Spring Cleaning: 5 Easy Ways To Dust Off Your Social Media Plan
Spring Cleaning: 5 Easy Ways To Dust Off Your Social Media Plan
For most of us, spring cleaning is in full effect! As you organize your desk and clean out some old cabinets, don’t forget to give that ol’ social media plan a good clean, too. There are 5 easy ways small businesses like yours can dust off your social media plan so you can blooming success for the rest of the year!
1. Refresh Your Account
There’s nothing like a total makeover to really make you feel good about your social media accounts! Give it a good refresh. Old logos, poorly-sized profile pictures, blurry images – get rid of it all. Update your accounts with the latest and correctly-sized images that belong on each of your social media accounts. This may seem like a small change, but it will have big impact on the impression
your business will give to potential customers. As you’re doing this, also be sure you’re utilizing all that social media has to offer – like cover photos for example. Do you have a cover photo? Does the cover photo look professional and clean on both desktop and mobile devices? And last but not least, your content. Social media isn’t just about images, your content also matters. This spring, make sure your biography is up-to-date and current, your phone number is still accurate, and that your email address is active. All of these things can also play a big role in the impressions your business gives.
2. Go Through Your Goals
For some business owners, their social media plan is like an unorganized drawer – one that hasn’t been given the TLC it needs, one that has been completely forgotten about and one that just keeps collecting dust with each passing day. Does this sound like you? This spring, go through your goals and clean them out. Throw out the goals that are no longer beneficial or relevant. You can start by coming up with SMART goals. SMART stands for:
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Specific
- Ask yourself why your business is on social media and make your goals specific. What do you hope to accomplish? Your goal may be to simply engage and connect with customers, or it might be to increase website traffic and conversions. Whatever your goal may be, make sure it is specific and clear.
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Measurable
- It’s not enough that your goals are specific, you need to make sure they’re easily measurable. Otherwise, you’re not able to tell just how effective your strategies are. This might be a good time to invest in social media management tools, such as Google Analytics, Sprout Social, or HootSuite – to name a few. These tools can help you track your engagement, conversions, and other metrics that are important to you and your business.
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Attainable
- While you should challenge yourself, you don’t want to make your goals completely out of reach. Ask yourself: are my goals attainable? If they’re unreasonable, reassess your goals. Don’t set yourself up to fail.
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Relevant
- Your goals should be relevant to your business, otherwise you’ll lose the interest of your customers. If your strategies don’t speak to your customer base, or it doesn’t align with your objectives, then it may be tough to achieve the results you hope to achieve.
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Timely
- This is where you have the chance to hold yourself accountable. Set a deadline for your goals. Mark your calendars for the day you plan to reach your goal. It’s easy to put off achieving your goals if there’s no end date in mind.
Once you’ve gone through your old goals and determined your current goals, you can move on to implementing a social strategy that works.
3. Scrub Your Social Media Strategy
Your goals are only half of it – now, you need to give that social media strategy a good clean and start putting some of these goals to work! One way to really dive deep into your social media strategy is to look at the analytics and numbers of the past. What worked well last year? What didn’t work well? How can you improve? According to HootSuite, your social media strategy should outline your social media goals, the tactics you plan to use to achieve them and the metrics you will track to measure your progress. But the only way you can successfully do this, is if you know what works and what doesn’t for your business.
Here’s a list of tips to improving your social media strategy:
- Set SMART Goals
- Identify Your Target Audience
- Research Competitors (SWOT Analysis)
- Be Human and Authentic
- Seek Relationships With People, Not Just Followers
- Invest Your Time In The RIGHT Social Media Channels
- Tell A Story (Don’t Just Try To Sell A Product/Service)
Get in there and don’t be afraid to get dirty – it will be worth it in the end when you start to see the results! Happy cleaning!
4. Check Out Your Neighbors (Competition)
4. Check Out Your Neighbors (Competition)When you’re spring cleaning and doing yard work, do you ever look over the fence or across the street to admire what your neighbor Bill is doing with his lawn? You should be doing the same when it comes to your competition! This spring, conduct a SWOT Analysis. Even if you’ve done this in the past, a refresh is never a bad idea. SWOT stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT Analysis is a framework used to determine and define these four things against your competitive position. Once you’ve identified your competition, know what social media platforms they are on and research how their social strategy is currently working for them. After you have an idea of how well your competition’s social media marketing is going, you can conduct the analysis. The SWOT analysis will help you determine your current strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities you have and what outside factors come into play, and the threats you may come across when it comes to your competition. We go over this in more detail in another blog here.
5. Make A List And Plan Ahead
After all is said and done, now maintaining your social media presence is a whole other topic. For most people, managing social media on top of the day-to-day business operations can be tough. Most people would tell you that you need to be active and consistent on your social media channels, but it is often the last thing people think about when they’re busy running their business. That being said, come up with your social media content ahead of time! Here’s how:
- Create a social media content calendar: Plan content for an entire month if you can.
- Add images: Once you’ve come up with content, decide on the images you’re going to put with each social media post.
- Schedule: After you’ve determined your content and images, use a scheduling tool like some we listed above (HootSuite, SproutSocial, etc.) and schedule the content ahead of time.
By doing this, you won’t even have to think about your social media content for an entire month. Of course, if you’re having a hard time finding the time to even do this, there are professionals who can help – like VitalStorm!