much time and energy you’ll need to dedicate to your campaigns.

Example social media goals for 2024 and beyond

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

Goal example 1: Increase brand awareness

Brand awareness means getting your name out there. Some 68% of consumers say the primary reason they follow a brand on social media is to stay informed about new products or services, according to The Sprout Social Index™.

Try to avoid solely publishing promotional messages and strike a good balance with authentic content that emphasizes your brand’s voice and story. The Sprout Social Index™ found that consumers don’t see enough authentic, non-promotional content from brands on social.

For example, in this TikTok video, Sani, a family-owned apparel company features a day in the life of the brand’s founders while visiting India for business.

If you want to increase brand awareness, here are the social media metrics you’ll want to focus on:

• Reach : Post reach is the number of unique users who saw your post. How much of your content actually reaches users’ feeds?
• Impressions : At the post level, impressions are how many times a post is displayed to someone. Impressions are a good indicator of how popular a piece of content is, and that people may be viewing a post multiple times.
• Hashtag performance : What were your most-used hashtags? Which hashtags were most associated with your brand? Having these answers can help shape the focus of your content going forward.
• Video views: This may come off as a vanity metric. But on certain channels, like TikTok, views count as impressions, and are therefore important to monitor.

Goal example 2: Generate leads and sales

Whether online, in-store or directly through your social profiles, followers don’t make purchases by accident. For example, are you alerting customers about new products and promos? Are you integrating your product catalog into your social profiles? Are you running exclusive deals for followers? Social media gives you an avenue to generate revenue.

Here are the metrics you’ll want to track if you’re focused on lead generation and sales:

• Conversions: A conversion is when someone takes a desired action, like purchasing something from your site or signing up for an upcoming event.
• Conversion rate: Conversion rate measures how well your social ad or campaign is convincing people to take a desired action.

Goal example 3: Grow your brand’s audience

Bringing new followers into the fold means finding ways to introduce your brand to folks who haven’t heard of you before. Growing your audience also means discovering conversations around your business and industry that matter the most.

Digging through your social channels is nearly impossible without monitoring or listening for specific keywords, phrases or hashtags. Having a pulse on these conversations helps you expand your core audience (and reach adjacent audiences) much faster.

Important audience growth metrics include:

• Follower growth: Your follower growth measures the net new followers you gained in a specific time period.
• Follower growth rate: The percentage that shows you how quickly your audience is actually growing—or slowing—within a certain time period.

Goal example 4: Provide holistic customer care

The Index shows over half of consumers believe the most memorable thing a brand can do on social media is respond to customers.

Although 76% of consumers value quick responses, providing quality customer care isn’t just responding rapidly. Consumer expectations have evolved. Some 70% of consumers expect brands to provide a holistic experience with personalized responses that fit their unique customer service needs.

This means companies need to experiment with messaging and content when approaching customer care . For example, does your team have a protocol for handling @-mentions and comments? Do you have templated responses to FAQs? Does your brand promote user-generated content and hashtags? Your customers can be your best cheerleaders, but only if you give them a reason to grab the megaphone.

If you want to improve your business’ approach to social customer care, here are the customer service metrics you need to track:

• Average first reply time : The time it takes for your team to send out the first reply to an inbound customer message within business hours.
• Reply or response rate: The rate that brands respond to messages or comments that they receive on a daily basis.
• Resolution rate: The percentage of customer inquiries that are fully resolved. This metric can reveal how equipped your entire company is to address customer inquiries.

Goal example 5: Drive traffic to your site to illustrate ROI of social efforts

The Sprout Social Index™ shows 46% of marketers plan to calculate the return on investment (ROI) of advertising spend to connect the value of social to business goals in 2024.

Simple enough. If you’re laser-focused on generating leads or traffic to your website, social media can make it happen. Whether through organic promotional posts or social ads, keeping an eye on the following metrics can help you better determine your ROI from social media :

• Website traffic : Monitoring website traffic can help you properly attribute increases to specific campaigns or viral posts.
• Social media referral traffic: This describes people who visit your website directly from social media pages and posts.

Any combination of these goals is fair game and can help you better understand which networks to tackle, too. When in doubt, keep your social media marketing strategy simple rather than complicating it with too many objectives that might distract you. Pick one or two and rally your team around them.

Bonus resource : A great deck can bridge the gap between raw social data and direct business value. Use this presentation template to pitch a compelling vision for your next campaign, initiative or annual strategy

Get the deck template

Step 2: Research your target audience and select your networks

Making assumptions is bad news for marketers. Both leaders and practitioners can disprove assumptions from the valuable insights social data provides. With the right tool, marketers can quickly research their audience . No formal market research or data science chops necessary.

What you need to know about your audience to influence your social media marketing strategy is already available. You just have to know where to look.

Remember: different platforms attract different audiences. Social media demographics and benchmark statistics are great for understanding where your target audience lives, but it's also important to understand the nuances of each social network so you can decide where your business needs to be.

For the sake of narrowing down where you should spend your time, below is a quick overview of each of the major social platforms:

Simple and straightforward, X is a solid starting point for most businesses. Requiring minimal setup and providing a place to go back and forth with followers directly, there's a reason why X remains one of the go-to platforms for customer service . If you’re trying to master the social media marketing basics of hashtags, tagging, brand voice and social media etiquette, look no further.

Facebook is a must-have for brick-and-mortar businesses looking to target local customers. Allowing check-ins and reviews, it’s a prime place to grow a dedicated local following. Plus, they have an incredible chatbot functionality that can take your customer service strategy and marketing campaigns to the next level.

Like many social algorithm changes, the platform’s algorithm change in late 2022 posed a challenge to some businesses looking to grow their Pages and stay in touch with fans consistently. The earliest algorithm prioritized Likes, but today’s is much more sophisticated and focuses on showing users the most relevant, meaningful content based on inventory, signals, relevancy scoring and other factors. That said, Facebook’s ad platform is the gold standard for social media ads because it can help businesses cut through the noise and lessen the impact of algorithm changes.

At its core, Instagram is a network centered around visual content. A major hub for brick-and-mortar businesses, e-commerce shops and influencers alike, the platform encourages brands to get creative. From eye-popping photos to clever captions, it’s all about finding unique ways to show off what you’re selling.

When Meta released Threads on July 5, 2023, the social network received over 100 million registrations less than a week after its launch, making it the most rapidly downloaded app ever. The launch of Threads sparked conversations about its role in the fediverse, or decentralized social media .

But, for now, Threads is a text-based social network that users can sign up for through their current Instagram account. Users can post on mobile, but Threads is also available on desktop. Threads are great for brands who already have Instagram accounts because the sign-up process is pretty seamless.

LinkedIn is a network laser-focused on business trends and networking. LinkedIn is a goldmine, especially for anyone networking in the B2B space. Looking to get in touch with an influencer, marketing manager or CEO? Chances are you can find them here.

There are so many benefits of using LinkedIn marketing beyond networking, including content distribution and lead generation. We also have a guide for LinkedIn best practices so you can get full advantage of those benefits.

Pinterest marketing is insanely popular, especially among Gen Z and Millennials. Over 465 million people use this visual pinning platform every month to find inspiration and their next purchase. Pinterest is noted to be one of the best networks for social selling. Like Instagram, Pinterest thrives on imagery and inspirational content where products serve as the proverbial centerpiece.

TikTok reached 1 billion users in September 2021 and remains one of the most popular apps in the world. Along with its viral trends and niche communities, the short-form video app is known for its hyper-personalized algorithm that keeps users scrolling for hours. TikTok marketing has changed the game for brands, allowing them to connect with customers in an entirely new way.  

Although some might not regard YouTube as a traditional social network, the platform’s active and engaged community speaks for itself. Considering that video represents the top-performing type of content across nearly every social network, YouTube is a great place to house your videos if you’re already producing them.

Picking networks for your social media marketing strategy

There are more than 15 social media platforms your brand can use , but don’t spread yourself too thin. Rather than try to dominate them all, you should consider which platforms make the most sense based on your industry and target audience.

Do your homework on your existing social media audience and focus on networks where your core audience is already active. You need to do further analysis before you can determine what your real-world social customers actually look like.

That’s why many brands use a social media marketing dashboard that provides an overview of who’s following you and how they interact with you on each channel.

For example, Sprout’s analytics dashboard puts your audience demographics front and center. It highlights which social networks see the most activity, helping you ensure you spend your time on the right network.

You can also use analytics to determine if you should create a new social media account . With Sprout, you can view X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest data side-by-side in a customizable format that’s exportable by date range and profile.

There are plenty of other sources of valuable audience data to supplement your social media insights. This includes your Google and email analytics, your CRM, your customer service platform or even your best-selling products.

All of the above will ultimately influence everything from your marketing messaging to how you’ll approach customer service or social commerce .

Step 3: Create (and curate) timely & engaging social content

No surprises here. Your social media marketing strategy hinges on your content. At this point, you should have a pretty good idea of what to publish based on your goals, audience and brand identity. You probably feel confident in which networks to cover, too.

But what about your content strategy? Below are some tips, ideas and inspiration that can help.

Defining your content strategy

Coming up with a content strategy might seem like a lot of legwork, but it all really boils down to your goals.

• Looking to educate your audience in the B2B space? Publish blogs, news and opinions relevant to your industry.
• Trying to push e-commerce products? Post action shots of your products and photos of others showing off your swag.
• Focused on customer service? Tips, shout-outs and company updates are fair game.

Regardless of what you might post, coming up with a hashtag to couple with your content is a brilliant branding move.

Hashtags can be used to get your attention and encourage people to share their photos interacting with your brand.

Find your brand voice

One of the best ways to stand out on social media is to define your distinct brand voice. Chances are you’ve seen a post from a particular brand that just feels like, well, theirs.

The quippy, casual tone that makes Discord’s X presence beloved by casual users and moderators alike is a great example.

Of course, not every company will benefit from the same sort of tone. The key is to present yourself as a human rather than a robot. Adopt a consistent brand voice and style that’s appropriate for your business.

Bake timeliness into your strategy

Timeliness is arguably more important than ever for marketers. Not only are you expected to put out fresh content regularly, but also to always be “on” for your followers. But you can’t always expect customers to operate on your clock. And timeliness is a tall order when you’re strapped for resources or are part of a small team.

As evidenced by our best times to post on social , brands have a lot of ground to cover in terms of frequency and how much content to push. It’s important to pay attention to the optimal times for engagement so you can automate the most tedious aspects of your social presence without having to worry about posting in real time.

But, quick question: When is your brand available to engage and interact with customers?

You might see some recommended times to post late in the evening, for example. But if your team isn’t there to communicate, what’s the point of posting at the “preferred” time?

When you’re able to do so, ensure your social media or community managers are available and ready to answer any product questions or concerns when you post. Take time to review the best times to post on social media, but remember that it’s just as critical to engage after posting

You should also consider taking advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and automation so you can serve and engage with customers when your team is offline, which leads us to our next point.

Take advantage of short-form video

Thanks to the rise of TikTok and Instagram Reels , social video is booming. Short-form productions continue to dominate the social space across all platforms due to their high engagement rate.

Sprout Social’s 2022 Index data shows that consumers find short-form videos 2.5x more engaging than long-form ones. Some 66% of consumers report paying the most attention to short-form content as well.

Thanks to advancements in DIY and remote video production , you don’t need massive budgets to be successful. All you need is a laptop or smartphone and a few tricks of the trade, like video length best practices and editing tools .

Share posts that show off your brand’s uniqueness and human side

Both personal and personable content should be a cornerstone of your social media marketing strategy. Don’t be afraid to remind followers of the humans behind your posts. Remember that over a third of consumers are looking for authentic, original content from brands.

For example, Zoom has excellent original content on their Instagram and TikTok accounts, like this Reel that explores the different signs in the workplace:

Step 4: Collaborate with influencers

If you haven’t already, it’s time to tap into the power of influencer marketing . Social partnerships are very effective when executed correctly: they can help drive traffic to your website, produce compelling content and inspire purchase decisions.

But consumers care about creators’ qualifications, so choose wisely. The two most important qualifications of content creators working with brands is their experience with the product/service and their authenticity.

Identify creators who align with your brand and consider how they can help you craft stand-out content for your audience.

What consumers want from influencer-brand collaborations

According to the 2024 Influencer Marketing Report , consumers overall look to engage with influencers who align with their personal values (53%) and seem authentic (47%), even when posting sponsored content and taking part in brand campaigns .

Across ages and genders, honest and unbiased content stops audiences mid-scroll, while aspirational content is least likely to catch their attention.

However, the report also found that authenticity is losing its appeal among younger generations. While trust in influencers remains strong—and is even growing among younger consumers—only 35% of Gen Z value authenticity, compared to nearly half of Millennials, Gen X‌ and Baby Boomers.

This indicates that younger generations are more aware of the influencer-brand relationship and how it influences their buying decisions, but they’re comfortable with it. Instead, they prioritize other indicators of trustworthiness, such as follower count, posting frequency‌ and community loyalty.

Step 5: Bring other departments into the mix

Social media teams have a unique advantage when it comes to understanding customer sentiment. You’re the eyes and ears for your brand online. Those insights can do more than just inform marketing strategy.

They can transform your business. Stand-out social media teams will approach cross-department collaboration with enthusiasm and intention.

Which departments can benefit from social data?

The short answer? All of them. Index data shows 76% of social marketers say their team’s insights inform other departments.

However, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Instead, start where you think you can make the most impact. Here are a few ideas to jumpstart your strategy.

