If you have been tasked with creating a social media campaign, chances are that you’ve been given some guidelines and told to do it from scratch. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this. You aren’t quite sure where to begin and what to do, exactly, which is why we have compiled a list of some of the most useful pieces of advice concerning campaign creation. It will be a complex and long process, but perhaps one of the most rewarding ones in the marketing business. And you will realize that there is no secret formula or skill to a successful social media campaign. It all comes down to playing it smart and using your creativity to the fullest.
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Set goals and objectives
The first step is to set realistic goals and objectives. Being given or taking on the responsibility of making a social media campaign means that you are familiar with the company’s brand, their needs and future or current goals, and your task is to increase the brand’s visibility and customer engagement through social media. The best course of action would be to talk to the project manager and the financial department to see what the overall goals are, and see in which ones your campaign can contribute. Then pitch your ideas so that everyone is on the same page, and you will have solid foundations that will make the later work much easier.
Research
Before taking any serious steps, you need to conduct thorough research, both on your company’s previous social media campaigns, those of your competitors and the target audiences. See what kind of content appeals most based on your target demographic, and if there is anything the company might have missed the first time around. Another important thing to research is the best posting time due to time zones and audience’s online activity throughout the day. This will be of great help later on when you have to decide when to post certain types of content.
Know and choose your channels
Familiarize yourself with every possible social media channel. There is a countless number of them by now, and keeping up with every single one of them will be too much to handle and too time consuming, when you could be focusing on other tasks. Research which social media sites are the most active and popular among your customers, which ones are the best for event promotions, for company announcements and so on.
Follow the demographic
Speaking of target audience, the option to assess who follows your brand and how well is always a smart move. You will be better prepared for deciding which content should be written and posted at what time. Younger audiences tend to use facebook, Instagram, youtube and snapchat, while the elderly are more inclined to stick to what they know best, which is most commonly facebook. Wordpress and blogger are frequently used by the less chat-oriented, and more content-producing audiences. Make a fun public questionnaire with some incentive upon its completion, to ensure the largest possible pool of people for your target demographic research.
About the content
When making content for the social media outlets, know full well what you’re getting yourself into before thinking up topics, designs and so on. You want to keep it specific not just according to your target audience, but also specific for the type of social network. While facebook allows all kinds of posts and updates, twitter, for example, limits posts to 140 characters. Instagram works only through photos, so company-related imagery should be posted here more prominently. Vary your content with guest posts, infographics, photo-ops, interviews and whatever creative you believe draws in the customers.
Design, design, design
When it comes to design, there are several things to think about as well. You have limitations on design within the platform itself, but that doesn’t mean your hands are tied. Almost every website has a header image of set proportions, an option to choose an avatar, a customizable ‘about me section’ and page layouts that you can modify to your preferences. Like the experts at SEO Services Perth advise, think about the current season, topical events and major holidays, switching up your homepage according to them. Sometimes we are at our most creative selves when presented with strict limitations. So put your mind to it, and you are bound to make something eye-catching.
Assess and adapt
When all these are accounted for, you will start to see an increase in traffic. But that is hardly the end of the campaign struggle. Now is time to reap what was sown, and see what the chances are for ROI. Just as you conducted your research to predict what may or may not sell, analyzing the degree of the campaign’s success is crucial for further development. You will know where to cut your losses, who to interview next, which posts were more or less successful and so on. The metrics will depend on what your initial goals for the campaign were, which allows for an overview on what to focus on next.
Final words
Starting a social media campaign is not an easy feat. There are those who believe it can be done by anyone with a proper hold on grammar, but a campaign is far from it. One has to be resourceful, cunning, determined and most of all – creative. They have to have a firm grasp on technology and the latest trends in the social media waters, to really be able to handle the task. It’s a wild ride from start to finish, but one that certainly pays off in the long run, both for your company and personal career growth.