social media for business planning

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.

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.

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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

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Click this link to access this resource at any time.

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.

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

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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.

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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.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Social Media Planning

Creating a 30-Day Social Media Plan

This article offers a 30-day social media plan template to help you improve your social media marketing strategy. It includes steps to take each day for a month to set goals, define success metrics, brainstorm content ideas and finally, report on results.

Reading time  19 minutes

Published on  September 29, 2022

Table of Contents

• This guide offers a 30-day social media plan to help you create high-quality content, engage your audience and achieve business goals. It includes tasks to complete each week. Additionally, it guides you through defining goals, understanding your audience, building a content calendar and measuring success.
• Learn how to create content that resonates with your target audience. This guide dives into content brainstorming, resource allocation and content optimization techniques to maximize reach and engagement.
• By following this plan, you can develop a successful social media strategy that drives real business results. It includes steps to track content, compare results to goals and adjust your strategy based on valuable data insights.
• Setting realistic social marketing goals to align with your overall business goals
• Determining how you will measure the success of your social marketing efforts
• Integrating emerging trends and best practices into your strategy and content development

This 30-day social media plan template is designed to help you re-invent your social media management strategy so that what you share aligns with the interests of your community and contributes to overall business value.

You will learn how to:

• Create an effective social strategy that aligns with audience interest
• Diversify your content and build a robust content calendar
• Determine business value driven by social

Use the social media plan template below to track your progress as you work through the plan. By completing just one task each day for the next 30 days, you can fully transform your social marketing strategy.

Week 1: Establish your goals and define your metrics

Day 1: establish goals for social.

Establishing clear social media goals is the first step toward transforming your strategy . Determine exactly what you want social to achieve. Here are several examples of goals you might consider:

• Drive website traffic
• Raise brand awareness
• Boost brand engagement
• Generate new leads
• Nurture leads
• Build a community around your business
• Establish authority and industry expertise
• Improve customer support
• Shift brand sentiment

The objective here is to give purpose to your social efforts. Once you’ve established your social goals, the content you produce and share should continually support those goals.

There are several methods to help you write out specific social media goals, including the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) method.

The OKR method asks you to set a broad objective statement and list out key results that describe what successfully achieving that objective looks like. Here’s an example of a broad objective statement supported by clear, result metrics that define meeting the objective.

According to this example, if your objective is to boost brand engagement, you must increase the number of likes, shares, mentions and comments by 20% by the end of the fourth quarter.

Day 2: Define your success metrics

How are you going to define the success of your social efforts? Decide which metrics will provide the right data to determine whether or not social is supporting your business goals.

As you identify your success metrics (e.g. organic mentions, share of voice or conversions), set clear standards for your social campaigns so that you know when you achieve success. If you are tracking audience engagement, what exactly do you consider successful engagement rates for your social content?

Depending on the type of content you produce, where you share and the goals you set for your social marketing efforts, the metrics you track will change.

If you’re at a loss for the goals your team should set, use the Social Media Metrics Map to assess options for owned, earned and paid social.

Day 3: List out your challenges

The task is simple: Make a list of the challenges you face when it comes to social media marketing. Think of any barriers that are keeping your social content from making its biggest impact.

As you list out your challenges, write out simple explanations of how these barriers are impacting your marketing efforts or overall business success. Here are a couple of examples to help you get started.

Challenge 1:

Although we consistently post on social, we are not achieving ideal engagement levels.

Challenge 2:

We have seen a dramatic drop in our social content’s organic reach.

Not sure what your specific challenges may be? Our 2022 Sprout Social Index ™ surveyed social marketers and found these five challenges are the most common.

Day 4: Brainstorm solutions

Round up your marketing team and brainstorm possible solutions to the challenges you previously listed.

Be sure to provide evidence to justify effective solutions so that you’re prepared when the time comes to gather resources and advocate for your budget .

Solution to Challenge 1:

We can use creators to engage with our social content and drive conversation.

Justification: In 2022, most marketers (74%) planned to spend at least a quarter of their social media budget on partnering with a content creator. With loyal followings, creators can boost engagement and keep relevant conversations going on social.

Solution to Challenge 2:

We can invest in paid social media advertising to run highly targeted campaigns and reach the right people.

Justification: Almost half of consumers report they “find the perfect products” by seeing targeted ads. By 2025, social shopping is set to become a $1.2 trillion channel .

Day 5: Analyze the competition

If you’re running out of ideas, try running a competitive analysis . Be careful not to mimic your competitors’ content, but use your analysis to determine your brand’s unique positioning instead.

Your brand and its competitors have similar ideal customer personas, so focus on the type of content that is resonating, both within your own social efforts and those of the competition.

Here are a few questions to consider as you analyze your competitor’s social marketing efforts:

• Which marketing channels are my competitors using and are they successful in those channels?
• What are my competitors talking about and are those topics generating high audience engagement?
• Are there areas within our social strategy where we are outperforming our competitors?

Social analytics solutions are an effective way to compare your efforts against your competitors. Using Sprout’s Analytics , you can directly benchmark your efforts against one or more competitors.

Start your free Sprout trial

You can pinpoint days when competitors experienced peak engagement and dive deeper into what content was shared on those days to understand what resonates most with target audiences.

Week 2: Optimize your profiles and brand voice on social media

Day 6: determine your strengths and weaknesses.

Take a deep dive into your social strategy and determine where you are successful and where there is room for growth.

Conduct a survey among your marketing, sales, customer service and product teams to gauge where they see areas of success or room for improvement.

For each criteria regarding your social marketing strategy, determine whether it’s one of your strengths or weaknesses. This will help identify what you should focus on over the next five weeks.

Day 7: Audit your content

Run a social media audit to identify your best-performing content and most popular channels. Take time to understand what’s working and why. Your metrics can help you identify which posts effectively cater to the interests of your audience.

If your posts aren’t engaging and resonating with your followers, your social media content strategy needs to shift. Use your audit to review the content you’ve shared and identify which posts had the biggest impact.

You can use Sprout’s Post Performance Report to parse through your most popular posts across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

Day 8: Create a list of relevant keywords

Use social media listening tools to identify the keywords most often associated with your brand. These keywords can help your team throughout the content brainstorm and creation process.

Social listening can help you uncover unique opportunities to tie trending conversations to your business and products.

For example, our team of analysts found that a new TikTok sound titled “Corn but it becomes a song and unites world” spawned over 607,000 videos . Nando's UK went all-in on this trend by showcasing their grilled corn to the sound, garnering 11.6 million views and over a 330,000 likes.

Day 9: Determine your brand voice and social persona

When it comes to building a social audience, consistency is key. Creating a brand voice and identifying a persona will enable you to remain consistent across all of your social channels.

Take this 3-minute assessment to help you characterize your brand and determine the business goals you’re trying to achieve. Select the responses that best describe your objectives, vision and audience.

After you narrow in on your persona, choose three words that describe your brand then explain what they mean for your brand and create dos and dont’s to guide content creation .

Day 10: Optimize your social profiles

While much of your time is spent planning and creating content, the information included on your profiles is vital to the success of your social marketing efforts.

After you’ve determined your brand’s persona, build out your profiles to align with your voice.

At a quick glance, your profile should speak to your brand with relevant visuals and engaging copy. Here are a few tactics to optimize your social profiles.

1. Use a consistent profile picture

If you own multiple social channels for your business, it’s important that your profile picture is consistent across every channel. Most businesses will use their company logo or variations of their logo that have been designed specifically for their social accounts. Staying consistent across your profiles will increase opportunities for brand recognition.

2. Complete every section of your profile

If there is a field for information, take advantage of the opportunity to tell your brand’s story. In creative and succinct ways, you should be able to describe what your business does, the offerings you can provide and how you add value to the lives of your customers.

3. Add keywords to boost SEO

On Day 8, you compiled a list of keywords relevant to your industry, brand and its offerings. Use these strategic keywords in every section of your profile to boost SEO. They should appear in your bio copy, in photo names, interests and experiences.

Week 3: Find and listen to your community to better understand your industry

Day 11: develop your buyer persona.

Transforming your social marketing strategy may require you to either revisit your current buyer personas or to create new ones from scratch.

Buyer personas help you better understand current and future customers, so you know exactly who you are marketing to and can create relevant content and offerings. Start by writing down everything you know about your target customer and perform research to fill in any gaps. For a robust buyer persona, try to capture the following information.

• Demographics
• Purchase behaviors
• Goals, challenges, pain points

Day 12: Listen to your audience

Listening to your community can help you gain insight into the minds of your followers, so you can be more strategic in your social marketing efforts.

Using social media listening , you can learn a lot about your community (even when they’re not directly interacting with your brand) to inform a more effective strategy.

Here’s what you should listen for on social media:

• What your audience is talking about and what they share most often
• What your audience is saying about your brand, industry, products, services and competitors
• What your audience is sharing on forum-style platforms like Reddit or Quora
• How your audience engages with creators, trending topics and industry events

Day 13: Research industry trends and topics

To create relevant content and establish your brand as an authority on social, you must stay up to date with what’s happening in your industry.

Join conversations surrounding high-interest topics. Perform ongoing research to make sure the content you produce and share aligns with the current interests of your community. Here are a few resources that will help guide your research.

Newsletters

As social marketers, research is one of our most valuable skills. Instead of browsing aimlessly through content, rummaging through thousands of social profiles or running endless Google searches, an easy way to streamline research is to sign up for a solid mix of newsletters.

Newsletters provide insights into the state of the industry, changes in technology, updates to social networks and emerging trends and best practices.

Here are a few newsletters that social media marketers should add to their resource list:

• Link in Bio features expert interviews from industry-leading social media managers. The newsletter shares actionable advice and relatable experiences to inspire their community.
• Social Media Today focuses on sharing original analyses of what’s happening in social media. Their content is platform-focused, providing social marketers with insights on how to adopt new features and where other brands are finding success.
• SocialMedia.org is a membership organization for leaders in the social media marketing space. Their weekly newsletter, The Shortlist , highlights member stories as they share what they’re working on and what they’re keeping an eye on in the space.

Webinars can have a significant impact on social marketing strategies by generating new leads and prospects, nurturing existing relationships and demonstrating expertise in our industries. During webinars, many businesses will live-Tweet along with their users to answer questions and keep the online conversation going.

Webinars can also provide a way for us to learn, which can spark content ideas during our brainstorming sessions. Social Media Today provides a wide variety of webinars specific to social marketers. You can register for upcoming webinars or watch from their library of on-demand sessions .

Forums give marketers an effective way to identify the topics that spur the most conversation online. Quora is a great resource to discover topics of interest, ask questions and engage in conversations relevant to your brand. As a brainstorming tool, forums can help social marketers build social content plans that address questions people are already asking.

Adweek (and publications like Digiday and Marketing Land ) present the anatomy of the latest, most creative campaigns out there, and also fill you in on the most recent news. The Mission (and Medium generally) is great to turn to for thought leadership and gauging the pulse of our industry and the visionaries in it.

Day 14: Connect with other departments

As you continue researching industry trends and topics as inspiration for your content, connect with other departments within your organization.

Social is no longer limited to marketing, with functions across the business weighing in on strategy. But as a more diverse set of stakeholders gets involved, core social teams will need to adapt. Figuring out who owns what, and which proficiencies are needed across teams, has to be addressed as social strategies become more sophisticated.

For example, try speaking with members of your sales team: they are often the first points of contact for consumers, and they can provide insight into customers’ needs, challenges and successes. This insight can help generate content that addresses these needs or highlights successes.

Your human resources team can also provide insight into ongoing employer brand initiatives. Collaborate with HR to investigate how employees and potential hires are engaging with your brand on social. Their understanding of your workforce can help you identify what content is most effective for this important group of stakeholders.

A social media collaboration tool can help you streamline your efforts and manage cross-functional initiatives.

Day 15: Choose your content types

Start thinking about the types of content that will benefit your brand the most, while keeping your audience engaged.

Refer back to the buyer personas you created to determine if an image linking to a blog post would perform better than a Twitter chat or an Instagram Live event. Consider the resources available to you to determine if you can create a high quality how-to video, or if you need to scale down your efforts and create an infographic using the same content.

For the best results, diversify your content to keep your audience interested. If you post the same type of content day after day or week after week, your audience will inevitably disengage.

Here’s a list of possible content types you can start incorporating into your social marketing strategies:

• Infographics

User-generated content

• Photo and video
• Live streaming

Before you start searching for content to share on social, figure out what your audience actually likes. One way to do that is to look at past social media posts to see which were most successful.

Pull all of your unique social media analytics with a tool like Sprout Social , Twitter Analytics or Facebook Insights . Below is an example of how to view your published posts with Sprout ( available with a free, 30-day trial ).

Make sure you sort your posts by the metric that is most important to you, whether that’s clicks, responses or total reach. Once you have an idea of what kind of content works best, you can move onto the next step.

Week 4: Fill out your social content calendar to increase reach and engagement

Day 16: develop a posting schedule.

Your publishing cadence depends on a handful of factors including your company, your audience, the campaign in question and the social networks being used. We cover this more in our guide on how often to post on social media , but here are some recommended cadences for each network:

• TikTok: 1-4 times per day
• Instagram: 1-2 times per day
• Facebook: 4-5 times per day
• LinkedIn: No more than 1 time per day
• Twitter: 3-4 times per day
• Pinterest: No more than 1 time per day

There’s a good chance your post frequency will depend on the size, experience and authority of your social media team, so don’t feel like you have to send out less than stellar content to meet these guidelines.