Human Resources

Collaborating with human resources on social-first employer brand initiatives can do more than just fill open roles quickly. It can attract stronger, more qualified candidates as well. Many companies have embraced social recruiting strategies, such as publishing creative “we’re hiring” posts on LinkedIn to attract top talent.

Data from The 2023 Sprout Social Index™ notes marketers plan to track conversations and sales directly resulting from social efforts in 2024 to better connect the value of social to business goals. Sharing social insights with your sales organization can empower reps to work smarter in the context of increasingly digital customer journeys. Consider learning more about social selling to leverage the power of online networks even further.

Product and merchandising

You’ve probably received quite a few feature or product requests while managing your brand’s social inbox.

With a social media management tool , you can distill those messages into actionable insights for your product or merchandising teams. These insights can complement existing roadmap research, creating a customer-focused plan that delights.

Customer care

Monitoring customer service metrics like average reply time, average wait time and response volume can help your social customer care team identify what is working well and spot opportunities for improvement. Marketers are using social media customer service software to elevate their support strategies and get the most out of their tech stack.

Step 6: Evaluate and improve your social media strategy

By now you should have a big-picture understanding of your social media strategy. However, it’s important to adapt your strategy throughout the year.

Without continuously analyzing your efforts, you’ll never know how one campaign did over another. Having a bird’s eye view of your social media activity helps put things into perspective. This means looking at your top-performing content and adjusting your campaigns when your content stalls .

There’s no denying that a lot of social media is a matter of trial-and-error. Monitoring the metrics behind your campaigns in real time allows you to make small tweaks to your social media marketing strategy rather than sweeping, time-consuming changes.

Doing social media marketing right starts by being diligent about your data. You can be reactive in the short term to get the most out of your running campaigns, and then proactively use these takeaways to inform your next strategy overhaul.

To guarantee that you get in front of as many customers as possible, monitoring your growth is a major must-do. With Sprout, social reports can clue you in on everything from your top-performing content to how engaged your audience is. These reports are crucial for accountability and guaranteeing your numbers continue to tick upward.

  Reporting on data is also important for the sake of sharing valuable insights from social with your coworkers and colleagues. Remember that 60% of organizations use social data daily—be one of the brands that embrace it.

Sharing this information in regular reports not only holds you accountable for your efforts but also highlights the impact and bottom-line results your social strategy produces.

Based on your data, you can better assess whether your KPIs truly ladder up to your overarching company goals or whether they need to change.  

And with that, we wrap up your social media strategy guide for 2024 and beyond!

Is your social media marketing strategy future proof?

This guide highlights plenty of moving pieces to maintain a modern social presence. That said, putting together yours doesn’t have to be a drag.

If you set actionable goals and address each of the steps above, you’ll already be way ahead of the curve when it comes to your social media marketing strategy.

And if you try out some of the Sprout Social features we shared in this article, sign up for a 30-day trial today.

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The Expert Guide to Creating a Social Media Plan [+Template]

Written by: Raja Mandal

But with so many social media platforms available, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. This is why having a solid social media plan is essential.

However, creating a social media plan from scratch can be time-consuming and frustrating. That’s why we’ve created a social media plan template to guide you through the process and make it easier for you to create an effective plan for your business.

Whether you’re a seasoned social media marketer or just starting, you’ll learn how to prioritize your efforts, create a content strategy and measure your success. We will also cover all the critical aspects of customizing your template.

Table of Contents

What is a social media plan template, why do you need a social media plan template, how to get the most out of your social media plan template, 3 tips to follow after launching your social media plan.

• A social media plan is a detailed blueprint for building and managing your company’s social media presence and achieving set goals.
• Using a social media plan template saves you hours of work and helps you stay consistent with your branding and other activities
• To make the most of your social media plan, you’ll need to set SMART goals, figure out your target audience profile, select the right social media channels and content type. Using a content calendar helps you automate your social media activities and keep things on track
• After launching your social media plan, measure key metrics and KPIs to see what’s working or not working.
• Conduct a competitor analysis to see what social networks they use, content types they post most frequently, how they engage with their audience, the keywords they rank for and more.
• Your social media plan should not be set in stone. Prioritize auditing and optimizing your own social media plan. Doing that will help you track your performance, identify areas for improvement and where to focus your efforts next.
• Visme has everything you need to supercharge your social media plan. You can create an effective social media plan, content calendar, competitive analysis as well as graphics for all of your social media channels.

A social media plan template is a document that guides you through the process of creating your own social media plan. It helps you to focus on your goals, identify the right audiences and set clear objectives for your marketing campaign .

The template provides pre-made sections to fill in with your own information. It also includes instructions on how to create a successful social media campaign.

A social media plan template can be used by anyone who wants to boost their brand awareness online through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Social Media Plan vs Social Media Strategy

Though these two terms are often used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings. A social media plan is a detailed document that lays out all of the steps you need to take to implement your social media strategy. It includes tasks, timelines and budgets for each step of the process.

For example, a social media plan might include tasks like creating a brand strategy , researching your target audience and developing content. It will also include timelines for when each task should be completed.

But the social media strategy will include how you will reach these targets. For example, the strategy will consist of how to create content that engages your audience and how you plan to measure success. It will also explain what type of content should be posted and when it should be published.

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Social media is a fast-moving environment, and getting caught up in the day-to-day tasks of posting content on your page is easy. But with a plan, you may get the most out of your efforts.

And a social media plan template will ensure you have all the information you need to create an effective plan. Let's discuss further why you need a social media plan template.

Save Hours of Work

Social media can be a fun and creative way to engage with your audience. But when you're just starting, it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks of posting content on your page. Without a plan, you may end up spending hours working on social media — but not seeing any results.

A template will ensure you have all the information needed to create an effective plan. So, you can spend more time creating content and engaging with your audience than just figuring out what to do.

Set Clear Social Media Goals

A social media plan template is one of the best tools for setting clear goals for your social media presence . When you know what you want to achieve by creating a social media plan, you can set realistic goals that will help you measure the success of your efforts. Whether it's increasing brand awareness or growing sales through social media, clear goals will help you create content with intent.

Read this article about creating SMART goals to set and accomplish your goals faster. Additionally, you can use the infographic template below.

Stay Consistent with Your Activities

The best way to build your brand's social media presence is by staying consistent. If you post once a week, then do it every week. If you post twice per day, then stick with that schedule. Consistency will help establish trust with your followers and keep them coming back for more content from your business.

A social media plan template will help you stay on track by giving you a place to keep all your content ideas and the schedule for posting them. When you create a plan with your team, you'll know what to do and when to do it.

Keep Your Branding Consistent

Consistency is essential when it comes to branding. You should always use the same voice on social media, whether posting about products or services. When you create a social media plan, you'll have a place to keep all your brand guidelines and messaging so that your team can reference them whenever they need help staying consistent with your brand voice .

But creating content while keeping your branding assets in mind is not a skill everyone possesses—especially non-designers. Visme's brand design tool can help you deal with this.

Create and save all your branding materials, such as your logo , brand fonts , brand colors and everything else, in Visme. Whenever you or anyone from your team opens Visme to create anything, Visme's brand wizard will help you automatically apply these assets to your design.

Watch this video to learn how to set up your brand identity kit in Visme.

The social media plan template is a powerful tool to help you create and execute a strategy to achieve your goals. But to be effective, you need to know how to customize the template to align with your brand.

We will provide tips to help you get the most out of your social media plan template.

Define Your Social Media Goals

Starting social media without knowing your goals is like going on a trip without knowing the destination. You may end up lost in the middle of nowhere, wondering if your efforts are even worth it. Before creating your social media plan, define your primary goals and how these goals will help you achieve your overall business objective.

Look how specifically the social media goals are defined in the template below.

There are many ways to set goals for your social media presence, but one of the best ways is by creating a SMART goal. This stands for specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound.

If you struggle to set and reach goals, use Visme's SMART goal-setting templates or goal setting worksheets .

Here is an example template for you.

Create Target Audience Profile

Social media is not just a tool to get your message out there and hope it sticks. You need to know who you are targeting, where they hang out and what they enjoy to ensure your content is relevant to them.

The next step is to include the target audience in your social media plan.

A target audience profile is a description of who your ideal customer is. It includes demographic information about age, gender, income level and location and psychographic information about interests and personality traits.

Look at the target audience section of this social media plan template. It's well-researched and perfectly explained.

To create your own, edit the data widgets in this template and replace them with your own findings. Visme's comes with 30+ data visualization tools such as progress bars, redial gauges, population arrays and more. If you need to visualize more extensive data sets than this, you can use Visme's charts and graphs templates .

You can also use Visme's customer persona templates to capture these details and create an ideal customer persona for your business.

Below is a video about creating a user persona that you can watch to learn more.

Choose the Right Social Media Channels

Choosing the right social media channels for your business can make all the difference between success and failure. It's crucial to select the channels that are most relevant to your target audience. For example, if you're selling consumer goods, you will get little traction on LinkedIn or Twitter. But if you are in the B2B space, LinkedIn can be your ultimate game changer.

Here is an infographic template that you can use to compare each platform and decide which one works best for your business.

You can now use this section of the template to plan your social media channels and tactics.

Decide on Your Social Media Content Type

Engaging your target audience is the primary goal that brought you this far. And you may already know what will help you do that—creating content that will make the audience stop scrolling and engage with your posts.

So, what are the most common types of social media content ? Here's a list you can use as a guide:

• Social advertising (paid and organic)

However, creating content for social media can be challenging, especially if you're a small business owner or a busy marketer who only has a little time.

Keeping this in mind, Visme features hundreds of templates to create eye-catching social media content for every business type and size. With Visme, you can create infographics , Facebook posts , Instagram stories , LinkedIn posts and even videos like explainer videos , video testimonials , product videos and many more.

Create stunning social media graphics

• Present social media graphic dimensions
• Create and resize content quickly and easily
• Engage your audience through visuals

Below is a video guide that will provide tips for creating social media graphics.

Create a Social Media Content Calendar

Creating a social media content calendar is essential for any business that wants to establish itself as an authority in its industry. A content calendar lays out the themes and topics you plan on sharing over a month or quarter so you don't have to scramble at the last minute.

And, what can be better when you can create content, post schedule and publish from one place? With the Visme social media content calendar , you can create a customized calendar with all your posts planned out in advance. Each post can be scheduled for any date in the future and sent directly to your social media accounts.

This will save you time because you won't have to log into each platform separately to publish your content—they'll all be done from one place!

This video will show you how to automate your social media activities right inside the Visme editor.

Collaborate with Your Team to Optimize Your Social Media Plan

A social media plan template can be an excellent tool for keeping track of your goals, objectives and strategies for each channel. However, it's important to know that a template is different from a finished plan.

The key is to use the template as a starting point and then adjust it to meet your needs. So, if you have a social media team, it would be better to include everyone in the process of editing the template.

However, bringing everyone's thoughts and ideas together to create a social media plan is no easy feat. Visme's collaborative design features help you overcome these challenges and make collaboration easy and fun.

Invite your team members via email or by sharing a link generated from Visme. When one person makes a change on their end, it's automatically updated for everyone else as well.

Read this article to learn how to do collaborative design right in Visme, or watch the video below to see this in action.

Creating a social media plan is only half the job. Once you've created your plan and are ready to launch it into action, there are a few more things you should do.

Here are three tips you should follow after launching your social media plan.

1. Measure Your Social Media Progress

Once you've launched your social media plan, it's time to start measuring how well it's working. You can track various KPIs, such as total followers, likes and shares over time. This will help you see which posts are performing well and which need more work.

Here is an infographic showing the 15 KPIs you should track to measure your social media performance.

You can conduct a social media audit to understand your current social media presence. This will help you see where your brand is currently standing and what changes need to be made.

If you have an existing social media presence and want to create a new plan, you should measure how well it works.

Use this social media audit report template to record your findings and present the information to your team.

RELATED: How to Create a Social Media Report in 2023 (+ Templates)

2. Observe and Analyze Your Competitors

Social media is highly competitive. A recent study found that 91.9% of marketers in companies with more than 100 employees use social media. So paying attention to your competitors' actions is important. As you track and measure your own performance, keep an eye out for any changes in theirs.

You can also conduct competitor analysis by looking at their social media accounts and seeing what types of content they post most frequently. Here is a worksheet template that you can use to analyze multiple competitors.

3. Adjust the Social Media Plan Accordingly

Once you've audited your own social media and identified areas for improvement, it's time to make the necessary changes. For example, if your competitors post more frequently than you do, consider increasing the amount of content you publish on each channel.

You might also decide to change up the types of posts that get shared most often—this could be photos or videos, depending on what kind of content performs best for your brand.

Customize Your Next Social Media Plan Template with Visme

Creating a social media plan is a great way to stay on top of your brand's marketing efforts and see how they fit into your business goals. But if you're a business owner or a marketing professional, you may be pressed for time to create a detailed plan from scratch.

Instead of wasting hours researching and writing a plan that may not apply to your business, consider using Visme to create one in a few minutes. The drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to customize all of the elements of our social media plan template so that it fits your brand's unique needs—from goals and objectives to action steps and KPIs.

Sign-up for Visme to create your next social media plan and all the graphics you need to improve your brand's social media presence.

Put together effective social media plan and drive better engagement using Visme

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About the Author

Raja Antony Mandal is a Content Writer at Visme. He can quickly adapt to different writing styles, possess strong research skills, and know SEO fundamentals. Raja wants to share valuable information with his audience by telling captivating stories in his articles. He wants to travel and party a lot on the weekends, but his guitar, drum set, and volleyball court don’t let him.

Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Social Media Marketing Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your Social Media Marketing business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their Social Media Marketing businesses.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your Social Media Marketing business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

The Blizzard Social Media Marketing business is a startup social media marketing company located in Stamford, Connecticut. The company is founded by Trace Parker, who has a history of a decade within the social media marketing industry Now, with the expertise of knowledge and business acumen, Trace has determined he can confidently start and effectively grow a successful social media marketing company. Trace believes his experience of strategic growth, marketing skills, financial capabilities, and wide and deep knowledge of social media marketing practices will provide everything needed for long-term growth and profitability.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will provide a comprehensive array of services for a wide variety of clients. Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be the premier social media marketing company, providing unique services to each client while supporting the strategic goals of the company. Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be the ultimate choice in social media marketing for clients by ensuring that every need of the customer is fully and completely met.

Product Offering

The following are the services that Blizzard Social Media Marketing will provide:

• Creative social media marketing strategies, customized for each client
• Content management and on-going management
• Social media community engagement with daily/weekly management options
• Paid social advertising opportunities
• Performance reports and analytics: weekly reports to clients
• Unique, digitally-designed program that scans 24-hours daily, monitoring positive and negative customer feedback.

Customer Focus

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will primarily target the small to medium-sized social media marketing companies in Stamford. The company will secondarily target the large-sized social media companies in the greater region around Stamford, including the outer areas of New York City. Blizzard Social Media Marketing will target marketing companies that are emerging into the social media category, as well.

Management Team

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be owned and operated by Trace Parker, who graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He has been working at a local social media marketing company for over a decade as an account executive. As he considered starting his own company, Trace began successfully securing former clients who will follow him to Blizzard Social Media Marketing when the company fully launches. Trace believes his experience of strategic growth, marketing skills, financial capabilities, and wide and deep knowledge of social media marketing practices will provide everything needed for long-term growth and profitability.

Trace Parker recruited Angela Turner, a former business associate, to be the Administrative Manager in the new company. In this role, Angela Turner will oversee and direct staff members in the execution of the company vision, as well as run the operational portion of the technical department.

Trace Parker also recruited Anthony Collins to be the Financial Manager, overseeing the bookkeeping and accounting duties on a regular basis. Anthony Collins formerly served as the accountant for their former employer and was exemplary in handling complicated portions of this role.

Maryann Critcher has been recruited to manage the office clerks and serve as the Personnel Manager, overseeing all personnel with human resource responsibilities and management included in her role.

Success Factors

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

• Friendly, knowledgeable, and highly-qualified team of Blizzard Social Media Marketing
• Comprehensive menu of services and an accurate and complete social media management report offered to the client every month.
• Short and long-term growth forecasts via various social media programs best suited to the clients
• Experienced understanding of client-positioning within social media markets
• Unique, digitally-designed program that scans 24-hours daily, monitoring positive and negative client feedback.
• Blizzard Social Media Marketing offers the best pricing in town. Their pricing structure is the most cost effective compared to the competition.

Financial Highlights

Blizzard Social Media Marketing is seeking $200,000 in debt financing to launch its Blizzard Social Media Marketing. The funding will be dedicated toward securing the office space and purchasing office equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated toward three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent, and marketing costs for the print ads and marketing costs. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Office space build-out: $20,000
• Office equipment, supplies, and materials: $10,000
• Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $150,000
• Marketing costs: $10,000
• Working capital: $10,000

The following graph outlines the financial projections for Blizzard Social Media Marketing.

Company Overview

Who is blizzard social media marketing.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing is a newly established, full-service social media marketing company in Stamford, Connecticut. Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be the most reliable, cost-effective, and efficient choice for social media clients in the city and the surrounding communities. Blizzard Social Media Marketing will provide a comprehensive menu of services backed by extensive experience for any client to fully utilize. Their full-service approach includes a comprehensive coverage package of social media advertising, platform management and new vision development.

  Trace Parker will be able to manage each of his team members, who are highly qualified and experienced in the most important aspects of social media marketing. Blizzard Social Media Marketing removes all headaches and issues of building a long-term growth perspective for social media companies and ensures all issues are taken care of expeditiously while delivering the best customer service.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing History

Blizzard Social Media Marketing is owned and operated by Trace Parker. As a former social media marketing executive for several years, he developed a unique capability to design and implement social media marketing successes that clearly reflect his skills and abilities. He has managed over one hundred successful projects for fifty nine clients and has now determined he is ready to take his professional skills and knowledge to venture out on his own by starting his own company. Trace Parker has gained the trust and commitment of several clients in advance of opening his business and will sign contracts with each when the company launches.

Since incorporation, Blizzard Social Media Marketing has achieved the following milestones:

• Registered Blizzard Social Media Marketing, LLC to transact business in the state of Connecticut.
• Has a contract in place for a 10,000 square foot office at one of the midtown buildings
• Reached out to numerous contacts to include Blizzard Social Media Marketing in upcoming advertising and marketing programs.
• Began recruiting a staff of five and six office personnel to work at Blizzard Social Media Marketing

Blizzard Social Media Marketing Services

The following will be the services Blizzard Social Media Marketing will provide:

• Unique, digitally-designed program that scans 24-hours daily, monitoring positive and negative customer feedback
• Superior day to day client management

Industry Analysis

The social media marketing industry is expected to grow over the next five years to over $14 billion.

The growth of the social marketing industry will be driven by very robust activity in acquisition and growth of companies that focus solely on social media marketing. As companies are formed in today’s marketplace, the demand has moved more and more toward the need for social media marketing versus traditional marketing forms, such as print advertising and radio spots. This increase in the use of social media marketing demands companies that specialize in formulating the brand identity and customer approach that brings the performance desired by the client base.

Costs will likely be reduced as more social media marketing companies enter the field of the profession. The positive result will be seen in a greater use of social media, indicating a continual evolution of how social media is utilized in marketing. It will also require new digital techniques, new methods of social media delivery and other yet-to-be-determined equipment to stay on top of the social media marketing curve.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will target companies that currently utilize social media marketing and those that have a need for social media marketing in Stamford, Connecticut and, in the greater region, New York City. They will target small-to-medium sized companies who have not yet acquired social media marketing and they will target large corporations without an effective social media marketing vision or presence.

Customer Segmentation

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will primarily target the following customer profiles:

• Companies that currently use social media marketing
• Companies that have a need for social media marketing in Stamford, Connecticut
• Potential clients in the greater region of New York City
• Small-to-medium sized companies who have not yet acquired social media marketing
• Large corporations without an effective social media marketing presence

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will face competition from other companies with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Cutting Edge Social Media

The Cutting Edge Social Media Company was founded by Tina Lockland in 2020. Tina holds a master’s degree in social media design from the Parsons School of Design in New York City and has five years of experience as a social media manager. Cutting Edge Social Media concentrates on paid social advertising, with the creation and management of advertising campaigns. Clients include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The singular purpose of marketing paid social media advertising indicates that Cutting Edge Social Media has backburnered other forms of social media marketing, such as social media promotions and other advertising methods. The company currently has four management staff and five employees. Contract self-employed individuals are also hired to create content.

Marketing Bites

The Marketing Bites business was formed by Alicia Dunstreet in 2022 and currently has three employees. The concept of Marketing Bites is a simple one: social media marketing messages that are extremely brief are developed and sold to a variety of clients. Clients may include those who want a 30-second clip, a 1-minute promotion, or a cartoon caricature as a marketing message. The emphasis of Marketing Bites is on short-fire marketing that captures attention and builds customer loyalty. This is accomplished by humor, shock-and-awe value, or a clip that makes a definitive statement. The company has secured three major clients in the food and beverage industry, with more development in that sector promised in the future.

Executive Marketing, Inc.

Executive Marketing, Inc. has been in business since 1988 and was established by Floyd Wilson and his wife, Sherry Wilson. In its inception, it was a traditional marketing firm that focused on high-profile individuals who represented major manufacturers. The marketing tools used were print advertising, radio spots, news articles related to the clients, select marketing offers, and other personality-related marketing efforts.

As the decades have created the demand for new forms of sales and marketing, the Executive Marketing business has evolved under the leadership of Nan Wilson, the daughter of the founders. She took the company from traditional marketing to marketing that focused on the high-profile clients and the glamorous lives they led, which induced positional purchases by customers in response. In 2019, the granddaughter of the original owners, Mae Townsend, brought the company into social media marketing, where the emphasis remains on individual profiles and the marketing incentives those individuals represent to buyers.

Competitive Advantage

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will offer a unique value proposition to its clientele:

• Highly-qualified team of skilled employees who are able to provide a comprehensive social media marketing program that brings revenue and long-term profitability to their clients
• Unbeatable pricing for its clients; they will offer the lowest pricing in the city.

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for Blizzard Social Media Marketing is as follows:

Word of Mouth/Referrals

The executive team at Blizzard Social Media Marketing have built up an extensive list of contacts over the years by providing exceptional service and expertise to their clients. The contacts and clients will follow them to their new company and help spread the word of Blizzard Social Media Marketing.

Professional Associations and Networking

Industry associations and local networking will become a top priority for the team at Blizzard Social Media Marketing. In addition to potentially becoming gold standard clients, the contacts and networking prospects invite the attention of those at Blizzard. Active leadership roles will be attained and the increase in industry contacts will help strengthen the marketing sector overall.

Social Media Marketing

Blizzard will focus primarily on marketing their services and relationship opportunities via social media efforts. There will be a concentrated effort on showcasing the skills, capabilities and creative force in the management team at Blizzard. Further, there will be a demonstrable survey of former and current clients indicating the superior results obtained by using Blizzard social media marketing techniques.

Website/SEO Marketing

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will fully utilize their website. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all the services that Blizzard Social Media Marketing provides. The website will also list their contact information. The website will engage in SEO marketing tactics so that anytime someone types in the Google or Bing search engine “social media marketing company” or “social media marketing company near me,” Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be listed at the top of the search results.

The pricing of Blizzard Social Media Marketing will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive excellent value when purchasing their services.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for Blizzard Social Media Marketing. Operation Functions:

• Trace Parker will be the owner and President of the company. He will manage client relations. Trace Parker has spent the past year recruiting the following staff:
• Angela Turner will be the Administrative Manager, who will oversee and direct staff members in the execution of the company vision, as well as run the operational portion of the technical department.
• Anthony Collins will be the Financial Manager, overseeing the bookkeeping and accounting duties on a regular basis.
• Maryann Critcher has been recruited to manage the office clerks and serve as the Personnel Manager, handling human resource responsibilities and management in her role.

Milestones:

Blizzard Social Media Marketing will have the following milestones completed in the next six months.

• 5/1/202X – Finalize contract to lease office space
• 5/15/202X – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts for Blizzard Social Media Marketing
• 6/1/202X – Finalize contracts for Blizzard Social Media Marketing clients
• 6/15/202X – Begin networking at industry events
• 6/22/202X – Begin moving into Blizzard Social Media Marketing office
• 7/1/202X – Blizzard Social Media Marketing opens its doors for business

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for Blizzard Social Media Marketing are the fees they will charge to clients for their services.

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required in order to staff Blizzard Social Media Marketing. The expenses will be the payroll cost, rent, utilities, office supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

Key assumptions.

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

• Number of clients Per Month: 20
• Average revenue per Month: $200,000
• Office Lease per Year: $100,000

Financial Projections

Income statement.

Balance Sheet

Cash Flow Statement

Social Media Marketing Business Plan FAQs

What is a social media marketing business plan.

A social media marketing business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your social media marketing business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections. You can easily complete your Social Media Marketing business plan using our Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of Social Media Marketing Businesses?

There are a number of different kinds of social media marketing businesses, some examples include: Paid Ads, Content, and Strategy.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Social Media Marketing Business Plan?

Social Media Marketing businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a Social Media Marketing Business?

Starting a social media marketing business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster. 1. Develop A Social Media Marketing Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed social media marketing business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast. 2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your social media marketing business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your social media marketing business is in compliance with local laws. 3. Register Your Social Media Marketing Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your social media marketing business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your social media marketing business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 7. Acquire Necessary Social Media Marketing Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your social media marketing business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your social media marketing business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

Need a hand creating engaging content? Try Buffer for free →

The Beginner's Guide to Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan From Scratch

When I went rock climbing for the first time, I had no idea what I was doing. My friends and I were complete newbies about ropes and rappelling and every other bit of jargon and technique that goes with climbing. We saw others doing it spectacularly well. We were thrilled at the thought of reaching the top of the climbing wall; we had no idea how to get there.

I’d imagine that a social media marketing strategy could feel the same way.

If you’re starting from square one, it might feel equally parts thrilling and overwhelming. You know what you want to do and why. You can see that others have climbed the social media mountain, but you have few ideas for getting there yourself.

It’d help to have a plan.

We’ve shared different parts of a social media strategy— the data, research , and personal experience behind what works on social media .

Now we’re pleased to put it all into a cohesive, step-by-step blueprint that you can use to get started. If you need a social media marketing plan, start here.

Step 1: Determine which social media sites you will use

Social media is as homogenous from network to network as soda pop is from brand to brand. Sure, it’s all social media, but Instagram and Twitter might as well be Mountain Dew and Pepsi. Each network is unique, with its own best practices, own style, and own audience.

You should choose the social networks that best fit your strategy and the goals you want to achieve on social media.

