{"id":74271,"date":"2018-09-25T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T08:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=74271"},"modified":"2018-09-25T07:05:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T06:05:35","slug":"creating-social-media-content-strategy-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/social-media-marketing\/social-media-strategy\/creating-social-media-content-strategy-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating your social media content strategy and plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social media strategy and planning essentials series<\/h2>\n

This is part 5 of my Smart Insights 12 part social media series. In the last part, we looked at the role of organic vs paid social media<\/a> and touched on the importance of content. In this blog, I discuss a sensible way to approach content planning for your social media channels.<\/p>\n

Social media networks support multiple content formats and there has been rapid growth in the use of interactive formats, for example, carousel ads on Facebook. This flexibility of format (text, image, multi-image, video, carousel etc.) gives marketers the ability to experiment with different types of content to gauge how best to attract and engage social users.<\/p>\n

If people are the heartbeat of social media, content is the blood. It\u2019s your content that people see and respond to, and that communicates your values and messages.<\/p>\n

But what content works? How do you plan what to talk about, on which platforms and in what formats?<\/p>\n

Producing and sharing content is no guarantee of success. Smart content marketers understand the need to align social with other channels to ensure there is a consistent style of communication with customers and the stories they are telling, and that is driven by a clear plan rather than scrabbling each week to find something to share.<\/p>\n

(If I ever utter the words \u201cI need something to put in today\u2019s Facebook post, any ideas?\u201d, please shoot me).<\/p>\n

Why is it important to get your content right for social media?<\/h3>\n

Social media is most often used for personal reasons to connect with friends and family, or to be part of conversations that align with your personal interests and passions.<\/p>\n

If you serve content to people with this mindset that isn\u2019t appropriate, relevant or useful, it can have the effect of turning people off and driving them away. Similarly, if you blast people with a constant stream of content, it can be overwhelming and come across like a shouting match.<\/p>\n

You need to take the time to learn what people want to read\/watch and make it digestible via the formats and channels they find most useful.<\/p>\n

Why you need an over arching comms & content plan<\/h3>\n

Start with a clear comms and content plan that is aligned with business goals. This isn\u2019t social specific; it should govern how you communicate with customers across all channels. Social can then inherit this plan and adapt it to suit social networks.<\/p>\n

For example, you may have a campaign launching a new detailed guide and social is used to seed snippets from the guide over X weeks with a hook to download the full content. So the overarching plan guides what is being talked about and when, then the social media plan decides how to tell the story to a social audience based on content format, style and execution.<\/p>\n

Before you start posting content, you need to answer the following questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What are we trying to achieve on social media and how does this align with core business goals\/objectives\/targets?<\/li>\n
  2. What stories do we want to tell and how can we make them relevant to our social audience?<\/li>\n
  3. What is our social customer profile and what types of content to they respond best to<\/li>\n
  4. What\u2019s the current state of the market \u2013 how do competitors and comparators perform socially and what content works for them?<\/li>\n
  5. Who needs to be involved in content production and marketing?<\/li>\n
  6. How will we measure the success of social content?<\/li>\n
  7. How will we optimise and improve what we\u2019re doing?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As you start to answer these questions, you draw up your social content plan that is based on audience needs and market context.<\/p>\n

    This shouldn\u2019t be overly complicated; it needs to provide simple guidelines to help focus social marketers on the what\/why\/when of content marketing.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWithout a useable comms and content plan it is much harder to gain traction with your audiences. You may achieve siloed spikes in activity through individual campaigns but it is much harder to build momentum around brand awareness and engagement. By having a content plan in place that clearly answers the Why, What, Who and How, you will be able to be more adaptable and reactive with your content.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Sejal Parekh<\/a>, Brand and Creative Strategist @holasejal<\/a><\/p>\n

    The Smart Insights content marketing strategy hub page<\/a> has lots of helpful articles and guides to steer you in the right direction.<\/p>\n

    Here are two more handy resources to help you create your content strategy and plan:<\/p>\n