Your brand’s analytics can help you determine your best posting frequency. You can use a tool like Sprout to see how often you post on each social network, then compare that to how much engagement you received over that same time period.

Look for trends between publishing rate and engagement. The screenshots above are from our Facebook Page Report , but you can do the same for Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn posts as well.

Day 17: Brainstorm content ideas

Now’s the time to gather your inspiration and plan out content you know will resonate with your audience. The key to effective brainstorming is to put yourself in the mindset that inspiration can come from anywhere.

Think of what your business does well and how you can turn that into an engaging content piece. Look through some of your older content and see if you can repurpose or reformat it for a different channel.

Based on the conversations you’ve discovered are popular among your audience, how can you contribute to those conversations with fresh content? Here are some of 2022’s most popular content types.

About 66% of consumers cite short-form video as the overall most engaging social content, while 37% prefer live video and 24% prefer long-form video. Even if you don’t have the budget to hire a videographer, don’t rule this medium out. Tools like Canva and Biteable have democratized the creation process. Anyone on your team can make professional, on-brand videos, even while working remote .

Images and text-based posts 

In the era of video, images and text-based posts still pack a punch with today’s social users. In fact, 61% of consumers find images to be the most engaging social content. From Instagram carousels to Twitter threads, these posts are key pieces of leading content strategies.

Marketers have been able to amplify user-generated content to increase brand awareness, promote products and services and use the digital word-of-mouth concept to build brand trust and increase sales. In fact, 39% of consumers like to see brands share customer testimonials or real customer demos.

Day 18: Gather resources

Once you’ve determined the types of content best suited for your business and have decided on a publishing cadence, start gathering your resources.

Think back to the types of content you decided to incorporate into your social strategy and what resources you need to bring them to life. Here are several questions for you to consider as you start collecting your resources.

• Have you decided on the type of creative assets you’ll use and how you’ll store them?
• Who within the company needs to be involved in order to create this specific content piece?
• Do you need any sort of creative support for visual elements?
• Do you already own content (guides, e-books, blog posts) that can easily be repurposed for social?

Day 19: Draft your social media plan calendar and create your content

It’s time to get to work. Start the content creation process and set reasonable timelines for project completion.

Be sure to build social content that speaks to your customer personas, stays true to your brand voice and can easily fit within the posting schedule you’ve established.

Day 20: Optimize your content

During the creation process, it’s essential for you to optimize your content so that your efforts don’t go unnoticed in consumers’ crowded social feeds. Every net new content piece you create should be able to be repurposed for another use down the line.

Consider your video strategy . A video can be broken down into short clips, quote graphics, still images and more. Think through your options while creating content so you can fill out your social calendar with less effort going forward.

Here are a few additional tactics to optimize your social content to maximize reach and increase engagement:

• Include hashtags
• Shorten links
• Include images
• Adapt content for various social channels

Week 5: Supplement and boost your social media content calendar for the best results

Day 21: create a call to action.

Not all of the content you share on social needs to encourage customers to take action. You may even find that some of your most popular posts are those that simply showcase your brand personality or provide a good laugh for your audience.

If the primary goal of your social marketing is to generate new leads and guide people into your sales funnel, you need to give your audience a clear next step. Include direct CTAs (call to action) on the posts you are using to drive action.

For copy inspiration, check out this article on effective social CTA phrases .

Day 22: Connect to more resources

By connecting your audience to more resources (especially owned resources) you are establishing your brand as an authority on your space while inviting them to engage further. The more they learn about you and stay engaged with your brand, the more likely they are to convert.

At Sprout, we often share links to some of our favorite blog posts for our audience to learn more about social networks, best marketing practices and trending topics.

Day 23: Amplify your efforts

Once you’ve started promoting your content on social, think of ways you can amplify your messages to reach a larger audience.

Here is a short list of methods to consider in order to extend the reach of your content:

• Leverage your employees by using Sprout Social’s Employee Advocacy platform to amplify your content
• Give incentives for customers to share on their social channels
• Use creators to extend the reach of your content

Day 24: Invest in your best content

As you promote and amplify your content, you may quickly notice that some types of content perform better than others in terms of engagement and conversion.

Extend the reach of these high-performing pieces through paid ads. You can target a highly specific audience, attract qualified traffic and leads and grow your customer base.

The algorithms for social networks like Facebook and Instagram are now starting to favor paid content over organic content, making it increasingly important to invest in paid to give your content a fighting chance for discovery.

Which social media network you choose will depend on three important factors:

• Where your target customers are most concentrated
• Where your target customers are most accessible
• Where your target customers most actively engage with ads

Day 25: Engage with your audience

About 80% of consumers expect brands and companies that have a social media presence to interact with their customers in meaningful ways.

It’s important to engage with and respond to your audience. Engaging with your audience in a two-way dialogue builds brand trust and adds authenticity. As you monitor your audience’s reaction to your content, you can also gain valuable insight into its effectiveness.

Read through comments on your social posts and respond to questions and insightful comments. The comments section is a great tool for social marketers looking for feedback and can even inspire ideas for future content.

Week 6: Report on your social media results and celebrate your success

Day 26: track your content.

Content tracking is an effective way to gauge engagement and track the movement of your content across social channels.

You can track all of your content with the Sprout Social Post Performance Report. Use the Post Performance reports to analyze published content down to the individual post and understand its performance with your audience.

Here’s an example of how to view your cross-channel post performance with Sprout ( available with a free trial ).

Day 27: Compare results to goals

Think back to the objectives you set at the beginning of these 30 days.

For example, if your objective was to boost brand engagement, you needed to increase the number of likes, shares, mentions and comments by 20% by the end of the fourth quarter.

Using a social media analytics tool, you can compare month-over-month engagement for all of your social profiles to determine if you are on track to meet your social marketing goals.

Day 28: Report out

Share the results of your social marketing efforts with your marketing team and leadership. If you’re new to reporting or need to brush up on best practices, here’s a suite of resources that can help you create a routine reporting system.

This is your opportunity to showcase the goals you’ve established and your progress toward them. You should use hard evidence, like the data you’ve gathered through listening and analytics, to report on the success of your social marketing efforts.

Depending on your goals, you may want to build a custom report that zeroes in on what matters to your team. With Sprout’s Report Builder , you can customize performance reports to meet your exact business needs. Once you’re happy with your report, you can customize your branding and export it as a .PDF or a .CSV file for easy sharing.

Day 29: Revisit and readjust your strategy

The most savvy marketers know that marketing strategies are in constant flux. Revisit your strategy , revise your marketing goals and adapt your strategies based on the data you’ve collected.

Day 30: Celebrate your transformation

Congratulations, you’ve successfully made it through the 30-day social marketing transformation program.

Celebrate your new strategy and the effort you’ve made to enhance your social marketing.

Plan with Sprout Social: Create your social media marketing plan with Sprout Social

This social media plan was created to help social marketers refine their strategies. Our goal is to provide you with actionable steps to transform your social marketing strategies to help you create content that is purposeful, engaging and, ultimately, delivers real business results.

Keep in mind that transforming your social media strategic planning doesn’t end with these 30 days—continue to identify challenges to your social marketing strategy, analyze your competitors, discover ways to optimize your content and social profiles and remember to always revisit and adjust your strategies as needed.

Want to learn how Sprout Social’s features and solutions can help you create an even better social media plan? Start a free, 30-day trial to try Sprout for yourself.

Use this worksheet to stay on track with the social media strategy template outlined in this guide.

Additional resources for Social Media Planning

• Social Media Content

Your downloadable social media calendar template for 2024

• Branding & Creative
• Marketing Disciplines

Complete guide to content calendar creation

• Social Media Engagement
• Social Media Scheduling

A complete guide to creating a social media calendar

• Social Media Strategy

Build and grow stronger relationships on social

Sprout Social helps you understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection.

Social Media Marketing Strategy

Eight easy steps to develop your social media presence

Step 1: Set social media marketing goals that align to business objectives Step 2: Learn everything you can about your audience Step 3: Research the competition Step 4: Conduct a social media audit Step 5: Set up accounts and improve existing profiles Step 6: Find inspiration Step 7: Create a social media content calendar Step 8: Test, evaluate, and adjust your strategy

Step 1: Set social media marketing goals that align to business objectives

The more specific your strategy is, the more effective the execution will be. Set SMART goals and track the right metrics to set yourself up for success.

Set SMART goals

The first step to creating a social media marketing strategy is to establish your objectives and goals. Without goals, you have no way to measure your success or your social media return on investment (ROI).Each of your goals should be:

An example of a SMART goal for your business might be “Grow our Instagram audience by 50 new followers per week.”With SMART goals, you’ll make sure your goals actually lead to real business results, rather than just lofty ideals.

Track meaningful metrics

While vanity metrics like retweets and likes can be fun to share and easy to track, it’s hard to prove their real value for your business. Instead, focus on targets such as leads generated, web referrals, and conversion rate.You may want to track different goals for different channels, or even different uses of each channel. For example, you can use paid campaigns to increase brand awareness, but measure acquisition and engagement for organic social posts.Make sure to align your social media goals with your overall marketing strategy. This will make it easier for you to show the value of your work and get executive buy-in and investment.Start developing your social media marketing plan by writing down at least three social media goals.

RELATED RESOURCE

The social media metrics that really matter — and how to track them.

Step 2: Learn everything you can about your audience

if you’re not engaged in social media listening, you’re creating your business strategy with blinders on—and you’re missing out on mountains of actionable insights from real people who are actively talking about you or your industry online.

Here’s how to start listening and building your understanding of your audience and their needs.

Create audience personas

Knowing who your audience is and what they want to see on social is key to creating content that they will like, comment on, and share. This knowledge also critical for planning how to develop your social media fans into customers for your business.

Try creating audience personas. For example, a retail brand might create different personas based on demographics, buying motivations, common buying objections, and the emotional needs of each type of customer.

Personas sharpen your marketing tactics. Luxury buyers, for example, might not respond to Facebook ads with sales. But they might respond to Facebook ads with exclusive in-store events to be the first to see a new line of clothing. With personas, you’ll have the customer insights you need to create campaigns that speak to the real desires and motivations of your buyers.

Gather real-world data

Don’t make assumptions. Social media analytics can also provide a ton of valuable information about who your followers are, where they live, which languages they speak, and how they interact with your brand on social. These insights allow you to refine your strategy and better target your social ads.

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

How to build audience personas

Step 3: Research the competition

Odds are, your competitors are already using social media—and that means you can learn from what they’re already 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 some social media targets of your own.This analysis will also help you spot opportunities. For example, maybe one of your competitors dominates on Facebook, but has put little effort into Twitter or Instagram. You might want to focus on the networks where your audience is underserved, rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player.

Engage in social listening

Social listening is another way to keep track of the competition.As you track your competitors’ accounts and relevant industry keywords, you may notice strategic shifts in the way competitors use their social accounts. Or you might spot a specific post or campaign that really hits the mark—or one that bombs.Keep an eye on this information and use to it evaluate your own goals and plans.

Related resources

How to conduct a competitor audit

Getting started with social listening

Watch: Social Listening with Hootsuite Streams

Step 4: conduct a social media audit.

Conducting a social media audit helps you assess how well your current social media use works for you.

Evaluate your current efforts

If you’re already using social media tools, you need to take a step back and look at what you’ve already accomplished. Ask yourself the following questions:

What’s working?

What’s not working?

Who’s connecting with you on social?

Which social media sites does your target market use?

How does your social media presence compare to that of your competitors?

Once you gather all this information in one place, you’ll have a good starting point for planning how to improve your results.

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. It may be a valuable account that just needs a strategic redirection, or it may be an outdated account that’s no longer worth your while.

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 meaningful business goals?

Asking these tough questions now will help keep your social media strategy on track as you grow your social presence.

Look for impostor accounts

During your audit process, you may discover fraudulent accounts using your business name or the names of your products—that is, accounts that you and your business don’t own.

These imposter accounts can be harmful to your brand (never mind capturing followers that should be yours), so be sure to report them. You may want to get your social accounts verified to ensure your fans and followers know they are dealing with the real you.

Hootsuite's social media audit template

Step 5: Set up accounts and improve existing profiles

Decide which networks you’ll focus on, and then set up and optimize your accounts.

Determine which networks to use (and how to use them)

As you decide which social channels to use, you’ll also need to define your strategy for each network. For example, you might decide to use Twitter for customer service, Facebook for customer acquisition, and Instagram for engaging existing customers.  

It’s a good exercise to create mission statements for each network. These one-sentence declarations will help you focus on a very specific goal for each account on each social network.

For example, you could decide that:

Facebook is best for acquiring new customers via paid advertising.

Instagram is where you build brand affinity with existing customers.

Twitter is where you engage press and industry influencers.

LinkedIn is where you engage existing employees and attract new talent.

YouTube is where you support existing customers with education and video help content.

Snapchat is where you distribute content with the goal of building brand awareness with younger consumers. 

If you can’t create a solid mission statement for a particular social network, you may want to reconsider whether that network is worth it.

Set up (and optimize) your accounts

Once you’ve decided which networks to focus on, it’s time to create your profiles—or improve existing profiles so they align with your strategic plan.