You don’t have to be on them all—just the ones that matter to you and your audience.

Some factors to consider when choosing which social networks to try and how many to try.

• Audience – Where do your potential customers hang out ? Which social network has the right demographics?
• Time – How much time can you devote to a social network? Plan on at least an hour per day per social network to start. (Pro Tip: Once you get going, scheduling content ahead of time with tools like Buffer can help you save time.)
• Resources – What personnel and skills do you have to work with? Networks like TikTok emphasize consistent and relevant content. Visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest require images and videos. Do you have the resources to create what's needed?

For the first part of this decision, you can reference the audience research and demographics from surveys like those conducted by Pew Research. For instance, Pew has complete data collected in 2021 on the demographics of social media users in the U.S. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the major social media platforms’ user demographics.

Credit: Pew Research Center

Step 2: Fill out your profiles completely

One of our monthly checks here at Buffer is to visit our social media profiles and ensure that our profile photos, cover photos , bio , and profile info are up-to-date and complete. It’s a crucial part of our social media audit . A completed profile shows professionalism, cohesive branding, and a signal to visitors that you’re serious about engaging.

Profiles will require two parts: visuals and text .

For visuals, we aim for consistency and familiarity with the visuals we use on social media . Our profile photo on Instagram matches our profile photo on Facebook. Our cover photo on Twitter is similar to our cover on LinkedIn.

To create these images, you can consult a social media image size chart showing you the exact breakdown of dimensions for each photo on each network. For an even easier time of it, you can use a tool like Pablo or Canva , which comes with prebuilt templates that set the proper sizes for you.

For text, your primary area to customize is the bio/info section. Creating a professional social media bio can be broken down into six simple rules:

• Show, don’t tell – “What have I done” often works better than “Who I am”
• Tailor your keywords to your audience
• Keep language fresh; avoid buzzwords
• Answer the question of your potential followers: “What’s in it for me?”
• Be personal and personable
• Revisit often

Step 3: Find your marketing voice and tone

The temptation at this point might be to jump right in and start sharing. Just one more step before you do. Your foray into social media will be more focused and more on point if you come up with a voice and tone for your content right off the bat.

To do so, you could spend time developing marketing personas and debating the finer points of your mission statement and customer base. These are all well and good. But for a social media marketing plan just getting off the ground, you can make this process a bit easier.

Start with questions like these:

• If your brand was a person, what kind of personality would it have?
• If your brand was a person, what’s their relationship to the consumer? (a coach, friend, teacher, dad, etc)
• Describe in adjectives what your company’s personality is not.
• Are there any companies that have a similar personality to yours? Why are they similar?
• How do you want your customers to think about your company?

At the end of this exercise, you should end up with a handful of adjectives describing the voice and tone of your marketing. Consider this to keep you on track:

Voice is the mission statement; tone is the implementation of that mission.

Here are a few places to take inspiration for developing your brand's voice and tone:

• Sprout Social

Cultivate a voice that delights your customers, then your customers will be thrilled to spread the love about you.

Step 4: Pick your posting strategy

What’s the ideal amount to post per day ? How often should you post ? When should you post ? What should you post ? The solid gold, ironclad answer for questions like these is:

It depends.

So much of the social media experience is about your individual audience and niche. What works for you might not work for me, and you never know until you try (we’ll get to trying in step five).

That being said, there is some pretty good data and insight about where to start. Here’s what we’ve found to be good jumping-off points.

What should you be posting?

Videos are ideal for engagement.

The push toward video content has plenty of anecdotal evidence — the success of TikTok and constant updates to Instagram – and you’re likely to see videos all over. There’s data to back up this trend : Videos posts get more views, shares, and Likes than any other type of post. And it’s not even close.

On Facebook, video posts get higher average engagement than link posts or image posts, according to BuzzSumo who analyzed 68 million Facebook posts .

On Twitter, videos are six times more likely to be retweeted than photos and three times more likely to be retweeted than GIFs , according to Twitter .

If you want to start creating social videos, here’s our video marketing guide on creating epic content on Facebook, Twitter, and more .

The 4:1 Strategy

Now that you know what works, you can place these different types of updates into a consistent strategy. One of my favorite systems is the one used by Buffer’s co-founder Joel Gascoigne . It works like this:

• Start with the basic six types of updates we all post: Links, videos, images, quotes, reshares, plain-text updates
• Choose a “staple” update , a single type that will make up the majority of your shares
• Create a 4:1 ratio of sharing : for every four “staple” updates, publish one different type for variety

This way your followers know what to expect from you, and you can hone your sharing to a specific type, making it easier to perfect and experiment.

(Note: You might not want to post the exact same updates across each of your social networks. Adopt a cross-posting strategy that considers each platform's uniqueness and its audience.)

How often should you be posting?

There’s been a lot of interesting data out there about how often to post to social media . Some of the factors that might impact your specific sharing frequency may include your industry, your reach, your resources, and the quality of your updates. The social network you’re using will also have its best practices.

If people love your updates, you can typically always get away with posting more.

For a specific number, here are some guidelines we’ve put together based on some really helpful research into how often to post on social media .

• Twitter – Three to fifteen times per day
• TikTok – Three times a day
• Instagram – Once or twice per day
• Instagram Stories – Eight to 16 Stories, twice per week
• LinkedIn – Once a day
• Pinterest – Three to ten times per day
• Facebook – Thrice a week

When should you be posting?

Here’s an overview of what they found regarding timing (all times are Eastern Time).

• Twitter –Mondays and Thursdays at 8am
• Facebook – Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday between 9am to 1pm
• LinkedIn – Tuesday and Wednesday at 9am
• Instagram – Tuesday between 11am to 2pm is the most ideal time
• Pinterest – Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday between 1-2pm
• TikTok – Any day between 2 am to 12 pm is ideal

I would recommend experimenting with these times (in your local time) and a few randomly-picked times as you’re starting out.

Once you have been posting for a while, you can use your own data and tools like Instagram Insights and Followerwonk to find your brand’s best time to post and refine your posting strategy.

Step 5: Analyze, test, and iterate

Remember how we talked about social media sharing being a very individual, specific endeavor? Your stats will likely start to bear this out.

The more you post, the more you’ll discover which content, timing, and frequency is right for you.

How will you know? It’s best to get a social media analytics tool . Most major social networks will have basic analytics built into the site; it’s just a little easier to seek and find this information from an all-encompassing dashboard.

These tools (I’ll use Buffer’s analytics as an example) can show you a breakdown of how each post performed in the critical areas of views, clicks, shares, Likes, and comments.

Which social media stats are best? We’ve gained some insight from looking at each of these main statistics and the composite engagement statistic on a per-post basis. The resulting stat gives us a great look, over time, of how our social media content tends to perform, and we can then test and iterate from there.

Here’s one way to analyze your performance .

• Set a benchmark . After two weeks or a month of sharing, you can go back through your stats and find the average engagement rate per post . This'll be your benchmark going forward. Remember to revisit and update this number as your following and influence grow.
• Test something new . Avoid getting stuck in your ways – social media is dynamic and you should be too. We're open to testing just about anything at Buffer and find ourselves trying new things and adapting our strategy based on the success of our experiments.
• Did it work? Check the stats from your test versus the stats of your benchmark. if your test performed well, then you can implement the changes into your refular strategy. And once your test is over, repeat!

Step 6: Automate, engage, and listen

The final piece of a social media marketing plan involves having a system you can follow to help you stay on top of updates and engage with your community .

To start with, automate the posting of your social media content.

Tools like Buffer allow you to create all the content you want to, all at once, and then place everything into a queue to be sent out according to your schedule. Automation is the secret weapon for consistently excellent sharing day after day.

Your plan doesn’t end with automation, though. Social media requires engagement, too.

When people talk to you, talk back. Set aside time during your day to follow up with conversations that are happening on social media. These are conversations with potential customers, references, friends, and colleagues. They’re too important to ignore.

One way to stay up on all the conversations that are happening around you and your company is to create a system for listening and engaging. Tools like Buffer and Mention will collect all social media mentions and comments on your posts in a single place, where you can quickly reply to your followers.

What would you share with someone new to social media?

Creating a social media marketing plan is an excellent step toward diving into social. If social media looks thrilling and overwhelming all at once, start with a plan. Once you see the blueprint in front of you, it’s a little easier to see what lies ahead.

• Pick your networks
• Fill out your info
• Find your voice
• Choose your strategy
• Analyze and test
• Automate and engage

How did you develop your social media strategy? I’d love to keep the conversation going on Twitter @buffer !

Did you find this article helpful? You might also like our all-you-need social media toolkit.

The all-you-need social media toolkit

Publish Flawlessly. Analyze Effortlessly. Engage Authentically.

Buffer is the all-you-need social media toolkit that lets you focus on doing what you love for your business.

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How to Create a Great Social Media Strategy in 2024 (+New Data)

Create a comprehensive plan for leveraging social media platforms to achieve your marketing and growth goals with this free workbook.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY WORKBOOK

Updated: 03/13/24

Published: 03/11/24

Creating social media strategies can be overwhelming, especially when you're just launching your brand or just building your online presence for the first time. So many channels, features, tools, and products available – but so little time to fit them all into your marketing strategy.

If you don’t have a full-time team of social media experts at your disposal, it’s even harder. But the fact is that your online success depends on having a sensible and straightforward strategy that fits your resources and goals.

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I spoke with three top-tier social media experts, and dug into recent HubSpot research (including our 2024 State of Social Media Report), to show you how to develop a social media strategy that drives traffic and ROI to your brand.

What is a social media strategy?

Why you need a social media strategy, how to create a social media strategy.

A social media strategy is an outline of the content that your business will post, the responsibilities of your social media team, and the social media channels you will use to promote your business. A social media strategy includes social media goals that complement your business' overall digital marketing strategy.

Your social media strategy is your master plan for how you create, post, and engage with your social media content.

It encompasses your social content guidelines, posting cadence, social media marketing campaigns, target audience, and engagement strategy that promote your business and brand.

To track and analyze your social media marketing performance, HubSpot’s Marketing Analytics and Dashboard Software can help you get insights, including customer lifecycle.

Many companies use social media to connect with customers, provide support, advertise new products and features, and promote special offers.

The State of Social Media in 2024

Explore the top trends in social media for brands to know and optimize your social strategy.

• AI Content Creation
• Community Building
• Social Media Shopping
• Social Vs. Search Engine

Download Free

All fields are required.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

According to our most recent The State of Social Media , social media marketers' top challenges include creating engaging content, generating leads, and reaching target audiences. While these are some of the trickiest challenges, they're also the items you'll want to think about most when making an effective plan.

Ultimately, well-thought-out social media strategies equip you to set goals and guardrails, track performance, and tweak your benchmarks over time.

“One of the biggest challenges I think social media marketers face is saturation and competition. There is so much content on social media that sometimes it makes it challenging to stand out from the crowd. Having a robust strategy that understands the target audience includes strong copy and unique content can help to cut through the noise,” says Ellie Nash , social community executive at Kurago .

Without a starting point, you can‘t measure what’s working and how to shift your activity to hit your goals.

A social media strategy also helps you set expectations for broader team involvement and get everyone aligned on what they should and shouldn't do on your social networks.

• Define your target audience.
• Incorporate ecommerce.
• Optimize your social channels for search.
• Focus on a few key channels.
• Make a plan for customer service.
• Develop a recipe card to guide you.
• Measure your results.
• Adjust your tactics.

1. Define your target audience.

If you haven’t already identified and documented your buyer personas , start by defining the key demographics of the audience you’re trying to reach — such as age, gender, occupation, income, hobbies, and interests.

To meet your audience where they are with marketing that won't annoy them, you first need to learn out what they want and why. 

Social Media Motivations

Are social media users visiting these apps to learn, explore, shop, or just have a good time?

In our most recent State of Consumer Trends Survey this summer, we asked over 500 general consumers to pick the three most common reasons they use social media. 

While 65% actually use it socially to keep up with friends, 53% just want to be entertained while 50% want to learn new things. Unfortunately, 28% say they prefer to go on social media to learn about new products or brands. 

The good news? Later in the survey, when we asked consumers how they prefer to research and learn about brands and products, a whopping 41% said they like to do this on social media channels (a slight increase from a similar survey we ran six months prior).

While Gen X and Boomers skew lower on this average, Gen Z and Millennial generations are using social for brand research more often – which is not surprising due to their hyper-connectedness to the web.

As you might be able to tell from our data above, your target audience plays a role in how successful the right strategy will be. And, better catering to them helps you create focused advertising that addresses your ideal consumer’s specific needs.

For instance, the below-sponsored post by Monday.com , a project management platform, highlights the platform’s flexibility and workflow customization feature.

The post targets business owners and project managers who may feel limited by other project management software.

Image Source

Consider your ideal consumer’s challenges and what problems they're solving daily. Focus on no more than four types of people representing most of your buyers. Don’t get hung up on the exceptions or outliers, or you’ll never get started.

Once you start creating content for your audience, focus on engaging your audience at every level.

Pay close attention to any questions or comments your audience posts, and be quick to address them, as that engagement could make or break a conversion or purchase.

Consumers like feeling like they’re part of a community when they’re on your social media pages. More than 1 in 5 social media users joined or participated in an online community in the last year.

Speaking of communities, creating social media groups is a smart move to attract, keep, and engage the audience, with 90% of marketers agreeing.

Here's why:

• Groups help people get involved.
• Followers can learn from each other.
• Your brand becomes a connector — something like a helpful friend.
• Communities feel more friendlier to chat compared to pages. 

