Running a social media marketing campaign is a great way to increase brand visibility and attract new customers, although navigating the initial steps taken to create one can be daunting.
Reaching out to an influencer marketing agency can be a beneficial way to ensure your campaign is carried out properly and destined for success, however, if you find your budget doesn’t quite stretch that far, then here is a step by step guide to creating your very own.
Understand the goal of the campaign
Are you promoting an event? Are you offering a free download of an audio book? Perhaps you’re working on a social giving campaign with a non-profit organisation. Whatever it is, make sure you understand the end goal. What action do you want the user to take after viewing your post? How will you measure the effectiveness of your campaign?
Nail these important details before getting started.
Decide how to promote the campaign
This will be very dependent on which social media platform you use.
Take Facebook for example. If you are promoting an event on Facebook, you will need to create a special banner image.
Understanding the purpose for each channel is key to making this step work.
Create a content calendar for the week/month
What days and times of the week will you be posting your content? Remember, peak times are different across each social media platform.
There are plenty of online templates to help you map out what each day will look like throughout the campaign process.
Create supporting visual content
It’s time to create all the visual components you planned out in steps 2&3. You don’t need to hire a graphic designer to do this, as there are plenty of free programs out there to help you make your own.
Some notable programs are Canva and Design Wizard.
Schedule posts
You’ve got a plan. You’ve got a calendar. You’ve got cool visual content!
It’s now time to put this all into your scheduling tool of choice.
Monitor and respond
Part of managing social media well is by simply being present on your profiles. Set up alerts on your phone so that if someone comments a post or replies to you in some way, you can respond quickly.
A quick response is an indicator to the user that you are not just a robotic brand who is after likes and comments. You are genuinely interested in what your audience has to say, which brings out the humanity and authenticity of your brand.
Follow up
If your campaign is based around an event or the launch of a new product, then it makes sense to follow up with photos or an update on how well it went, with your followers.
If you did a giveaway, for example, follow up by posting photos of the winner and how many people participated.
Analyse and adjust
Schedule in time to look over your analytics to see what worked well and what didn’t. This should be done regularly to ensure the smooth running of your campaign.
If something hasn’t gone as planned, use that knowledge to adjust your tactics for the next campaign.