In general, make sure you fill out all profile fields, use keywords people will use to search for your business, and use images that are correctly sized for each network.

Watch: How to optimize your social profiles

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 Twitter business account Create a Snapchat account Create a LinkedIn Company Page Create a Pinterest business account Create a YouTube channel Create a WeChat business account

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 social network.

Finally, here’s a quick reference guide for image sizes for every network.

Step 6: Find inspiration

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

Social network success stories

All of the social networks feature success stories that highlight how brands are using their tools effectively. You can usually find these on the business section of the social network’s website. (For example, take a look at the  Facebook business success stories .) These case studies offer valuable insights you can apply to your own goals for each social network.

Award-winning accounts and campaigns

For examples of brands that are at the top of their social media game, check out the winners of  The Facebook Awards  or  The Shorty Awards .

Step 7: Create a social media content calendar

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’ll spend interacting with your audience (although you need to allow for some spontaneous engagement as well).

Create a posting schedule

Your social media 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 and link sharing to blog posts and videos.

Your calendar ensures your posts are spaced out appropriately and published at the optimal times. It should include both your day-to-day posts and your content for social media campaigns.

Plot your content mix

Make sure your calendar reflects the mission statement you’ve assigned to each social profile, so that everything you post is working to support your business goals. For example, you might decide that:

50 percent of content will drive traffic back to your blog

25 percent of content will be curated from other sources

20 percent of content will support enterprise goals (selling, lead generation, and so on)

5 percent of content will be about your employees and company culture

Placing these different post types in your content calendar will help ensure you maintain the ratio you’ve planned. If you’re starting from scratch and you’re simply not sure what types of content to post, try the 80-20 rule:

80 percent of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain your audience

20 percent can directly promote your brand

You could also try the social media rule of thirds:

One-third of your social content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit

One-third of your social content shares ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses

One-third of your social content involves personal interactions with your audience

Once you have your calendar set, use scheduling tools or bulk scheduling to prepare your posting in advance rather than updating constantly throughout the day. This allows you to focus on crafting the language and format of your posts, rather than writing them on the fly whenever you have time.

How to create a social media content calendar

Watch: How to save time with bulk scheduling

Step 8: test, evaluate, and adjust your strategy.

Your social media 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.

Track your data

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

Re-evaluate, test, and do it all again

When data starts coming in, use it to reevaluate your strategy regularly. You can also use this information to test different posts, campaigns, and strategies against one another. Constant testing allows you to understand what works and what doesn’t, so you can refine your strategy in real time.

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

Things change fast on social media. New networks emerge, while others go through significant demographic shifts. Your business will go through periods of change as well. All this means that your social media strategy should be a living document that you look at regularly and adjust as needed. Refer to it often to keep you 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 let everyone on your social team know, so they can all work together to help your business make the most of your social media accounts.

Bonus: Download our social media strategy template

Does this all feel a little overwhelming? The truth is that building your social media strategy is a substantial job. It should be, since it’s such an important document for your business. But it doesn’t have to be complicated.

We’ve created a template to guide you through the whole process of creating your social media marketing plan.  Visit our blog  to download it (plus six other social media templates that can save you hours of work).

Take the next leap in your social media career

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Earn industry-recognized social media certifications that will make you stand out from the crowd.

Begin with our free comprehensive training on social marketing. All of our courses are delivered online and taught by expert industry practitioners.  Take the free course here .

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From scheduling Instagram posts to advanced ROI measurement, Hootsuite’s flexible platform helps you execute every aspect of your social media strategy. We’re the world’s most widely used platform for managing social media.

Get started with the plan that fits your needs here.

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How to Create a Social Media Strategy for Small Businesses

For a small business, having a social media strategy is essential for increasing brand awareness, reaching your target audience, and driving sales.

With a strong social media strategy, you’ll never run out of ideas on what to post — and you’ll soon have an engaged community at your fingertips.

What is a Social Media Strategy for Small Business?

A social media strategy encapsulates everything you want to do and achieve on social media. It details what you’ll post, the platforms you’ll use, and defines measurable goals that will support your specific business needs.

Smart social media strategies for small businesses can increase brand awareness, build your audience, and increase revenue.

However, this growth won’t happen overnight. It requires a consistent and strategic approach.

Take a look at chai cafe Kolkata Chai Co. — they regularly post across multiple platforms and have built a thriving community as a result.

Their social media typically features 3 types of content: recipes, product photography, and videos.

Their recipe posts are informative and inspirational, while their product images are directly promotional. Their video content showcases artists from the Indian community — providing insight into Kolkata Chai Co.’s brand values.

All of this content works together to build brand awareness and drive sales, creating a cohesive social media strategy across platforms.

Ready to create your social media strategy for 2022? Social Media expert Steph Gilbert shares her top tips in this step-by-step video :

How to Create a Social Media Strategy for Small Businesses:

Define Your Social Media Strategy

Identify the Right Social Media Platforms

Define Your Brand Voice

Create and Manage Your Posts

Track and Measure Your Goals

Part #1: Define Your Social Media Strategy — and Set Your Goals

Creating a social media strategy from scratch may seem intimidating, but setting SMART goals keeps the process realistic and achievable.

A SMART goal is:

Apply this method to your social media marketing plan by basing the goals on metrics that are specific to your business.

For example, you might want to track how many people follow your social media account month over month.

If this is your first time creating a social media strategy , it’s a good idea to start with a handful of important goals — so you can really hone in on them.

This way, you’ll be able to track progress over time and use them as a baseline to build upon in the future.

Want to learn how to set goals (and actually achieve them?) Watch Later’s free goal setting workshop which will help you make those social goals a reality!

Part #2: Identify the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Business

Every social media platform has a unique set of pros and cons — which means you can be selective with your approach.

Starting off with platforms that make the most sense for your business will help you save time and avoid becoming overwhelmed by your content calendar.

Not sure which platform is best for your business? Here’s a basic rundown:

As a visual platform, Instagram is the perfect platform for showcasing your products or services in action. It’s also a great place to grow a community who loves your brand.

Plus, Instagram now has a ton of e-commerce features — making it easier than ever to convert your followers into customers.

Instagram is also known for its huge community of social media influencers . Partnering with creators or influencers to create sponsored posts can be a great way to reach relevant audiences and potential new customers.

In addition to sponsored posts, Instagram can also be an awesome platform for finding organic user-generated content (UGC)  about your products or services.

Sharing UGC is a great way to show your products in action, and can act as a valuable third-party recommendation for your brand.

Improve your content workflow with Later ’s user-generated content tools — source, schedule and repost UGC to your feed in minutes!

Facebook, the most widely-used social media site, is an all-purpose platform where you can share photos, company updates and information, videos, and other informative content to build brand awareness and trust.

Much like Instagram, Facebook is jam-packed with e-commerce features — and has some of the most sophisticated targeted advertizing tools in the business.

Facebook also sets itself apart with its advanced suite of community forum features — such as Facebook Groups , Messenger Rooms , and Live Events .

Plus, Facebook’s powerful analytic tools are great for helping you learn more about your followers and keeping you on track with your SMART goals.

Looking to level-up your Facebook strategy? Plan, schedule, and post to Facebook with Later — for free!

Twitter is a platform for short messages and shareable media, making it ideal for company announcements, articles or blog posts, and customer support.

Twitter is great for connecting quickly in real time, which also makes it the top choice for companies with plenty of news updates and resources to share.

For example, beverage brand innocent drinks frequently uses Twitter to communicate with their customers and answer questions:

If you think TikTok is just for teenagers, think again.

TikTok is a video-driven platform full of informative, entertaining, and creative content — and businesses are using the platform to show how their products work, share behind-the-scenes, give tips, and join trending challenges.

Here, Lucume uses the platform to promote a collection of their clay earrings:

TikTok’s younger audience is great for businesses marketing to Gen Z , but the TikTok demographic is shifting — with more millennials joining the mix than ever before.

Plan and schedule your TikTok videos in advance — right from your desktop or phone! Upgrade to one of Later’s paid plans to get started.

Unlike most social platforms, YouTube allows you to share longer form videos, with a huge maximum upload file size of 128GB (or 12 hours!).

This makes it the perfect platform for more in-depth, educational content — such as styling tips, interviews, tutorials, and transformations.

For example, Later uses YouTube to share social media tips, strategies, how-to videos, courses, and conference sessions:

YouTube typically requires more time and energy than other platforms, but it can yield huge results. YouTube is primarily a search engine, which means users who search for and discover your content are more likely to have a strong interest in the topic and a genuine intent to engage.

Ready to get started? Find out everything you need to know about creating a YouTube channel here .

As a visual discovery platform, Pinterest is perfect for reaching new, relevant audiences. Plus, the whole experience is fully clickable, making it easy to turn browsers into customers .

On Pinterest, users “pin” photos that link to resources, product pages, and content across the web. Pins are typically visually appealing, and the links generally direct to blog posts or product pages.

Pinterest is a great platform for driving traffic to your site, and brands can create “boards” full of curated pins — making it easy for your audience to find related pins all at once.

As a Pinterest Partner, Later offers exclusive features to help you grow your business on Pinterest. Start planning and scheduling your Pins with Later now!

LinkedIn is a great platform for building your network, raising brand awareness, and attracting new talent to join your business.

Similar to Twitter, many brands use LinkedIn to share company updates, news releases, media coverage, articles, or blog posts.

Plus, with more than 722 million users worldwide and a ton of new engagement-driving features , it’s a platform to consider creating a strategy for.

Now that you know what each platform offers, choose the ones most relevant to your business. Don’t be afraid to start with only 1 or 2 — it’s better to focus your energy where it will be most effective.

DID YOU KNOW: You can now plan and schedule your content for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok with Later — all from one easy-to-use dashboard!

Part #3: Define Your Brand Voice

Your brand voice is like your company’s personality — it’s how you speak to your audience. And it might slightly differ from platform to platform.

Take The Washington Post for example. On TikTok they use comedy to create funny and informative videos. On Twitter , they share the highlights of an article without any fluff:

If you’re struggling to pinpoint your tone, consider your brand’s values and mission. Are you formal and serious, or more relatable and friendly?

One brand doing this well is Pur Home , a line of natural cleaning products with an eco-friendly mission.

They channel their values into their brand’s tone with a friendly voice and sustainability-focused content:

TIP: Consider how would you talk about your business, products, or services to a friend as you refine your brand’s tone of voice!

Part #4: Create and Manage Your Social Media Posts

After you define your goals, choose the platforms you’ll use, and develop your brand voice, it’s time to start creating and posting content.

As a busy small business owner, a helpful way to avoid becoming overwhelmed when creating content is to practice content batching .

It’s a helpful productivity technique where you create multiple captions, photos, and videos during a set period of time.

And when you want to schedule content, using Later’s social media scheduling tool will help you save time and always share content at your best time to post .

With Later, you can upload photos in batches, find amazing UGC, schedule content weeks in advance, and more.

And with features like Best Time to Post and a free AI caption writer — your content calendar will be strategic, consistent, and cohesive.

#5: Track and Measure Your Social Media Goals

Now that you’ve nailed your content strategy, well done! You’ve done the hardest part.

But don’t forget, the key to a successful social media strategy for small business is consistency.

Monitoring your analytics to see how many people you’re reaching and how they’re interacting with your posts is vital to your strategy as they show you what’s working — and what isn’t.

Luckily, Later Analytics makes it easy to track insights you can use to inform your content strategy — whether it’s increasing engagement or growing your audience.

There you have it — a quick how-to guide for creating a social media strategy for small business.

Take the time to develop SMART goals, define your brand voice, and choose platforms that align with what you’re trying to achieve.

And if you create consistent content and analyze your metrics, you’ll be one step closer to creating a successful long-term strategy.

Ready to simplify your social media strategy for small business? With Later , you can plan, schedule, and monitor your posts all in one place!

Martha Kendall is a freelance B2B SaaS writer who loves creating strategic blog posts that drive traffic and convert. When she’s not writing, you can find her snuggling with her fluffy cats and reading books. Find her on Instagram – @marthakendallwrites .

Plan, schedule, and automatically publish your social media posts with Later.

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• Product management
• Marketing plans
• What is a social media plan?

What is a social media plan? Actionable tips and best practices

A social media plan helps an organization determine their target audience, the social networks to join, and the type of content to develop and share. It is a vital part of your overall marketing strategy . Once you have a plan outlined, you can get to work refining your content and cadence, analyzing follower engagement, and building deeper relationships with your audience.

Nearly every business has a social media presence. But succeeding on social networks takes more than just posting daily updates. Do you know what your goals are and who you are trying to reach? Do you understand the type of content that your audience truly cares about and why they would want to engage with you? Answering those questions and moving beyond ad hoc social presence requires a strategic plan .

Skip ahead to any section:

How to build a social media plan

How to implement your social media plan, showcase the value of social media.

Most marketing teams build and refine social media plans a few times per year. This likely happens alongside other team-level and company-level planning. You might also build separate social plans for special launches or campaigns — these would also support the broader social media strategy. Follow these steps to build a plan that drives real results:

Define social goals and KPIs

The first step to an effective social media plan is reviewing your broader marketing goals and initiatives. Your social goals should ladder back to top-level marketing goals — these objectives inform your social strategy.