In 2020, HubSpot made a small Facebook Group called Marketer to Marketer with 4.9k followers. It's not as big as our Facebook page, but conversions prove its worth it.

Pro tip: To reach the right audience, use social listening tools . These tools check social media for keywords, assess if the talk is positive or negative, and give you reports. This helps in creating a buyer persona for better targeting.

2. Incorporate ecommerce.

As more and more people use social media to discover new products, they’re also finding convenience in shopping for those products directly in the social app they found them in.

While one-fourth of social media marketers are already seeing more effectiveness in social shopping tools than they are with ecommerce site strategies, 80% of social media marketers believe consumers will eventually buy products directly within social apps more often than on brand websites or through third-party resellers. 

What's more, 25% of users between the ages of 18 and 44 had already bought a product on social media by summer of 2023. We wouldn't be shocked if this number increased in 2024.

Lastly, if we look at how this trend is fairing across the globe, several other countries have already made social media shopping a norm.

For example, check out this comparison of data from the UK, China, and the US:

• In the UK, social shopping saw a rise from 2021 to 2023 , with 4.1% of the population engaging in this trend. Anticipated data suggests a further increase in 2024 and a growth of approximately 2% in 2025.
• In 2022, around 84% of Chinese consumers have shopped on social media platforms. Despite some COVID-19 challenges, it reached 850 million users in 2021 , making the market worth more than 2.5 trillion.
• In 2023, the US made $68.91 million from social commerce , which is 5.9% of all online sales. This is a sharp increase from $39.51 million in 2021.

Translation? If you sell products, social media should be a key part of your ecommerce strategy in 2024. It doesn't matter where you are. Social selling is a big deal — so it’s time to take it seriously.

Most platforms offer built-in e-commerce features like shoppable posts, and 47% of social media marketers are already taking advantage of selling products directly within social media apps.

The most popular social selling tools for marketers are:

• Instagram Shops and Instagram Live Shopping — high ROI.
• Facebook Shops — average ROI.

(Psst: Need help building a Facebook page for your business? We have you covered.)

If you need inspiration for incorporating e-commerce into your social strategy, take a cue from Sephora .

Whenever the beauty brand shares an image of a product, it uses a product tag that links to its shoppable page above.

This makes it easy for its followers to instantly buy something they see on the page without ever having to leave the app.

One critical element of successfully selling on social media is establishing brand trust so users feel comfortable purchasing your products directly on the app.

While Sephora has built an established brand reputation over time, you can build trust in other ways, even if you’re building your social media strategy from scratch.

Focus on sharing customer reviews and testimonials, user-generated content (UGC), and product data to build social proof.

Pro tip: Go with image, video, and carousel ads for brand awareness to emphasize store visits, ad impressions, and engagement. For increased sales, select product, collection, or shopping ads to drive direct purchases and product page visits.

3. Optimize your social channels for search.

Social search is on the rise.

As more people turn to social with their queries instead of search engines, 89% of social media marketers agree that social search is important to their overall social media strategies in 2023.

Nearly 24% of consumers aged 18-54 use social media first to search for brands.

Pro tip: You don’t need to film an hour-long video. Even short videos, aka YouTube Shorts, can help you rank higher in SERP. You can use UGC videos and testimonials for that purpose.

4. Focus on a few key social channels.

Most small businesses or social teams don’t have the bandwidth to establish and sustain a quality social media presence on every single channel.

It's also overwhelming to learn the rules of engagement on multiple networks simultaneously.

Focus on the channels that will bring in the highest ROI. For most brands, this will be Instagram.

Instagram has proven to be the best source of ROI, engagement, and quality leads. Additionally, 23% of marketers believe Instagram offers brands the most potential to grow their audiences in 2023.

Adding an Instagram feed to your website is also a smart move to keep your site looking fresh and even to nudge people towards buying, as social media content can increase conversions by up to 29%.

With a tool like Flockler, even if you’re not a tech expert, you can make your site more lively and exciting with your latest Instagram posts. See their easy guide on how to embed an Instagram feed on a website .

Or as Annie-Mai Hodge says, “You don’t need to be on every single social media platform, full stop — for most businesses, it’s a waste of time and resources to be on platforms where your audience isn’t active.”

When creating your strategy, Hodge says, “You would’ve looked at where your audience is, what your competitors are doing, and what you’re aiming to achieve with social media — all of this will help inform you as to what social media channels you should be focusing on.”

Pro tip: Check where your competitors are most active and what kind of content they post. You’ll see what works or doesn't and how engaged their audience is. Don’t copy them — just use that info to make smart decisions for your strategy.

5. Repurpose your content.

Why stress over creating different content for each platform? 

Keep it simple: repurpose and use the same awesome content in different places – within reason of course.

According to our research, most marketers repurpose content in some way, shape, or form, while 19% consider it one of their key strategies. Meanwhile 40% plan to invest more in content repurposing in 2024.

This makes sense. By repurposing content, you can leanly and easily:

• Get your message to more people on different platforms.
• Save time by using what you already have instead of starting from scratch.
• Stay visible on search engines by updating and reusing content.
• Cater to your audience's preferences with different formats.
• Make your content last longer by updating timeless pieces.
• Improve your strategy by checking how your content performs on different channels.

…to hilarious TikTok video:

@hubspot Always look for a desk with a view (of your manager's eyeline) #hybridwork #9to5 #officehumor #inoffice ♬ original sound - HubSpot

However, one word to the wise is to not lean on it for every single campaign. Although most marketers do it, only 7% told us it yields them substantial ROI compared to content that's more catered to platforms. 

So, if you're low on time or bandwidth, experimenting a new platform that's similar to one you already use, or can make light tweaks to optimize content for different channels – feel free. Just make sure you're giving your audience what they're looking for and not over-spamming them with content they've seen several times already.

Pro tip: Looking for a creative content idea that feels more personal than repurposed? Make catchy quote pictures from customer thoughts, share email insights on X or LinkedIn, and whip up quick videos from podcasts — people love that kind of stuff.

6. Make a plan for customer service.

When putting together your social media strategy, consider how you’ll use your channels for customer service.

Social media is so ingrained in our day-to-day lives that it’s no surprise that people turn to these platforms for everything from brand discovery to customer service.

According to our State of Social Media and Consumer Trends research, 1 in 5 social media users contact a brand through social DMs for customer service each quarter.

43% of marketers use customer service reps, 41% rely on platform managers, and 13% employ automated tools like chatbots.

Whether you create a separate account dedicated to customer service or have an auto-reply set up when people DM you on Instagram, have a plan for how you’ll handle customer support through social media.

Now, let’s talk a little bit about the importance of good customer service on social media. According Khoros research :

• 42% felt disappointed, 43% were unhappy, and 41% reported anger with poor customer care.
• 67% shared bad experiences, and 65% switched to a different brand.
• 43% are more likely to buy from a brand after a good customer service experience.
• 83% feel more loyal to brands that resolve their complaints.
• 73% of brands expect more inbound channels, and 53% anticipate more outbound channels in the next one to two years.
• Pro tip: Apart from clearly stating working hours, let customers know the expected response time and inform them about quicker alternative resources if available.

7. Develop a recipe card to guide you.

Social media isn’t an exact science. It doesn't work the same for every business or industry.

To see results for your business, create a recipe card. A recipe card is a posting and engagement schedule that keeps your team on track and helps you post content consistently.

HubSpot has a list of social media tools and templates that you can use to plan your content and create a posting schedule and content calendar.

One of the best ways to manage an SM content calendar is the method Bazile shared with me.

Here’s how she categorizes it:

• Evergreen engagement content.
• Evergreen promotional content.
• Specific campaign content.
• Recurring communications content.

“Breaking down content into these buckets allows social teams to maintain regular presences online while also separating content data into easily trackable pieces,” she says.

Develop a reasonable recipe card and well-organized calendar. Stick to it and get your team to follow. Set goals for your posting and engagement frequency, and hold yourself accountable for following your recipe.

Pro tip: Choose platforms that allow easy editing and content management within your team. This ensures smooth collaboration and calendar updates.

8. Talk WITH, not AT, your followers.

In our latest Consumer Trends research, 41% of consumers pointed to relatability as the most memorable aspect of posts from brands or companies on social or the web. 

Friendly brands win more followers (and hearts). So, skip the self-promotion overload. Instead, get into conversations and respond to comments authentically.

People love it when you chat with them, not just throw information their way. It makes them feel special, creating a genuine affection for your brand.

You don't have to sound super professional. Casual talk works even better on social media. Just take a cue from McDonald’s:

And here’s something interesting to remember — very few people, less than one percent , interact with the brands’ posts. 

Here are the platform breakdowns:

• Facebook: 0.09%.
• Instagram: 1.22%.

So, once you get a comment, find the right way to interact and show that you care.

Don't just ghost and ignore. These comments boost your post higher in algorithms and make it more visible. 

Pro tip: Never delete negative comments unless they’re super offensive or totally inappropriate. Instead, use them as an opportunity for constructive engagement and improvement.

9. Measure your results.

“Without goals, a product roadmap, or even a full brand strategy, social media managers will struggle to know what to prioritize in the social space, what metrics to measure to convey progress, and what sort of content or social presence is ideal for the brand,” Bazile says. 

There are countless things to track on your social media channels. Start by looking at how much traffic your social accounts drive to your website or blog.

Social media platforms offer tools to help businesses track analytics.

For example, you can use Facebook’s Page Insights , Instagram’s Account Insights , and LinkedIn’s Visitor Analytics to see what people are responding to and look for trends related to topics or keywords that generate the most interest.

Once you get an idea of your average traffic and post-performance, set goals for key metrics and keep a scorecard to measure your progress.

Be sure to choose metrics that are easy to gather because if it’s too time-consuming to track, you won’t be motivated to do it.

Examples of simple metrics include the total number of interactions, traffic to your website, and sales or revenue that can be attributed to social.

“One of the most valuable indicators, in my opinion, is impressions,” Nash says, “Impressions measure the number of times a piece of content is displayed on users' screens and help to evaluate the effectiveness of your content strategy in terms of exposure and brand awareness.”

Pro tip: Don’t only focus on platform numbers. Track the social sentiment as well. See if people express positive or negative feelings about you in online conversations. It takes a bit of manual work, but it's worth it. Check regularly for better insights.

10. Adjust your tactics as needed.

Social media won't start working overnight.

Establishing a following, stabilizing your brand, and seeing the results of your efforts take time. So, experiment to find the right combination of channels, content, and messaging that works for your audience.

We can pick up some cool tricks from Victoria's Secret in this regard.

They’ve shifted from using only professional photos and videos to incorporating more casual content. Now, VS’s Insta feed also includes UGC and interviews with random people on the street and in their stores.

Victoria's Secret proves that even as a high-end brand, you don't lose anything by including everyday people. 

Actually, you gain. 

More followers, more engagement, more exposure.

Keep track of changes in your post views, audience demographics, and post interactions, and make changes as needed.

Over time, you’ll be able to adjust your recipe card, content, and personas based on the information you’re gathering, which will help you fine-tune your strategy and generate more consistent results.

Trying new stuff might seem a bit daring, but sometimes, it's just necessary to “survive.”

For instance, try to use funny content whenever possible.

In our 2023 survey of over a thousand global social media marketers, 66% said funny content works best, followed by relatable (63%) and trendy (59%) content. While 45% talk only about their brand values, the key is to use humor for the most impact. 

Don't believe that humor can pay the bills? One-third, or 34% of Consumer Trends respondents also told us funny content is most memorable to them. 

I asked Hodge to tell me about a time when changing tactics improved social media results. She recalls that at the start of 2023, Girl Power Marketing stopped growing on social media and started losing engagement. 

“It wasn’t until I sat down and reassessed my strategy that I was missing something, and that was humanization,” Hodge recounts. “Why should people trust my thoughts, opinions, and guidance if they have no clue who was behind GPM or the mission behind it?”

Hodge shares that she started showing up more intentionally. She created content that showed more of herself, her personality, and GPM’s mission. 

“And a year later, GPM has grown to a community of 180k+ people - all because I switched up my tactics that no longer worked,” says Hodge.

Pro tip: Tailor your content to match seasonal trends and holidays. This helps keep your brand messaging timely and relatable. And most importantly — people love it.

Keeping Up With Social Media Strategies

While these tips will help you optimize your strategy for ROI in the present day, it's important to get your footing and keep up with the big shifts that are inevitable as new tools, channels, and trends arise.

To keep up with low stress, keep following research like our State of Social Media Report and check out our blog and resources for the coverage of social trends and tactics you actually need to keep on your radar.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Free Social Media Strategy Template

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• Content Strategy
• Community Management

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Social Media 12 min read

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan

James Scherer October 26, 2023

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Follow this 11-step template to create a social media marketing strategy for your business. This will help you improve your social media marketing efforts across all of your social media channels.

Social media has been around long enough that you know the need for social media channels for your business.

But a complete social media marketing plan?

That’s a bit more complicated.

Luckily, one of the best parts of the modern age is that information is out there. Some of it is piece-meal, requiring you to search and cobble together a complete strategy. And some of it is complete.

This 11-Step Social Media Marketing Plan is the latter.

So let’s get rolling, so you can start growing your business.

