By Trevor Hart
Social media is an integral component of modern brand strategy. Maintaining a strong presence on a variety of platforms from Instagram to Pinterest to TikTok should be a priority for any organization operating in the digital world. While the social media landscape is ever-evolving, here are six basic tips for creating a successful social media campaign.
1. Design a clear and comprehensive plan backed by market research:
Creating a detailed plan is crucial for identifying key audiences, justifying ad spend, and designing effective strategies. A social media campaign should be tailored to the company’s brand identity, so when conducting research, consider these variables:
- Audience: Research which platforms reach your target audience(s). Tools like Semrush’s One2Target enhance audience segmentation with demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral analytics.
- Budget & Timeline: Determine an overall campaign budget and timeline; decide how the budget will be allocated across platforms to avoid wasted ad spend.
- SWOT Analysis: Identify the unique strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your brand through competitor analysis and market research.
2. Create compelling and engaging content.
All social media content in a campaign should be designed with the overall brand identity in mind. This will require balancing messaging that is tailored to each social media platform’s unique audience with messaging that aligns with the brand’s voice and tone across all platforms.
Create content that users want to share. An aesthetically pleasing post is great, but an attractive post that also engages audiences and encourages sharing is optimal. While viral posts can’t be engineered, content that immerses your audience in a story is more likely to gain traction.
Finally, create content that lends itself to cross-platform promotion. TikToks can easily become Reels, and platforms like Facebook and Instagram make cross-promotion easy with linked accounts.
3. Leverage influencer relationships and user-generated content (UGC)
56% of young Americans report making a purchase because of influencer marketing. There are a variety of influencers who can promote your brand online. From celebrity mega-influencers to industry-specific micro-influencers, aligning your organization with the right digital tastemakers will enhance your brand’s credibility.
Audience participation lies at the bedrock of effective communication. UGC (content about your brand created and posted by online users) shows audiences that people they follow and trust genuinely like your product, brand, or service. Encourage users to post content with a memorable hashtag, or showcase testimonials and reviews from real customers on your page.
4. Implement effective strategies and tactics
It is easy to get overwhelmed when running a social media campaign. Maintaining your brand’s presence across a variety of platforms–each with a unique audience–on a daily basis requires a sizable time commitment. Implement strategies that optimize your time and labor.
Using the timeline you created during the campaign planning process, schedule your posts in advance so you don’t get bogged down posting daily. Tools like Hootsuite make scheduling posts across several platforms simple.
Finally, knowing when to use a boosted ad or sponsored post can be far more beneficial than posting several times throughout the week. Use your budget and audience research from the planning process to see where you should be allocating ad spend.
5. Monitor and record ongoing campaign success (or failure)
The research process does not end when the campaign begins. Virtually all social media platforms provide business accounts built-in tools that measure engagement. Use these tools or an external social media analytics program to measure your campaign’s efficacy. Whether it’s likes, shares, or link clicks; monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) across platforms. You may find that some platform strategies need to be adjusted, or you might find another platform performs above expectations. Use an A/B testing strategy to observe whether your adjustments
are beneficial.
6. Adapt to challenges and overcome barriers
The best social media campaign is designed to adapt. Social media is a rapidly evolving landscape where trends and tools change daily. A plan written before a three-month campaign will likely be outdated when the campaign ends. Keep up with industry publications that report changes in social media algorithms, standards, and metrics. As you track mid-campaign analytics and data across platforms, retool your strategies and tactics in accordance with your collected data.