Social media goals typically fit into the following categories:

Increase share of voice

Gain new followers

Drive traffic to your website

Generate new leads or trial sign-ups

Boost community engagement and loyalty

Triage customer support requests

Depending on the size of your team, you may want to pursue more or fewer goals. For example, if you do not have a team member from customer support available to monitor social media, you may not want to provide in-depth customer support on social networks. Instead, direct support requests to email or a help desk.

Next, you are ready to align social goals with relevant KPIs. If your goal is to drive website traffic, for instance, meaningful KPIs would include click-through rates on social content and referral traffic from specific sites. Many teams make the mistake of tracking every metric available on social networks (e.g., followers, influence scores, post reach, shares, and likes). Lots of data can be useful but it is often simpler and more effective to trim KPIs to those that directly correspond with intended objectives.

Know your audience and competitors

Revisit your existing buyer personas to gain a better understanding of who you should be targeting and what kind of content will boost engagement. This may require a bit of guesswork, but you can also use social media analysis tools to identify key demographics, track interests, and gain insights about a competitor's audience.

Then, look at how your competitors use social media — evaluate the networks they use, the type of content they share, and how often they post. It is up to you to decide if you want to have a social presence on the same networks as competitors or if you would prefer to target channels that are more relevant to your goals.

You can get started with this target audience template in Aha! Knowledge . It is helpful for outlining who you want to reach with your social media plan — including sections for capturing your audience's demographic information, preferences, behaviors, and more.

Define your target audience in Aha! Knowledge. Sign up for a free trial .

Start using this template now

Choose social networks

Each social network fulfills its own niche. You do not need to have a presence on all of them. Prioritize the networks where your audience spends the most time and where your brand can be most useful. For example, if you do not develop video content, there is no sense in creating a YouTube or Vimeo channel. (This might seem obvious, but plenty of marketing teams feel pressure to be everywhere just because you can.)

Consider smaller platforms that might be uniquely relevant to your audience and market. Sites such as Houzz , Goodreads , or Behance give you a chance to build relationships with folks who have specific skills and interests.

Review past performance

Many teams use the start of a new year or quarter to audit marketing programs. If you are revising an existing social media plan, you need to review what you have tried before. Seek answers to the following:

Which networks should we continue to invest in? Which, if any, should we leave?

What type of content performs best — by reach, clicks, shares, or other KPIs?

How much time and resources have we been investing in social? Do the returns justify the investment?

What should we keep or stop doing?

Create a playbook

A social media playbook is the culmination of your strategic plan as well as smaller details that guide your daily posts — such as content themes, audience segmentation, and posting frequency. A playbook typically contains the following components:

You have defined the "why," "what," and "when" of your social media plan. Now let's briefly look at the "how" — all of the activities involved in creating, scheduling, and measuring your posts. There are three main areas to consider:

Identify the right tools

Social media management tools give you the ability to publish posts, monitor performance, and manage social ads. Some of these tools can be integrated with other marketing platforms that you use. Others are stand-alone.

A roadmapping tool like Aha! Roadmaps has purpose-built workspaces for marketing teams so you can set strategy, build marketing calendars, and share plans across teams. Teams generally use Aha! for building broader marketing plans and they use a purpose-built tool for publishing content and monitoring social media.

Build workflows

Well-defined workflows harness your team's focus and momentum. You may want to develop workflows for the following areas of focus:

Research (e.g., audience, competitors, content topics, hashtags)

Community management (e.g., listening, monitoring, and responding to mentions)

Content and creative (e.g., developing campaigns, writing posts, designing images and ads)

Approvals and outbound scheduling

Measurement and analysis

Identify any workflows that you can automate — this will save time and even boost engagement. For instance, if your audience clicks on content shared at 5 a.m., it is far simpler to schedule automated posts at that time rather than designate an early bird on your team who has to set their alarm every day.

Define roles and responsibilities

Sophisticated social media management requires a dedicated team. For every workflow, map out roles and responsibilities so everyone understands what is expected. You will likely need to identify folks across the organization who can help in a pinch. For example, you may want to choose teammates on the support or IT team who can help if technical questions from customers come through social channels.

Finally, make a real effort to track and share results. Most of the major social media networks provide detailed engagement reports — pay attention to the metrics you identified when goal-setting. Set benchmarks and monitor your progress regularly. And use what you learn to recalibrate audience segments, content themes, and posting frequency.

The details may change but your overall strategy should remain constant. With a great plan in place, you will gain the confidence that comes with driving business results.

Build marketing plans like you always wanted. Sign up for a free 30-day trial.

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How to Use Social Media to Grow Your Business

Social media platforms, consistent posting, customer engagement, lead generation, paid advertising, the bottom line.

• Small Business

You can leverage social media marketing to grow your business in many ways, from building your brand to engaging with customers. But no matter your business goal, you’ll want to be sure you’re using the right social media tool for your needs.

Choosing the best social media marketing tool and learning how to use it effectively can give you a consistent online presence that can help you grow your business with an affordable strategy. Learn how to leverage social media to help you meet revenue targets, attract new customers, and more.

Key Takeaways

• Effectively using social media can help you establish an online brand presence that embodies your brand’s mission, values, and offerings.
• Social media metrics can help you gain valuable insights into your customer base to help further inform your marketing and business development strategies.
• Before committing to a social media platform (or several), research how much the business tools cost (many are free), and which platforms your target audience use most.
• Consistency is key when it comes to leveraging social media for your business, so consider how you will leverage a content calendar to engage with your customers, generate leads, and promote your products or services.

Social media marketing , also called digital marketing or e-marketing, leverages various online social media platforms to connect business owners and brands with their existing or target audiences. Social media also generates purpose-built data analytics that provide excellent, detailed metrics to help you understand whether certain products, services, or approaches are really in demand with customers.

Online, you can easily share information with customers, learn about competitors, build brand awareness, accept online sales, and drive long-term business growth. Some social media platforms even pay for catchy content that keeps users on their platforms and off competitor sites. So, developing a strong online presence could pay off in more ways than one.

Social media metrics can be used to gain valuable data, such as customer data (email addresses, phone numbers, etc.), audience engagement (likes, comments, shares, clicks), referrals, and conversions. This feedback can help businesses improve products and social marketing strategies. Also, you can compare your brand’s online performance and adjust in real time.

Social media is a low-cost beta-testing opportunity and marketing tool that can turn into its own revenue source.

Business Branding

Social media platforms are capable of reaching a very wide audience, so they are great vehicles to showcase your products, services, and brand personality. Brand identity incorporates the visual elements that translate the mission, vision, and values of your business. This can include the symbols, colors, and unique designs that a business will use consistently over time. The most visible element of brand identity is the company logo, which should be distinctive from competitors and easily recognizable by customers.

Your slogan or mission statement is the written or spoken elements that share what the company stands for and its values. While many small business owners may think brand identity is only about packaging, it is so much more. Identity helps customers feel connected with the people behind the company—its founders, employees, designers, and/or key spokespeople—and the company’s main mission.

There were 4.95 billion social media users in the world, or roughly 61.4% of the global population, as of October 2023, according to global statistics from DataReportal. This total is spread out across multiple popular platforms that target different audiences and can be used for different marketing strategies.

Here are some of the most prominent platforms in the United States (although there are many global options as well):

• Facebook : Facebook is the most popular global platform, with a cross-generational demographic of nearly 3 billion monthly active users. A wide range of businesses can benefit by creating business pages that automatically cross-posts content on Instagram, which can act as an online store, too. Facebook groups also build a sense of community, allowing for moderated or unmoderated conversations between like-minded people.
• X (formerly known as Twitter): X is useful for real-time updates, customer engagement, and businesses looking to share concise information. This character-limited text platform has recently undergone a rebrand under its new ownership. Some users have closed their accounts, while others have upgraded to X Premium, a fee-based subscription that allows for greater visibility.
• TikTok : While TikTok started off as a place to do silly voiceover videos, it is fast superseding Instagram as the place for visual content. Despite concerns over data security, many content creators continue to find it easy to create and monetize viral TikTok content that builds brand awareness and audience popularity. Many businesses that create TikToks cross-post them on Instagram as well.
• Instagram : Instagram is a photo-sharing platform owned by Meta, which also owns Facebook. Instagram is designed for visual content, like photos or videos of travel, food, or lifestyle brands.
• LinkedIn : LinkedIn is a more professional and business-oriented platform, originally created to connect employees with recruiters and hiring companies. Companies often find success advertising jobs on the platform or creating newsletters that gain media attention.
• Pinterest : Pinterest is a photo-focused search engine site. It has a strong, predominantly female demographic who uses the platform to create visual shopping lists for arts, crafts, events, and design projects.
• YouTube : YouTube includes longer-form video content that is too lengthy for TikTok and Instagram’s normal 30-second snippets. Here, business owners can offer password-protected or publicly available content, ideal for tours, tutorials, staff introductions, industry explainers, and webinars, as well as unique content that can attract viewers and customers.

Before committing to a platform, understand how they work, how much they cost (many are free), and which platform your target audience uses most.

Consistent posting is key to making the most of your online presence. Develop a content calendar to regularly schedule messages for your audience. The algorithms behind each platform change all the time, but the more content you produce, the more the platforms boost your content to ever-larger audiences. This often means posting daily for at least 30 days at a time.

When in doubt, look at competitors’ social media pages to learn from their successes and failures, to adapt your content toward industry trends and audience interest. Solo entrepreneurs may find this cadence of content production and competitor listening overwhelming. Hiring project-based freelancers can help. Community managers, copywriters, graphic designers, filmmakers, and editors can be hired at varying prices to do this work.

Social media aggregators like Hootsuite and Sprout Social manage all your accounts on one dashboard. They can save you the time of posting multiple times a day and provide statistics to help you measure your  return on investment (ROI) .

Engaging with your customers goes beyond posting content. You can interact with your audience directly through comments, likes, shares, and messages. Marketing strategies such as hosting live videos, Q&A sessions, and giveaways can help you foster a personal connection with your audience, which can ultimately lead to sales. Be responsive to online interest by responding promptly to comments and messages.

Many business owners add a chatbot to their Facebook accounts to simulate a customer service exchange and field frequently asked questions. This is just one way to keep users on the platform, out of your email inbox, and off your customer service line. Remember, social media is often about two-way communication, and you should have a strategy in your social media plan to respond to comments and queries.

Social media is an ideal way to search for potential customers who may be interested in your product. You can attract them with unique or informative content and eventually convert them into clients. Social media allows you to test concepts with audiences even before you invest any money in developing new products or services.

Try putting up images of a prototype to gauge interest or accept presales. Create surveys to ask existing customers what you should develop next and how much they would be willing to pay for the new offering. Social media is one of the best ways for businesses of all sizes to reach new customers and design products and services that people are willing to buy.

While organic reach is valuable, many small businesses can benefit by paying a small fee to advertise to new audiences. Each platform has a different set of paid advertising options, but most entail a campaign that puts your video or visual content in front of your target demographic. This can drive traffic to your business’s website or store, leading to increased sales. It can also eliminate the need for an expensive PR company or marketing consultant.

For just a few dollars per day, your business could advertise its services to hundreds if not thousands of potential clients. Often, you can specify desired age group, gender, and location, and the platform will put your content in front of the right audience. Budgets for paid ads can vary in price (typically $1 to $50 a day, depending on how many people you want to reach) and minimum time periods to run campaigns (typically around 30 days).  

Paid ads on social media are not a “set it and forget it” kind of marketing tool. Instead, you can change keywords, demographics, images, and even wording throughout the campaign. Unlike with radio and TV, you have control over changing your ads.

How Can Social Media Help a Business to Grow?

Social media platforms can play a significant role in helping a business grow in several ways. They can help you increase brand visibility, improve audience engagement, and generate leads. Social media platforms can also provide a way to leverage targeted advertising and garner customer insights. Finally, it can help with content distribution, sales, and conversions.

What Is the Best Social Media Platform for Businesses?

Each business will have different target audiences and goals, and different ideal social media platforms. However, some of the most popular platforms for businesses include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, X, and YouTube.

How Often Should a Business Post on Social Media?

Each business has to define its specific goals and audience to determine how frequently to post on social media. Also, the algorithms that govern each social media site differ slightly in how they reward frequent posters or paid accounts. Consistency and engagement with the target audience matter more than just the number of posts. According to Hootsuite research, some ideal target ranges are:

• Pinterest : 1 post per week.
• X (formerly Twitter) : 2–3 posts per day; pay attention to hashtags.
• Instagram : 3–5 posts per week, including stories, lives, reels, and posts.
• Meta (Facebook) : 1–2 posts per day, including posts, lives, etc.
• TikTok : 3–5 posts per week.
• LinkedIn : 1–2 posts per day.

Can You Promote Your Business on Social Media for Free?

You can promote your business on social media for free. Many social media platforms allow businesses to create free profiles and post content without any cost. Organic reach can help you connect with your existing audience, but it might not reach as many prospective customers as you’d like. Over time, you might want to consider paying for a modest amount of targeted advertising to reach a broader audience.

Using the right social media platforms in the best way can help your business grow significantly. As you review all your options for leveraging social media, keep your main business goals and budget in mind. Marketing via social media can help you reach a wide audience to generate leads, build your brand, engage audiences, and target advertising, among many other benefits.

