Ever struggled to put together a monthly social media marketing plan that makes the algorithm–and ideal clients–fall in love with you? If so, you’re in the right place.
Social media is a total double-edged sword: it’s essential for most online business owners–but it can also take up loads of quality time (and energy) that you’d much rather be spending (anywhere) else.
Fact: When you don’t know what you’re posting, when and why – well, you’ll likely either find yourself creating mountains of content that doesn’t actually lead to more clients or sales–or perhaps worse, you don’t create anything and instead lose several hours a day to devouring other people’s content instead.
We can’t have that, now can we?
If you’re ready to up your social media marketing game, here are a few quick, easy tips to help make your next month your easiest (and–fingers crossed!–most lucrative) month on social media ever:
1) Use your analytics. You knew this was coming, right? Before you start planning content for next month, be sure to take a peek at your previous month’s results. If you’ve posted on social media at all over the past 30 days, your analytics are worth a (major) gander. And good news: IG, Pinterest, Facebook business pages–they all offer something in the way of analytics. Go ahead and take a look to figure out what resonated–and didn’t–last month. Make note of it, and consider expanding on these hot topics in your content this month.
2) Set new goals. It’s important to re-evaluate your social media goals every single month. What do you want to achieve this month with your social media marketing? What is your end goal(s)–more email subscribers? More followers on the platform? More followers on a different platform? Getting crystal clear on the metrics you actually care about will allow you to align every single social media post with these goals and get you the results you’re actually vying for.
3) Re-evaluate your content frequency, so you can get (or stay) consistent. Maybe you promised yourself you’d post on Instagram 3x every single day but struggle to actually keep up. Well, a fresh new month is the time to take stock of whether your ‘ideal’ posting schedule is matching up with your reality.What can you tweak when it comes to your frequency or schedule so that it feels more manageable (and hopefully, fun!) for you?
And if you’re adding social to your marketing plans for the first time (or experimenting with a new platform) – you’ll want to make sure you have a clear grasp everything else you do in your business into consideration when choosing a posting frequency. (And the same thing is true if you’re not the one actually doing the content creation. If you’re outsourcing your social media, can your VA reasonably handle a new social media platform in addition to her other obligations?)
4) Diversify and repurpose. Before you start writing (and re-writing) a dozen different Instagram captions or coming up with fresh ideas for new Reels, it can be helpful to take a peek at your past content. Is there anything you’ve already created that would totally make sense to re-use this month? Anything that would support your current business goals? Maybe you can repurpose an Instagram caption into an email, for example. Or maybe your YouTube video outline would make a fantastic topic for a series of Instagram carousel posts.
5) Don’t overlook holidays, seasons and current events. What type of content might ‘your people’ be looking for this month specifically? And what fun holidays can you potentially use as inspiration for content–or promotions?
6) Try trends. Trends are bigger on some platforms than others (yes, I’m looking at you, TikTok!), but trends can serve as massive inspiration–and lead to lots of new followers. If a trend speaks to you or seems like it’d make sense for your business, go ahead and try it out.
7) Promotions. Remember that your social media should support your ultimate business goals and that includes the products and services you plan to promote. Value-based and educational content is wonderful–but it’s important to tie it all back into your ultimate goals. What content can you create that would support your promotions, rather than dilute them? (Pro tip: You can create content around almost anything and tie it back into your promotion with a clever call-to-action.)
Social media has made it easier than ever to run a business online and make life-changing money as a result. But if you got into this gig to have more time freedom (and since you’re here, I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess you did!), then it’s important to strategize and plan upfront if you truly want to reap the rewards.
