Crafting an effective social media campaign entails far more than simply posting often and paying to boost engagement. Without proper planning and audience insights, your time and advertising budget gets wasted driving meager results.
Ask yourself these 18 essential questions first to strategize social content that cuts through the noise to truly connect with your goals audience.
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What specific business objectives will this campaign meet? Define concrete metrics for success upfront based on conversions, traffic, awareness etc so you know what to optimize towards.
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Who represents your primary target audience(s) on social platforms? Detail both demographics and buyer personas.
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Which social platforms does your audience actively use? Avoid assumptions and examine analytics on current followers and customers.
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How does my product/service solve problems or satisfy needs for each target customer group? The more relevance your messaging holds to what they care about, the more likely social content performs.
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What types of content, tone and messaging best resonates with my audience? Analyze past top performing updates as well as competitors for benchmarks.
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Does my audience respond better to educational, entertaining or inspirational styled content? Look at reactions to each.
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What content format should I leverage more - video, images, carousels etc? Again examine your own and competitors’ top metrics.
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When are my followers most active on social channels? Posting when audiences are engaged rather than for vanity metrics matters more.
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How frequently should I post to see optimal results without oversaturating followers? Spam grates readers.
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What types of calls-to-action should posts include to drive conversions? Don’t leave followers without clear paths forward.
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How will I drive traffic from social platforms back to my site? Include links, tags and messaging pointing to destinations.
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What hashing should I leverage to expand reach and discovery? Research both popular and niche tags your audience follows.
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Can I partner with influencers from my industry to expand campaign visibility? Reciprocal promotions broaden exposure.
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What types of paid advertising and budget works best? Test various ad formats, placement and spend levels.
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How will I track campaign analytics and optimize accordingly? Facebook Analytics, Iconosquare, Sprout Social etc provide data.
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What legal compliance guidelines around contests, disclosures etc. must I follow for each platform? Review respective policies.
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How will I staff community management needed to engage followers as part of the campaign? Plan human resources.
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What risks around controversial reactions or crises events might derail messaging? Have mitigation plans ready as needed.
Tackling these questions lets you chart targeted, nuanced and optimized social initiatives tuned to your audience’s preferences. The upfront effort results in engaging social content worth reading and sharing rather than more forgettable noise.