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Meta Investor Relations. “ Meta Reports Third Quarter 2023 Results .”

Harvard Business Review. “ What Does Your Corporate Brand Stand for? ”

X Help Center. “ About X Premium .”

Pinterest Business. “ Your Audience Is Here .”

WebFX. “ How Much Does Social Media Advertising Cost in 2024? ”

Hootsuite Blog. “ How Often to Post to Social Media in 2024 .”

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Craft Your Winning Social Media Strategy: A Blueprint for Success

You’ve nailed the “basics” of social media and now you’re out to start your own brand and build your online presence.

A great idea and knowledge in a specific niche—check. Social media page—check.

Great content—check. But as soon as you hit post, you hear nothing but crickets. We get it. With 5 billion people scrolling through social media for around 2.5 hours a day , the opportunity to grow your business and reach more people is huge. But it can be overwhelming trying to figure out how to get noticed.

To really make your mark, you need more than just random posts. You need a smart plan that helps you stand out, connect with the right people, and achieve your big goals. 

We’re here to help you do just that. We’re going to dive into what makes a strong social media strategy, including easy steps to plan your approach and tips on crafting content that grabs attention.

We’re also going to introduce you to a game-changer: using a social media template. 

The essentials of a social media strategy 

Your social media strategy is a blueprint for using social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram to get your message across, connect with people, and introduce your brand or business to the world. 

A well-defined social media marketing plan outlines what and when to post, what you want to achieve, how you’ll get there, and the metrics that signal success.

However, a winning social media strategy transcends social media networks and can seamlessly align with your business’s larger goals.

By aligning your social media strategy with your business goals, you can use every tweet, post, and share for maximum impact, whether increasing sales, enhancing customer service, or improving brand loyalty.

A step-by-step guide to creating a social media strategy

Now that you grasp the fundamentals, it’s time to build a social media strategy that delivers. Let’s break it down into essential steps:

1. Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals

Objectives guide every successful social media strategy. Before you start posting, ask yourself, “What do I really want to achieve on social media?” 

Vague goals like “get more followers” will not cut it. 

The S.M.A.R.T. framework is your weapon against fuzzy thinking. SMART goals are:

• Specific: Clearly define what you want to accomplish.
• Measurable: Set targets with numbers attached.
• Achievable: Be ambitious but realistic.
• Relevant: Tie your goals back to overarching business objectives.
• Time-bound: Give yourself a deadline.

S.M.A.R.T. goals eliminate ambiguity and give you clear targets to work towards. This increases your chances of achieving your objectives, provides a way to track progress and make adjustments. SMART goals boost motivation and set you up to celebrate your milestones along the way.

Some common social media objectives include:

• Increase brand awareness
• Drive traffic to your website
• Generate new leads
• Boost brand engagement

A good example of a S.M.A.R.T. goal would be to increase brand impressions on Instagram by 20% within the next 3 months.

2. Understanding and targeting your audience

A successful social media strategy relies on a deep understanding of who you’re trying to reach. This is where personas and focused targeting come into play.

Personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers on each social media platform. They go beyond basic demographics and encompass details like:

• Pain points
• Online behaviors
• Motivations for purchase
• Preferred social media channels

How to create online personas

Here’s how to create detailed social media personas to guide your strategy:

• Gather data by looking at customer surveys, website analytics, and social media insights.
• Analyze this data for any shared characteristics, behaviors, and pain points.
• Go beyond age and gender. Consider their goals, challenges, and what influences their decisions.

Let’s say you’re a clothing brand or fashion influencer. Here’s an example of an online persona you’re bound to encounter:

Meet fashion-forward Fiona: She’s an Instagram-savvy, 28-year-old young professional.  Fiona’s all about sustainable fashion, the thrill of a good thrifting score, and keeping her look on-trend. Staying stylish on a budget, finding those one-of-a-kind pieces, and rocking a look that’s totally “her”—those  are Fiona’s fashion struggles. 

3. Choosing the right platforms: where does your audience live online?

Choosing the right social media platform can also impact the success of your online presence.

Finding the digital spaces where your audience hangs out and engages will ensure that the people you want to reach hear your message.

This is why online personas are effective. These detailed profiles should include information on the social media habits of your target audience, such as which platforms they frequent and when they are most active.

This insight directs you to the right platforms without spreading your efforts too thinly across multiple, possibly less effective, channels.

In our case, fashion-forward Fiona enjoys Instagram. Next, consider the nature of your content and how it aligns with the strengths of each platform.

For instance, Instagram and Pinterest are highly visual platforms. This makes them ideal for brands that can showcase their offerings through images and videos, like, you guessed it, clothing brands. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is the premier professional network, making it the go-to platform for B2B companies or businesses looking to share industry insights and professional content.

Moreover, stay informed about trends in social media usage and shifts in platform popularity. People tend to move from one popular platform to the next.

4. Create the perfect blend of content

To develop a strong online presence, your content needs to hit the sweet spot: promotion to highlight your brand, information to provide value, and interaction to foster connection. Promotional content is the direct expression of your business, showcasing your products or services. It’s crucial for driving sales and conversions but should be used sparingly. The key is subtlety; your promotional content should feel natural and integrated within your broader content mix, rather than overwhelming or salesy.

Informative content , on the other hand, serves to educate your audience about your industry, products, or services. This type of content positions your brand as an authority in your field, building trust and credibility. Informative content can take many forms, from how-to guides and tutorials to industry news and insights.

In the health and wellness space, we post workout tips, nutritional guides, and the science behind why your muscles hate you after leg day—and how to ease the pain. 

Lastly, interactive content is designed to engage your audience, encouraging them to participate and engage directly with your brand. This could be through polls, quizzes, contests, or simply compelling questions that spark conversation. Interactive content is a powerful tool for building community and loyalty, as it makes your audience feel heard and valued.

To find your perfect balance, monitor your audience’s reactions and adjust your content mix based on what resonates most. Try using the 80/20 rule: roughly 80% of your content should offer value (inform and interact) and 20% can be explicitly promotional.

5. Engage and build a community

Engagement and community building aren’t just buzzwords in the playbook of social media strategy; they’re the secret sauce to making your brand feel more like a lively dinner party and less like a deserted island.

Here’s how you can master the art:

1. Be Consistently Active and Responsive

It’s simple: post regularly and talk back. Your followers took the time to comment, so a quick reply can go a long way in making them feel heard. It’s like acknowledging someone’s wave; don’t leave them hanging.

2. Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC)

Encourage your followers to share their experiences with your brand. It’s authentic, relatable, and gives your community the spotlight. Plus, it’s content you didn’t have to create yourself, which is always a win.

3. Host Live Sessions and Q&As

If your platform allows it, go live to add a human touch. It’s your chance to engage directly, answer questions, and share insights. 

4. Create Interactive and Engaging Stories

Use stories for quick, engaging interactions. Polls, quizzes, and questions make your audience feel involved and offer you instant feedback. 

5. Organize Contests and Giveaways

Everyone loves the chance to win something. Contests and giveaways are like the social media version of a lucky draw. They’re exciting and a surefire way to boost engagement.

6. Use Hashtags to Create Conversations

Hashtags help thread your content into larger conversations. They make your posts discoverable and invite new followers into the fold. Think of them as your brand’s open invitation to join the party.

6. Analytics and the data-driven path to improvement

In your social media strategy, think of analytics as essential tools for steering your direction. Start by getting familiar with key metrics like reach, engagement, and conversion rates. These numbers indicate how well your content connects with your audience.

Set benchmarks to define what success looks like. Whether it’s past performance or industry standards, having clear targets helps you measure progress.

Regularly review your analytics to identify trends and adjust your strategy accordingly. Don’t shy away from experimenting with content, posting times, and platforms to discover what resonates best with your audience.

Listening to your audience is also important! Their feedback can shape your strategy. Based on your findings, tweak your approach. 

Taking advantage of social media strategy templates

While the concepts we’ve discussed are essential, sometimes you need a ready-made framework to get your plan down. Thankfully, there are excellent free social media strategy templates out there to streamline the process. A good template should include crucial areas like objectives (with space to define SMART goals), target audience descriptions, content themes aligned with your goals, a posting schedule, and prompts for the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you’ll track.

Some templates also include helpful sections for competitor analysis or outlining your social media campaigns.

Here are a few excellent places to start your search:

• Hootsuite : Hootsuite’s social media strategy template covers all you need to develop a winning strategy, from auditing your social media presence to aligning your social goals with your business goals.
• Socialpilot : Socialpilot’s template includes all the elements of a successful social media strategy, including identifying your target audience and goals, researching your competitors, and picking the best social media channels for your brand.
• Backlinko : Backlinko’s template includes setting clear goals and selecting the right KPIs, using competitive research to choose the right social media platform, and setting up the right plant to maximize your engagement.
• TeamGantt : TeamGantt’s template has all you need to succeed in social media. Plus, it offers flexibility and customization for your workflow.

Content creation and curation

Developing an effective content strategy starts with understanding your audience—their pain points, their questions, even the things that give them a little chuckle. 

Trust me, as a writer focused on neck and shoulder pain, I’ve seen some interesting search terms.

Consistency in your tone, visuals, and posting schedule also reinforces your trustworthiness and keeps your audience coming back for more. Now that you know your audience well, let’s dive into crafting the perfect content mix.

Crafting original content that shines

• Tap into your unique voice: What sets you apart? Are you the witty explainer, the passionate advocate, or the detail-obsessed researcher? Let that shine through.
• Solve problems: Your ideal reader has questions or needs. Anticipate those and create content that provides real solutions.
• Offer a fresh perspective: Even on well-worn topics, can you present a new angle? Find an unconventional viewpoint or surprising connection.
• Incorporate storytelling: Facts are great, but stories are how we remember . Use anecdotes, examples, and case studies to illustrate your points.
• Elevate with visuals: Images, infographics, well-made videos – they all enhance understanding and shareability of your content.

The art of content curation

Curation is the skill of finding and sharing high-quality content from other relevant sources. Content curation can establish you as a resource for industry news and articles.

You can also open opportunities for collaboration and networking with other content creators. Most importantly, curation saves you time and fills your content calendar on days when you’re short on original ideas.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Be a selective guide: Don’t overwhelm your audience. Strive to share the best resources that align with your brand’s focus.
• Add your value: Why are you sharing this? Offer a short summary, key takeaways, or how it relates to your original work.
• Embrace variety: Curate different formats (articles, videos, podcasts) to cater to different learning styles.
• Give credit where it’s due: Always tag creators, link to the original source, and show respect for others’ intellectual property.
• Spark conversations: Ask questions alongside your curated content to incite a discussion and build community.

Amplifying your strategy with social advertising

While organic content lays the foundation by engaging your audience with valuable, relevant content, paid advertising enables you to break through the noise and reach a wider, more targeted audience.

The beauty of paid advertising on social media platforms lies in its ability to target users based on very specific criteria, including demographics, interests, behaviors, and even geographical locations. This precision ensures that your content reaches the eyes and ears of those most likely to be interested in your brand.

Paid social media ads are especially useful for promoting key initiatives like product launches or events, helping to achieve goals like lead generation or sales conversions more rapidly.

Managing your social media presence

Success on social media demands dedication and consistency. This isn’t just about the frequency of your posts but also encompasses the quality and relevancy of your content, and your engagement with followers.

Imagine your social media feed as a lively marketplace. Your social media platforms should regularly feature fresh, engaging content. This continuous flow of content keeps your audience coming back for more. 

But social media isn’t a one-way street! Set aside time daily to reply to comments, answer questions, and participate in relevant conversations. Over time, this consistent engagement strengthens the relationship between you and your audience.

Tools & practices to streamline your workflow

Juggling all these tasks can quickly become a hectic schedule. To make social media management a breeze , let’s look at some tools and practices that can save you time and effort.

• Scheduling Tools: Platforms like Buffer let you create and schedule posts in advance, ensuring even coverage throughout the week.

• Monitoring and Listening Tools: Track brand mentions, industry keywords, and competitor activity to stay in the loop and be nimble in your responses. A good example would be Hootsuite .

• Team Collaboration Features: If you manage a team, tools like Socialpilot , allow for shared content calendars, task assignments, and streamlined communication.

Turn feedback and crises into opportunities

Your social media presence is an extension of your brand’s customer service and even the best brands deal with negative feedback and potential crises. Don’t shy away from these difficult situations. Instead, handle them gracefully to strengthen the trust between you and your followers. 

Have a plan in place to ensure you react swiftly and appropriately. This plan should outline how you’ll handle different levels of negative feedback (e.g., minor complaints versus a full-blown crisis) and include who is responsible for responding and how issues escalate internally.

Always respond with empathy. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes, acknowledge their feelings, apologize where necessary, and express your commitment to resolving the problem. For complex issues or heated conversations, move things to a private channel like DM, email, or phone.

If the issue affects a wider audience, a timely and honest statement on your social channels demonstrates accountability.  Let your followers know you’re aware of the problem and working on a solution.

Final thoughts

A well-crafted social media strategy is your ticket to success. It allows you to connect meaningfully with your audience, achieve concrete business goals, and solidify your brand’s presence.

By understanding your audience, defining clear goals, and creating content that resonates, you can drive your business forward.

Remember, social media is a long game. It requires patience, adaptability, and a willingness to learn from your successes and failures.