1. Step 1: Determine Your Objectives 2. Step 2: Choose Your Social Media Channels 3. Step 3: Optimize Your Profiles and Pages 4. Step 4: Boost Your Following 5. Step 5: Get Your Tone and Social Presence Right 6. Step 6: Make Your Social Content Calendar 7. Step 7: Identify Your Influencers 8. Step 8: Find & Create Your Content 9. Step 9: Posting 10. Step 10: Tracking 11. Step 11: Automate

Step 1: Determine Your Objectives

Before anything, you need to start slow. You need to ask yourself a serious question, and the answer might mean you stop reading this article.

Why are you going to invest serious time, energy, and resources into social media?

And we’re talking about a serious investment. In order to succeed on whatever social media channels you choose, you can’t half-ass this.

It’s harder than ever to grow a social Following . Harder to get your brand and content seen in a social media world focused more on paid promotion than on rewarding you for your efforts.

I don’t want to scare you, but I do want to make you aware of the realities.

So, know what you’re getting into, and know what you want to get out.

What do you want to get out of social media?

And the answer can’t just be “I’m on Social Media because I’m supposed to be.”

Main objectives:

• Increase Brand Awareness
• Drive Sales
• Generate Leads
• Create a Community around your Brand

Identifying the goals of your social media marketing plan will inform your strategy for what platforms to be on, what to post and what metrics to track (which determines your return on investment).

Start by setting clear actionable goals. Don’t just hop onto a social media channel and start posting aimlessly. Know what you want from the start.

Step 2: Choose Your Social Media Channels

Think carefully about how you’re going to build your social media presence.

Consider the following:

Time: How much time can you devote to a social network each week? Plan for around an hour per day per social media network – and more in the growth stages.

Resources: Most social media platforms are visual in nature. Even Twitter and Facebook require some design to really capture the attention of users. Do you have those resources? What about a dedicated content team?

Target Audience: What does your target demographic look like? If you know, do you know on what social media platforms they hang out?

For more on choosing the right social media platform, check out “ Social Media Marketing: Which Platform is Right for your Business? “

Step 3: Optimize Your Profiles and Pages

Your social media profile and pages are an extension of your website. Everything there, despite being on someone else’s site, is yours. You’re responsible for it.

So, if it looks like a burning trash can, that’s on you.

A Page Optimization Checklist:

• Optimize your Headers and Profile Images
• Provide Complete Company Information
• Customize your Facebook Page URL
• Add a Facebook Page CTA
• Optimize for SEO
• Pin your Best Content or Limited-Time Promotions to the Top
• Facebook Page Tabs

Social Media Image Sizes:

Step 4: Boost Your Following

Ever wondered why that beggar on the street keeps a few coins in his hat at all times?

People are more likely to Like something which has been Liked before.

This is why customer testimonials, good reviews, and influencer recommendations work. I don’t trust you unless someone has before me.

So, let’s boost your social following right out of the gate.

Social Promotions are still the best way to do this. You can spend the next couple of months crafting a content strategy, but (speaking from experience) it’s almost impossible to build a social media presence from nothing.

A foundation is key for your social media marketing plan.

Sweepstakes

Facebook Sweepstakes promotions are great for first-time contest runners. They’re the simplest promotion type and are excellent for quick and simple lead generation.

Referral Promotion

Referral promotions work through incentivized sharing. Entrants share the contest with their friends, colleagues, and family. Whoever gets the most people in their network to enter the contest wins the final prize, and everybody else gets a discount code incentive for entering.

Photo Contest

Fans or social media network users submit a photo and then share your contest with their friends, family, and colleagues, asking them to vote (voters usually have to enter lead information, as well, by the way). This massively increases the spread of your promotion.

For more on all these contest types, check out:

• “ How to Run a Facebook Like Promotion “
• “ 21 Facebook Contest Best Practices “
• “7 Facebook Contest and Promotion Ideas with Examples “
• “ 7 Free Templates for your Next Contest or Giveaway “
• “ Instagram Hashtag Contests: Examples and Best Practices for Marketers “

Social Media Contest Prizes

If you’ve decided to include a giveaway in your social media plan, then here are a few of the best prize ideas.

Summer Contests:

• Tickets to a sporting event
• Luggage set
• Camera with tripod stand
• Aquarium/Amusement Park/Zoo
• Camping Package
• Camping gear that includes lithium rechargeable batteries
• $50 worth of photo prints
• Back-to-school gear: Backpack, pens and markers, calculator
• Sports team sponsorship
• Bike/skateboard/rollerblades
• Body wash prize pack including deodorant, soap, razors etc.

Winter Contests:

• Wearable tech (fitness trackers)
• Baking set – electronic mixer, whisks etc.
• Lift passes & ski rentals
• Christmas movie box set
• Ugly sweater Christmas party pack
• Professional lights decoration
• Holiday table set
• Apple Cider/hot chocolate/mugs
• Tickets to Christmas events like the Nutcracker, Christmas train, or garden of lights
• Gym membership/personal training session

For more, check out our resource with * 101 contest prize ideas . *

Step 5: Get Your Tone and Social Presence Right

People respond to people who sound like them (we’re tribal, at heart). People won’t respond well if your brand is super faceless, but nor will some markets respond if you’re overly casual.

Identify three characteristics you want your brand voice to embody. Keep these in mind when creating your content , coming up with your social media post copy, and responding to your audience.

These “brand voice” characteristics should resonate with your target market:

• If you’re targeting mid-management professionals, use a professional tone and avoid memes, funny jokes, or puns – also avoid politics and world events.
• If you’re targeting professional millennials, be professional but also casual. Intersperse high-quality educational posts with current-event related content.
• If you’re targeting young people (Gen-Z), post behind-the-scenes content with a casual voice. Post often and tap into Influencers and TikTok.

I love this table from * Erika Heald on the Content Marketing Institute Blog identifying her three social media voice characteristics and how that’s reflected in her copy and the way she communicates on social media: *

Step 6: Make Your Social Content Calendar

Any good social media content strategy should revolve around a calendar.

Social media posting can be a complex thing. If you’re on multiple platforms, sharing a dozen times a day and your marketing team needs you to promote an upcoming webinar they forgot about until just now, where do you all fit it in?

This is where a social media content calendar comes in. It gives your social media marketing plan an outline of what content is being pushed on which platforms, and when:

Many social media management platforms are structured in this way as well (more on that in Step 10), but I do know some social media marketers who still prefer their own tables as they can ensure they have everything they need and nothing they don’t. All in one place.

Be sure your content team is aware of the calendar in your social media marketing plan. If they need something promoted be sure you’re aware of it, and if a holiday is coming up that you know you should capitalize on, make sure they’re creating something for you which is relevant.

Step 7: Identify Your Influencers

Social media influencers can make or break your social media marketing

Getting “in with” a solid list of your industry’s leaders means brand awareness, content engagement, legitimacy, and trust.

Think about it. If Seth Godin saw this article and Tweeted it to his 572,000 Twitter Followers what could we expect?

• A huge influx of traffic to the article, increasing its organic reach and (probably) SEO ranking.
• An increased awareness of me as an individual and Wishpond as a brand. The traffic driven to the blog would beget subsequent social shares and comments.
• An increased trust in me as an individual and Wishpond as a brand. Even if they don’t know me, they trust Seth, and if he trusts me that’s good enough for a huge proportion of his Followers.

And it works for every industry. Every single one has thought-leaders to whom people look for inspiration, thought-leadership, and to “tell them what’s important.”

These days, any good social media strategy should consider working with influencers.

Rating Social Influencers

There are three ways to rate your influencers:

#1. Context : Does this person fit with my brand? Sure, Lady Gaga might have more than a few social media followers, but if she promotes your SEO consulting business will any of them care?

#2. Reach : Does this person have a network that would be valuable for me to reach? This can be the size of the network, but it can also be how passionate that network is about the subject. This score can also be increased based on the influencer’s expertise or the esteem they’re held in by the industry.

#3. Actionability : Will this person share my content? Are they receptive to communication or closed off and, despite their network, anti-social?

Identifying Influencers Through Social Media

• Search by hashtag, or identify the hashtags that your target influencers are using.
• Put your influencers in a Twitter list so that you can organize and follow them most effectively
• Watch the “retweets” of Influencers to determine how “actionable” engagement with them might be.
• Watch their activity. How are they engaging with their Followers? Are they sharing other people’s content. How frequently, and what does the response seem to be?

Identifying Influencers Through Tools

Find influencers through search. Analyze and filter them by reach, authority, influence, and engagement. Follow directly within the platform and add to Twitter lists. Track their activity (what they share, how often, and where).

Traackr allows you to upload lists of Influencers, assign ownership to your team members, and track conversations and engagement. Better though, Traackr makes it possible for you to identify the influence of your Influencers with a comprehensive analytics platform.

Incentivizing Influencers

• Do a blog trade. Write on their blog and ask them to write on yours.
• Trade promotion. If you have an email list, tell an influencer that you’ll share their content if they share yours.
• Include a link to an influencer’s content (helps them with SEO as well as brand awareness) and ask them where they’d like the link to send people.
• Pay for a guest contribution (on your blog) and a share with their audience.
• If you’re investing in Instagram, be prepared to pay. But it can be incredibly lucrative. Here’s an example of a sponsored post from fashion Influencer Louise Roe, a model and blogger from LA with 560,000 Instagram Followers:

Step 8: Find & Create Your Content

To make sure your social media marketing plan succeeds, you can’t just publish the same cat photo over and over again, and nor can you consistently post promotional content.

Content sharing on social media is about two primary things…

1. Curated Content

Curated content is the stuff you find which is relevant to your business but not written by it.

Sources for content to curate:

PostPlanner

Here’s a snapshot of my “ Growth Hacking ” feed of content I can curate from Feedly

Influencer content is a great type of curated content. Many platforms (including Feedly and BuzzSumo) will allow you to “subscribe” to an influencer’s content publications.

Top influencer marketing strategy: Follow an influencer and then share their content with creative analysis and thoughts (and remember to @mention them when you do) for a few weeks. This will increase the chance they’ll follow you back and recognize your name when you reach out with a request for feedback or a quote or a “preferred link.”

2. Created Content

Create the content your audience wants to read. Ask yourself these five questions before starting any content strategy:

• What are they interested in?
• What are their pain points?
• What kind of content do they want?
• What is a confusing or complex part of your industry?
• What do they need to accomplish their goals?

For instance, Wishpond creates lead generation and management software. Our products are social promotions, landing pages and popups, as well as email marketing and lead management/behavioral triggered tools. Because of the social promotion side of what we do, a significant portion of our audience cares about social media marketing.

Thus, this guide. I create something which our prospective customers and target audience need.

For more, check out my article on “ Creating a Complete Content Marketing Strategy .”

Step 9: Posting

If you want to create a social media marketing strategy that achieves a greater impact, you’ll need to post at the right time.

When to Post:

“The less people want to be at work [or working], the more they are on Facebook.”_ _ – Buddy Media (now part of Salesforce’ Marketing Cloud )

And this is true no matter what social media platform you’re on. Most people do most of their work in the three hours before lunch and the last hour before they leave. And most people do most of their work on Monday – Wednesday. As a result, many businesses find that the best time to post is 8-9:30am and then 1-4pm on Wednesday – Sunday.

Here’s a graphic from * CoSchedule which lays it out: *

Social Media Posting Best Practices:

• Target your Post (Facebook allows post targeting by location and interest)
• Tap into what people are thinking about with holidays & current events
• Share user-generated content
• Stick with the 80:20 rule – 80% educational, entertaining, fun content and 20% promotional (this can change if you’re in eCommerce).
• Use images or videos in every post
• Ask questions
• Use testimonials
• Tag influencers, users and other brands you like
• Use Hashtags
• Use short-form video (TikTok, Reels)
• Keep posts short
• Offer social media-exclusive Discounts
• Activate the comment section by starting the conversation and responding to comments
• Include a CTA
• Show behind-the-scenes
• Offer How-to guides
• Offer facts and trivia
• Try “fill-in-the-blank” posts
• Try “Caption this photo” posts
• Try “Remember when?” posts

Step 10: Tracking

There’s no point in implementing a social media marketing plan if you can’t track your results.

Here are five of the most important metrics to keep tabs on with your social media marketing strategy.

1. Don’t just track link clicks, track click-through with bounce rate

Set up on Google Analytics or Another analytics provider . Go to the “Acquisition” tab, and look under “All Traffic” for the “Channels” segment. Click on the “Bounce Rate” button and it should rank all of the channels from lowest bounce rate to highest.

2. Don’t just track web referrals, track the share of traffic driven

Within Google Analytics, under Acquisition and Channels, click on the “Sessions” field. This will rank all of the channels based on the number of sessions they drive. In the column, beside the actual number, you should also be able to see a small percentage figure. This percentage represents the share of traffic being driven by each channel.

4. Don’t just track shares, track amplification rate

Take the number of times your content was shared (or Retweeted, or repinned, or regrammed—or all of the above) during your reporting period and divide that number by your total number of followers (or Page Likes). Multiple that number by 100 to get your amplification rate as a percentage.

5. Don’t just track likes, track applause rate

Add up the total number of likes your posts received during your reporting period. […] Divide that number by the overall number of followers (or Page Likes). Multiple that number by 100 to get your applause rate as a percentage.

6. Don’t just track numbers, track leads

Your social media Fans and Followers are just prospective customers who haven’t bought from you yet.

For many businesses, there’s a stage between Fan and sale – lead . You need to be getting these people’s email addresses. The view-rate (reach) of a Facebook post is 2% of your Fans, and the view-rate of an email is between 80 and 100%. The click-through rate on a Facebook post is about .05 and the click-through rate on an email is 20%.