Use the insights and template we’ve explored to transform your social media presence. With dedication and a strategic mindset, you can unlock the power of social media and make it your proverbial oyster.

Why is a social media strategy important?

A social media strategy provides a roadmap for your online presence. It ensures your activities align with your larger business objectives and helps you pinpoint your ideal audience. With this information, you can craft more impactful content. With a strategy in place, you can track your results and see what works, giving you clarity rather than just randomly posting.

What are the 10 steps to a successful social media strategy?

The 10 steps to creating a winning social media strategy are:

• Setting SMART goals
• Outlining in-depth audience personas
• Selecting platforms based on audience presence
• Studying competitors
• Creating a content calendar
• Setting a posting schedule
• Using a variety of content types and formats
• Actively engaging with your audience
• Tracking key metrics and analyzing results
• Embracing flexibility to adapt and refine your strategy as needed

How do you organize a social media strategy?

 If you’re just starting out, using a social media strategy template is the best way to keep things organized. A good template includes sections dedicated to outlining your objectives, defining your target audience, planning your content, establishing a posting calendar, and tracking important metrics.

Are there any common social media strategy mistakes?

Yes, there are common pitfalls. These include not having specific goals, trying to be active on every single platform, posting without a content plan or schedule, ignoring engagement and failing to track your results and adjust your approach based on data.

How do I make my social media content stand out?

Focus on creating captivating content. Understand your brand voice, use it consistently and invest in high-quality visuals. Embrace storytelling for a more authentic feel, offer a mix of content types, and tap into current trends, humor (when brand-appropriate), and relevant news.

Should I use paid social media advertising?

Paid advertising can enhance your organic efforts. Consider it when you need to expand your reach beyond your existing followers, target extremely specific demographics and interest groups, boost the visibility of important content or campaigns, and drive direct traffic or lead generation.

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Small Business Trends

Master social media marketing with tips from small business experts.

Social media is a must for most small businesses today. But each strategy may look a bit different. Luckily, members of the online small business community have tips tailored to nearly every type of business. Find the insights that best suit your small business below.

Learn from Brands That Do Social Media Right

When developing your social media strategy, it’s helpful to look at positive examples from other brands. In this Foundation post, Jessica Tee Orika goes over five examples of SaaS brands using social media successfully so you can get inspired for your own strategy.

Create an Inspiring Social Media Presence

There are many different types of social media strategies that can be effective for businesses. But an inspiring presence can work for businesses in nearly any industry. Check out this Inspire to Thrive post by Anthony Gaenzle for insights.

Capture Attention with Viral Content Creation

Getting your content to go viral can provide a huge boost for your business. While there’s no way to guarantee this outcome, there are some qualities that can make viral content stand out. Read this Noobpreneur post by Ivan Widjaya for tips.

Try These Tools for Running Social Media Contests

Contests can kickstart your social media presence. And there are plenty of tools available that can help you run them. In this Blogging Wizard post, Elna Cain details ten top options. After reading, head over to BizSugar to read what members have to say.

Learn About the Latest LinkedIn Updates

LinkedIn is one of the top social media platforms, especially for B2B businesses. The site recently added even more features to provide value for users. Learn more in this Social Media Examiner post by Lisa D. Jenkins.

Create Cross-Functional Collaboration in Marketing

If you have multiple functions and departments all contributing to your marketing efforts, collaboration is key. So how can you foster this type of cross-functional collaboration? Amy Strickland breaks it down in this MarTech post.

Differentiate Your Business with These Innovative Strategies

Standing out in a crowded market requires innovation. Luckily, there are proven strategies that can help you create an effective marketing plan through social media and more. This DIY Marketers post by Ivana Taylor includes several options for small businesses.

Learn When to Post on YouTube for Maximum Reach

The time you post on social media can dramatically impact your reach. And the guidance tends to vary by platform. Recently, YouTube issued guidance for when to post for maximum reach. Get the details in this Search Engine Land post by Nicola Agius.

Explore How WhatsApp Fits into Your Social Media Landscape

WhatsApp is one of the most popular apps in the world. It’s not what many think of when it comes to social media. But it can fit into the mix for many brands. Janice Wald of Mostly Blogging shares more here.

Get the Details About Generative AI

Generative AI can impact many elements of business strategy – including social media. With so much to consider, this guide from Mahipal Nehra features all the relevant details for businesses.

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Social media marketing is relatively new in the history of marketing and advertising. Facebook Business Manager launched in 2014. Instagram business accounts followed in 2016, and TikTok entered the social scene the same year. It's safe to say social media's got a hold on us. We're linked in, taking pictures of our #dailylooks, and learning how to dance via TikTok. But we're also learning about new products and businesses. We're reading reviews, leaving our own, and rating everything from tai chi classes to Thai iced tea. Where we go to play on the internet is also where businesses have learned how to grab our attention and encourage us to take action.

What is content marketing?

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of social media marketing, we have to take a step back and understand the concept of content marketing. Content marketing is the branch of marketing that uses content to drive and achieve its marketing goals. "Content" is the catch-all term for the art and information marketers use to inspire their audience to take action. Content includes podcasts, social media posts, blog articles, video spots, and more. Content is the means through which marketers tell brand stories.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a subset of content marketing that uses social media channels to disseminate content, engage with audiences, and collect valuable analytics to improve strategy. You engage with social media channels daily: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube, amongst others. Social media marketers take the content they've created and post it to these channels to be seen by their followers. Social media marketing aims to organically attract and engage with people who are interested in what a business has to offer.

The benefits of social media marketing

Social media marketing has become a highly-effective marketing medium in recent years. Because social media connects the stories of everyday people with the stories of the businesses surrounding them, social media marketing has taken up the mantle of humanizing business in a way that hasn't been possible before. In doing so, it has become a massively beneficial medium for marketers and small business owners alike.

Increase trust and build brand awareness

One of the first significant benefits of social media marketing is that it helps you to increase trust with your customers and build brand awareness, even brand loyalty. By sharing space with your customers (i.e., using the same social media channels they do), you humanize your brand and develop brand authenticity. Customers see that your brand includes people who have a sense of humor, support the same causes, and have the same interests as they do.

Provides a direct line of connection to customers

Like we said earlier, sharing space with your customers helps humanize your brand, but it also allows you to communicate directly with your audience. No more wondering about how people feel about your business. They'll tell you through likes, comments, and shares. Moreover, you can gain valuable feedback by running polls and linking to surveys. You can increase customer satisfaction by meeting customers where they are to answer questions, comments, and concerns.

Helps you to monitor competition and trends

Another great benefit of social media is that nothing exists in a vacuum. Your customers can see what you're up to and you can research your target audience. Knowing what your audience is interested in, what kind of competitor accounts they are following, and the sort of people they find influential is invaluable information for your business. Being active on social media means you can monitor trends and your competition to help get ideas about high-performing content. What you see floating around in cyberspace might inspire your next great marketing campaign.

Know your audience

Marketing means nothing without an audience. You want your messages, designs, and videos to be seen and, more importantly, to be seen by the right people — people who are primed to engage with your content and take an interest in your business. These people are your target audience.

Social media marketing is no different. Finding the right target audience is key to building a successful presence in the social sphere. 

Determining your target audience

To understand who your target audience is on social media you’ll need to take the time to research, refine, and repeat. 

Research 

Data is everything when it comes to developing a quality target audience. You’ll want to make some educated guesses about who your social media target audience will be based on your current customer base, but then you’re going to have to back them up by collecting the appropriate data as you test and refine your audience target. 

Demographic Data 

The first step to determining your target audience is to take a deep dive into the demographics of your current customers. Think about the people who are purchasing your products or booking your services. Some demographics you’ll want to pay attention to are: 

Search out your audience

As you recognize what your customer base looks like you’ll have a good understanding of the type of users to gear your content towards online. The first step is to find where your audience is hanging out online. Remember that your audience might not be present on every platform.

Find your competition

Use your competition as fuel for your social media marketing efforts. Find competitors within your industry and see what kinds of content they are posting and who their audience is. 

Repeat & Refine

It’s important to remember that your audience will grow and change as your business does. Keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in your social sphere by repeating the cycle every quarter and refine your target audience(s) when necessary. 

How to attract followers

Getting people to notice your business takes work and attracting followers can seem like a tough challenge, but fear not, we’ve got you covered with some top tier tips and tricks to help you peak potential customers’ interest and see your follower count skyrocket. 

Start with your base

When you first create your social media accounts, start with your base to attract followers. This includes your friends, family, and current clients. Ask your base to follow your accounts and spread the word about your business.

How to grow beyond your existing base

Once you’ve tapped into your stores of loyal fans, it’s time to figure out new ways to grow your social following. Hashtagging, following relevant accounts, and cross-channel CTAs will help you to expand your social reach. 

Hashtagging

Hashtags are a great resource to getting your content seen by potential customers. Tag your content with no more than ten relevant and/or trending hashtags to make sure your content is easy to discover. Sources like WhatTheTrend (@WTT) and https://hashtag.org/ will teach you how to find hashtags. 

Follow relevant accounts

Following user accounts and business accounts relevant to your brand can help you grow your presence and expose your content to new customers. Just be sure to follow credible accounts, don’t purchase followers, and don’t follow a ton of accounts in one visit (you’ll end up looking like a bot). 

Cross-channel CTAs 

Encourage customers to follow your social media accounts by adding clickable links to your email marketing, print materials, and website. 

Selecting the right channel

Social media is a vast and varied medium for marketing. While you may want to go all in and start posting to every channel, it's essential to pause, think about strategy and what will be most effective for your business in the present and the future. 

So before you jump in with both feet, consider this: it's better to be consistent on one channel than to post haphazardly to every medium available. 

Check out the following demographic information, collected in 2022 by Sprout Social , to help you determine the best social channels for your business. We've compiled a list of the best content types per channel to ensure your posts are ready to garner great engagement.

Engage with other businesses and professionals, and share thought leadership and achievements. In terms of audience, the largest age group for LinkedIn is 25-35, predominantly male. On average, users spend around 33 minutes a day using the channel.

Best content types: 

• Sharing events
• Company updates

Engage with customers, and share image and video-based content to promote and reinforce your brand. In terms of audience, the largest age group is 25-34, with slightly more male users than female. On average, users spend around 29 minutes a day using the channel.

Best content types:

• Video content and reels
• Event showcase
• Bite-sized content (repurposing blogs), hints, and tips 

Quick updates, customer service, curate content, engage with partners. In terms of audience, the largest age group is 18-29, with predominantly male users. On average, users spend around 31 minutes a day using the channel. 

• Customer service queries
• General updates
• Engaging in relevant conversations
• Social listening
• Engaging with partners
• Shout-outs to customers

Facebook 

Announce events, share blogs, and answer questions. In terms of audience, the largest age group is 25-35, with more male users than female users. On average, users spend around 33 minutes a day using the channel.

Entertain your audience, and gather customer testimonials. In terms of audience, the largest age group is 10-19, with predominantly female users. On average, users spend around 89 minutes a day using the channel. 

• Brand awareness content
• Product demos
• Customer testimonials

Share links to your products and content that encourages their use. In terms of audience, the largest age group is 50-64, with the vast majority of users being female and spending an average of 14.2 minutes daily. 

• Product-centric posts and ads
• Ideas and relevant blogs to inspire customers to use your product
• Mood boards, including your products
• Great for design businesses (interiors, homes), the food industry, and hospitality

Share behind-the-scenes content, customer testimonials, and product demos. In terms of audience, the largest age group is 15-35, with slightly more male than female users. On average, users spend around 30 minutes a day using the channel. 

• Event recaps
• Q&As 
• Business ads

Determine your goals

You need to set goals to thrive as a business in the online social sphere. The goals you select will help you determine how to use social media to better your business. As you work on setting goals, remember to make them SMART goals . The SMART goal framework stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timebound. To help you get started, we've listed a couple of ready-made goals and the types of content that will help you achieve them.

Drive awareness

Whether you're a new business, new to social media marketing, or launching a new product or service, getting people to notice you is essential. Use content to help people get familiar with your brand and what you have to offer.

Types of content to drive awareness:

• Behind the scenes of your business
• Q&A or FAQ
• Product Demos
• Service overviews

Please note this is a fictitious example created for this post. 

Grow contacts

Once you have their attention, you can grow your contact list. By increasing your following and subscribers, you'll increase your prospective customers and be able to communicate with your audience through other channels, like email, SMS, or phone calls.

Types of content to grow contacts:

• Email opt-ins
• Sign-up forms
• Downloadable content
• Competitions
• Event RSVPs

Promote product/service

As your business launches products and services or wants to promote current offerings, you can use social media to help you publicize. Types of content to promote a product or service:

• Product demonstrations/tutorials
• Product features: images and videos

Increase customer advocacy

It's one thing to entice your customers into supporting your business and another to get them talking about it.

Types of content to increase customer advocacy:

• Encourage product reviews
• Run contests where people have to share your content or tag a friend
• Polls/Voting
• Share customer stories/customer quotes

Posting to social media

Once you've set your social media marketing goals, it's time to start creating content, scheduling posts, and testing to see what works.

Create a post

As you start to create content, remember to refer back to your goals. Every piece of content you produce should have a purpose that drives it. Once you know what action you want your content to inspire, it's time to focus on copywriting, design/imagery, and video editing where applicable. Copywriting: Messaging is extremely important for getting your audience to engage with your content. What you say and how you say it matters. The tone you choose to communicate with will differ depending on your audience. Be thoughtful and consistent with your messaging style and tone … and a grammar/spell checker doesn’t hurt to have handy. Design tools: It's crucial to select design tools that allow you to design quality content. When choosing a design platform, thinking about turnaround times and integrations is essential. Social media is a fast-moving environment, so you want access to agile project software that lets you keep up with the internet's rapid pace. Video editing: As you consider video editing software, think about the types of videos you will be sharing and on what platform. You'll often find that social media apps have native editors, which ensure you create hostable content. For social channels that are more video focused, like YouTube, you might want to invest in a third-party video editor that has more robust capabilities.

Planning out content in advance and using social scheduling software will allow you to be consistent in your posting efforts. Social scheduling tools give you a bird's eye view of all the content you have scheduled for weeks across channels and allows you to be present on social media even when you’re away from your desk. Quickly move content around to keep up with trends and save time in your work schedule. Setting your daily posting to auto-send via scheduling software gives you time to monitor and engage with your audience, work on more material, etc.

It's important to play around and test your posts to see what works and what doesn't. Pay attention to what engages your audience. Notice the kinds of content that work on one channel may yield completely different results on another. Play around with image styles, design, video, and caption content.

Measure and adjust your social media campaign strategy

Once you've made your posts, it's crucial to monitor the success of your content. You'll want to see what people found relevant, engaging, and informative and what they could have responded better to. Making an effort to analyze your previous content means you can adjust for the future and create better content with each new piece. Here are some metrics that will be useful when you measure your social media campaign performance: Impressions : This is the number of times your content appears in the social feed to be seen by users. Reach : This is the number of people your content has reached. Engagement : This is the number of times users engage with your content through clicks, likes, comments, mentions, and shares. Conversions: This is the number of times your audience responded to your call to action by completing the desired action. For example: subscribing, purchasing, and signing up for an event.

Best practices for Social Media Marketing

Now that you have the knowledge and know-how on social media marketing, it's time to ready your social strategy and start creating your posts. As a quick little cheat sheet, refer to these best practices whenever you need a refresher on what makes great social media marketing.

Consistency over quantity:

Remember it is better to post consistently on one social channel than to sporadically post on all of them. A suitable method is to use a content calendar to plan your posts and keep your presence consistent.

Repurpose content:

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. When content works, it works. Repurpose the content you've already spent time creating. Select a blog post to pick and choose from and turn it into an infographic or social content. When you see a piece of content getting a high engagement rate, pause and assess if there are ways to repurpose it.

Have a clear call to action (CTA):

You want your content to inspire your audience to take action. A "call to action" or CTA is the little nudge you give your audience to purchase, click a link, or sign up for a newsletter. CTAs are a vital part of creating content that gets high-quality engagement.

Engage with your audience and listen for feedback:

Take the time to engage with your audience. Set aside time daily to attend to your followers' questions, comments, and concerns, so they feel supported by your business.

Tying it all together

Now that you’re well-versed in the world of social media marketing, it’s time to generate buzz in the social sphere. Get started by setting your first SMART goal, choosing a social channel to post to, and creating content to engage your target audience. Good social content will help you drive awareness, grow your contacts, promote your products and services, and increase customer advocacy, amongst other goals you set for your social media marketing strategy. Once you've played around and tested content types, you can start scheduling a whole fleet of posts that are ready to engage your audience and help grow your business.

About Constant Contact

Constant Contact delivers for small businesses and nonprofits with powerful tools that simplify and amplify digital marketing. Whether it's driving sales, growing a customer base or engaging an audience, we deliver the performance and guidance to build strong connections and generate powerful results.

Additional Small Business Digital Marketing Content from Constant Contact

During the  Digital Marketing for Small Business  session at the  Amazon Business Small Business Summit 2023 , Dave covers the fundamentals of social media marketing, email marketing, and text/SMS marketing. 

In the below guest posts, Dave walks you through how to create your digital marketing contact list and get your SMS efforts off the ground. .   

Explore these digital marketing strategy posts:

• Creating Your Email and SMS Contact Lists Learn what you should and shouldn’t do to grow your Digital Contacts Lists for your Small Business
• Text Message Marketing for Small Business Want to use text/sms messages as marketing tool? Find out how to get started in this post.

Amazon Business does not endorse or approve any products or opinions shared by content contributors. The content is for information purposes only and Amazon Business does not warrant that the material contained herein will continue to be accurate nor that it is completely free of errors when published or that it is suitable in dealing with a particular situation.

About Dave Charest

Dave Charest is Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact , the online marketing leader trusted by millions of small businesses to provide email, web, social media, text and event marketing tools. In his role, Dave acts as an educator and an advocate for small business leaders, marketing professionals, and nonprofits by providing them with practical marketing advice that can help them achieve their goals. He is a dynamic leader, speaker, creator, and award-winning marketer who strives to inspire small businesses by simplifying the complex world of online marketing

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8 mistakes to avoid in social media marketing.

You won’t get anywhere by simply posting content on social media without a plan. To reach organic growth, you must avoid social media mistakes

by Contributing Author

Every organization hopes to attract as many clients as possible to its brand in the overcrowded, fiercely competitive digital landscape. Naturally, it turns to every available communication channel on the web, including various social media platforms.

However, It’s not as simple as some people think to get a brand noticed by using social media. You’re not even aware that you are doing everything wrong.

Let’s dive deeper into the common mistakes businesses make regarding social media so you can avoid them and grow your audience.

1. Inconsistency

Social media allows you to engage your audience by posting content. Social media users are very diligent when it is about brand interaction.

Social media mistakes that businesses commit include posting too frequently or infrequently. Every social platform has unique posting standards. Posting 1-2 times per day on Facebook, for example, is the best way to go.

LinkedIn allows for a maximum of one post per day. Twitter, however, only allows up to three posts per day. You can reach more customers by adhering to these standards.

A social media management pricing company would conduct due diligence on best content optimization practices for each channel, as different platforms have different content preferences. If you post content that is not relevant to your audience, it will make you appear inexperienced. Consumers won’t trust your service if they think your company lacks credibility.

2. Ineffective social media strategy

Let’s say you’re an investor looking for the most lucrative and promising investment opportunities . Your investment strategy should include a plan, such as the type of investment that you are looking for, your budget, etc.

Social media is no different. A social media strategy is needed that addresses specific goals, as well as a plan for follow-up. You won’t get anywhere by simply posting content on social media without a plan.

Consider your social media goals and the budget you need to achieve them. Also, consider what tools you will need to monitor and track your performance across social media channels.

Be prepared to adapt your approach and adopt innovative techniques that will appeal to modern consumers.3. Targeting the wrong audience

Not every social media user will get with your brand. You should define your target audience to focus your social media efforts on consumers looking for a product or service like yours.

Though this will take some customer segmentation research, knowing your audience and their specific needs allows you to get the desired social media marketing results.

We recommend that you also explore content-linking methods to connect your content on your social media accounts, and broaden your reach. This will save you time, money, and effort by allowing people to be interested in your product/service.

4. Lack of conversation engagements

It doesn’t matter how often you update your social media pages, if no one shares or comments on them. You need to create relevant content that your target audience will engage with.

You need to schedule and organize your posts so that they elicit conversations in order to increase your customer engagement. If your customers react to your posts then engage them with more relevant information about your brand, your products, your services, your mission, etc.

You should also address negative feedback. If you respond in a polite and friendly manner, you can transform negative comments into an opportunity. We encourage you to be proactive in your approach to social media marketing, rather than a reactive one. This will help to increase customer engagement and interaction.

5. No response to stories mentioned

Storytelling and reels can be powerful tools for growing your business. They can attract more viewers than regular posts to brand-related content. Many brands are missing out on opportunities because they don’t respond to stories and reels.

You can deepen your relationship with your customers by acknowledging mentions. This will help you present your brand to your clients as one that is customer-centric and caring.

Here are some ways to use Instagram’s story reply feature for your benefit

• When someone contacts you with a problem, direct them to the customer service team to solve it as soon as possible.
• Follow-up with personalized content.
• Answer questions your audience asks.
• Sending customer satisfaction surveys.
•  Host giveaways.

You can think of many more ways if you are willing to be creative.

6. Everything is automated

Automating your social media marketing efforts is essential. It can save time, energy, and resources for your team. Automation can’t replace all your tasks.

While it may help to grow your brand and increase your organic reach on social networks, it is not enough. By becoming too dependent on automated processes, you might lose track of where your business is at and what direction it wants to take.

Your audience is only interested in your brand on social media. You must ensure your business is successful by focusing on the correct brand persona in every channel. Automation can take care of scheduling and content marketing.

But you need to add a personal touch to your marketing strategy in order for it respond to the preferences of your target market and address their real needs.

7. Marketing campaigns that focus on your brand rather than your customers

Your target audience will not like you if you continue to promote your content. They’ll eventually dislike your brand, undoing all your hard work.

Your following will shrink instead of growing. Don’t just promote your brand online. Be subtle and track the responses of your customers.

8. No performance analytics

You should never fail to monitor your social media analytics. Understanding your social brand performance will help you identify strengths and weaknesses so that you can improve your strategy.

The key to understanding what your past actions have meant is through analytics. Analytics can provide you with actionable insights that will help improve your social media strategy and boost your online visibility.

All is not lost if you have been making these mistakes. It’s not too late to change the situation to your advantage. You should not delete customer feedback and comments. Instead, be as responsive to questions and comments as you can.

Do not post the same thing every day. This will just turn into spam. Consider posting on multiple channels, and be aware of users’ preferences.

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The Top 10 Stress-Free Social Media Planning Tools

Content-planning got you down? A good social media planning tool can make your work life a whole lot easier. Here are our top ten favorites.

Table of Contents

In the vast foggy sea of digital marketing, your social media planning tools can light the way forward.

As social media sailors ourselves, we’ve navigated uncharted waters, and know that it requires more than luck to get to where you want to go. Without the right tools, you’re bound to get lost at sea. That’s why we’ve journeyed far and wide to bring you this list.

This blog is like your treasure map to the shores of a well-run social media plan. Seafaring metaphors aside, get ready for the top ten hands down best social media planning tools in 2023!

Bonus: Download our free, customizable social media calendar template to easily plan and schedule all your content in advance.

What is a social media planning tool?

Social media planning tools are software that helps you schedule, organize, and publish content on social media.

These tools can range from scheduling software to grid planners to calendars. If it helps you plan your social media, it belongs on this list.

What should you look for in a good social media planning tool?

If you don’t know what to look for in a social media planning tool, you must feel like a map-less pirate. So much treasure out there, but how do you find it?

The five capabilities below can help point you in the right direction.

Intuitive interface and usability

A tool is only good if you enjoy using it. It can be the best time-saving gadget in the world, but if it’s a pain to use, you’re not going to reach for it very often. If an alligator eats your hand, you want to replace it with a user-friendly device, like a hook.

When you’re doing initial research into which tools to choose, make sure you try them out before you commit or schedule a demo to see how they work. You can also find tons of tutorials on YouTube (shoutout, Hootsuite Labs !), where you can see the tools in action.

Look for an appealing interface, clear CTAs and guiding buttons, and ease of use.

Scheduling capabilities

When it comes to planning for social media, you need to have scheduling capabilities or the ability to integrate with your scheduling software. In fact, we believe scheduling software to be so integral that we wrote a post outlining the 15 best social media scheduling tools.

Aside from actual content creation, nothing will take you as long as post-scheduling. Having software that can bulk-schedule social media posts for you, or software that can schedule your posts in the same place as other planning tasks, is going to save you so much time.

Add a great scheduling tool to your already awesome social media posting schedule , and you can’t miss.

Support and automation

There are many, many content planning tools available. Choosing one with supporting features will give you more bang for your buck.

Ask yourself where you spend the most time struggling. Is it caption writing? Hashtag research? Analyzing when your audience is online? Content ideas?

Then, find a tool that’ll help hammer out your most-hated tasks. Bonus points if it will do those tasks for you (looking at you, OwlyWriter AI).

Analytics and reporting capabilities

You need to be able to measure the impact of your social media efforts, and it’s simply easier when all of your tools (calendar and reporting alike) are in one place.

You need to know which content strategy gives you the results you’re looking for. And you need to know where your weaknesses lie, so you can either pivot from or double up on your efforts.

Collaboration features

If you’re part of a team, you will need a tool that has collaboration features. Allowing your teammates to jump in to edit dates, add campaigns, or share their thoughts is vital. A ship only sails if we’re all rowing together.

If you’re the captain, you don’t want to simply share a login to one platform, as your teammates will likely need different permissions. Look for a tool that allows you to assign tasks, manage approvals, and coordinate efforts across social media networks.

10 top social media planning tools

Here are our top ten picks for the best social media planning tools:

1. Hootsuite

Not to toot our own horn (absolutely to toot our own horn), but we’ve got Hootsuite holding down the number one spot on this list. Is it our software? Yes. Would we still love it if we weren’t paid to love it? Also yes.

Hootsuite’s an all-in-one social media tool. It’s got it all: Incredible features, a giant orange owl mascot, in-depth analytics, and some bonkers automation capabilities to do your work for you.