For businesses not in the eCommerce industry, it’s going to be significantly easier for you to turn email contacts into sales than it is to turn Fans.

The best strategy for tracking prospective leads from social media is with a UTM code.

“UTM” stands for “Urchin tracking module.” Urchin Software Corporation was acquired by Google in 2005, and their software laid the groundwork for what we now known as Google Analytics.

UTM codes are bits of text you can add to a link that tell Google Analytics (as well as other analytics tools) a little bit more information about each link. Here’s a sample of what one looks like:”

Essentially, a UTM code allows you to see what link drove what traffic to a page of your website.

Google can help you make a UTM code here: https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/

For more on turning Fans into Leads and Sales, check out my article “ How to Use a Fan-Only Promotion to Turn Followers into Leads ”

Step 11: Automate

Automation tools allow you to schedule your social media marketing plan’s posts for multiple platforms and days in advance. They save you serious time and energy.

Social media management tools often include:

• Social media content calendar
• Analytics tools to make it easy for you to determine what content is working best and at what times
• Post templates
• Keyword-targeted content recommendations
• Social share toolbars to embed in your site
• Image and gif creators
• Link shortening and tracking
• Keyword alarms

The top social media management tool options with pricing:

SproutSocial

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, these 11 steps will start you on the road to success with your social media marketing plan.

No matter what platform you’re on, and what your social media strategy looks like, remember a few main things:

• Be social. Engage with your audience. Ask them questions and respond. Don’t forget about the “social” part of your social media marketing strategy.
• Invest in visuals. Stand out by being beautiful. Invest in a high-quality camera and try video.
• Post consistently . If you’re going to start on a platform and want to succeed on it, you need to stick with it. Social media success doesn’t come overnight.
• Test and Measure. If you’ve invested all this energy into your social media marketing strategy, don’t throw it away down paths that aren’t going to yield the return you want. If something isn’t working, you need to know, and you need to stop. Invest in analytics as much as you invest in posting.
• Start with the 80:20 rule . Test the ratio and go from there.

At the end of the day, any good social media strategy is all about creating the right content for your target audience. Any social media campaign you run needs to have your audience in mind. This means posting on the right channel and posting quality content that you know your target audience will love. Get this right, and you’ll be halfway to achieving your social media marketing goals.

Related Reading:

• 75 Can’t Miss Tips: Build your Business with Social Media
• 199 Social Media and Content Marketing Tools
• 113 Visual Marketing Tools and Apps
• 77 Tremendous Tools to Make You a Content Marketing Superstar
• 101 Contest Prize Ideas
• 10 Amazing Examples of Branded Facebook Contests Done Right
• Social Media Marketing: Which Platform is Right for your Business?
• How to Use a Fan-Only Promotion to Turn Followers into Leads
• 7 Social Media Metrics that Really Matter – and How to Track Them
• Creating a Complete Content Marketing Strategy
• 25 Creative Facebook Contest Ideas You Can Use Today
• 10 Examples of Social Media Marketing Done Right

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Social Media Marketing Plan

Digital marketing is here to stay so we best get used to it. One of the most popular avenues for marketers these days is social media. If you’re going to succeed in this industry, you must learn to acquaint yourself with the topic of social media marketing. In this article, you’ll learn all about social media marketing plans and the nuances contained within. Scroll on to not only begin learning, but also to find the best social media marketing plan template free to download!

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The Importance of a Social Media Marketing Plan

One of the most sought-out questions in today’s business world is, ‘how to do social media marketing?’ The reason for that is because platforms like Facebook, Instagram , and Twitter, among many others, have exploded in popularity over the past decade in ways that few really saw coming. Now that the cat is out of the bag, people want to take advantage of the opportunity by creating their own social media marketing strategy plan. Like any other kind of plan, this will help you navigate through the perilous and confusing waters of social media. Pair that up with the right social media tools, your business can only go up in terms of success with the right plan on hand.

Tips for Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan

Even with the best social media management tools and an excellent social media strategy example on hand, you’re definitely going to want to look at the following tips. For those who already have considerable experience with creating a social media marketing plan presentation, then this can still serve as a reminder of sorts:

Tip 1: Create a Short Company Profile

Simple marketing plans must begin with the background of the company. This aids the company in identifying the best strategies to use as well as identifying factors that will give them an advantage against their direct and indirect competitors. The company profile should include a short background of the company’s products and services.

Tip 2: Specify Your Social Media Platforms

After creating a short profile or company background, you should then identify the social media platforms you are going to use for your products or services. There are numerous social networking platforms you can use, including the more popular Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Take note that the social media platform you are going to use should also match your marketing campaign .

Tip 3: Strategize the Hiring of Specialists

In recent years, organizations tend to hire individuals with social media specializations. This is proof that social media has created a big impact on businesses. Hiring social media specialists can be beneficial for your organization , although alternatives can come in the form of developing your present team to the point where they can become specialists themselves.

Tip 4: Develop Financial Forecasts

You simply do not use social media for mere exposure. Social media is essentially a marketing strategy , and marketing strategies should always translate to revenues. Create short-term and long-term financial forecasts based on the social media platforms you are using. Take note that the forecasts should not only be dependent on your marketing campaigns but the predicted performance of your products or services.

Define a social media marketing plan.

Social media marketing plans are a summary of all the things you plan to do and hope to achieve on social media. It guides your actions and lets you know whether you are successful or failing on the plan. It is mainly used to enhance the marketing efforts of business organizations.

What does social media marketing do?

A social media marketing plan is the use of social media platforms to connect with several audiences across the world. It helps build your brand, increase sales, drive website traffic, etc. for major platforms like Facebook , Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc. Social media is mainly used to enhance the marketing efforts of business entities.

What must a social media marketing plan include?

A social media marketing plan will first include a clear list of all the goals and objectives. Then it presents an audit of your presence on social media and in the market. After that, you have the  competitive analysis , the social media calendar, the basic strategy of content for social media, and finally, the established methods for measurement and analysis.

As the old saying goes, “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.” In today’s digital age, social media is a key component of marketing success. You wouldn’t want to be left in the dust just because you lack a social media marketing plan, right? Well, now you don’t have to worry about that. Simply take your new-found knowledge, download any of our plan templates, and forge your path to success today!

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Guides and Templates

Managing social media plan example template

Use this example social media plan to rapidly create your own social plan, how will this template help me and my business.

We know it can be difficult to understand the best way to produce marketing plans. Sometimes this is a barrier to business' having a social media plan, which means you don't know what goals you are working towards. Creating a social media marketing plan will help you make the best use of social networks with the limited resources you have available. That's why we created this social media plan example template to help you see a completed example from a fictitious company.

Health Recruitment Ltd is a fictitious company created for this template. While the example is B2B, we believe that the template can be used by B2C companies as well, and that it is also appropriate for companies with more complex strategies.

This template is designed to be a practical model you can quickly apply to your business or your clients' business. It will help you make the best use of social networks with the limited resources you have available.

It is made up of two parts:

• Social media marketing strategy outline . This includes examples of the company vision and goals for social media, measurement, target audience, short and long-term strategies, resources needed and specific details on how to use each of the social networks.
• A one-page social media plan summary . A simple, one-page social media plan example which small business owners or senior managers can use to brainstorm alone, in an exercise with their team or in a workshop. A RACE planning equivalent is also included at the end of this document.

Who is the template for?

This template was created for social media managers or agency execs to help you create a plan for adopting and optimizing social media. The example has been produced in Word so it is easy for you to edit for your business.

How is this template structured?

• Introduction - One-page summary plan example
• Step 1 Vision and long-term goals for social media
• Step 2 Examples of specific targets for each social network targeted
• Step 3 Resources and tasks needed to implement plan within 3 and 6 months
• Step 4 Define targets for social media update frequency and content types to support content marketing plan and keywords targeted for SEO
• Step 5 Specification of outreach activities
• Step 6 Examples of tools and services for managing social media

Resource Details

• Author: Miriam Shaviv
• Editor: Amelia Mayes, Smart Insights
• Format: Editable Microsoft Word document – 25 pages.
• There is a companion Social Media Audit template we recommend downloading.
• The template also includes links to lots of other useful Smart Insights, including our Social Media Marketing Learning Path .

About the author

Miriam Shaviv

Miriam Shaviv is Director of content at Brainstorm Digital who is active in creating and managing social media strategies for B2B and B2C clients. Connect to her LinkedIn here .

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Social Media Marketing Agency Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business Plans » Advertising & Marketing

Are you about starting a social media marketing agency ? If YES, here is a complete sample social media marketing business plan template & feasibility study you can use for FREE .

One of the things that have set the present age apart like never before is the advent and continuous development of the social media. The social media indeed have come to stay and more and more people have taken to the internet to promote a whole lot of areas; from your personal life, to the business side of life.

The social media will continue to be handy. This is no wonder that several businesses have gone ahead to sprig up. If you do not have an idea of how to write a business plan, then you may want to consider using a template like this;

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A Sample Social Media Marketing Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Over the years, loads of stuffs have changed especially the way businesses are conducted and the marketing strategies that people employ to market their goods and services. The advent of the computer and later the internet gave a whole new definition of how things are supposed to be done in our world.

Social media marketing is one of the fruits of the internet and for sure it has enabled loads of entrepreneur to launch multi-million dollars international businesses; businesses with clientele base that cut across geographical boundaries.

Social Media Marketing in its simplest term is the process of pulling website traffic or attention through social media sites; they achieve this by creating content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it across their social network platforms.

One of the major purposes of leveraging on Social Media in marketing is that it covers a wide range of target market compared to other marketing tolls.

The Social Media Marketing industry comprises of social networking website publishers and developers as well. It is important to state that the industry does not include companies who majorly specialize in developing video games, internet content, online dating websites or online forums et al.

The Social Media Marketing industry is quickly expanding as a share of the economy. Before the year 2022, the Social media marketing industry value added, which represents its contribution to the economy, is projected to grow annually at a 26.2 percent rate.

In the meantime, GDP growth is forecast to increase at a 2.2 percent average rate per year over the same 10 year period. The growing trend which makes it easier for people to spend more time on the internet especially on social networking sites is a major boost in the revenue generated by social networking marketing companies.

It is not common to find companies in this industry generating an increasing amount of advertising revenue per user by developing targeted advertising platforms and tools to measure the effectiveness of advertising.

Statistics has it that the Social Media Marketing industry in the united states of America, is worth $11bn, with an estimated growth rate of 25.4 percent. There are about 5,607 registered and licensed social media marketing companies in the United States and they are responsible for employing about 66,623 people.

Companies that are into social media marketing make use social media platforms to create buzz, attract online traffic to their websites and the sell their products or services to their target market / customers.

As a matter of fact, social media marketing is perhaps the only form of marketing that can profile consumers at each and every stage of the consumer decision journey. Marketing through social media is just the way to go if indeed you want to push out your product and services to the entire globe.

When compared to traditional media that are often too expensive for start – ups and even SMEs, a social media marketing approach does not require expensive and out of – reach budgeting. This is why companies make use of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram et al in order to reach a much wider target market as against making use of mainstream marketing tools which are expensive.

Over and above, social media marketing has become an important tool for promoting ones businesses as it relates to products and services all over the world, not only to sell to customers, but also to engage them. It is now easier for organization to expand their market from local level to national and even international markets with minimum capital investment.

2. Executive Summary

Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC is a U.S based and world class social media marketing company. We have been able to secure a standard and well – positioned office facility in a central business district in Cape May New Jersey.

We are a social media marketing company that is set to compete in the highly competitive social media marketing industry not only in the United States market, but also in the global market because our clientele base will not be restricted to just businesses and organizations in the United States.

Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC will offer robust social media marketing services to both corporate organization and individuals. We will offer services such as Communication services, Professional services, Blogging services, Specialty services, Entertainment services and Social media consulting and advisory services.

Our business goal is to become one of the leading social media marketing companies in the United States of America with high profile corporate and individual clients scattered all around the world. Our workers are going to be selected from a pool of talented and highly creative social media marketing experts in and around New Jersey and also from any part of the world as the business grows.

We will make sure that we take all the members of our workforce through the required trainings that will position them to meet the expectation of the company and to compete with leading social media marketing companies in the United States and throughout the globe.

At Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC, our client’s best interest will always come first, and everything we do will be guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely.

We will cultivate a working environment that provides a human, sustainable approach to earning a living, and living in our world, for our partners, employees and for our clients.

Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC is founded by Phil Montgomery and his friend and business partner for many years Sol Walker. They have a combine experience that revolves around market researching, sales, web designing, graphic designing, corporate branding and advertising and business management et al.

3. Our Products and Services

Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC was established with the aim of maximizing profits in the Social Media Marketing industry. We want to compete favorably with the leading social media marketing companies in the United States of America and the world which is why we have but in place a competent team that will ensure that we meet and even surpass our customers’ expectations.

We will work hard to ensure that Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC do not just work for clients in the United States of America, but also for clients in other parts of the world. Our products and services are listed below;

• Communication (advertising and branding) services
• Professional services
• Blogging services
• Specialty (image/profile boosting for individual clients) services
• Entertainment services
• Social media management services
• Social media marketing consulting and advisory services
• Other social media marketing related services

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our vision is to establish a standard and world class social media marketing company whose services and brand will not only be accepted in the United States of America, but also in other parts of the world.
• Our mission is to provide professional and highly creative result oriented social media marketing services and other related services that will assist businesses, individuals and non-profit organizations in promoting their brands and reaching out to a wide range of potential customers all over the globe.
• We want to build a social media marketing company that can favorably compete with other leading brands in the social media industry.