Oh, and it has tons of app integrations, so you can add some bells and whistles to your social media planning tool to make it that much better.

https://youtu.be/c_xYkyfivDI

Key planning features:

• Hootsuite Planner for easy post-scheduling (including bulk) and organizing, and at-a-glance calendar views
• Composer allows you to create and share social media content across multiple platforms, like Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.
• Best Time to Publish suggests publishing times when your audience is online.
• Industry Benchmarking to inform your content plan

Other features we love:

• OwlyWriter , which uses AI to write your captions for you
• AI-driven hashtag suggestions
• Collaboration capabilities, including the ability for multiple people to edit the same post

Price: Free trial, paid subscriptions starting at $99 per month

Who it’s best for: Marketers and marketing teams of up to and including enterprise levels.

Try Hootsuite for free. You can cancel anytime.

2. AirTable

AirTable is a social media content planning tool that allows you and your team to map out content calendars, manage campaigns, and build dynamic workflows. It’s a great collaboration platform, one you can use with your teammates and clients alike.

AirTable’s beauty comes from its organizational capabilities, ease of use, and flexibility. You can view the same data in a multitude of ways (like a traditional calendar vs. a Kanban board) and create all manner of charts and flows. AirTable’s great for visual learners, giving you a flexible database for your content planning.

Source: AirTable

Key features:

• Instant data synchronization means your team can see your calendar or campaign changes in real time
• Email digest automation can automate updates to stakeholders or clients, saving you time on calendar status reporting
• Hootsuite integration: You can create an Airtable record from a social message directly in Hootsuite

Price: Free for individuals or small teams; paid subscriptions start at $10 per seat per month

Who it’s best for: Visual planners, teams that collaborate in real-time.

3. Grid for Hoot

Want an Instagram grid that looks like a professionally-hung gallery wall? Then you need Grid for Hoot , the app integration that allows you to intentionally plan your Instagram grid, within Hootsuite.

You can schedule new posts by uploading your own content or by searching stock photography from Unsplash without having to leave the platform. Plus, the app integrates with ChatGPT to generate posts from a description.

Source: Grid for Hoot

• Visualize your final Instagram grid before publishing
• Send photos from Grid for Hoot in Hootsuite to Instagram
• Schedule posts in advance

Price: $3.99 or FREE for all Hootsuite Enterprise accounts

Who it’s for: Visual Instagram marketers

Although it wasn’t specifically designed as a social media planning tool, ChatGPT can be used as one.

With the right prompts, ChatGPT can help you brainstorm and outline your content calendar. Try providing it with the type of content you want to share and the frequency, and ask it to suggest topics and themes.

Source: ChatGPT

Outside of social media planning specifically, ChatGPT can also help you to adapt your long-form content, like blogs, into social media-friendly pieces to fill out your calendar. And it works as a competitor analysis assistant too. Plug in your competitor’s past content and ask ChatGPT to suggest ways you could differentiate from or improve upon the strategy.

It’s important to note that, along with all other conversational AI models, ChatGPT’s output should not be taken as a final draft. You, the human being, need to review and edit.

• Contextual understanding of inputted text
• Multilingual capabilities
• Self-improvement capabilities

Price: Free

Who it’s for: The more complex your brand, product, or industry is, the more specific and targeted your prompts need to be. ChatGPT works best with simpler commands.

HubSpot , famous for being a big shot in customer relationship management (CRM), has spiced things up with its very own social media calendar. HubSpot’s social media content calendar is templated and customizable; you don’t have to start from scratch, and you can make it your own.

HubSpot’s social media scheduler also allows you to manage your social campaigns in one place. You can schedule and publish content to LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X, AKA Twitter.

For sales folks who live and breathe in the HubSpot CRM, this makes taking care of social media tasks convenient. But, those who are primarily social media marketers may find the platform lacks capabilities.

Source: Hubspot

• Ability to schedule and publish posts to multiple platforms
• Integration with Hootsuite
• Templated and customizable calendar

Price: Starter CRMs begin at $30 per month; professional business accounts start at $800 per month.

Who it’s for: Salespeople who also do or need insight into social media marketing.

6. Canva Pro

Canva Pro , the paid version of the beloved drag-and-drop design tool, comes equipped with a social media scheduler and planner.

Within the dashboard, you can track engagement, likes, clicks, impressions, and more to see how you’re performing. Canva Pro’s capabilities are great for simple scheduling, planning, and reporting tasks, but if enterprise marketers may want a tool with a little more oomph.

Source: Canva

• Simple scheduling, planning, and publishing
• Intuitive and easy-to-use scheduling tools (much like the rest of Canva!)
• Simple social media performance analytics

Price : $14.99 per month

Who it’s for: Canva designers who need to take care of social media tasks

7. Google Sheets

The Google Drive suite, especially Google Sheets, makes up some of our favorite free social media planning tools.

For smaller clients, simple campaigns, or marketers on a budget, Google Sheets can help you stay organized and keep your social plan running smoothly.

Google Sheets are highly customizable, so you can tailor them to whatever kind of social media plan you need. Annual themes, granular day-to-day posting schedules, months-long campaigns, you name it.

In fact, we like Google Sheets so much that we used it to make a free content calendar template. You can find it here, where we explain everything you need to know about creating a social media calendar.

Key features

• Customizable spreadsheets
• Endless columns for you to track the necessary data and metrics
• Collaboration in real time
• Endless easy-to-Google spreadsheet hacks, like the Slicer function

Price: Free!

Who it’s for : Smaller teams, social media plans on a tight budget, or individual marketers

8. CoSchedule

CoSchedule’s an all-in-one platform helping marketers to organize content on social media alongside their websites and blogs. The lower end of the platform is geared towards solopreneurs, bloggers, and startups that have an active website or regularly create long-form content.

The top tier of CoSchedule, the Marketing Suite, is geared towards enterprises and larger marketing teams who need in-depth tools and features for marketing content.

Source: CoSchedule

• The Social Calendar gives you full visibility of your social media content and comes with an AI-assist
• The Content Calendar helps you plan your marketing schedule with visibility of all your tasks, projects, and campaigns
• The Headline Studio will score your headlines, helping you to improve the performance of your long-form content

Price: Free with paid accounts starting at $39 per month per user.

Who it’s for: From individuals to large teams creating and marketing long-form content. Solopreneurs and bloggers can get away with just subscribing CoSchedules Marketing Calendar, while larger teams will want to look into the Marketing Suite.

 9. XPro (previously known as Tweetdeck)

TweetDeck , which is currently rebranding to XPro, is a Twitter-specific dashboard containing columns that you set up to your liking. TweetDeck is a tool that helps out in the pre-planning stages of social media planning by helping you to understand the social landscape.

The columns can show your notifications, mentions, DMs, liked tweets, tweets on a specific topic or search term, and trending topics, to name a few. You may want to monitor a news story or a hashtag as it develops while planning how you’ll enter the conversation.

Source: TweetDeck

• Customizable columns to organize Twitter content
• Real time publishing feeds to stay abreast of content

Who it’s for: Twitter marketers

10. Evernote

Are you one of those marketers who cannot survive without a daily To-do list? Well, Evernote might be for you. Evernote makes it easy to create your daily to-do list, for your weekly, monthly, and annual content marketing plans.

Evernote integrates with calendars like Google, Microsoft, and Apple. You can use the Calendar Connector feature to automatically update your content across platforms. And you can invite your teammates to your notes to collaborate on tasks.

Plus, Evernote comes with templated calendars so you can easily get started with weekly or monthly social calendar task lists. Evernote does not, however, have scheduling capabilities.

Source: Evernote

• Evernote Calendar Connector
• Templated calendars
• Collaboration capabilities

Price: Free, with professional pricing starting at $17.99 per month.

Who it’s best for: Marketers and planners who use To-do lists and tasks to stay organized.

FAQs about social media planning tools

What are the best social media planning tools.

The best social media planning tools for enterprise-level marketers are all-in-one platforms dedicated to social media planning. Hootsuite is (obviously) our top pick due to its automation, integration, and AI-driven features.

What is social media planning software?

Social media planning software helps organize, schedule, and manage content across various social media platforms.

What are the benefits of social media planning tools?

Social media planning tools streamline content scheduling, enhance consistency, provide analytics insights, and boost overall social media strategy efficiency.

Should I buy social media planning software?

Deciding to buy social planning software depends on your needs, team size, budget, and how central social media is to your marketing strategy. Your best bet is to evaluate options based on your specific requirements.

Use Hootsuite to schedule all of your social media posts, engage with your followers, and track the success of your efforts. Sign up for a free trial today.

Get Started

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.

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Colleen Christison is a freelance copywriter, copy editor, and brand communications specialist. She spent the first six years of her career in award-winning agencies like Major Tom, writing for social media and websites and developing branding campaigns. Following her agency career, Colleen built her own writing practice, working with brands like Mission Hill Winery, The Prevail Project, and AntiSocial Media.

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Trump's biggest flop ever

The collapse of Trump Media came even quicker than I expected.

I'm not saying that I am the next Jim Cramer , but I had a point when I wrote just a few weeks ago that former President Donald Trump's social-media company was probably not going to be an awesome stock pick . Was this completely foreseeable and deeply obvious ? Absolutely.

Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns the conservative Twitter clone Truth Social, went public via SPAC in late March. (For those not familiar, a SPAC, or special-purpose acquisition company, is a shell company that goes public with the intention of buying an actual company later. In the Trump case, the shell company Digital World Acquisition purchased TMTG.) When the merger was completed, the stock — which trades under the ticker DJT — popped to over $70 a share. TMTG's market cap topped $9 billion, and the former president's net worth, on paper, jumped to $7 billion .

And then, DJT popped again, but this time in the bad, bubble-bursting way. Its price fell , and then it fell again , and then it fell some more . The stock staged a bit of a rally at the end of last week, but it's still well off of its March highs. As of the end of trading on Friday, TMTG was trading at $36.38 down 54% from its peak and 41% since I wrote about it three weeks ago. Correspondingly, the former president's related wealth gains have come back down to earth . People on Truth Social feel pretty bad about it. Short sellers, if I had to guess, feel pretty good , even if Trump's company is trying to prevent them from betting against it. Anyone investing in TMTG is in for a bumpy ride.

While Trump is a political figure, Trump Media's stock price is not really a political story. Sure, there are some fervent followers who believe that buying the stock is akin to supporting the Republican presidential candidate. More broadly, though, TMTG's fall from grace is more of a business story with a hint of cultural weight that let it achieve some meme-stock-like status.

The thing about TMTG is that it is not a good business. Its total revenue was $4.1 million in 2023, which is a little more than what a single McDonald's franchise makes in a year, and it lost $58 million the same year. When the stock was near its highs, it was trading at something like 2,000 times the company's annual revenue. That is a lot. Nvidia, the high-flying vanguard of the artificial-intelligence revolution and one of the hottest stocks this year, is trading at about 35 times its revenue.

Besides required financial information, Trump's media outfit won't disclose central data points that would give a better picture of how well it is — or, likely, isn't — doing. As my colleague Peter Kafka has pointed out , TMTG refuses to tell investors how many people are signing up for Truth Social, whether they're sticking with the platform, or what's happening in ad sales. In regulatory filings, the company says it "believes that adhering to traditional key performance indicators, such as signups, average revenue per user, ad impressions and pricing, or active user accounts including monthly and daily active users, could potentially divert its focus from strategic evaluation with respect to the progress and growth of its business." In other words, it doesn't think publicly disclosing how things are going will be good for its business prospects, which, I mean, tracks to the extent that the truth is probably bad. (To be clear, other publicly traded social-media companies, such as Reddit and Meta, do not keep a lot of this kind of information under wraps.)

For all the gloominess now, Trump's media company says it has bigger and brighter days ahead. On Tuesday, TMTG announced that it planned to launch a streaming-TV platform where creators who can't find an audience for "unjust" reasons "won't be cancelled." The same day, its stock price fell by 14%, though the next day it bounced.

TMTG isn't going under tomorrow. Its CEO, Devin Nunes — yes, that Devin Nunes , the former US representative from California — has said it has millions of dollars in the bank thanks to the boost from going public. He's also trying to push back against short sellers in an attempt to keep those betting against the company at bay.

All in all, for shareholders, this is not a fun roller-coaster ride. The stock is on a steady downward trajectory, and things aren't looking good. The company has filed plans to issue more shares , which would raise even more cash for operations but dilute the value for current shareholders. Trump himself, who owns more than half of the company's shares, is subject to a lockup period that prevents him from selling those shares for six months. This is pretty standard practice for SPACs to prevent pump-and-dumps. The board could speed that up and let him and other insiders sell earlier, which would give the former president a quick cash injection but almost certainly depress the stock's price more. Why hold on to the stock when even its namesake is giving it up? So DJT will likely circle the drain even faster once major shareholders are allowed to sell, and it's not really clear how the company plans to turn that around. Trump, for his part, has some bigger fish to fry, like competing in an election and hanging out in court .

That TMTG's stock price has fallen isn't surprising. It's not a successful business, and it's not clear how many people are ever going to want to hang out on Truth Social, let alone how many businesses would want to advertise there. The speed of the stock's plunge, however, is a bit of a shock. It wasn't a given that the gravity of reality would be such a strong, immediate force. But for now, the Trump Media & Technology Group illusion seems to be coming undone.

Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

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