Our Business Structure

Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC, is a social media marketing company that intend starting small in Cape May, but hope to grow big in order to compete favorably with leading social media marketing companies in the industry both in the United States and on a global stage.

We are aware of the importance of building a solid business structure that can support the picture of the kind of world class business we want to own. This is why we are committed to only hire the best hands within our area of operations.

At Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC, we will ensure that we hire people that are qualified, hardworking, creative, result driven, customer centric and are ready to work to help us build a prosperous business that will benefit all the stake holders (the owners, workforce, and customers).

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our senior management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of five years or more as agreed by the board of trustees of the company. In view of the above, we have decided to hire qualified and competent hands to occupy the following positions;

• Chief Executive Officer
• Creative Director

Human Resources and Admin Manager

• Sales and Marketing Executive
• Web Designer cum Graphic Artist
• Content Creator/Online Traffic Generator

Client Service Executive

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer – CEO:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; developing incentives; developing a climate for offering information and opinions; providing educational opportunities.
• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization

Creative Director:

• Serve as project manager of the organization; works directly with employees
• Responsible for designing concepts and winning business proposals for the organization
• In charge of copy writing and laying out chronological advertisement plans
• Develops strategic plan by studying technological and financial opportunities; presenting assumptions; recommending objectives.
• Accomplishes subsidiary objectives by establishing plans, budgets, and results measurements; allocating resources; reviewing progress; making mid-course corrections.
• Coordinates efforts by establishing procurement, production, marketing, field, and technical services policies and practices; coordinating actions with corporate staff.
• Builds company image by collaborating with customers, government, community organizations, and employees; enforcing ethical business practices.
• Maintains quality service by establishing and enforcing organization standards.
• Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; benchmarking state-of-the-art practices; participating in professional societies.
• Make certain that operations and marketing department perform efficiently, coordinate employee efforts, and facilitate communications between management and employees
• Ensures that the organization work in line with international best practices.
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
• Defining job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carrying out staff induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Responsible for arranging travel, meetings and appointments
• Oversee the smooth running of the daily office and factory activities.

Sales and Marketing Manager

• Manage external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
• Model demographic information and analyze the volumes of transactional data generated by customer
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of projects; assures the completion of development projects.
• Writing winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with organizations’ policy
• Responsible for handling business research, market surveys and feasibility studies for clients
• Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
• Develop, execute and evaluate new plans for expanding increase sales
• Create new markets cum businesses for the organization
• Empower and motivates the sales team to meet and surpass agreed targets

Accountant/Cashier:

• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyzes financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensuring compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC
• Serves as internal auditor for Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC

Web Designer cum Graphic Designers

• Liaising with clients to determine their requirement and budget
• Responsible for Optimizing Website Functionality for owners of existing websites
• Responsible for Search Engine Optimization Services and Code Writing Services
• Responsible for developing concepts, graphics and layouts for product illustrations, company logos, and websites
• Responsible for managing client proposals from typesetting through to design, print and production
• Responsible for preparing drafts or material based on an agreement brief.
• Research and advice the organization on style, genre and other trendy info as it relates to social media marketing.

Content Creator/Traffic Generator

• Responsible for creating content/buzz words that will help attract traffics
• Responsible for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Responsible for engaging internet users to get help statistics and leads
• Liaising and working effectively With other staff members to generate sales for our clients
• Welcomes clients and potential clients by greeting them in person, online or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the creative director in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients when they make enquiries.

6. SWOT Analysis

Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC engaged the services of a core professional in the area of business consulting and structuring to assist our organization in building a well – structured social media marketing business that can favorably compete in the highly competitive social media marketing industry in the United States and the world at large.

Part of what the team of business consultant did was to work with the management of our organization in conducting a SWOT analysis for Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC. Here is a summary from the result of the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC;

Our core strength lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team of creative, result driven and highly proficient social media marketing expert, a team with excellent qualifications and experience various niche areas in the social media marketing industry and other related industry.

Aside from the synergy that exist in our carefully selected social media marketing experts, our services will be measurable, result driven and guided by best practices in the industry.

As a new social media marketing company in Cape May – New Jersey, it might take some time for our organization to break into the market and gain acceptance especially from top profile clients in the already saturated and highly competitive social media marketing industry; that is perhaps our major weakness.

Another weakness is that we may not have the required cash to pump into promoting our business especially via main stream media (TV, Radio and Newspapers et al) the way we would want to.

• Opportunities:

No doubt, the opportunities available in the social media marketing industry is massive considering the number of individuals and corporate organizations with active presence on the internet and of course the pretty large numbers of people who visit the internet/social media platforms on a daily basis. As a standard and world class social media marketing company, we are ready to take advantage of any opportunity that is available in the industry.

Just like any other business, one of the major threats that we are likely going to face is economic downturn. It is a fact that economic downturn affects purchasing/spending power. Another threat that may likely confront us is the arrival of a social media marketing company in same location where our target market exist and who may want to adopt same Business model like us.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

The growing trend which makes it easier for people to spend more time on the internet especially on social media networking sites is a major boost in the revenue generated by social networking marketing companies. It is not common to find players in this industry generating an increasing amount of advertising revenue per user by developing targeted advertising platforms and tools to measure the effectiveness of advertising and marketing.

This has indeed changed the ways that organizations approach to interact with customers, as a substantial percentage of consumer interactions and profiling are now being carried out over online and social media platforms with much higher visibility.

Another important factor worthy of mentioning in this industry is that the target market keep expanding, people and organizations are now seeing the need for them to have an official website and also to engage the services of social media marketing experts either in branding or packaging their products and services or in helping them directly sell their products and services to their targeted market.

Another common trend in the social media marketing industry is that, most social media marketing firms no longer settle for clients within the location where their physical office is located but also from any part of the world. The truth is that with the advent of the internet, it is now easier for a social media marketing company to work for clients in any part of the world.

A social media marketing company can be located in the United States of America and have their biggest client in United Arab Emirates or in China. Many thanks to the power of the internet which has brought the world closer to us. Lastly, the social media marketing industry will continue to evolve due to the advancement of computer technology and software applications designs et al.

8. Our Target Market

Before starting our social media marketing business, we are certain that there is a wide range of both corporate and individual clients who cannot successfully run their businesses without the services and support of a social media marketing company.

In view of that, we have created strategies that will enable us reach out to various corporate organizations and individual who we know can’t afford to do without our services. We have conducted our market research and survey and we will ensure that we meet and surpass the expectations of our clients

Below is a list of the people and organizations that we have specifically market our services to;

• Banks, Insurance Companies and other related Financial Institutions
• Blue Chips Companies
• Corporate Organizations
• Manufacturers and Distributors
• Real Estate Owners, Developers, and Contractors
• Research and Development Companies
• The Government (Public Sector)
• Schools (High Schools, Colleges and Universities)
• Celebrities, Politicians, Public Figures and Public Speakers
• Sport Organizations
• Religious Organizations
• Political Parties
• Television Stations
• Printing Press (Publishing Houses) and Authors
• Branding and Advertising agencies
• Aspiring celebrities
• Entrepreneurs and Start – Ups

Our Competitive Advantage

Surviving in the business world as a social media marketing company requires more than, your expertise, knowing how to conduct your business but also how to network with key people that matters; decision makers that can decide who will get a contract or a business deal.

We are quite aware that to be highly competitive in the social media marketing industry means that you are not only expected to be able to deliver consistent and excellent services, but you must be result driven and able to meet set targets. No one would want to continue to hire your services if don’t always meet up with the target sales the organization intends to generate when they hired you.

Our competitive advantage lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team of creative, result driven and highly proficient social media marketing expert, a team with excellent qualifications and experience various niche areas in the social media marketing industry and other related industry.

Lastly, all our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category (startups social media marketing businesses in the United States) in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our business aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the social media marketing industry and we are going to go all the way to ensure that we do all it takes to meet and surpass the expectations of all our clients.

Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC will generate income by offering the following social media marketing services and other related services;

10. Sales Forecast

One thing is certain, there would always be corporate organization and individual who would need the services of social media marketing firms to help them increase sales or promote their brands.

We are well positioned to take on the available market in social media marketing industry and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income/profits from the first six month of operations and grow our social media marketing company to enviable heights.

We have been able to critically examine the social media marketing space and we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. The sales projection are based on information gathered on the field and some assumptions that are peculiar to similar startups in Cape May – New Jersey.

Below is the sales projection for Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC, it is based on the location of our business and of course the wide range of our services and target market;

• First Year-: $200,000
• Second Year-: $500,000
• Third Year-: $750,000

N.B -: This projection is done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and there won’t be any major competitor offering same social media marketing services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

We are mindful of the fact that there is stiffer competition in the social media marketing industry; hence we have been able to hire some of the best marketing experts to handle our sales and marketing.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the social media marketing industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets and the overall business goal of Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC.

Our corporate goal is to grow Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC to become one of the leading social media marketing brands in the United States of America which is why we have mapped out strategy that will help us take advantage of the available market and grow to become a major force to reckon with not only in the United States of America but also in other parts of the world.

Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

• Introduce our social media marketing company by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to individuals, corporate organizations, religious organizations and key stake holders.
• Promptness in bidding for social media marketing contracts from the government and other cooperate organizations
• Advertise our business in relevant business magazines, newspapers, TV stations, and radio station.
• List our business on yellow pages ads (local directories)
• Attend relevant international and local expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
• Create different packages for different category of clients in order to work with their budgets and still deliver excellent design and services
• Leverage on the internet to promote our business
• Engage direct marketing approach
• Encourage word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We have been able to work with our in house brand and publicity consultants to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us walk our way into the heart of our target market.

We are set to become the number one choice for both corporate clients and individual clients in the whole of the United States and beyond which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our web cum graphic design company.

Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote and advertise Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC;

• Place adverts on both print (newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community based events/programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our services
• Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around Cape May – New Jersey.
• Engage in road show from time to time in targeted neighborhoods
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
• Contact corporate organizations by calling them up and informing them of Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC and the services we offer
• List our web cum graphic design company in local directories / yellow pages
• Advertise our social media marketing company in our official website and employ strategies that will help us pull traffic to the site.
• Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our company logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

At Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC we will keep the prices of our services below the average market rate for all of our customers by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance from corporate organizations who would hire our services. In addition, we will also offer special discounted rates to all our customers at regular intervals.

We are aware that there are some one – off jobs or government contracts which are always lucrative, we will ensure that we abide by the pricing model that is expected from contractors or organizations that bid for such contracts.

• Payment Options

At Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC, our payment policy will be all inclusive because we are quite aware that different people prefer different payment options as it suits them. Here are the payment options that we will make available to our clients;

• Payment by via bank transfer
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via check
• Payment via bank draft
• Payment via mobile money
• Payment with cash

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will help us achieve our plans with little or no itches.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

In setting up any business, the amount or cost will depend on the approach and scale you want to undertake. If you intend to go big by renting a place, then you would need a good amount of capital as you would need to ensure that your employees are well taken care of, and that your facility is conducive enough for workers to be creative and productive.

This means that the start-up can either be low or high depending on your goals, vision and aspirations for your business. The materials and equipment that will be used are nearly the same cost everywhere, and any difference in prices would be minimal and can be overlooked.

As for the detailed cost analysis for starting a social media marketing company; it might differ in other countries due to the value of their money. However, this is what it would cost us to setup Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC in the United of America;

• Business incorporating fees in the United States of America will cost – $750.
• The budget for Liability insurance, permits and license will cost – $3,500
• Acquiring an office space or warehouse that will accommodate the number of employees for at least 6 months (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) will cost – $100,000.
• Equipping the office (computers, printers, projectors, markers, servers / internet facility, furniture, telephones, filing cabinets, and electronics) will cost – $30,000
• Amount required to purchase the needed software applications – $ 3,500
• Launching an official Website will cost – $500
• Amount need to pay bills and staff members for at least 2 to 3 months – $70,000
• Additional Expenditure such as Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions will cost – $5,000

Going by the report from the market research and feasibility studies conducted, we will need about two hundred and fifty thousand (250,000) U.S. dollars to successfully set – up a medium scale but standard social media marketing company firm in the United States of America.

Generating Funding/Startup Capital for Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC

Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC is a business that will be owned and managed by Phil Montgomery and his friend and business partner for many years Sol Walker. They are the sole financial of the business which is why they decided to restrict the sourcing of the start – up capital for the business to just three major sources.

These are the areas we intend generating our start – up capital;

• Generate part of the start – up capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
• Generate part of the start – up capital from friends and other extended family members
• Generate a larger chunk of the startup capital from the bank (loan facility).

N.B: We have been able to generate about $100,000 (Personal savings $85,000 and soft loan from family members $15,000) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $150,000 from our bank. All the papers and document has been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the numbers of loyal customers that they have the capacity and competence of the employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business (company), then it won’t be too long before the business close shop.

One of our major goals of starting Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need for injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running.

We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer our social media marketing services a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are well prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

Grapevine Marketing Consulting™, LLC will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and re – training of our workforce is at the top burner of our business strategy.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more as determined by the board of the organization. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List/Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check:>Completed
• Business Incorporation: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts various banks in the United States: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Securing a standard office facility for our studio: Completed
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of All form of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating part of the start – up capital from the founders: Completed
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
• Design of Logo for the business: Completed
• Secure trademark for our products: In Progress
• Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: Completed
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the Needed furniture, office equipment, software applications, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the business: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with vendors and key players in various industries: In Progress